Creative Commons points us to Open Source Democracy, an essay by Douglas Rushkoff, published by Demos, a UK thinktank, includes a foreword by Douglas Alexander MP. Available as free PDF download.
From Page 17: "The emergence of the internet as a self-organising community, its subsequent co-option by business interests, the resulting collapse of the dot.com pyramid and the more recent self-conscious revival of interactive media’s most participatory forums, serve as a case study in the politics of renaissance. The battle for control over new and little understood communication technologies has rendered transparent many of the agendas implicit in our political and cultural narratives. Meanwhile, the technologies themselves empower individuals to take part in the creation of new narratives. Thus, in an era when crass perversions of populism, and exaggerated calls for national security, threaten the very premises of representational democracy and free discourse, interactive technologies offer us a ray of hope for a renewed spirit of genuine civic engagement."
Posted by dougsimpson at October 27, 2003 10:55 AM | TrackBackThis is a great quote from Ruskoff. I was so hopeful in the early days of the Internet. It seemed like we had the potential of creating a working form of participatory democracy. At times it appeared to be a functional anarchy, but then the dot com bubble began to expand and the worse form of crass and exagerated capitalisn reared it's head and seemed to totaly dominate the potentials. I hope we will look back at that period as the Dark days of the Internet.
I must admit though, I was extremely excited by the incredible lift given by the millions of dollars and even the wild creative frenzy that ensued. The bubble may have burst, but the remaining fragments are quite valuable.
We are emerging and this new age of interactive tools again shows hopeful signs. May the BlogSphere never burst.
Posted by: John R. Helie at November 13, 2003 08:30 PMThe bubble just emphasises the "human fault" issue, namely greed. The media and investment bankers blew it, the investors turned their back and it popped. May be regulation should be put in to financial markets again, liquid assets can be tempting to the weak minded.
Posted by: James Marquette at January 13, 2004 09:32 AM