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by Alinta Thornton

Links

This list of links takes you to sites that relate to democracy on the Internet.

Feel free to email me with new ones or corrections.

Internet and democracy

A Wired Agora: Minneapolis, Citizen Participation, the Internet and Squirrels Clift, Steven "We hear a lot about the potential of the Internet to improve citizen participation in democracy, but no one seems to do much about it."

Allwissenheit und Grenzenlosigkeit: Mythen um Computernetze Debatin, Bernhard (in German)

Bernd Lutterbecks Lesezeichen huge list of links on cyber matters, many in English

Birth of a Digital Nation "Can we build a new kind of politics? Can we construct a more civil society with our powerful technologies?"

Can Internet improve democracy in local government? Ranerup, Agneta. "The Internet has been used to provide on-line discussion forums in three local government districts in the City of Göteborg. ...an example of Participatory Design outside the workplace."

Centre for Electronic Commerce "Electronic commerce plans and implementations are mushrooming in Australia in both the private and public sectors. Some successful case studies."

Debatin, Dr Bernhard: HS Virtuelle Öffentlichkeiten (university course on Internet)

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Democracy & the Web , Agre, Professor Phil, University of California. A large collection of serious articles on the Internet.

Democracy and the public sphere Davis, Chris. A rather alarming looking page but some useful links.

Democracy is online Clift, Steven "I'd like to suggest that just as the television saved democracy, so will the Internet."

Demokratie & Netze Huge list of links, based in Germany but many are in English.

Drive Through Democracy, Surman, M "The architects of the Superhighway are the same people who have spent the past 20 years buying up media production and distribution systems all over the world."

"'Help manners': Cyber-Democracy and its Vicissitudes", Stivale, Charles, 1996. "Examine issues of "frontier" legislation and self-governance that have evident analogues to experience in what "cybernauts" call "rl", i.e. real life."

Forum on electronic democracy: discussion archives "Some of the texts use offensive language and show the darker side of interaction on the net. In discussing the communicative potential of the medium they should, nevertheless, not be disregarded."

Ideology of the Internet Steinkamp, Fiona "There are many ways in which one might be tempted to think that the Internet provides the ideal forum in which "all voices are equal".

Information Highway is a Bunch of Hooey, Carroll, Jim, 1994 "There is no doubt that there will be some wonderful developments as telephones, televisions and computers come together over time. But in the meantime, when it comes to the information highway, it's all a bunch of hooey."

Internet and Democracy, Johansson, Ingrid ""Blixt" is an example of how the Internet can contribute to democracy. My assumption is that the ability and possibility to express oneself is fundamental to democracy."

Internet and Democracy, Kylén, Nina "Is Internet a threat against democracy? I would say no. At least not for the moment."

Internet and U. S. Communication Policy-Making in Historical and Critical Perspective, McChesney "Two oppositional and epoch-defining trends dominate U.S. and global media and communication: ...rapid corporate concentration and commercialization of media industries; and newly developed computer and digital communication technologies [that] can undermine the ability to control communication in a traditionally hierarchical manner.

Internet as Hyperliberalism Treanor, Paul "It is the Net itself which is wrong: freedom from censorship, or equality of access, cannot make it good. The conclusion is simple: the Net must be cut, and Europe is the place to start."

Internet and the Public Sphere: Revitalization or Decay? Hunter, Christopher D., 1998. "While the net's shortcomings are significant, there are aspects that give hope to the public sphere: (1) Internet arenas of discussion may serve as counter sphere's were marginalized groups can practice their discourse before engaging in debate with dominant groups. (2) Within certain ground rules (netiquette), net debate approaches Schudson's ideal of "democratic conversation" needed for effective governance. (3) Internet petitions and symbolic web protests expand the range of political participation options open to citizens."

Internet as Public Sphere Underwood, Mick. "There is a striking parallelism between the intentions and hopes of the early trailblazers in radio and today's Internet techno-utopians."

