Here's Mike Godwin saying that he coined the phrase "user empowerment" in the mid-1990's for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

And here's Megan Santosus, from whom Mike Godwin perhaps borrowed that idea, from the phrase, "end-user empowerment".

According to Google News archive search, Santosus appears to be the first such case of using the phrase "user empowerment" in print.

Maybe Mike meant to say "shareholder empowerment".

End User Empowerment is a slogan I can get behind.

Greg, didn't you ever read Godwin's book Cyber Rights? Full of blather about the importance
of keeping an open society, in the face of censorship. Pure digerati bullshit.

The ironic part: he now works for an organization that obsesses over "free speech", but
does not allow actual free speech on its own servers. Long is the list of things you can't
say on a WP talkpage without being banned.

Mike Godwin, hypocrite. Mike Godwin, worthless pedant. Mike Godwin, shallow follower of trends. May I go now?.....