{fb1000000should already be earmarked for the establishment of such a public domain. "They are talking about that at the Town Hall, but I've got a feeling that awareness about the issue is of fairly recent date. And any concrete question you may put forward about it is considered premature."
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Stikker is nevertheless hopeful about the future. The idea of a digital city is catching on. Now Rotterdam, in Amsterdam's footsteps, is also setting up an interactive local area network. Utrecht Province is opening its digital doorways this month, with Groningen, The Hague and Eindhoven following suit shortly. The ministry of economic affairs has requested DDS to put together a handbook about the experience gathered over these past two years. It will be presented to the ministry at a formal function in February. Stikker: "We have now moved from the stage of being an experiment into that of being a phenomenon. Now we are busy consolidating what we have achieved up to now, that is to look how you can sustain such a system without becoming rigid. We want to keep DDS open and dynamic. At this stage there is fairly stiff pressure to go the commercial way. We will do that to some extent, by allowing some room for advertisements." That means that the Amsterdam small and medium enterprises will be putting ads on the local net in the near future, though nobody knows how those 'interactive advertisements' should look. Organisations and individuals who want to rent a 'virtual office' on the DDS pay 250 guilders (£224) a month.
Stikker does not doubt for one moment that DDS is catering to a really existing requirement. "As soon as it becomes clear that DDS is not merely a playground for computer freaks, you'll see all sorts of groups moving in." Stikker alludes to a multitude of on-line services such as help-lines for older and disabled people, doctors' services, data-banks for juridical assistance, etc. "Our primary concern at the moment is to develop a kind of 'data-literacy' among people who up to now were living quite outside it. I think each and every association should have one person who knows how to link up with DDS." Individual citizens also may come into the DDS and fashion it their own way: "Anyone can build up her own digital dwelling in DDS's 'boroughs'. And you can start up all kind of activities from your own house: broadcasting your home videos, organizing jam sessions, opening your own private museum, etc."
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Threats
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"When hearing the word 'new media', many people still get the 'nukes'-jitter. They perceive it as a threat. I don't think this is a very sensible attitude, since we are inventing these technical tools ourselves. When I had my first experience with the Internet two years ago, I immediately realised that this was not merely about computers, but that there were a lot of implication behind these techniques. Everyone has now the opportunity to evolve from a passive consumer of information into an active provider. Suddenly, social and political processes take place within a very much altered field of reference. In this respect, technology is truly a cultural phenomenon."
According to Stikker, the central issue with DDS is the fulfilment of human needs. "Everybody is equal on the net. People who never left their houses because they were afraid of crowds now regularly gather on bulletin-boards. You encounter people on the net you would never meet in real life. That need to communicate is very human. What people love most is endless chit-chat with each other." And, of course, that is precisely what DDS is best suited for.
Published originally in Dutch in the daily 'Trouw' on January 7, 1995. You can visit the Digital City in Amsterdam using the _World Wide Web_"Regulars.Internet", at "{fb10000C0http://dds.nl{fb1000000" or email to <{fb10000C0helpdesk@dds.nl{fb1000000>. You can reach Marleen Stikker at <{fb10000C0stikker@xs4all.nl{fb1000000>.