Is the Internet an Instrument of Global Democratization? Hill, Kevin A., & John E. Hughes. "Is the Internet a forum for pro-democracy activists? Are the utopians who claim the Internet will usher in a new era of democratic activism correct?" Very interesting paper.

Mark Poster's Home Page "European Intellectual and Cultural History; Critical Theory; Media Studies"

Making Media Democratic McChesney, R W. 1998. "The American media system is spinning out of control in a hyper-commercialized frenzy."

Netizens - On the History and Impact of the Net Hauben, M and Hauben, R, 1995 (Full text). "This book is for those online who value being online and want to be part of the battle to make being online a right to all rather than a privilege available to an elite few."

Network Observer, Agre, P "The Network Observer (TNO) is a free on-line newsletter about networks and democracy edited by Phil Agre of the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. It appeared monthly from January 1994 to July 1996." Archive of articles.

Noam Chomsky on Bill Gates Corporate Watchdog on the Web

Old Wine in New Bottles, The Economy of Ideas, Barlow, J.P Seminal article on "information wants to be free".

Organizational Strategy for Electronic Democracy, Miller, Steven.E. "For those people who see the NII as a critical tool for the revitalization of democracy, the strengthening of neighborhoods, and the release of grass-roots creativity, it is necessary to integrate National Information Infrastructure implementation with local organizational development."

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Public realm in the information age "Internet has the potential to production of built environment in the participatory context...We are retreated from the control of our cities giving to professional elites..[who] have also the physical control in shaping of "public opinion" that is highly questionable. In order to create successful public spaces we need a shift from representative context to the participatory one. ..Consequently, if Internet increase their accessibility and range of usage for community issues it will become an efficient tool that reshaping the true public realms."

Republics and Democracies, Welch, R, 1961. Founder of the John Birch Society. Make up your own mind if he's a weirdo or not. "Any such idea that there are unchangeable limitations on the power of the people themselves is utterly foreign to the theory of a democracy, and even more impossible in the practices of one. And this principle may ultimately be by far the most significant of all the many differences between a republic and a democracy."

Social Theory of the Internet Lafayette, Lev, University of Melbourne. "The resolution of these [access] issues will also critically affect the trajectory of advanced capitalism. ..[is this] a crisis of modernity, leading to either social disintergration, or the development of a new, "post-modern" social formation.." The thesis was unfinished when I visited.

Teledemocracy: Can wired democracy work? McTavish, R "Two major differences between Athenian democracy and teledemocracy (the electronic mediation of political dialogue) are authenticity and accuracy."

Virtual Society? the social science of electronic technologies links page.

Why democracy is wrong Treanor, Paul. A must read article - challenging dearly-held beliefs is always difficult but it's worth examining them. This is a well-thought out piece. Updated and expanded.

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Habermas and other theory

Baudrillard in Cyberspace Nunes, Mark 1995 "Internet, rather than presenting a simulation of totality, might provide a space of play."

Critical Art Ensemble "Exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics, and critical theory."

Cultural studies and critical theory "Cultural studies draws from the fields of anthropology, sociology, gender studies, feminism, literary criticism, history and psychoanalysis in order to discuss contemporary texts and cultural practices."

Democracy in the Age of Information: A Reconception of the Public Sphere Gaynor, Denis, 1996 "What type of democracy can come out of the Internet? Does the notion of the public sphere have any relevance to our current communicative and political situation? How might the reconfiguration of communication enabled by the Internet work to create a new form of 'cyberdemocracy' which better represents citizens' interests?"

Ideal speech situation Brief explanation.

Jurgen Habermas Resource Robinson, Steve Links and basic information about Habermas.

Habermas General information about Habermas

Habermas links

Habermas Deflem, Mathieu. Page of links to serious works on Habermasian themes

Marcuse or Habermas? Feenberg, Andrew "While much of Habermas's argument remains persuasive, his defense of modernity now seems to concede far too much to the claims of autonomous technology."

