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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
to
The
Internet and the Public Sphere on
November
2, 1999 |
