

How the Web is opening up our democracy - paulsmith
http://www.cjr.org/feature/a_see-through_society.php

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russell
The article describes some interesting trends: more data becoming available
from the various levels of government (although with some resistance),
monitoring and blogging by individuals and bloggers, web sites appearing that
allow citizens to track and respond to the actions of their governments, and
anecdotes that illustrate this in action. And he didn't even discuss the
impact of grassroots fund raising to counteract the influence of big
contributors.

My take is that these are indications that there will be a fundamental
transformation of how our democracy works. Transparency will be forced on the
politicians.

It looks like there will be lots of opportunity for HN types to help the
process along, both as entrepreneurs and volunteers. How about Open (Source)
Democracy.

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tokenadult
"Meanwhile, we’re poised for a revolution in participation, not just in
consumption, thanks to the Web. People talk, share, and talk back online.
According to yet another study by Pew, this one in December 2007, one in five
U.S. adults who use the Internet reported sharing something online that they
created themselves; one in three say they’ve posted a comment or rated
something online."

It's an interesting article about a new model of political participation.

