Government RSS, push and pull
.19.11 | No Comments »
November 19th, 2004 by Alex
Wired has a story on how the US government is using RSS as a tool for communicating with the public. This is great news, since RSS is a nice way of bridging “push” and “pull” (remember how trendy that distinction used to be?) The Wired story links to RSS Gov, a web site that tracks government use of RSS.
But in a classic example of unintended consequences, my search for a nice tidy definition of push vs. pull turned up this web site about Internet evangelism, which announces that April 24 2005 will be World Internet Evangelism Day. How’s that for a concept? Anyhow could make for an interesting example of using the Internet as a mass mobilization tool. Stay tuned….
Headlines that prove the world is ending soon
.18.11 | No Comments »
November 18th, 2004 by Alex
Beyond the electronic whiteboard
.18.11 | No Comments »
November 18th, 2004 by Alex
As seen on Cairns:
Nothing too new about electronic whiteboards as a collaborative tool (see, for example, this experiment from Colorado). But the InterWrite MeetingPad creates a new range of options. It’s a wireless, handheld tablet that uses Bluetooth to communicate with an electronic whiteboard in real-time. One electronic white board can work with up to 7 pads, so you can pass tablets out to multiple meeting participants and let them collaborate or contribute to the whiteboard from their seats.
Most of the case studies on the company’s web site involve educational applications. But it could prove useful in citizen engagement projects, particularly those involving small-group dialogue. If multiple InterWrite meetings were networked together you could imagine somewhat dispersed groups of participants working collaboratively over the Internet to do brainstorming or decision-making sessions.
Another setback for political science
.17.11 | 18 Comments »
November 17th, 2004 by Alex
Yesterday I finally received my doctorate. The actual piece of Latin-inscribed paper showed up at my door care of Fedex (classy move, Harvard!), officially licensing me in the practice of political science.
Yesterday was also the deadline for submitting proposals for the 2005 meetings of the American Political Science Association. And in a not-entirely-unrelated story, yesterday also saw President Bush announce his choice for Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice — herself a political scientist.
This confluence of events had me thinking about what the hell it means to be a political scientist, anyhow. I don’t think there is a tent big enough to hold me and one of the chief architects of the present war in Iraq. And I have to wonder about our collective pretensions to positive social science when someone can hold onto her political science credentials while acting as one of the most persistent defenders of that “weapons of mass destruction” trope.
So I’ve been thinking: shouldn’t political science have its equivalent to disbarment or excommunication? After all, if we want the term “political scientist” to mean something, then a doctorate shouldn’t be a one-way ticket. When political scientists promulgate ideas or institute policies that violate even the most generous interpretations of our collective wisdom, they are not only disregarding their own academic training, but devaluing the intellectual authority and standards of our field. So shouldn’t there be some threshold — it can be a generous one — beyond which one loses the right to practice political science?
Ah well. Any field that still claims Henry Kissinger as one of its own can certainly survive Condoleezza Rice.
UPDATE: COMMENTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY
This thread has certainly brought a lot of free speech advocates out of the woodwork. I’ve had lots of comments on this post, as well as on my subsequent entry, some of which you can read below. But it is interesting to note that many of these would-be free speech defenders have submitted their comments anonymously — which is not exactly in keeping with a committment to free and open debate. The difference between diatribe and dialogue is that in a dialogue, people both talk and listen; if you’re not available to receive responses to your comments, you’re not listening, and you’re certainly not engaging in dialogue or debate.
For that reason, I will only approve comments that have a verifiable e-mail address, and not one created for the sole purpose of commenting on this blog. That doesn’t mean you have to use your real name to post — one of the great things about the Internet is that people can build meaningful reputations and accountability using traceable or untraceable handles. (Another theme of my dissertation, by the way, for those of you who are actually interested in whether my own research meets the standards I am advocating.)
But I do expect people to take on some form of accountability for their comments. After all, I have put my name on my posts — why should my fellow defenders of free speech be shy about standing behind theirs?
UPDATE: FOR THE RECORD
What I think about what other people think about what I think. What do you think?