Rheingold's Brainstorms Collection of Howard Rheingold's materials.

Rheingold's Brainstorms: Disinformation Superhighway?
Floridi, L "Will the Internet too become a powerful means of potential disinformation? And if so, will disinformation engendered via the Internet differ from other forms of disinformation engendered via paper and broadcasting media?

And finally, if the Internet could become a powerful means of disinformation, is there anything that can be done to avoid this particular problem or to solve it? It is my impression that each of these questions can be answered in the positive. This paper's task is to attempt to explain why and in what sense."

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Cyberculture

Annotated Bibliography on Cyberculture Aims to "introduce and contextualize the emerging field of cyberculture."

Cyberculture and cyberstudies Links

Cyberculture links Interesting eclectic collection

Cyberdemocracy Poster, Mark "If the term democracy refers to the sovereignty of embodied individuals and the system of determining office-holders by them, a new term will be required to indicate a relation of leaders and followers that is mediated by cyberspace and constituted in relation to the mobile identities found therein."

Cyberocracy is coming, Ronfeldt, David 1992 "How cyberspace may alter the nature of bureaucracy."

Cyberspace Alarm! Virillo, Paul "..new communication technologies will only further democracy if, and only if, we oppose from the beginning the caricature of global society being hatched for us by big multinational corporations."

Cybersociology magazine for the discussion of the social scientific study of cyberspace.

Cybersociology Magazine Issue Three Barriers to Internet Access. "Every few months, this e-zine will strive to publish at least three original articles dealing with cyberspace, the Internet, and online communities."

Cyberstudies links

Cyberstudies list of links pages

New Directions in Personal Publishing Locke, Christopher "Personal advantages of online publishing".

Philoshopy Vienna University interesting links

Popcultures Zupko, Sarah Links to cyberspace and technology articles and papers.

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies "Research, study, teach, support, and create diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture."

Society, Cyberspace and the Future Murray, Bruce, 1995. "How the transition from one-way electronic mass communications to interactive and networked communications may impact communities of all kinds and thus modify the basis of behavior and governance in the century ahead."

Stormsite King, Storm. Resources and articles on the psychology of cyberspace.

'Under Construction': (re)defining Culture and Community in Cyberspace Pickard, Meg "I conducted a thorough ethnographic investigation into the constructions of sociality that are generated on-line. .. it is my hope that an overview of the way that anthropology is beginning to understand culture and community in the context of cyberspace will be created."

Under Construction: (Re)Defining Culture And Community In Cyberspace links Pickard, Meg. Online resources for humanities research into Anthropology, culture and community on (and of) the Net. Excellent list of links

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Virtual communities

Annotated Bibliography on Virtual Communities "A journey through the history of The Well, an online "community" started by left leaning intellectuals".

Center for Study of the Online Community - UCLA "How computers and networks alter people's capacity to form groups, organizations, institutions, and how those social formations are able to serve the collective interests of their members."

Design principles for online communities Kollock, Peter, 1998 "Focus is on the graphical virtual worlds."

Virtuality and Its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace Turkle, Sherry, 1995 "Having literally written our on-line worlds into existence, we can use the communities we build inside our machines to improve the ones outside of them."

Virtual communities Coon, David. Huge list of links.

Virtual Communities, Abort, Retry, Failure, Fernback, Jan and Thompson, B. "This project is an effort to explicate some of the implications of CMC for the development and maintenance of communities within the context of larger society."

Virtual Communities Conference

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Status and access

@ccessability "Aims to raise awareness of the accessibility issues faced by people with disabilities who wish to use online services."

A rape in cyberspace Dibbell, Julian 1993. First-hand discussion of the famous LambdaMoo rape case.

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use -- Thomas P. Novak & Donna L. Hoffman, Project 2000, Vanderbilt University (1998).

