Some inspirations

Digital Public Square of the District of Columbia
Vivek Kundra, America’s Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), spearheaded this project when he was still the Chief Technology Officer of D.C.  This portal allowed online access to different government data and services, making it easier for the public to interact with the federal government. A major part of this project was the innovation contest, ‘Apps for Democracy’, where D.C. released its database to the public and encouraged talented technologists and creatives to create the most useful applications from DC's Data Catalog.

The result: 47 applications ranging from web applications, widgets, Google Maps mash-ups, iPhone apps, Facebook apps, and other digital utilities were developed, representing $2,000,000+ in value and a 4000% ROI.

MAPLight.org 

MAPLight.org is a public database that illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes. Two public databases are combined: a database of all known campaign contributions to any legislator, and a database on how legislators voted on specific bills and resolutions. Bringing the data on money and voting together in an accessible way is groundbreaking as it opens the doors for the public to the legislative processes in the US in an accessible and creative way.

The World Summt Awards describes this website as a “…treasure for journalists, NGOs, and bloggers. It helps, citizens to hold legislators accountable. MAPLight.org, findings makes complex research publically available in an instant and shows that public scrutiny can be also visually appealing, easy-to-use, and customizable."

Whitehouse2.org

It’s daring and simple in its approach and that’s why it’s gaining a multitude of followers. Imagine how the White House might work if it was run completely democratically by thousands of people on the internet. Whitehouse2 does exactly this. All you have to do is endorse or oppose priorities and find people to support or fight against it. From the creators: “The more people who endorse a priority, the higher it rises in the charts. The more people who join the network, the more clout we will have with the President and the media.”

Other initiatives

In the UK, there’s a competition called ‘Show us a better way’ where the citizens are asked for their help in developing better ways to publish vast non-personal information that the government collects & creates on the public’s behalf. The winner gets £20K to develop the idea to the next level.

NASA has multiple Twitter-streams in the realm of micro-blogging, and they leverage YouTube and other new media to publicize their work.

Again, in the US, extra-governmental efforts include, GovLoop, an online community for government employees. In only seven weeks, it has attracted over 500 users from federal, state, and local governments. There was also the event, ‘Social Media for Government’, which aimed to “capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started.” Activities like these already pave the way  and provide the tools for public servants to share knowledge and start concrete action steps.

Can you imagine how similar application or website in the Philippines, such as MAPlight.org or Whitehouse2? How would that un-Zen the powers-that-be? I wonder how many representatives, senators — and even Presidents? — would oppose it or bog it down with charges of malicious intent orsubversion? Who would welcome the sunlight and who would burst into flames?

Starting points for practicing E-democracy

In a nutshell, good governance operating within the E-democracy framework should seek to:
•    Democratise data to enhance civic participation. Provide citizens real access to relevant information and the actions they can take. It’s not just about dissemination of information but democratization: genuine access to data that the public sector can built on to make it more relevant for their everyday lives or bring them closer to making informed decisions on issues.
•    Bring government to the people, wherever they are. Utilise new media tools and strategy to make government services more effective, accessible, and transparent. Social networking and microblogging are becoming part of the daily media diet, so governmental institutions should start utilising these tools.
•    Encourage accountability through transparency. Acknowledge, assess, and embrace social media.
•    Start or join in the public and social dialogue; be present and active in the information eco-system of public domain. Strengthen and diversify engagement through meaningful online dialogues and information exchange on public issues.
•    Leverage social media. Use existing (user-generated, co-creation driven) technology to reach wider audiences at minimal cost to taxpayers. Mashable content can help transform raw data into concrete conclusions and action points that really matter to different sectors.
•    Leverage the wisdom of crowds (public and civil servants). Social media creates an open dialogue not only between government and citizens but also between different government agencies as well.
•    Make politics relevant by encouraging grassroots movements. Invest in collaboration and participation: help build the sidewalks, public squares, town halls, hearing rooms and community centres in government’s interfaces, that will ensure the public can assemble, discuss, decide, act and collaborate with government.
•    Improve the relevance of information resources.
•    Improve the quick distribution of information resources.
•    Develop and disseminate best practices and tools to promote community conversation and engagement, civic education, and information exchange.
•    Review organisational capacities and identify areas that need to be improved in order to respond the demands of managing E-democracy products and processes.
•    Empower participants with online skills and experiences to have an impact on their communities and governments.

This post is brought to you by the letter ‘E’ and ‘D’ —‘E’ for ‘electronic’, ‘D’ for ‘democracy’.

Taken apart, they each constitute a vast body of meanings. Google them and you’ll get 471,000,000 hits for ‘electronic’ and 67,800,000 for ‘democracy’. Taken together, these words take on a new meaning that definitely outweighs the sum of their parts.

E-democracy thrives in a framework that acknowledges the Internet and other forms of digital technology as political media; each one possessing the radical potential to drive democratic processes and be transformed in return.

The word ‘democracy’ is derived from the Greek word ‘demos’ (people) and ‘kratos’ (rule / strength). There are many detailed definitions and forms of democracy, but in general it’s founded on the principles that:

• All citizens enjoy universally recognised equal freedoms and liberties.
• All citizens have equal access to political, social, cultural and economic power and decision-making.

Decision-making is a collective endeavour and requires direct involvement by “…all residents of a particular geographical area and of a viable population size beyond a certain age of maturity (to be defined by the citizen body itself) and irrespective of gender, race, ethnic or cultural identity. (Wikipedia, 2009)

Put democratic intent into the realm of the electronic and you’ll get a new way of looking at the ABCs of data: Accessibility (who gets access to data), Bureaucracy (who and what structures control the production and distribution of data), and Consciousness (what kind of information is being disseminated). This framework impacts the whole question of how information can be harnessed and put to use in the digital era, specifically with the onset of Web 2.0.