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Rotisserie Question

This December, the Berkman Center and some friends are hosting the next in our series of Internet & Society conferences.  A placeholder site is here:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/is2k4/index.html

This year, we're taking a skeptical look at whether the Internet is transforming politics.  We're interested in global themes, in campaigns of all sorts and all levels, and not just the US presidential election.  

We'd love your help in pulling together the panels and discussions.  What would be most helpful at this stage is to come up with the hardest, most interesting questions that might serve as the organizing principle for a specific panel or discussion session on the primary day of the conference, December 10, 2004.  An example might be: 'Are campaigns more effective at engaging young people in campaigns by using Internet technologies?'   Give us a better one.

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Status ?

Done. Started on
9/20/04 9:00 AM
Schedule
Start: 9/20/04 9:00 AM
Round 1 Due: 9/27/04 5:00 PM
Round 2 Due: 10/4/04 5:00 PM
Final Due: 10/7/04 5:00 PM
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Active Users27
Posts47
Scheduled Rounds2
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Borrowing from the theme of a fairly ancient Office of Naval Research Study on computers, called "Computers at Puberty" I would argue, as that report did for computers, that we More...

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The Wall Street Journal included biographies of bloggers who covered the Democratic and Republican conventions earlier this summer. Bloggers are, of course, not part of the mainstream news media. Blogs More...

Probably "blogger demographics" just donīt show the necessary (and desirable) diversity yet - so this might be some kind of normal distribution within an early phase of blogging as tool More...

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1) How has the impact of political polls on the electoral process changed with the growth of the Internet and other electronic media? Specifically:
- Does the "spinning" of polls More...

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I'm working on analyzing the Dean campaign's blog and doing interviews with blog commenters to determine what the efficacy of operating blogs is in campaigns.  I would like to see More...

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Internet search engines are designed to find the best match to our queries.  Does this lead interested individuals to web sites that reflect back to them their own political opinions? More...

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One oft-repeated reason that Internet users turn to the Internet for political information is the breadth and depth and sheer variety of information offerings.  While the question of whether the More...

Of all the interesting questions posed here, I'll focus on the first, "from a candidates perspective" question. I feel that this question gets to the heart of the technology+campaigns intersection. More...

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John, this is a great set of questions -- more than enough for an entire conference. The thrust of your questions gets at the notion that political reality as created More...

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We talk a lot about the power of the web to mobilize voters and raise money.  These activities are certainly one way to quantify political participation.  But what about a More...

I would think that a comparative presentation using representative sampling from both the broadcast media and selected weblogs on the same topic could highlight this question nicely.

Seeing the web More...

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We can look at things qualitatively, but numbers are important too. A quick look at web/household statistics using Nielsen and other sources shows that roughly 50% of americans are online More...

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Can (should) democracy as we know it survive the Internet?

If democracy is defined as current political systems, structures, and institutions it may not survive the Internet. Is it bad news? Not necessarily. Don't we already get more "what the More...

When we take the assesment tools of the Internet based Technologies; how can we assess the transformation in Democracy?
We;'internet users" are profiled and segmented  according to our Internet usage More...

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There have been loads of innovative approaches to the Internet as a space for political discourse, but why end so many of them in a "clash of digitalizations"? Just take More...

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Assuming there is not, but wondering if there was any follow-up to the vote swapping websites in 2000.  Did people actually vote the way they said they would?

Just TA'd More...

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The elections in the US and around the world in the past year or two have, at least the so the story goes, brought a fresh round of young people More...

Polititians should be aware that we are more able to "watch" them (perhaps not that much like Big Brother), so there are more opportunitites to ask for accountability. To me, More...

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Your question is certainly crucial: it is not enough that young people start voting because of their access to ICT, the issue is that they should stay involved in civic More...

Secondly; what do we mean by preparedness; or should we question readiness instead?
If the incentives for involvement are clearly defined; the structural framework of operations will be defined accordingly More...

The long-term-ness is a dimension to this question that I almost never hear played out.  Interesting point, but I'm not sure how a conference would be able to drive it More...

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We've seen for many years, the political campaigns come to us from television and newspaper.  Reported by the few to disseminate to the masses.  Newscasts, broadcasters, reporters, etc. have been More...

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The internet has given strength and voice to grassroot information and politics. This can be very positive when these are well managed, by competent people, but then, grassroot ideals are More...

Deliberation is a fundamental part of the process of politics and voting.  It seems to be the de facto criterion for deciding on the "quality" of votes cast: we don't More...

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Chuck, you wrote:

"So it seems that the underlying question is one of whether the Internet will promote or preclude any particular sort of deliberation, and if so, how, and More...

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One question to consider is "Does extensive use of the Internet marginalize political groups by facilitating communication among self-selected true believers?"

My view is that political groups and self-selected true believers are the same people. If the question is whether the internet reduces the power of political parties by empowering communication More...

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The Internet has the potential to increase the deliberative nature of our democracy by including a much greater range of voices in the national conversation, many of whom are not More...

Maybe people will go for "colorful" reading, for scandal-mongering because - oh well, it can be more fun. But if they have more opportunities for debating and discussing, they won't More...

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I think that we need to cast our thoughts to 2020 - using the modality of interdisciplinarity - what will we make of the "Code is Law" thesis?
It was More...

Ok, 2020 has a certain ring to it, should we see that year with great acuity? should it call forth a vision of the future? It is sixteen years from More...

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Technological determinism seems to be one of the issues underlying the question of the Internet's impact on soceity and culture.  To what extent does our technology affect how we act More...

To call it "technological determinism" reveals a bias in attitude about the impact of technology, namely that, to a high degree, the medium is the message.  There is, of course, More...

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By bringing up the issue of technological determinism, I didn't mean to demonstrate any sort of bias (not that biases are normally intentional...), but instead I just wanted to raise More...

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The USA and Tim Berners-Lee invited the internet. Today radical Islamists are releasing videos of beheaded hostages on the internet to take the lead in the mental war against terrorism. More...

Today, as I checked headlines from around the world, one article referred to the controversy brewing in Mississippi, USA, where extremist white supremacists were pushing to have a booth at More...

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Dear H2O

Thinking about the problem, it feels as if there are some broad areas that need to be discussed -

1. Does the internet change the content of political More...

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My question is:  Can Internet technologies serve to provide the general public with authoritative resources to answer questions about the impact of political elections?

Few would argue that electronic voting More...

An assumption this question implicitly makes is that other technologies and resources have not been able to authoratitively address the impact of political elections.  Any discussion on this question should More...

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Has the Internet actually served to open minds on political issues or does it simply encourage tunnel vision by allowing like-minded voters to collaborate in larger groups and reinforce pre-existing More...

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Internet technologies might be accessible for all of us, but that means nothing if people are not interested in what is going on around, not only nationally but internationally. People More...

Perhaps the real issue is not apathy but a belief that government is irrelevant to everyday individual life. Does the Internet connect us more to each other as individuals obviating More...

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are critical for national and international success that will establish peace and prosperity. Dont we all vote for peace and prosperity plus a rising standart of living? So monitoring is More...

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All evolving technologies result in media convergence and impact the cultural landscape. Has a global communication network had a positive or negative impact on political culture? What are the most More...

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Does the Internet provide ways for individuals to be more actively engaged in the substance of a campaign - framing issues, developing tactics, etc. - as opposed to simply being More...

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The Howard Dean campaign provides evidence that suggests that volunteer engagement through network technology does not yet have a major impact on campaign effectiveness.

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