NETIQUETTE (Network Etiquette)

For more than 20 years, it is a term that has been gaining global significance as new technologies advance by leaps and bounds. Some societies adopted other similar names, but their function is the same. Coming from the apocope “Net” (Network) and “Etiquette”, “NETIQUETTE” is a worldwide base to take care of good behaviour on the network. Today, we can share much information on this topic in the many spaces distance communication and online information media permit us.

While the ICT world grows up, a new world of communication and information has emerged, which that created the need to establish rules to facilitate and optimize the use of new technologies and networks in all their forms, even more In these times when the whole world has been forced to be on the net for contact, meetings, work, studies, and information exchange.

All these rules are based on general concepts of respect and good communication. We understand that being non-face-to-face means of communication, we frequently forget that our voice tone, our expressions, and our gestures cannot be transmitted accurately, and whoever receives our messages cannot objectively judge our motives and intentions or, maybe they could misinterpret them if we do not express it optimally.

Within this global sphere of relationships, a vast majority have fully learned that there is a world of people with different cultures, religions, beliefs, and positions on the other side of our electronic devices. For this reason, we must apply respect, common sense, and good education to conduct ourselves in a space where everyone fits and deserves the tolerance and good treatment above our particular position. Then this reminds us that the consideration that we expect from others to us is the same consideration that we must give to others.

In addition, our good education and training are visible in our actions, which is increased in the networks; if we are used to being respectful and considerate to others in our face-to-face life, we will indeed show the same online. But, when this does not happen, our lousy behaviour transcends more notoriously. Under this analysis, using “Netiquette” is essential so we all learn to conduct ourselves with the necessary correction.

Globalization has opened great and unthinkable possibilities of benefits in the network, but we also find a significant dark side. We are not always going to be in contact with polite people or with similar principles as ours; for this reason, undervalues like respect, tolerance, and good spirits, prudence must prevail to create and maintain reflective links with those people with whom we do not interact personally, either in a particular aspect or in the business world.

Initially, thanks to a publication of the Institute of Informatics Ethics (CEI – Computer Ethics Institute); – considered the most prominent organization for ethical computer use in the United States, founded in 1985 by IBM and other vital institutions, among them, Washington Consulting Group-, in 1992, they made the hallmark “The commandments for Computer Ethics” created by Ramón C. Barquin.[1]

These commandments recently became popular to persuade good behaviour and ethics in computer use. However, over time they have undergone some modifications. I have taken the liberty of adapting for the benefit of ICTs, considering that a large part of the population has access to a cellphone or other connected electronic devices to the Internet.

Today, these commandments have become a small base of ethics for the world of “Netiquette” since the networks arose from a computer and spread to thousands of social sites, chats, forums, emails, blogs, different types of meetings, and endless connections in which our knowledge and behaviour online are tested. With time, other rules are adapted according to the needs of modernity and technology.

As a reference, we must mention the book “Netiquette” published by Virginia Shea in 1994, which contains “The core rules of Netiquette” [2], and the publication of Sally Hambridge as a directive of Intel in 1995, an official document like a guide to the company employees, to behave on the Internet.

We might recognize that great capacities had been acquired thanks to today’s technology. Let’s assume that the Internet has given us growing power and must be handled responsibly.

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[1] http://www.ethicscodescollection.org/detail/411d6362-5ab5-438b-82de-7a3575412f40

[2] https://coursedesign.colostate.edu/obj/corerulesnet.html