The Internet is a truly associative technology, allowing dispersed citizens to converse and to take steps in common … By facilitating association, it has the potential to empower individuals and to promote greater democratic oversight on government … The Internet’s ability to facilitate association could lead to an increase in citizen participation and oversight of government.
Predictor: Klein, Hans
Prediction, in context:Hans K. Klein, the New England director for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the leader of the Policy Track at INET ’95, made the following statement in a research presentation at INET ’95, the Internet Society’s 1995 International Networking Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 27-30. At the time he was completing a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s program in Technology, Management, and Policy. ”The printing press, radio, television, and the facsimile machine have all in their time affected democracy. Today, the Internet has the potential to effect change. How will the Internet affect democratic practice? … On the Internet many people can talk to many people. This is the fundamental communication pattern in democracy … Much of the work of grassroots activism consists in assembling groups of people with common concerns and communicating with each other to formulate a common agenda. With the Internet, such discussion could take place without everyone assembling at one site. No other existing communication technology allows for this pattern of communication. The provision of many-to-many communication is the Internet’s most explicitly political characteristic … The Internet is a truly associative technology, allowing dispersed citizens to converse and to take steps in common … By facilitating association, it has the potential to empower individuals and to promote greater democratic oversight on government. Today’s democracy in America could benefit from such a technology. Although few U.S. citizens would call their government ‘despotic,’ there is little doubt that many governmental decisions go forward with minimal public scrutiny … The Internet’s ability to facilitate association could lead to an increase in citizen participation and oversight of government.”
Date of prediction: June 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: ISOC INET '95 (conference)
Title, headline, chapter name: Grassroots Democracy and the Internet: The Telecommunications Roundtable – Northeast USA
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.isoc.org/HMP/PAPER/164/txt/paper.txt
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney