National Civic Review 90:3
Note from the President
The cooling off of the dot com economy ends a phase in the trajectory that
information technology (IT) has been blazing across our society. Like a booster
rocket propelling a satellite into orbit, speculative mania and turbocharged
rhetoric fueled an explosive growth in IT. Although this wild ride is now
literally and figuratively spent, its positive effects can be seen in the
widespread adoption and implementation of information-based technologies in
all sectors of society.
Looking past the current disarray in the high-tech industry, we can begin
to assess more clearly the force these technologies exert on the direction
of our society. One of the most telling indicators of this influence is how
remote in time the pre-Internet world seems. We now take for granted the ability
to search for information and make purchases at the click of a mouse. As anyone
who has switched from a modem to DSL access can testify, in this new world
there is simply no going back.
Information-based technologies have great promise for transforming far more
than how Americans shop or surf for news and entertainment. The ease and rapidity
with which information can be collected, stored, searched, and transmitted
creates new opportunities and raises new concerns. On the one hand, barriers
to participation in the political process can be dramatically lowered, keeping
citizens informed and engaged; at the local level, greater community involvement
can be encouraged through means such as neighborhood listservs and e-mail
alerts. On the other hand, there are a number of serious questions concerning
privacy safeguards, the openness of the Internet, and the ultimate impact
of IT on our form of government.
For this reason, the National Civic League has again chosen to focus its annual
conference on the interaction between IT and civic engagement. This year's
national conference on governance, titled Digital Democracy: Civic Engagement
in the Twenty-First Century, evaluates how the expanding use of information-based
technologies is affecting politics, government, and community building.
The articles in this issue of the journal complement the focus of the conference.
Although a range of themes are discussed, all of the articles relate to the
ongoing development of digital democracy, or "e-democracy." We are
still at an early point in this process, but some tentative conclusions can
be made. In each central area-politics, government, and community building-there
is now a sufficient track record to get a clearer sense of how well and to
what ends information-based technologies are being used. Given the scale of
the changes that are occurring, it is not surprising to discover that problems
are being encountered. But IT has unmistakably moved from being something
of a novelty to being part of the infrastructure supporting the daily activities
of governments, citizens, and community organizations across the country.
The transactional efficiency and round-the-clock availability of information-based
technologies ensure their expanded use. Driven in part by the demands of e-commerce,
applications have become versatile and user-friendly. Not surprisingly, e-procurement
was one area in which governments made early use of this technology.
Lowering barriers to adoption has accelerated the diffusion of IT into noncommercial
areas as well. Although the rate of increase in Internet usage has slowed
recently, it is clear that the volume and range of activities undertaken using
IT will continue to grow. For example, a number of jurisdictions are now linking
detailed geographic information system maps to databases of local government
activities to pinpoint problems and improve the efficiency of service delivery.
As technological capabilities increase and service and other costs decrease,
governments and other users will make further application of these technologies.
One prospect being debated today holds particular importance for developing
e-democracy. The interactive capability of connecting citizens with government
officials through such means as real-time "netcasting"-of a committee
meeting or conducting an online survey or opinion poll-prefigures the possibility
of creating an institutional arrangement to foster direct rather than representative
democracy. Given the existing structure of our political system, the degree
to which such an arrangement could or should be created is unclear. However,
the possibility points up one of the central underlying issues regarding e-democracy
and the impact of IT on civic engagement. Information-based technologies can
make certain outcomes more probable by reducing barriers or increasing efficiencies.
But no decision about how to make use of new technologies occurs in a vacuum.
There is always a political context that shapes development of the technology
and influences the choice about how and to what ends the technology is used.
In other words, technology gives us choices, but we are the ones who must
make them. The Internet can be merely a medium for private entertainment,
but it can also become a means for public deliberation. Its existence does
not increase political participation without people choosing to take advantage
of its possibilities and become better informed and more engaged. Through
this issue of the National Civic Review and this year's national conference
on governance, the National Civic League hopes to encourage debate and reflection
on how we want to use information-based technologies to advance democratic
values and civic engagement.
CHRISTOPHER T. GATES
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CIVIC LEAGUE
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