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Internet and the Public Sphere, pt. 2
The public sphere is where Kim Alexander operates when
her organization, the California Voter's Foundation
(http://www.calvoter.org/aboutcvf.html), uses e-mail to
organize a campaign to require political candidates to
put their financial disclosures on the Internet. The
public sphere is what Steven Clift and colleagues at the
Minnesota E-Democracy project (http://www.e-democracy.org)
seek to extend when they bring candidates for state
office online to publish position statements and field
questions from citizens. A little investigation reveals
that dozens, probably hundreds, of profit-making and
nonprofit enterprises are experimenting with different
tools for citizen empowerment. Among the most notable
are:
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CapAdvantage promotes communication with public
officials, and other citizens. Their page, titled
"Tools for Online Grassroots Advocacy and
Mobilization," offers a comprehensive guide to
Congressional publications, directories to identify
state and national congressional representatives,
spot news and issues tracking.
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Webby Award-winner
Freedom Forum Online is a good example of
vibrant discussion of political issues via message
boards, along with Internet radio and news on civil
rights. The group describes itself as "a nonpartisan,
international foundation dedicated to free press,
free speech and free spirit for all people."
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For streaming media, look at
WebActive, drawing content from larger, if not
exactly "traditional," media sources, and
Free Speech Internet Television, where anyone
can put up a page.
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E-The People provides online petitions. "Welcome
to America's Interactive Town Hall: Where Active
Citizens Connect With Their Government and Each
Other," says the site.
If your car is swallowed up by a pothole the size
of Poughkeepsie, E-The People can help you find the
person you need to tell about it. Simply come to our
site, click on "roads and transportation," type in
your address and we'll forward your note to the
right officials in your city. And if your public
works commissioner doesn't have Internet access,
we'll convert your concern to a fax! Are you an
organizer? With E-The People, you can start a
petition about the same pothole and contact 10
neighbors to sign it - all on one site.
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And of course,
VoxCap.com aggregates the information, tools and
community of the public sphere for online civic
engagement as well as for "building a community of
engaged citizens, where social capital can be
accumulated and brought to bear," according to Jeff
Fisher, VoxCap.com's director of community
development.
More people need affordable access to these tools, but
distributing good tools is just the beginning of the job.
The tool is not the task. We need more knowledge of how
others have used information and communication to
achieve political objectives. More people need to work
together with these tools on real issues, in the
neighborhood, city, state, and nation. We must talk
about which online experiments in civic engagement work
best and allocate resources to replicate them.
Civic
Engagement, Civil Society, and Social Capital, Pt. 1
Contributed by
voxcaphost
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The Internet and the Public Sphere
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November 2, 1999 |
