[p2p-research] Is Web 2.0 Really Democratic?

[M. Fioretti]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 20:00:00 PM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> Robin Good launches a debate on this important topic, see http://
> www.masternewmedia.org/is_web_20_really_democratic/

the two parts I liked the most are:

1) Rheingold's answers to the first two questions:

"Is this participation really democratic?"

"Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the
decision making places are all outside the net?"

I fully agree with everything he wrote in those two answers.

2) This comment from Michel:

> expression is not deliberation. Most Web 2.0 platforms are not very
> well suited for the kind of complex deliberation that would be
> needed to create a context for decision-making

and I add: the same "not being well suited for decision making" could
also be said for e-voting as is today.

The web can and should guarantee much more effective denunciation of
wrongs, as well as information and checking of what the people in
charge are doing and why, without intermediaries:

       Making much faster and easier to find relationships between
       Parliament members and multinationals

       making mashups or instant dynamic maps which show that only the
       senators who live far from some place _or_ own stocks in
       nuclear companies approved the building of a nuclear plant in
       that site

       search engines which list everything a candidate said on a
       given argument, to see if he or she was coherent

       entering your ZIP code and knowing instantly how your taxes
       were spent, ie which percentage went to each city, county or
       state budget voice, and why, that is thanks to which law and
       who voted it.


this kind of things (=more control and accountability), yes, the more
the better, I devoted one chapter to the Family Guide in the signature
to this. But e-voting, instant voting, online decision making to get
rid of representatives... all these things scare me like hell and I
hope the last two never come to politics.

That is stuff which is OK for voting who should be expelled from a
reality shows like Big Brother, not for stuff which has real impact
on real people lives. I see in them:

- too many possibilities for big scale tampering

- (for national politics only, not necessarily for local
  administration) inherent limits: the world is too complex for
  everybody to be competent enough on every possible issue, or have
  time to study in depth the matter of every possible decision.

Marco

-- 
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84