Web conferencing is still in its infancy as a political tool. President Barack Obama, who is arguably the finest master of using the Internet as a political tool, has of course already staged “virtual town-halls” using web conferencing. More then 100,000 questions were submitted to Obama, and the sheer scale of this illustrates the tremendous potential of web conferencing as a means of communicating with voters. Obama, however, remains something of a unique phenomenon when it comes to using the internet. Tony Blair, who left office as prime minister of Great Britain until 2007, did not even use e-mail.
Changes, however, are under way. In Norway, a project is beginning to stream all local government meetings on the internet so that citizens can view the process of decision-making in real time. In the city of Tel-Aviv, Israel, meetings are recorded and posted on the municipal website. In Rhode Island, state law requires that all public, government meetings be visible online (and they also require the availablility by e-mail of agenda and meeting notices).
Free-speech advocates are also starting to use web conferencing. A Californian group called “Beer and Politics” holds weekly, political web-conferences on a wide range of subjects. In May 2010, Noam Chomsky, the professor and activist, gave a lecture to a Palestinian University via web conferencing after an Israeli border-clerk denied him entry. In April 2010, a conference on digital democracy was held in Dallas. Many of those attending were bloggers including a Chinese pro-democracy activist who was able to meet the world via web-conferencing since he could not leave China.
Web-conferencing is a vital part of a digital revolution that is now taking place and which promises to transform politics and political speech. After decades in which the political agenda was dominated by television and the visual image — which turned voters into passive beings who watched and listened to politicians — we are now set to enter a new era in which we return to a more-interactive relationship with our political leaders. Accessing our local congressman, mayor, or news presenter is set to become simpler and available to more then just a privileged few.
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on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 10:42 am and is filed under Web Conferencing Uses.
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