Culture, class and cyberspace Tal, Kali We're resisting the tired-but-still-commonly-accepted idea that the virtual world provides a somehow "level" playing field, in which race, gender, [and] culture(s) no longer matter. List of links.

Emancipation and Illusion: Rationality and Gender in Habermas’s Theory of Modernity Fleming, Marie. Reviews of various Habermas related books.

Gender swapping on the Internet Proceedings of Inet 1993 " In these virtual worlds, the way gender structures basic human interaction is often noticed and reflected upon."

Internet and the Poor Center for Civil Networking. "We need to demonstrate positive effects on low and moderate income families and a potential for lifting Americans out of poverty rather than creating a two-tier society of information haves and have-nots."

Losing Ground Bit by Bit Benton Foundation. Report on Low income communities in the information age.

NUA Internet Surveys Get all the details on who's using the net how often.

Women and the Internet Kennedy, Tracey Harassment on the Internet

Women's Access to On-line Discussions About Feminism, Balka, E, 1994 "Use of computer networks by individual women and women's groups who use this technology to either discuss feminism or facilitate feminist organizing."

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Computer-mediated communication

Citizens, community and the Internet "A research report, into how NI community and voluntary groups use the Internet."

CMC study center resources "from the dynamics of group communication in Usenet news articles to how people use hypertext to shape meaning."

Communication, Technology, and the Future of American Democracy Smith, Stephen, 1984

Communications Archive

Computer media and democracy Links to some substantial democracy sites.

Computer Mediated Communication magazine

Cybercitizens in Virtual Communities University of Newcastle's Computer mediated communication page - full of useful links.

December list December, John "essential links, compactly organized, to help you explore Computer-Mediated Communication."

Developing Personal and Emotional Relationships Via Computer-Mediated Communication Chenault, Brittney G., 1998 "Emotion is present in computer-mediated communication (CMC). People meet via CMC every day, exchange information, debate, argue, woo, commiserate, and support."

Discourse and Distortion in Computer-Mediated Communication Lawley, Elizabeth Jane, 1992 "Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has ..significant effects on the patterns of communication among its participants. ..examines the applicability of contemporary critical social theory to this relatively new communicative medium, especially its reflexive character, [with emphasis on] Jürgen Habermas."

Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat Reid, Elizabeth. Two theses in full text.

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, McLaughlin, Margaret and Rafaeli, Sheizaf, Editors.

Living inside the (operating) system: Community in virtual reality "An unusual (but by no means anomalous) culture has developed under the aegis of PMC-MOO."

Sociology of Culture in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Initial Exploration Lawley, Elizabeth Jane, 1994. " Potential applicability of the work of Pierre Bourdieu in the sociology of culture ..and propose a project of study to analyze computer mediated communication using Bourdieu's theoretical model."

Third Culture Turkle, Sherry. "A new kind of computational object — the relational artifact — is provoking striking new changes in the narrative of human development, especially in the way people think about life, and about what kind of relationships it is appropriate to have with a machine."

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Democracy in Australia

21st Aust "Highlights questions about Australia as a democracy moving into the 21st Century." Hasn't been updated since 1997, but has some useful links.

Australian Computer Society (ACS) member and other viewpoints on regulation of the Internet, 1997

Australian Families Guide to the Internet, Australian Broadcasting Authority

Australian Net Censorship Legislation: 1999/00 Information, Resources, and Links

Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online
Services) Act Explains the intent of the original Bill that aims to censor/regulate the Internet in Australia.

Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online
Services) Act amendments. This shows amendments to the original Bill that aims to censor/regulate the Internet in Australia.

Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online
Services) Act Full text of the Act as passed.

Campaign against Australian Internet Censorship Legislation

Changing the Australian political system. Links to arguments about whether we should become a Republic or remain a monarchy.

Community without flesh Discusses the new Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act in Australia. "Regardless of any noble aspirations expressed by free-speech organisations such as Electronic Frontiers Australia relating to the defence of personal liberty and freedom of expression, this legislation is about porn."

