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Back Issues
January 2000
This Report looks at how democracy is evolving online and the ways governments are going to have to adapt and utilize these changes, in a constructive way. Later issues of the Riley Report will analyze the impact that online groups are having and how this is creating new forms of democracy.
THE RILEY REPORT
JANUARY, 2000THE CHANGING SHAPE OF DEMOCRACY TODAY
In the Digital economy we are seeing an increasing power shift from the company and product to the worker and consumer. If we are indeed entering an information/knowledge society then it is a society where the right type of people are highly prized assets.
(Gerry McGovern, The Caring Economy, Blackhall Publishing, Dublin, Ireland, and NUA New Thinking http://www.nua.ie/newthinking/archives/index.html)
In the wired world the online citizen is increasingly playing more and more of a role in the democratic process. There are now hundreds of groups involved, from the community and local level to the national and international stage, in some way working to have an influence on government policies and programs, and on societal issues of our age. Because of these changes, the process of government will soon no longer be controlled from the top and micro-managed by a few. In the changing wired world citizens are voicing their say. Governments may not necessarily be listening but the thousands upon thousands of people engaging in discourse on the thousand and one issues of the day are certainly listening to each other. This is resulting in powerful currents of change which are only beginning to manifest themselves.
E-Commerce currently dominates the mass media as the main phenomenon of the Internet. But the real story lies in the changes being brought by the thousands of groups and people online around the world, who are engaged in some sort of civic activism, political engagement, or just plain discourse and debate on the issues that are important to them.
The most evident manifestation of this was in Seattle in December 1999. The massive protests in Seattle over the World Trade Organization's (WTO) meetings demonstrated the power of the Internet in bringing people out to express their demands to be part of the process. These people were determined to have their say. Not only did they express their beliefs and ideas but governments were forced to listen. There is some growing awareness in government that their old dynamics of secrecy, closed meetings and invitations of the special few to be part of the process, are starting to fade. In Seattle we saw the first shot fired across the bow of the old world order of democracy as we have known it. What we are witnessing is an emergence from the traditional forms of representative democracy to a new form that has yet to be given a name. For the moment, we can call it cyberism, as an expression of a particular form of politics. But that is still an expression born out of the old paradigm. The new democracy we see surfacing is more the expression of individual voices that congeal into a collective whole over ideas that the society of peoples online develop into a consensus. And while a consensus might be formed on major issues, individual people are still in a position to express their individual thoughts and ideas (even if they range from the erudite to the opinionated). In this emerging world we see the evolution of a true populist democracy: although people's ideas do not necessarily have to be individually acted upon, the means exist for individuals to freely communicate out to an audience. That audience can be large or small but it represents a freedom for the individual that has not existed up to this point in time. The mass media still hold the reigns of mass communication. It is still important to get that letter to the editor published so you can reach a wide readership. But with this medium you can write something and it will reach the level of interest in the audience out there.
In Seattle, the initial protests were organized off line and online. And it was the Internet that gave this movement the international momentum to make it the effective demonstration and the somewhat collective voice of outsiders it became. It was the clarion call for democracy from voices across the world. It has become the symbol not only for the voices able to speak from the Internet, but of the fact that the citizenry has found the ideal tool by which they can bypass all the normal channels of government. This is not a small development at this stage in our history. Many people talk about the Individual being in control, or having great power because of the ability to tap into the world through the keyboard, but it is not certain if the real power is understood. It has mostly been identified as the power of the consumer to buy the product he wants, or read the online newspaper of choice. In fact, what has actually happened is we have collectively opened a Pandora's box. And it really is too early to state exactly all the changes that will occur. It can be said with certainty that there is a powerful current of knowledge and ideas now circulating the world.
Another example of an issue that is spreading across the Internet is the recent announcement of the proposed merger between AOL and Time Warner. Discussions have started in the United States and Canada and are spreading around the world. Anxieties are being expressed about the possible ramifications for free speech, censorship, creative freedom and diversity, when such a giant conglomerate emerges to dominate the media. As the conversations and ruminations on this issue grow around the world, expect this to surface in the mass media. The New York Times (January 14, 2000) has already published an article by Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism in Washington, and Bill Kovach, the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. The authors question the whole wisdom of the merger and the ramifications for press freedom in the US. The Independent newsletter in London, England has questioned the wisdom of such a merger as has the LA Times.
Protest about the merger is surfacing in Canada. Some public interest groups, such as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, have already written to the Canadian Radio and Television, Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) asking the regulator to look at the ramifications for Canadians. There is a growing anxiety by many that such a merger is going to have very negative impacts on the Internet.
This Time Warner and AOL is an example of the bigger story called the Internet. Any idea, piece of information, tidbit or whatever gets put onto the Internet (much of it rumour, opinion or misinformation, it is true, but also much of it is factual) and it spreads like wildfire. In the wired world we have seen time and distance cut to almost zero. The result is that information and knowledge travel almost at the speed of light around the world.
What once took months or years to turn into an issue now can occur in less than a day. This is the true power of the citizen. This is the story of the evolution of a truly populist democracy, an emerging democracy in which issues are being transformed from the hands of the few elite to thousands (and one day will be millions). It is like throwing one seed into the garden and from it a flower grows. Throw the seed of an important idea or issue out onto the Internet and it flowers thousands of times over. This is a key development in our evolution at this point in our history. Central to this development is the degree to which people can communicate, form opinions and judgement, and then act upon them. The Internet is a medium that allows ideas to flow among thousands of channels. People are empowered not because one can get onto the Internet and get a product, read a newspaper or research out some knowledge. That thinking is from an old paradigm succinctly expressed in the saying: knowledge is power. The new paradigm is the ability to talk back (true interactivity), dialogue and go to whatever source an individual wants to choose. This is not to say there are thousands upon thousands of people out there engaged in political activism. There aren't.