North American Summit on Citizen Engagement: Day 3
.13.11 | No Comments »
November 13th, 2004 by Alex
As posted on Cairns:
Our last day began with a panel of elected politicians discussing the role of civic engagement in their work. Listening to their experiences and comments, I was struck by how much of the burden of civic engagement seems to be laid at their feet. We (citizens, political observers, even engagement practitioners) are so used to seeing representative politics as the locus of decision-making that we too often frame the challenge of civic engagement in terms of improving citizen-politician dialogue, or increasing participation in the big-p Political process.
Read more…
The 49th Parallel looms large at the North American Summit on Citizen Engagement
.12.11 | No Comments »
November 12th, 2004 by Alex
As seen on Cairns:
I spent the bus ride up to Whistler doing a Q&A session on the Canadian legislative process for an American visitor. He was – like many Americans I’ve met – more apologetic than necessary for his lack of knowledge about Canadian politics. I’m always delighted to find Americans who want to know about the Canadian scene, but I’m hardly surprised that they don’t know much about our political system; Canada may be a neighbour, but we’re a small country, and probably not the foreign political system that Americans most need to understand. (Though I’m all for Americans learning about some foreign political processs – after all, the US system is a very idiosyncratic one, and it would probably improve Americans’ perspective on their place in the global community if they knew a little bit about how other countries work, too.)
Read more…
The North American Summit on Citizen Engagement: Day 1
.11.11 | No Comments »
November 11th, 2004 by Alex
As posted to Cairns:
Today was the first day of the North American Summit on Citizen Engagement, sponsored by The Whistler Forum for Dialogue. It’s a remarkable gathering of experts, practitioners and thoughtful commentators in the field of public engagement and dialogue from across North America. The gathering is an equal mix of Canadians and Americans, including Cairns supporters Carolyn Lukensmeyer of AmericaSpeaks and Sandy Heierbacher of the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation.
Read more…
Better than Blogging?
.10.11 | No Comments »
November 10th, 2004 by Alex
As seen on Cairns:
In the course of writing a recent story on e-campaigning, I had an interesting conversation with Michael Cornfield about the blogging phenomenon. Michael is the politics guy at the Pew Internet and American Life project, and a great source of wisdom on the subject of Internet campaigning.
Read more…
A download button that works
.9.11 | No Comments »
November 9th, 2004 by Alex
Mozilla released the new, non-beta version of its much-discussed Firefox browser today.
But even niftier than Firefox is the download link on Mozilla’s home page. The link reads “free download”, and when you click it, your download actually starts. No “create user account”. No “only $10 gets you Firefox plus!” No “choose version”. Just the link, and an actual download.
So when I add a download link here you can actually download Firefox immediately.
Where will this madness lead? “Submit” buttons that submit your form, without asking you to please reformulate the syntax for your birthdate or street address? Help numbers that connect you with actual live helpful people?
Fellow fans of instant gratification, unite! We have nothing to lose but a ten-second delay.
Bad sharers
.4.11 | No Comments »
November 4th, 2004 by Alex
Looking for a snapshot of how the war against terrorism is hurting the Internet? Check out the letter that ran in the Circuits section of today’s New York Times.
Read more…
Social capital for beginners
.3.11 | No Comments »
November 3rd, 2004 by Alex
The Encyclopedia of Informal Information has a very nice overview of social capital. For anyone who wants a quick intellectual history of social capital as an idea, and a quick peek at some of the key findings to date, this is a great place to start.
The morning after the night before
.3.11 | No Comments »
November 3rd, 2004 by Alex
Less than twelve hours since victory seemed uncertain, and the Bush camp is already spinning the heck out of its big victory. What I don’t understand is why the media is swallowing the line about this being an historic victory. I just caught a CBC-Radio teaser, talking about how Bush had won the biggest popular vote ever.
Anyone notice that Bush also LOST the biggest number of votes ever? It’s a little thing called population growth….and a big thing called voter turnout. That’s why elections are won by percentages, rather than absolute numbers. So why are we all buying into the Republicans’ new numbers game?