Concerned citizens for democracy A petition by some Australian citizens against a council decision.

Democracy in Australia Kilcullen, R.J, 1995 "I don't believe, and I don't think anyone does, that the fact that a majority wants something guarantees that it is just or expedient. Perhaps some decisions ought to be made undemocratically: but 'undemocratic' is a negative term -- we would need to know more positively how decisions ought to be made."

Electronic Frontiers of Australia "Non-profit national organisation formed to protect and promote the civil liberties of users and operators of computer based communications systems."

Information Society - Looksmart links

Liberal democracy Kilcullen, R.J. 1995 "Liberal democracy is a compromise arrived at by liberals in the course of the 19th century between democracy and oligarchy (or aristocracy), a compromise embodied in our political institutions, backed by education, political economy and other currents of opinion, requiring tactful leadership from statesmen aided by 'the scribes in the newspapers'."

Michael Baker home page Free speech, censorship and related issues in Australia.

Michael Baker's banned pages Banned pages have been mirrored here.

Michael Barndt's Home Page "Potential of Internet as a tool for local communities and nonprofit organizations."

Monash University democracy links

Murder by Media - death of democracy Balson, Scott. Providing access to a banned book by a One Nation Party member on the power of the media. Interesting use of the Internet for political purposes.

Online services content regulation Australian Broadcasting Authority's page explaining its role and policies on the regulation of the Internet.

People's Choice: Australia's Experiments in Democracy Introduction Sawyer, Marian. "Traces the ways in which democratic ideas arrived in Australia and the fertile ground they found here."

Stakeholder democracy for Australia Turnbull, Shann. "Stakeholder democracy would resolve these problems by reducing the size and power of bureaucracies in either the public or private sectors."

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Democracy activism

Building Citizen-based Electronic Democracy: The Minnesota E-Democracy Experience

Center for Democracy and Technology "promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. ..practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies; building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media."

Center for Voting and Democracy "Researches how voting systems affect participation, representation and governance."

Democracies online "Promoting online civic participation and democracy efforts around the world through information exchange, experience sharing, outreach, and education."

Democracy and Internet workgroup (University of Pennsylania) "to explore the possibilities of the Internet to further civic involvement. We see any attempt of explorations of the political possibilities of the Internet as necessarily involving issues of access."

Democracy Forum "Civic journalism: what it is, who's doing it and how you can get involved."

Democracy links from the Center for Democracy and Technology

Democracy Net "Private, nonprofit, grant-making organization created to strengthen democratic institutions around the world."

Democracy Place: Where to? "This is your town on the Internet for civic journalism and citizen participation in the public policy debate."

Democracy Resource Center Extensive collection of online resources.

Devoted Net "The concept is simple, the merging of existing technologies (television, radio, telephone, computer) to vote directly on and actually participate in the law making process."

Electronic Democracy - New Zealand "Committed to the use of the Internet to develop a more community-based democracy in New Zealand."

Electronic Frontier Foundation " Fighting to protect civil liberties in the new and still-evolving digital society."

Environmental activism and the Internet, White, Clem "The effectiveness of the Internet for environmental groups."

G-8 Government Online "The governments of over 20 countries working together to promote on-line delivery of government services to citizens and businesses."

Government Information in Canada "A quarterly electronic journal for discussion and study of Canadian federal, provincial/territorial, and local government information."

In Burma, Net access can be a path to prison, McAllester, Matthew. Matthew McAllester, "The man leaned across the table and spoke so quietly that no one but the two of us could hear.."You know what?" the man said. "I got e-mail." "You can't have," I said."

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Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age , Dyson, E, Gilder, G, Keyworth G and Toffler A. "A not-for-profit research and educational organization dedicated to creating a positive vision of the future founded in the historic principles of the American idea.

