On Friday June 13th, 2008, I’ve been invited to chair a session about Virtual citizen networks at the Jornades de la Penedesfera, a meeting about blogs and local citizen engagement.
The session will be shared with very interesting people such as Ramon Roca / Joan Llopart (Font-rubí), Cristina Barbacil, Manel Brinquis, Ismael Miñano, Daniel García Peris and Marc Vidal.
As there’s quite a lot of people for the short time we have, I will be really focused on few main lines, all of them extracted from my article entitled Blogs for e-Government: sufficient condition, but not necessary.
The development of the Information Society seems to be related with how citizens can exercise their political rights and citizen liberties, especially those related with freedom of speech and...
I’m pleased to announce an event of which I’m part of the organizing committee, the course Network Society: Social changes, organizations and citizens, to take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 to 17 October de 2008.
Some info about the course:
Website of the course, with more information about the speakers, fees, registration, etc.
Facebook Event
There will be translation to and from Spanish and English
PROGRAMME: NETWORK SOCIETY: SOCIAL CHANGES, ORGANIZATIONS AND CITIZENS
Day 1 - Wednesday 15 October
Introduction
09h00 - 09h30 : Opening
09h30 - 10h30 : Juan Freire - Presentation of the course
10h30 - 11h00 : Café
Citizenship in the Network Society
Chairs: Marc López
11h00 - 12h30 : Carol Darr
12h30 - 14h00 : Tom Steinberg
14h00 - 16h00 : Lunch
Organizations in the...
In
ICT4D,
development,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
antoni gutierrez-rubi,
genis roca,
ismael peña-lópez,
Andrew Rasiej,
Carlos Domingo,
Carol Darr,
David Weinberger,
Enrique Dans,
Ethan Zuckerman,
Gumersindo Lafuente,
Josu Jon Imaz,
Juan Freire,
Marc López Plana,
Miguel Cereceda,
Miquel Iceta,
sociedadred,
sociedadred2008,
Tom Steinberg,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session VIII
Round Table
Towards citizenship 2.0?
Eduard Aibar, Vice President, Research, UOC.
So, the landscape has changed… but have citizens? has the concept of citizenship so much shifted as, supposedly, has the Web?
Ana Sofía Cardenal, Professor of Political Science, UOC
We’re putting all our eggs in the Web 2.0 basket, but data seem to bring evidence that all the promises of the web do not seem to apply:
The demand for political information has not increased despite the supposition that it would be cheaper (in money, in time) to be informed on a digital socielty
The supposition that costs of information have decreased is at stake too
The participation does not seem to have changed either
Few sites collect most...
In
helen margetts,
ana sofía cardenal,
citizenship 2.0,
david osimo,
eduard aibar,
joan subirats,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session VII
Debate
Electoral strategies on the internet
The experience of the 2008 Spanish General Elections.
José Rodríguez and Xavier Peytibí, political experts.
In the Spanish general elections (March 9th, 2008), the web has had more importance than ever, but it still far from being a mainstream communication media.
Main changes
Interactivity between the party and the citizenry, with an increase on blogs and nanoblogs (e.g. twitter) resulting in an increase of the reach of the political message.
New methods to outsource participation: not only members of the party and campaign volunteers, but also occasional supporters: from outsourcing to crowdsourcing. This has meant more reach and at a much lesser cost.
Change of formats:...
In
albert padró-solanet,
jose rodriguez,
xavier peytibi,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session VI
Round Table
Public opinion and participation on the internet: blogs and political parties
Lourdes Muñoz, member of parliament, (PSC). PSC Secretary for Women’s Policy.
Politicians and their participation in the Web 2.0 is but a part of a higher goal which is the development of the Information Society.
The Web 2.0 provides new means for both citizens and institutions to have new channels to have their message sent, and their opinion heard. Indeed, there’s an increasing amount of readers and creators of blogs.
And not only opinion, but participation.
Some facts and figures about the penetration of blogs in the Spanish Congress
Analysis and charts
Data
Related topics
There is not a big difference between male and...