There are legions of people who are out there ruminating and thinking, or engaging in conversation (or whatever activity one chooses). Many of these people are not restrained by the dictates of mass media which tell us what we must read, what is the story of the day, or what we must listen to on the radio or watch on TV. None of these media afford the independence of operation that the Internet allows. This is another reason why the Internet is developing into such a strong, world political force not captured by boundaries, time, space or distance. It is true that many in the world still very much reflect their religious beliefs, cultures, ethnic or political bias. But beyond that lies the opportunity to break away from the intellectual and emotional chains of the past and be free as an individual. And this is occurring on the Internet. However, even with these changes, there are still opportunities for governments themselves to benefit from the changes.
Because the Internet as a medium is becoming the tool through which the nature of democracy itself is changing and taking new shapes and forms, it is important that governments understand this phenomenon. Increasingly, public officials and elected politicians are going to be faced with not only an informed citizenry but a citizenry that wants to be engaged in the decision making process in some form or another. An analysis of the numerous groups springing up on the Internet on a multitude of issues illustrates that there are voices out there that governments are going to have to tap into.
The Internet has brought about a decentralization of power. In the wired world, individuals can now make their own choices as to which authorities and information sources they will accept. This is leading to a greater democratization of knowledge, empowerment of the individual, and the potential for more informed interactions between the citizenry and organizations, including government. Moreover, since individuals now have ready access to a variety of information resources, organizations have to adopt new proactive measures to compile and disseminate information in a competitive information environment.
A citizenry that is able to seek and obtain information and knowledge from any place in the world through the Internet will, in all likelihood, also expect more from government. There is also the opportunity for a paradigm shift in which governments benefit even more from the intellectual capital of the citizenry. In a knowledge-driven economy, the intellectual capital of the citizen could become government's, and society's, most important asset. Knowledge management (KM) principles can be the key to managing this transition and effectively creating this new, interactive knowledge-sharing environment.
Application of KM principles will also be necessary if government institutions are to maintain a role as an authoritative source of useful and relevant information. With public perceptions continuously changing due to the empowering nature of communication technologies, new creative and innovative environments will continually evolve on the Internet. Many authors like Andrew Shapiro, the author of the Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World, Perseus Books, 1999) contend that the nature of government and governance will be transformed as a result, driven by the changes technology is creating in society.
In Canada, the federal and provincial governments are moving more and more towards the electronic delivery of integrated services across the country, as evidenced by the federal Government's SERVICE CANADA initiative. The federal government is, at present, the single, largest repository of information. In the knowledge economy it is not going to be enough solely to connect Canadians to the Internet (though it is a major start to make Canadians the most connected people in the world), but more importantly to facilitate the development and usage of information.
The Internet: A Technology of Social TransformationThis is one of the true marvels of interactive technology: the instant ability to spread your unexpurgated words - a piece of yourself, really - to the four corners of the earth. Even in the rush of millennial tidings, the singularity of this achievement cannot be overlooked. (Andrew Shapiro, The Control Revolution, 1999)
The Internet is a technology of transformation. Each individual user instantly adapts it to his or her own uses. As a result, we are witnessing the emergence of individual identities in cyberspace and unique communities that are independent of time and space. The paradox of the Internet is that it is composed of individuals, all expressing their individualism, who see themselves as an integral part of a collective whole.
Organizations and, in particular, public sector organizations, must adapt to a new world order of informed citizenry with the ability to establish their own communities of interest, independently seek out global information resources, and form their own distinct views of the world around them. The exposure of the individual to the world of cyberspace has profound implications. We are developing citizens of the world. Furthermore, as the cost of Internet access diminishes (both the price of Internet-capable computers and access fees), we can no longer look at people in the old terminology of being "information rich" or "information poor".
In the non-linear world of the Internet, the important thing is not that cyberspace is borderless. It is that people's perceptions of the world are different than any previous time in history. For example, in the recent Kosovo war, the "official" positions of the NATO allies as disseminated through the mass media were counter-balanced with many diffuse voices using web sites, newsgroups, live cameras on the Internet, and IRCs (Internet Relay Chats) to present a contrasting picture of what the war was really all about. This has raised speculation on the Internet and in the mass media about what the influence and role of the mass media might be in the future. Andrew Shapiro has traced the increasing loss of public confidence in America towards the media as well as towards public and private organizations of all types.
According to Shapiro, Americans' confidence in government has fallen precipitously from the 1960s to the 1990s. In 1964, three-quarters of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. Now only a quarter of Americans say this. Similarly, public confidence in universities has gone from 61 percent to 30 percent; in major companies, from 55 percent to 21 percent; in medicine, from 73 percent to 29 percent; in journalism, from 29 percent to 14 percent.
As we reach a critical mass of people connected to the Internet , estimated by NUA Surveys in Ireland, to be 60% in North America by the year 2002, this is possibly going to result in even more societal change. With an aware, symbiotically connected citizenry, public sector organizations will face an increasing challenge responding to the continually evolving knowledge economy and the sweeping social and cultural shifts that will come with it. Knowledge management could be one of the applicable tools to use in the coming transformation.
Thomas B. Riley
Visiting Professor,
University of Glasgow
President, Riley Information Services,
Ottawa, Canada
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