How the internet can help you be undemocratic
SCIP Chairperson Dan Jellinek has posted a great piece that demonstrates how easy it is to use the internet to deliver highly undemocratic decision-making processes.
Despite the promise of e-democracy projects over many years - including work that SCIP has been involved with - there may still be a long way to go in using technology to support democratic participation. Working with a group at a workshop at the EDEM10 conference in Krems, Austria in May 2010, Dan and others drew up a list of ideas that includes a range of howlers that are sadly all too familiar.
The list includes
- Don’t waste time on accessibility. Nobody with a disability or a slow internet connection is going to take part anyway.
- If designing for a different generation, make your own mind up what they will need or like
- Use technology that only runs in one type of browser; require a plug-in; and does not view properly on mobile devices.
- Have a hidden agenda.
Read the full list at the website of the Pan-European Participation Network