In
Blog,
web 2.0,
roc fages,
lourdes muñoz santamaria,
carles campuzano,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session V
Keynote speech
Helen Margetts
Government on the Web
A shift of paradigm in Government
Dunleavy, Margetts (2006) Digital Era Governance: the dominant paradigm of public governance reform (new public management) is dead. The digital-era governance is nigh… or just happening.
What happened during the New Public Management?
Disaggregation, into tiny decentralized government and quasi-government agencies
Competition within the daily tasks of government, its relationships with suppliers, outsourcing, financing, etc.
Incentivization: via privatization, performance related pay, charging, etc.
What are we likely to see during the Digital-era governance?
Reintegration, going the way back of atomization that the New Public...
In
e-health,
government on the web,
oii,
helen margetts,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session IV
Conference
Lorenzo Cotino
Electronic public services: e-government 2.0 The Regulation of E-Government 2.0
Law goes really behind the speed of times. The problem is that Law, or Administrative Law, faces challenging reality: .com can fail, but .gov cannot”.
At the legal level, the big challenge of the Web 2.0 is the integration of content produced by third parties in another platform — or your content put in a platform run by a third party.
Lorenzo Cotino
Some things that e-Gov 2.0 can bring: G2C
More information
Transparency
Participation
Some things that e-Gov 2.0 can bring: C2G
Best of feedbacks
Crest of the wave innovation of early adopters
Law enforcement by citizens: reports, complaints, etc.
Some...
In
e-gov 2.0,
e-government 2.0,
lorenzo cotino,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session III
Round Table
Content on the internet: regulation or self-regulation?
Chairs: Raquel Xalabarder, Law Professor, UOC
Do we want to give up on the freedom we can have now? Do we want self-regulation or we want more education that leads to more commitment?
http://www.iqua.net, Spanish Internet Quality Agency (IQUA) and CEO Derecho.com
More than self-regulation, what it’s happening is that the liability to apply toughest laws if shifted towards the customer/user or the industry (ISPs and/or carriers).
But this has not been a matter of consensus, nor a widening of the range (from tough to soft) of the regulation spectrum.
Over-regulation puts an extra burden to the industry, making it more difficult for the Information...
In
Digital Literacy,
net neutrality,
monica ariño,
ofcom,
amadeu abril,
iqua,
martí manent,
miguel pérez,
raquel xalabarder,
self-regulation,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session II
Debate
Regulation of audiovisual content in the age of digital convergence
Mónica Ariño, Policy Advisor, OFCOM’s International Team.
What is convergence? What can be said about regulation of content on the Internet and the Internet itself? Privacy, cybercrime, copyright, fair use? Internet access?
A big commitment is how to update broadcasting regulations that where set up in times very different from the ones we’re living in. A first thing to be updated is the concept of media literacy and whether the receiver is media literate.
Another commitment is regulatory cohesion in the international landscape.
Last, maybe the biggest commitment is fighting social alarm about “things” that are...
In
cac joan barata,
monica ariño,
ofcom,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
Notes from the 4th Internet, Law and Politics Congress.Session I
Opening speech
Eben Moglen
Living Apart Together: Social Networking in the Free World
Capitalism produces inherently defective technology, mainly because of the short sightedness of the whole process. Global heating and the combustion engine being one of the most present short sightedness examples of capitalism today.
Social networking software might be at stake and be another good example of such defective technology, which will potentially cause social harm in the future as these technologies will deviate from appropriate, optimum, goals.
The Net was created with a socialist ideology: Absence of advertising, absence of surveillance, absence of tracking what one was doing (reading, writing) on the Net, a collaborative...
In
IDP,
eben moglen,
idp2008,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
For the fourth time — see here some notes about last year’s congress — at the School of Law and Political Science, Open University of Catalonia, we organize our Internet, Law and Politics Congress, this year’s tagline quite an appealing one: Social Software and Web 2.0: Legal and Political Implications.
Programme (abridged)
Monday, 2 June 2008
Living Apart Together: Social Networking in the Free World. Eben Moglen. Professor of Law and Legal History, Columbia University Law School, and Chairman, Software Freedom Law Center, New York.
