(This article was originally published in the iTech Supplement of the Times of Malta in May 2008)
The last election was the perfect example that the world is changing. It is going online. And politics is no exception.
Numerous blogs, or web logs, have literally sprouted over the past months and our local electronic newspapers have experienced an explosion of persons eager to voice their opinion through their incessant posts. Some political parties also joined the bandwagon, setting up chatting forums where the man in the street can send his comments and communicate directly with party leaders. This is the power of web2.0.
The internet is drastically changing us. Few years ago, the web was purely a source of information just like reading a dusty old book. The light speed innovations experienced in the last years have brought an unprecedented revolution. Now we are not only a connected passive audience to the information superhighway, we have been placed in the driving seat. We can easily access, read, share but also create information like never before. We can be active contributors.
Whilst the web1.0 framework has generally been referred to as being "read only" and "top down", the rise of web2.0 means that our online experience has shifted to one being "read/write" and "bottom up", an experience where the user or citizen is in centre stage. Technologies traditionally associated with web2.0 such as blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, web APIs and online web services are now part and parcel of our online experience. This time round, "reflection day" boiled down to "youtube day" as more and more videos (some of which in horrbile bad taste) kept rolling in even as late as the early hours of election day and beyond. With such a small difference in votes between the two major parties, I am sure that now the power of the web in politics and democracy in general will achieve greater prominence in the months and years to come.
Web2.0 technologies as well as all ICT that surrounds us today are making us rethink what citizenship and participation in the democratic processes of the state are all about. A rewiring exercise is in the making.
Citizenship is a powerful concept, even if not a topic of everyday conversation. However, it is traditionally accepted that few people feel real connections between their daily lives and the institutions through which our nation is governed. This is not an entirely new phenomenon.
Citizenship is a partnership among ourselves and with our government. It is an acceptance of a challenge to be responsible and involved with more than our immediate self-interest – perhaps even requiring us to change our own behaviour and attitudes as well as to help build new social infrastructures.
ICT can help promote citizenship in several ways. It can expand our communications channels within and between communities. ICT can also give access to information we wouldn't otherwise be able to find easily. And it can help us use and share that information.
The last budget has kick-started a new era for increased participation in the setting of the country's goals and the fine-tuning of policies through the use of tools made available through new technologies. Whilst the introduction of the pre-budget discussions have left enormous impact, the rise of new technologies and the ubiquitous availability of the internet in our households will indeed be reflected in an amplified participation of the general public in such processes.
Our national information society must reap the benefits offered through increased citizen participation. We need to enhance widespread, two-way communication using financial models that allow the relatively rapid achievement of a citizen-centric eGovernment.
Democratizing access to information may help us see through a lot of hype that our bureaucratic culture shaped the red-taped world we live in. Early on in the lifecycle of almost every major new technology, visionaries typically describe a wide range of possible uses, many of which promise enormous improvements in our everyday lives and an enhancement of our democratic principles. To preserve as much of the early progressive vision as possible, we must quickly identify those aspects of new technologies that serve the public interest in order to have the best possible tools to attain the citizen-centric eGovernment.
The Smart Island Strategy document published by Government last December made various references to the advantages that can be attained through the use of web2.0 technologies including the provision of public services through a centralised portal as well as the development of eGovernment2.0. Public services which have traditionally been associated with brick and mortar government departments will be the first to experience this paradigm shift. Notably, following the opening of Mater Dei, the way that our health information is processed electronically will be the next big challenge and will ensure that we truly achieve a quality leap in our healthcare services well beyond the brick and mortar state-of-the-art facility at Tal-Qroqq.
Technological idealists often point out that information technology is an increasingly decentralized system. Distributed architectures mean that the work of the system is distributed amongst many locations, giving lots of different people and organizations access to computer power and the chance of autonomous activity. The internet's cooperative anarchy is the prime example, but the transforming power of ICT even extends into the corporate, medical and governmental worlds. Using ICT as an enabling tool, companies and now even government itself are pushing to flatten their hierarchies and give more power to cross-functional work groups that have the most immediate connection to product creation and customer service.
The adoption of web2.0 within an eGovernment context provides potential for the creation of a pure citizen-centric electronic Government. Let us all hope that the next generation Maltese eGovernment will ensure that the paradigm shift introduced by web2.0 is embraced to the fullest extent possible in order to enable government to better serve its citizens.
Web2.0 technologies shall mean more citizen empowerment, increased active participation by the general population in the decision making processes and hopefully the reduction of bureaucratic inefficiencies.
And where does our law stand in front of all this? Plainly, it is light years behind.
Recently, it was announced that plans are underway to set up a virtual Maltese embassy in Second Life. The very fact that Malta as a state is activley considering this technology is laudible and tags in very well with the Smart Island strategy. A Malta Island in Second Life is also being created. Some commentators have already predicted that the next election battleground could indeed feature Second Life. I am very curious to see what shape or form Maltese politics will take in this virtual world. Whether we will experiece any virtual popular events like those organised during the past weeks at the Granaries or Luxol still needs to be seen. Surely, we won't have any parking problems and we will not run the risk of tinnitus from loud horns. One thing is sure, citizen2.0 is here to stay and our law has some catching up to do.
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