e-democracy thesis / feedback needed
Evi Anastasopoulou | 23.07.2004 04:04 | Technology | London
a thesis on e-democracy questioning whether the digital media can boost people's participation/interest in politics - participation needed
My name is Evi Anastasopoulou and I am a student at the Bartlett
School of Architecture, at UCL. I am an architect in background (I
have graduated from National Athens Technical University) and
currently attending the MSc Virtual Environments course. For my summer project I have chosen a topic which I think that is close to your interests:
Augmenting physical with virtual spaces in order to promote democracy
and interest in politics.
I am interested in e-democracy and investigating how people with the aid of internet and other already familiar technological tools (such as mobile phones) might be intrigued to engage more in politics. A website has been built, like a forum, which is going to be displayed in a public street of London. The road is going to be Torrington Place, likely, where a plasma screen is going to be put behind a big ground floor window, by the entrance of 1-19 Torrington Place UCL Building. Both web surfers and passers-by will be able to post their points of view on the forum; web surfers by sending their opinion by e-mail and the passers-by by sending a text message to the website. People can also suggest possible topics for the forum and take a look at many different topics for discussion. Those who send a text message are being informed about the new topics that appear on the website.
I would be honoured if you could pass this e-mail to as many interested parts as you could and ask them to take part in the discussion. The website is:
http://128.40.59.47/~evi/ The aim is to get comments from people who are currently engaged actively in politics. This will add vital boost to the dialogue, because it will create an opinion exchange between those who “talk” politics and those who “do” politics.
As you may have already guessed feedback is precious to the project, in order to evaluate whether such a proposal might be helpful, even now that there is no public view of the website yet. Everybody who participates in this is going to receive a questionnaire to fill in later. The link is: http://128.40.59.47/~evi/. When it is displayed in public, which is the main target of this(I don’t aim in creating another online forum)
Whatever the case, I will inform you again about the public installation details.
Thanks in advance for you precious time and I hope that we contact
again in the future,
Kind Regards,
Evi Anastasopoulou
P.S.: I assume that you might need to find out more about the project, so I am providing you with a short thesis summary:
the VILLAGE VOICE project
The VILLAGE VOICE project is created by Evi Anastasopoulou,
Architectural Engineer from National Technical University of Athens,
Greece and current student in MSc Virtual Environments at the BARTLETT School of Graduate Studies, University College of London. It's an experiment, aiming to take place for 1 week in August, as part of her summer project. The aim is to find out if an augmented (with the virtual) physical public space can boost interest in politics and generate active political action and political debate.
Lately, it is taken for granted, that people's participation in
politics is following a decline. Less people vote in national, let
alone European Union, elections and even less are interested in their
country's or worldwide political scene. Politics are regarded as a
boring, old fashioned hobby. Most people though, if asked
straightaway, admit that this turns them politically numb and affects
their lives directly, due to the absence of their opinion in public.
Democracy is a political regime, based on freedom of speech. Once born in the middle of the ancient "agora" (the crowded market place of the time), even nowadays this idea is directly connected to a public meeting space. But what could that public meeting place be today, when people are dispersed both in geographical and in temporal terms? How could they all (or at least those who are willing to) meet? This could be achieved by using an augmented public space: a virtual and a physical public space, connected. Virtual spaces, in this case a forum on politics website, have the advantage of being accessed cross-spatially and cross-temporally: from people's homes, offices, via mobile phones when on the street, whenever one wishes. On the other hand, when talking about democracy and politics the physical aspect of the venture not only has historical significance, but also helps people who are not familiar with technology (i.e.: internet communities) to have access to the dialogue too.
The project aims to create a website(like a forum/the virtual space
referred to in the title) in which people will be able to post their
opinions either by commenting online either by sending an sms message.
