[atlarge-discuss] E-DEMOCRACY: MORE THAN A MATTER OF OPINION

[espresso@e-scape.net]

* E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
The Email Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.

* ISSUE 123, FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER 2002.

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* NEWS IN BRIEF: 

* E-DEMOCRACY CHAIR: The recently-launched 
Oxford Internet Institute (see section two, this issue) 
expects to appoint the world's first professor of e-
democracy 'in the next few weeks'. E-Government 
Bulletin has learned that the front-runner for the 
position is Dr Stephen Coleman of the London 
School of Economics, who heads the e-democracy 
programme at The Hansard Society for 
Parliamentary Government:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/Media/people/scoleman 

[snip]

* SECTION TWO: CONFERENCE REPORT
- OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE.

MORE THAN A MATTER OF OPINION.
by Derek Parkinson  derek@headstar.com

Could it be that the opinions and pronouncements of 
politicians, civil servants, media pundits and industry 
gurus are no longer enough to gauge the true 
importance of the internet in our lives?

Oxford University certainly thinks so, and is 
attempting to bring a new seriousness to bear on 
thinking about the net with the launch last month of 
the Oxford Internet Institute 
(http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk).

The institute, an independent research centre within 
the university, has a mission to become "the world's 
leading independent centre of excellence in academic 
research on the impact of the internet on society and 
in informing policy and generating debate".

Speaking at the launch, Professor Eli Noam of 
Columbia University questioned how far-sighted 
academics could be in practice. Reflecting on the 
hype that mushroomed during the dot.com boom, 
Noam suggested that academics had a poor record in 
seeing further or more clearly than anyone else. 
"Where was the academic community in all this? Did 
they know more than the average airline magazine?" 
he asked.

The Oxford academics responded by emphasising 
the benefits of combining analysis across academic 
disciplines such as sociology, economics, law and 
ethics in innovative ways.

According to the OII's inaugural director Bill 
Dutton, a former professor of communication at the 
University of Southern California, the institute wants 
to "shape the future" through world-class research 
and collaboration across all Oxford colleges and 
institutions, demonstrating how to weave 
institutional values and cutting edge technologies 
together.

The institute identified four initial key areas where it 
will focus its resources: national and international 
regulation of the internet; e-government; e-
democracy; and the social effects of 'pervasive' 
technologies spreading to every street, home or 
workplace.

On the issue of regulation, it was argued that to 
frame acceptable policies, we need to change how 
we perceive the internet. In particular, we should 
think of it as a network of humans, not a network of 
machines, said Professor Barbara Simons of Stanford 
University. "Technologists and policy-makers don't 
understand each other," she said.

As evidence, Simons cited the notorious Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a hastily 
drawn-up piece of US legislation outlawing products 
that outsmart copyright technology. "What is 
unusual about the DMCA is that it criminalises 
technology, not behaviour," she said. Many 
commentators have ridiculed the law on the grounds 
that it can make a criminal of anyone who innocently 
discovers holes in copyright protection software. 
More broadly, it is seen as evidence of Luddite 
instincts in US policy-makers.

As a first step to improving communication between 
technologists, policy-makers and the ordinary 
audience, Simons suggested that specialist jargon be 
avoided. 

In the field of e-democracy Professor Steve Woolgar, 
director of the Virtual Society? Programme at 
Oxford University Said Business School, also had 
bones to pick with terminology. According to 
Woolgar, we have allowed our thinking to become 
dominated by summary terms like 'society' and 
'technology' - typically over-used by government 
and the media - which obscure a more complex and 
plural reality. 

It is also essential that e-democracy is seen as more 
than e-voting, and increased citizen participation 
kept as a central objective, Woolgar said.

On the topic of pervasive technology, David 
Cleevely of the telecommunications consultancy 
Analysys distinguished between the intended 
functions of communications technology and our 
ability to explore new and rewarding uses that were 
not originally foreseen. According to Cleevely, this 
makes future uses potentially very rewarding but 
highly unpredictable.

Concern was expressed by some about the long-term 
social effects of cocooning ourselves in electronic 
webs. But however well-grounded these fears, 
Professor Christian Sandvig of the University of 
Illinois cautioned against a heavy-handed 
interventionist approach by government and large 
enterprises. Drawing on the spread of telephone 
services across the US in the early twentieth century, 
Sandvig suggested that history showed groups of 
enthusiastic amateurs could have a key role 
stimulating innovation and take-up of new 
technologies. Government and big businesses were 
not the best agents for change, he said.

Meanwhile the new Oxford Internet Institute faces 
its own tough challenges. To cross the traditional 
boundaries of Oxford colleges it must face inward, 
yet its ambitions reach out beyond the academic 
world as is usually conceived. It must also keep pace 
with new developments, avoid being drawn along by 
hype, yet make substantial contributions to policy 
thinking. Andrew Graham, Master of Balliol College 
and one of the Institute's founders, summarised the 
challenge: "Essentially, research is backward-
looking while policy must look forward."

[Section two ends.]

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##########################################################
Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
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"A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
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