Electronic town meetings, “virtual community,” and deliberative opinion polling … sacrifice intimacy, diminish the sense of face-to-face confrontation, and increase the dangers of elite manipulation.
Predictor: Sclove, Richard
Prediction, in context:Scott London writes about Richard Sclove’s 1995 book “Democracy and Technology” in a Web-based book review: ”While Sclove’s primary focus is on finding ways to bring more democracy into technology, he also examines some proposals for bringing more technology into democracy, such as electronic town meetings, ‘virtual community,’ and deliberative opinion polling. He warns that these mechanisms sacrifice intimacy, diminish the sense of face-to-face confrontation, and increase the dangers of elite manipulation. Still he acknowledges that some new communications technologies open up the possibility of ‘electronic public space’ or ‘virtual commons.'”
Biography:Richard Sclove was founder and an advisory board member of The Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization in Amherst, Mass., dedicated to making research, science and technology responsive to social and environmental concerns. He is also the author of the book “Democracy and Technology” (1995). (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Government
Name of publication: ScottLondon.com
Title, headline, chapter name: Book Review: ‘Democracy and Technology’
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/sclove.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Taylor, Kellen L.