Regulation of audiovisual content in the age of digital convergence. Mónica Ariño, Joan Barata
Content on the internet: regulation or self-regulation?. Gonzalo Díe, Mónica Ariño, Amadeu Abril, Miguel Pérez Subías, Raquel Xalabarder....
In
IDP,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
In my conference about Digital Citizens vs. Analogue Institutions I spoke — among other things — about the importance of blogging for democracy, human rights and the development of the Information Society. And I stated that, even if we could not draw a direct relationship between all these variables — which we cannot so far —, we could set up a path where all these concepts formed part of the same equation.
Now Víctor R. Ruiz asks me to elaborate this idea.
First things first: with the data available at the moment (in this case from UNPAN — UN e-Government Survey 2008. From e-Government to Connected Governance — and Universal McCann — Wave 3 —) we cannot state that there is a close or strong relationship between blogging and the development of e-Government. In the figure...
In
Blogging,
blogs,
e-Readiness,
Digital Literacy,
web 2.0,
e-Government, e-Administration,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
From 2005 to 2007, good friend Francisco Lupiáñez took part in a Manuel Castells’s project entitled Technological Modernisation, Organisational Change and Service Delivery in the Catalan Public Health System (aka PIC Salut).
His main findings in the Public Health system related with the adoption of ICTs are really similar to the ones I pointed at — there related to the Educational system — in my conference Opening Session: Digital Citizens vs. Analogue Institutions (indeed partly based on data from a brother project, L’Escola a la Societat Xarxa: Internet a l’Educació Primària i Secundària (Volum I), also led by Castells and belonging both of them to a framework project about ICT adoption in Catalonia, Spain).
These findings can be summarized as follows:
ICTs are...
In
manuel castells,
francisco lupiañez,
health 2.0,
PIC Salut,
e-health,
web 2.0,
e-Government, e-Administration,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session XI.
Round Table: Chairs: Jacinto Lajas
Jose María Olmo
Free Software penetration in the Administration still low. This also means (cause or consequence?) that bidding processes don’t usually include free software in their requirements, either as a condition or as a possibility.
Consequences of this situation:
Lack of cooperation and collaboration between administrations
Interoperability made more difficult
There is a lack of communities of free software for the Administration in which developers and users can meet and exchange impressions and design common strategies
Francisco Huertas
Free Software as a strategy to develop the Information Society.
Free Software avoids:
A...
In
FLOSS,
icities,
francisco huertas,
free software,
jacinto lajas,
jose maria olmo,
linex,
net neutrality,
lourdes muñoz santamaria,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session X.
Round Table: Chairs: Goyo Tovar
Antonio Fumero
The Web: technologies, people and content. The Web brings potential, but using it is another issue. And in using it, context matters.
Ícaro Moyano
Age is a clear limit of Web 2.0.
Three stages of the web:
The web as a journal: unidirectional
The web as media: everyone’s a journalist
The web as a sharing place
New Internet users no longer identify themselves with a nickname, but with their real names, including a snapshot of their own.
And it seems that youngsters, that are usually said not being interested in politics, do use Social Networking Sites to engage in activism and promote campaigns.
Marc Vidal
Are the limits of the...
In
antonio fumero,
goyo tovar,
icaro moyano,
marc vidal,
social revolution,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session IX
Debate: The Handbook of the blog in the enterprise.Chairs: César Ramos
Genís Roca
We should focus on what is an enterprise and not on blogs. Do we agree on what do we understand by “enterprise”? An enterprise is:
the acknowledged and legal way to have a personal adventure.
A temporal union of people around an interest
An interest group
An institution: a big telecom is like a ministry, and a ministry like an enterprise.
There are many enterprises: working for your own or employed, with or without employees, with or without workmates, with or without leadership, with or without partners, etc.
Blogging in the enterprise is easy when you’re alone (e.g....
In
alberto ortiz de zarate tercero,
alorza,
cesar ramos,
enterprise,
icities,
blogs,
Digital Literacy,
e-Government, e-Administration,
genis roca,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session VII.
