[sudoroom] Fwd: Article on Civic Innovation

[Matthew Senate]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Luisa Emmi Beck <emmi.beck at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Subject: Article on Civic Innovation


Hi Code for Oakland folks,

I thought you might like this reflection about civic innovation and digital
civics<http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2012/08/30/understanding-digital-civics/>within
broader theories of social/political change. Media Scholar and MIT's
Civic Media Director Ethan Zuckerman takes a nice step back from the "civic
hacking" movement and situates it in a broader political questions. If
you're pressed for time and want to jump around or only read parts of it,
here's a quick outline with a few of his main points:

*Point 1):* Why should we see the Internet or any communication medium as
an initiator of civic engagement? Isn't the Internet simply a medium?
Zuckerman argues that what a communications medium makes possible has a
shaping influence on civic life.

*Point 2):* Brief outline of the history of communication mediums in the US
(including the postal service, newspapers and broadcast industry). The
Broadcast media has had a synchronizing function in politics and has led to
a rise in the fiscal costs of politics.

*Point 3):* Are we moving towards a new participatory, Internet-based
democracy? Obama hasn't consistently supported initiatives to increase
Internet participation in politics. But major current political activist
groups aren't looking to Congress for change. Consider four major activist
groups: the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Anonymous and Wikileaks. The
Tea Party thinks that government is bound to screw things up and wants to
block its effectiveness. Occupy has been creating communities that are
functioning independent of the existing state. WikiLeaks focused on the
idea that governments rely on secrecy to operate. Anonymous, though not
necessarily united under one goal, uses the internet to attack, embarrass
and call attention to wrongs in the world.

*Point 4):* We can sum up four major theories of change: (Theory1) :
Legislative Theory, (Theory 2) : Find someone in a position of power and
lobby them to work on your behalf, (Theory 3): Media-driven cultural
change, (Theory 4): Service Theory of Change - civic innovation

*Point 5)* It's unclear what role the Internet plays in Theory 1 and Theory
2. But the Internet surely plays an important role in media-driven cultural
change and a service-oriented, civic innovation theory of change.

*Point 6) *What should the government's relationship to civic innovation
be? Zuckerman thinks that on the Internet, people who are tech-savvy,
articulate or angry will get the most attention. Government should help
level the playing field for those who don't fit these criteria. It should
help low-income communities bridge the "digital divide" and perhaps find
inspiration from the innovations that come from the better-off tech-savvy,
articulate groups.


I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

Luisa
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