eEngagement

Following on from that last post, I remembered I had a printout of Electonic Engagement by Peter John Chen which deals in greater depth with some of the issues briefly discussed in the IBM report.

PJC discusses different forms of eDemocracy between governments & citizens as having cultivating, steering or listening roles.

One particular quote early on sticks out:

'...we often speak as if there is a completed project called "democracy" and there is another completed project called "the internet" and we ask "what will this thing called the internet do to this thing called democracy?". Both of these are in a state of evolution.We haven’t got a completed democracy; we haven’t got a completed internet. Both are up for grabs. So the question we need to ask is whether the internet is likely to reinforce traditional ways of doing politics, which has tended to be rather remote from the public. Or whether the internet, as an interactive medium, can enable the public to get into a more collaborative and conversational style of politics which makes it more meaningful to them.'

Professor Stephen Coleman, Oxford Internet Institute, 2004

Source: Luke Naismith & Martin Stewart-Weeks