With its national newspaper, currency, flag, beauty pageant, applications for citizenship and residence, and official website, what other proof is necessary to accept Wirtland as the self-proclaimed first sovereign country on the internet?
The FOX-TV morning news in Baltimore recently highlighted the tenets of Wirtland’s mission and why there are over 300 citizens and counting:
Wirtland’s external relations manager, Cristopher Luengo, a dual Spanish resident, uses LinkedIn to connect with like-minded individuals. I saw his name earlier today on a LinkedIn Q&A forum about the Ning network, which the country’s website is built with.
Catherine Arrow summarizes on her blog:
Anyone who is not happy with their own country can become a Witizen and will get a passport and other documents to prove they belong. The creators stress it is not a virtual world, in the same sense as Second Life, but a sovereign country that simply has no borders.
You can connect with Luengo and other “witizens” as the Wirtlanders are informally called on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
I’m content keeping my U.S. citizenship and not eager to become a witizen, but I’ll be watching future developments. If nothing else, the country could become home to internet-only companies with no physical locations.
Despite my writing this on April Fool’s Day, this is no joke. Bulgaria is considering accepting Wirtland as an official country.
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Twitter Comment
RT @ariherzog No joke: Wirtland Establishes Itself as Internet Country: [link to post] #gov20 [wow.]
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This was done a while ago by a guy called Danny Wallace who create a state called Awesome, though I have a feeling it was never accepted by the UN.
Feel free to dig around his site, you might find more info: http://www.citizensrequired.com
Philip John´s last blog post..But 37signals are just neglecting their customers
Twitter Comment
RT @ariherzog: Despite blogging on April Fool’s Day, it’s no joke: Wirtland Establishes Itself as Internet Country: [link to post] #gov20
– Posted using Chat Catcher
A flipping beauty pageant??? Seriously!?
So if I want to “affect change in real world [sic]” to quote from their Statute, I can ask strangers for advice in lieu of medical care, lose money by purchasing gold above cost, and best of all, my neighbors will ask me for a picture so they can rank my hotness. Super.
OK, so you entered the pageant and a Bulgarian beat you. I understand your fury!
No joke, man. When scams and objectification are funny, I’ll be laffin’.
Alissa
I see your point. Indeed, the choice of options offered by W-land appears narrow. But the value of Witland’s concept is not in its current set of ready offers, but in the possibility to express members’ own ideas and ambitions. Example: W-land is not trying to sell you gold. W-land helps to realize someone’s idea to sell gold. We see Wirtland as an ever-growing framework of opportunities for people to do what they want, or to become whoever they want. If you shift your approach, I hope you’ll see W-land differently.
Cris´s last blog post..Georgia Danovska joined a group
Hi Cris,
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I’ve been thinking about Wirtland since I read this post, actually.
I visualize the internet a lot like this. The topography is constantly changing, (the map is pre-twitter! ancient!) but you get the idea. Internet culture is like healthy mold; it can form around anything from world politics to Potter slash. I have no doubt that people will continue to communicate and perhaps even do business through Wirtland. Wirtland may one day grow from a tiny speck off the isle of memes to a formidable bulk.
I’m genuinely interested in the idea of global citizenship; of activism beyond your own backyard. But Wirtland doesn’t seem to be about that, or to have any cohesive political purpose, for that matter. The language you use to describe the site is utopian. But Wirtland doesn’t look like it’s trying to be a utopia. It looks to me like someone came up with a business model for an online club, diligently imitated the trappings of modern countries (Ari listed them above: national newspaper, currency, flag, etc,) and then unironically invited the disaffected to come in and express themselves. But the whole insistence upon this being real and not virtual is where it gets really absurd. Are Wirtlandiers going to try to claim the privileges of nationhood by trying to join the security council or be granted ambassadorships? Can I create my own government on myspace? What makes any of this legitimate?
“But the value of Witland’s concept is not in its current set of ready offers, but in the possibility to express members’ own ideas and ambitions.”
Doesn’t that blank slate already exist in the entire internet?
“We see Wirtland as an ever-growing framework of opportunities for people to do what they want, or to become whoever they want.”
I will have to check back when people are using Wirtland in more interesting ways. For now, I’ll be busy being American, and trying to make that mean something good.
Just a correction: there are over 600 witizens – not 300. Still a baby country, but babies grow fast
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