Why should they have the opportunity to comment using sms messages as
well? The website's home page, will be displayed upon a screen, placed behind a window, facing a central road in London (the physical space referred to in the title); the people should have the opportunity to comment to the website without beeing close to a computer all day long. Most people use mobile phones so we could use them in order to get comments for the forum, when one isn't close to a computer. People could also save the phone number and text their opinions after some hours as well. In addition, the screen display works as a publicity promotion for the website itself, because the project (in terms of physical presence) will last only for a week; a short time to get widely known.Under that spectrum, by bringing together a physical and a virtual space, we can find out if we can boost interest in politics and engage more people with these activities for their own benefit. An active, informed citizen is a better citizen.
Feedback on the success of the project is going to be gained by
questionnaires that either will be printed and distributed (when
referring to the physical space participation), either e-mailed back
to the net-surfers who participate in the venture.
Project Supervisors:
Alan Penn
Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
Cristiano Bianchi
Programme Manager
EngD Virtual Environments, Imaging and Visualisation
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
Course Director:
Lesley Gavin
Course Director MSc Virtual Environments
BArch MSc DipArch
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
The public installation part is most likely going to take place in a
UCL building (1-19 Torrington Place, ground floor window). There is a also a possibility that it might take place at the HANSARD SOCIETY, but this remains to be answered.
School of Architecture, at UCL. I am an architect in background (I
have graduated from National Athens Technical University) and
currently attending the MSc Virtual Environments course. For my summer project I have chosen a topic which I think that is close to your interests:
Augmenting physical with virtual spaces in order to promote democracy
and interest in politics.
I am interested in e-democracy and investigating how people with the aid of internet and other already familiar technological tools (such as mobile phones) might be intrigued to engage more in politics. A website has been built, like a forum, which is going to be displayed in a public street of London. The road is going to be Torrington Place, likely, where a plasma screen is going to be put behind a big ground floor window, by the entrance of 1-19 Torrington Place UCL Building. Both web surfers and passers-by will be able to post their points of view on the forum; web surfers by sending their opinion by e-mail and the passers-by by sending a text message to the website. People can also suggest possible topics for the forum and take a look at many different topics for discussion. Those who send a text message are being informed about the new topics that appear on the website.
I would be honoured if you could pass this e-mail to as many interested parts as you could and ask them to take part in the discussion. The website is:
http://128.40.59.47/~evi/ The aim is to get comments from people who are currently engaged actively in politics. This will add vital boost to the dialogue, because it will create an opinion exchange between those who “talk” politics and those who “do” politics. As you may have already guessed feedback is precious to the project, in order to evaluate whether such a proposal might be helpful, even now that there is no public view of the website yet. Everybody who participates in this is going to receive a questionnaire to fill in later. The link is:
http://128.40.59.47/~evi/. When it is displayed in public, which is the main target of this(I don’t aim in creating another online forum) Whatever the case, I will inform you again about the public installation details.
Thanks in advance for you precious time and I hope that we contact
again in the future,
Kind Regards,
Evi Anastasopoulou
P.S.: I assume that you might need to find out more about the project, so I am providing you with a short thesis summary:
the VILLAGE VOICE project
The VILLAGE VOICE project is created by Evi Anastasopoulou,
Architectural Engineer from National Technical University of Athens,
Greece and current student in MSc Virtual Environments at the BARTLETT School of Graduate Studies, University College of London. It's an experiment, aiming to take place for 1 week in August, as part of her summer project. The aim is to find out if an augmented (with the virtual) physical public space can boost interest in politics and generate active political action and political debate.
Lately, it is taken for granted, that people's participation in
politics is following a decline. Less people vote in national, let
alone European Union, elections and even less are interested in their
country's or worldwide political scene. Politics are regarded as a
boring, old fashioned hobby. Most people though, if asked
straightaway, admit that this turns them politically numb and affects
their lives directly, due to the absence of their opinion in public.