Making Government Work "The Internet offers opportunities to make democracy even more "democratic" by involving more people in the process. Find information about issues, discuss the issues with your representatives, and present your views before the vote."

Neighborhoods Online "Fast access to information and ideas covering all aspects of neighborhood revitalization, as well as to create a national network of activists working on problems that affect us where we live."

NetAction How to run your online campaign.

NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet "Political information has never been easier to acquire..If politics by its nature requires collective action, how does any of this bring it about?"

Recommendations to the European Council - Europe and the global information society Bangemann et al 1994

Victory against the Communications Decency Act at the Center for Democracy and Technology

Virtual Activist training manual "The Internet makes it possible for activists to expand our networks by identifying and contacting activists in other communities who have similar interests and concerns."

Virtual campaigning Frisk, Alan. "The use of Swedish political parties of the Internet during the 1998 elections to the Swedish parliament."

Voting by Phone Information about how to vote by phone.

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Public sphere at work

Sites that don't normally follow the "official" line, whatever that may be in a particular country, or that try to present various sides to an issue.

Bad Subjects magazine "We think too many people on the left have taken their convictions for granted. So we challenge progressive dogma by encouraging readers to think about the political dimension to all aspects of everyday life."

Disinformation magazine All kinds of information, news, articles. A critical and irreverent look at the world.

Electronic Policy Network "Trenchant policy analysis for the general public, so that citizens, students, legislators, advocacy groups, educators, and researchers may easily keep pace with the issues that matter."

Free Lao Movement to Support Laos Students Movement for Democracy.

FreeMalaysia Business rumours, scandals, dirty tricks in a country where openness isn't appreciated. "In-depth political analysis, encompassing Mahathir's early struggle for power, his ascension to dominate UMNO and the decay of the political machine he constructed." Reports that it was labelled a threat to national security by the government.

Malaysiakini Subversive web site in Malaysia

MediaChannel "As the media watch the world, we watch the media. The vitality of our political and cultural
discourse relies on a free media that offers access to everybody. As society becomes increasingly diverse and international, we need greater diversity and democracy on the airwaves.

..This site will be a place to share concerns, and help propose solutions to problems. ...the first media and democracy supersite on the web."

MediaChannel links Extensive, searchable links on democracy, media, free speech, access, diversity and more.

Middle of Nowhere, Cox, Brad "To transcend the Internet's concentration on narrow or shallow free stuff ..by providing the breadth, depth and quality we expect of commercial newsstands, bookstores, libraries and software stores. This goal is not achievable."

New Straits Times Web site of Singapore paper, covers other Asian countries as well. "Flagship publication of the publicly-listed Singapore Press Holdings group."

Politics21 Activist site in Singapore.

Singapore One Interesting to check out the official Singapore web association that controls access to the Internet there.

Vientiane Times "The gateway to democracy" for Laos. It seems this site uses the name of the government-run newspaper to oppose the government.

VIP Reference Activist magazine produced in the US and sent to hundreds of thousands of Chinese addresses. You may need to find the address using Google since apparently it changes regularly.

Vote Smart US Library of factual information on over 13,000 candidates for public office -President, Governors, Congress and State Legislatures: backgrounds, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and performance evaluations.

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Internet articles/papers

Economic Case for Public Subsidy of The Internet ,
Schikele, S

City of Bits Huge list of links about everything digital

Hobbes Internet Timeline Explains what happened when.

Information Technology Issues and implications

Internet ethics: human/civil rights Masters Thesis in Greek

Measuring the Web "This paper presents some difficult qualitative questions concerning the Web, and attempts to provide some partial quantitative answers to them."

Mythography of the new frontier Eubanks, Virginia "We need to think of the Internet not as an empty canvas on which individuals play out their utopian fantasies nor as a wilderness ready for conquering and settling, but as a public collaboration, a communal correspondence."

NUA Internet Surveys Get all the details on who's using the net how often.

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