Round Table: Networked Citizens. Whence do blogs go?Chairs: Pau Llop
Víctor Ruiz
Blogs come from the participative sites that flourished after the Slashdot experience, both technically and conceptually.
Blogs have been an evolution of forums, but only at the usability level, but the general idea has not really changed that much.
And like forums, they are of short reach. Only 6% of the population read political blogs… but we keep telling politicians that they have to be on the Net and have their own blog. Does this make any sense at all? When everyone has a blog (if that ever happens), will we at last make of them an influential tool?
Fernando Tricas
Some questions about...
In
fernando tricas,
javier estevez,
jose luis prieto,
pau llop,
victor ruiz,
icities,
Blog,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session V.
Round Table: Connected Citizens. Cyberactivism.Chairs: Rosa Jiménez Cano
Alana Moceri, president Democrats Abroad Spain
First time that primary elections can be done on-line. This means increasing the number of countries where voting is possible from 34 up to 161.
Online, everyone can contribute: absolutely everyone can upload videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr or text to any blog. Pro: democratization. Con: loss of control over your campaing.
Fundrising is key and is a good proxy to test the health of a political campaign.
Obama’s discourse is really 2.0: you can, empowerment, engagement. MyBarackObama.com is a good example of it, where you can even earn points as a...
In
Online Volunteering,
Nonprofits,
activism,
alana moceri,
artivism,
cesar calderon,
rosa jimenez cano,
sebastian lorenzo,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration,
antoni gutierrez-rubi,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session IV.
Round Table: mGovernment. The Mobile Phone and its integration in e-GovernmentChairs: Nacho Campos
What is a mobile phone
Mobile
A device you use every day
110% of penetration
Many features
Tomy Ahonen: the mobile phone is the 7th medium:
Personal
Always on
Always with us
Integrated paying method
Immediate tool
mGovernment: how the Administration adapts itself to the nomadic style of the citizen (The Economist)
Goal: from m-murmur to m-chat to m-conversation (unidirectional, bidirectional, multidirectional).
Barriers:
Lack of leadership, political and technical
Infrastructures
Resistance to change of public servants
Telecommunication Operators
Lack of communication plans...
In
Connectivity,
hardware,
almudena de la fuente,
mario moreno sanchez,
nacho campos,
victor solla,
virginia moreno,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session III.
Case Study: Gijón. The Connected CityChairs: Chiqui de la Fuente
José M. Pérez
The political role is fundamental in the process of change.
Active listening is crucial, and it’s very important to avoid the “Big Brother” paranoia in order to let information flow free. Only with absolute openness can the Administration make its information interact with the citizen’s. Interconnection requires openness and access to private information — not the same thing as surveillance. This can be made possible by making public the “what” but anonymizing the “by whom”.
Interesting experience: digital literacy courses which enrollment had to...
In
chiqui de la fuente,
gijón,
jose maría pérez,
josechugijon,
icities,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session II.
Round Table: Innovation and Change. Is it possible to make the citizen’s life easier?Chairs: Jose Antonio Donaire
Xavier Llinares Sala
Users and managers don’t usually think equally concerning the design, use and satisfaction of a specific service.
To make ends meet, some changes have to take place:
There are too many public servants… in exchange of better, up-to-date, adding-value ones.
Public servants that add value have to be rewarded.
Barriers have to be removed.
More management, less bureaucracy.
Politics have to be de-professionalized and put, instead, professionals. Politics not as a career, but as a place for real experts to bring in ideas.
The shift...
In
carlos guadian,
jose antonio donaire,
xavier llinares,
icities,
roc fages,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
iCities is a Conference about Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation.Here come my notes for session I (part II).
Opening Session (part II)
Chairs Carmen Sánchez-Carazo
Intelligent CitiesJosé Gumersindo García
ICTs will improve the image that public administrations have before the citizenry: proximity, transparency, etc.
e-Administration and Modernization go hand in hand and they are co-requisites for the development of both.
The Public Sector does have to bet on digital literacy training for their public servants. But not only their employees, but also firms. With this digital literacy many projects can take place: instant messaging for better communication, datasharing through wireless networks, e-commerce, etc.
Free software is very important for the Public Sector, and again,...
