“Governments have more or less caught up with what in geek-speak is called ‘web 1.0’, with the online world largely mimicking the offline world. E-mails replace letters; websites make publishing speedier and more effective; data are stored on the user’s computer. A collection of programs, paid-for or pirated, are the essential tools for getting going.
But all this has been overtaken by ‘web 2.0’, shorthand for the interactivity brought by wikis (pages that anyone can edit) and blogs (on which anyone can comment). Data are accessed through the internet; programs are opened in browser windows rather than loaded from the hard disc; instant messages, often attached to social-networking sites such as Facebook, replace e-mail. Web 2.0 also means free video-sharing on sites such as YouTube and free phone calls between computers. These developments allow information to be shared far more effectively, at almost no cost. That gives great hope to the proponents of e-democracy.”
(via The Economist)
February 21, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Web 2.0 – More reasons to sit in front of computers getting or spitting information about crap = democracy
How does the internet help democracy? DIY videos for Obama? Does that affect anything or just lead to people wasting effort on a forum based on novelty not substance, virtuality not reality? Does having your opinions & idealogies exist in omni-temporal indexable format do more than amuse likeminds and mark you to the Alphabet Soup Gang? Read comments on anything vaguely political and the stance is overwhelmingly clear – does that change anything anything at all?
Tre Res Impero Mundi – Strategy, Violence & Resources.