Online Reporting, Discussion, Activism and Emerging Democracies :: Internet Blogs Communities Politics

Online Reporting, Discussion, Activism and Emerging Democracies In the rise to prominence of weblogs and other social software, Jim Moore and Joi Ito regard a fundamental transformation in how people act, interact and pull back decisions. In essays first published in 2003 - Jim Moores The Second power Rears Its scenic Head1 and Joi Itos Emergent body politic2 - they paint hopeful, if virtuallytimes vague, pictures of how Internet communities can show us techniques and tactics that could radically change real- world politics. Where Im uncomfortable with both essays is the fact that they understand from the behavior of the people currently using the Internet to make generalizations around how a larger world might use these tools. My work for the historic few years, helping spread information technology in underdeveloped nations, has convinced me that technology transfer is much more complicated than manner of speaking tools to people who previously lacked them. I think its w orth taking a close look at what happens when we try to include the developing world in the models Ito and Moore put forward - in other words, Is there agency for the third world in the second superpower? Moores Second Superpower suggests that a group of people are changing democracy by using a three-part model for social engagement - collect information, note and debate, then act. These three steps are all being modify by new technologies. While we continue to be informed by mass media, were also getting information from alternative media, published chintzily on the Net, and from ain accounts in weblogs. Were debating and commenting in entirely new ways, enabled by weblogs, discussion groups, instant messaging and mailing lists. And were discovering that these tools also make some forms of action more efficient fundraising, protesting, and organizing face to face meetups.Itos Emergent Democracy focuses on the third, action phase, and suggests that forms of decision-making emer ging from the world of weblogs might lead to a viable form of direct democracy. In the way that ideas percolate from personal networks, to social networks, to large, political networks, reinforced by positive feedback loops, Joi sees a realizable path for decision-making to move from individual thinking to group action. While Moore and Ito get hold of justifiable enthusiasm about the phenomena were seeing emerge from interconnected communities - the return of weblogs as an alternative to mainstream media, the success of grassroots campaigning in the linked States - this enthusiasm needs to be tempered by some irresolution about who is currently using social software, and who has potential to use it.