In
Digital Divide,
alcalde,
candelaria,
david cierco,
jose sindo garcia,
plan avanza,
Connectivity,
icities,
e-Readiness,
Digital Literacy,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
These are the materials I’m using at the iCities: Primeras Jornadas sobre Blogs, e-Government y Participación Digital [First Conference on Blogs, e-Government and Digital Participation], for the opening speech, in which I take part on Friday 9th May 2008.
Slides:
Bibliography
Castells, M. (2000). “Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society”. In British Journal of Sociology, Jan-Mar 2000, 51(1), 5-24. London: Routledge.
Castells, M. (2004). “Informationalism, Networks, And The Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint”. In Castells, M. (Ed.), The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Dutta, S., López-Claros, A. & Mia, I. (Eds.) (2006). Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006: Leveraging ICT for...
In
E-Government,
Engagement,
Use,
activism,
icities,
e-Readiness,
Digital Literacy,
Blog,
e-Government, e-Administration,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Last reflections
It’s a pity that I couldn’t take notes on the last session of the event, where conclusions from the different round tables and workshops where read: I was on the stage and just had not the chance to type.
Summing up now is way too difficult. I can just say that this is one of the events you cannot miss, especially because “everyone” is there and the people you meet, their reflections, their...
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session VI.
Ángel de la Riva
Cibervoluntarios
CiberMix: Diffusion and advocacy program that shows the benefits of ICTs in institutions, firms and citizens in rural areas through educational, leisure, content and services activities.
Antonio Fumero
periodismociudadano.com: a gate for initiatives, experiences, people, etc. that deal with citizen journalism.
The goals of citizen journalism (and blogging):...
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session VI.
Ángel de la Riva
Cibervoluntarios
CiberMix: Diffusion and advocacy program that shows the benefits of ICTs in institutions, firms and citizens in rural areas through educational, leisure, content and services activities.
Antonio Fumero
periodismociudadano.com: a gate for initiatives, experiences, people, etc. that deal with citizen journalism.
The goals of citizen journalism (and blogging):...
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session IV. (notes at random, grouped by speaker, but not necessarily in chronological order)
Left to right: Francisco Ortiz Chaparro, Belén Perales, Javier Estévez (moderator), Javier de la Nava Trinidad, José Manuel García Prieto
Belén Perales, IBM
Why corporate volunteering? Employees demand it and their satisfaction, engagement, etc. does increase with nonprofit or development projects engagement....
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session V.
Subjects
Free software
Accessibility and usability
Linguistic diversity
Educational programmes
New content programmes
Debate
(random ideas, slightly sorted/grouped)
Muhammad Yunus proposes a new kind of enterprise where the focus is on stakeholders and not on shareholders, where no profit is seek, but only social benefit.
Low cost computers/devices are converging with mainstream infrastructures....
In
knowledge management,
Open Access,
Education & e-Learning,
Digital Literacy,
ICT4D,
Cyberlaw, governance, rights,
meetings,
Participation, Engagement, Use, Activism
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session II. (notes at random, grouped by speaker, but not necessarily in chronological order)
Left to right: Daniel Pimienta, Stéphanie Lucien-Brun, Kafui Amenu Prebbie
Stéphanie Lucien-Brun, Handicap International
ICTs can be very strong barriers towards rights expression if are not properly made accessible for everyone.
We should not talk about access, but about uses, strictly related with capacity....
e-STAS is a Symposium about the Technologies for the Social Action, with an international and multi-stakeholder nature, where all the agents implicated in the development and implementation of the ICT (NGO’s, Local authorities, Universities, Companies and Media) are appointed in an aim to promote, foster and adapt the use of the ICT for the social action.
Here come my notes for session III. (notes at random, grouped by speaker, but not necessarily in chronological order)
Left to right: Raoul Weiler, Jérôme Combaz, María del Mar Negreiro, Berta Maure Rubio
Raoul Weiler, Club of Rome
It will be possible for everyone to access the Internet trough/thanks to low cost devices.
But education will make the difference, not devices.
Jérôme Combaz, Charte pour l’Inclusion...