Democracy is a political regime, based on freedom of speech. Once born in the middle of the ancient "agora" (the crowded market place of the time), even nowadays this idea is directly connected to a public meeting space. But what could that public meeting place be today, when people are dispersed both in geographical and in temporal terms? How could they all (or at least those who are willing to) meet? This could be achieved by using an augmented public space: a virtual and a physical public space, connected. Virtual spaces, in this case a forum on politics website, have the advantage of being accessed cross-spatially and cross-temporally: from people's homes, offices, via mobile phones when on the street, whenever one wishes. On the other hand, when talking about democracy and politics the physical aspect of the venture not only has historical significance, but also helps people who are not familiar with technology (i.e.: internet communities) to have access to the dialogue too.
The project aims to create a website(like a forum/the virtual space
referred to in the title) in which people will be able to post their
opinions either by commenting online either by sending an sms message.
Why should they have the opportunity to comment using sms messages as
well? The website's home page, will be displayed upon a screen, placed behind a window, facing a central road in London (the physical space referred to in the title); the people should have the opportunity to comment to the website without beeing close to a computer all day long. Most people use mobile phones so we could use them in order to get comments for the forum, when one isn't close to a computer. People could also save the phone number and text their opinions after some hours as well. In addition, the screen display works as a publicity promotion for the website itself, because the project (in terms of physical presence) will last only for a week; a short time to get widely known.Under that spectrum, by bringing together a physical and a virtual space, we can find out if we can boost interest in politics and engage more people with these activities for their own benefit. An active, informed citizen is a better citizen.
Feedback on the success of the project is going to be gained by
questionnaires that either will be printed and distributed (when
referring to the physical space participation), either e-mailed back
to the net-surfers who participate in the venture.
Project Supervisors:
Alan Penn
Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
Cristiano Bianchi
Programme Manager
EngD Virtual Environments, Imaging and Visualisation
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
Course Director:
Lesley Gavin
Course Director MSc Virtual Environments
BArch MSc DipArch
The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies
University College London
The public installation part is most likely going to take place in a
UCL building (1-19 Torrington Place, ground floor window). There is a also a possibility that it might take place at the HANSARD SOCIETY, but this remains to be answered.
Evi Anastasopoulou
e-mail:
ucftpan@ucl.acuk
Homepage:
http://128.40.59.47/~evi/
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Isolates the issues?
23.07.2004 20:11
The likely problem with what is proposed here is that it allows the topics to be discussed (perhaps even voted upon) in unrealistic isolation for each other. Like with a poll. On a poll you might have ten questions and ceetain rules are imposed. You get one answer (one vote) on every question. There is no way you can make "deals", find somebody else who cares a lot about the outcome on question #4 and offer to "vote" on that one the way he or she wishes (not eh way you really rpefer) and in exchange this person will "vote" the way YOU want on #2 br />
Because THAT is real politics in a democracy. People don't have to value the outcomes on different issues equally, nor in their unequal weighting need they agree with how other people value the issues. They are allowed to make any deals for mutual support they can arrange, and this is good, not bad, because there is no other way top "negotiate" a social consensus.
If there were ten questions on that poll, then there are over 1000 different ways the poll could be answered -- that's your PREFRRED "package". But no society is going to have 1000 politcal factions. So the packages (actually) on offer will be many fewer, and the gola is to find one whihc is acceptable to support -- or to work to alter the "basket" of one of the existing "parties" so it will be more to your taste.
Those wishing to try out various schemes of "e-demcoracy" need to model THIS behavior. Discussions of issues in isolation with each other will lead nowhere. But of course, those wearing ideological blinders will not understand what I am talking about.
Mike
e-mail:
stepbystepfarm mtdata.com
"boost people's participation/interest in politics "
24.07.2004 12:34
From this perspective, 'e-democracy', and proposals in the UK to lower the voting age, use postal ballots etc are aimed soley at giving legitimacy to an illegitimate system of government and to avoid the real reasons people don't vote - i.e. it changes little of note. Thus such ideas are a distraction from the matter at hand - the need for a democratic revolultion establishing *at least* recallable delegates and citizen-instigated referenda.
Mike's point about democracy being a *social* process is also important, although representatives making deals invariably creates unneccessary instances of voter betrayal compared to more direct democracy.
athenian