E-government?

Constantine van Hoffman writes about a research project on the future of government in the internet age.

"The intriguing part of the [research being done by the project is] what does it mean to be an e-state, an e-government or an e-citizen?" asks Wright.

The reason that Wright and other participants think e-citizens (the better educated, more affluent people who now regularly use the Web) are so important is because they are the ones who will force governments to change. "E-citizens are e-consumers who are going online and ordering their computers and their books and getting them within a couple of days," says Agnew. "And they are expecting the same kind of fulfillment from their legislators and their government officials. That's a real challenge to government. It's not just good enough to put in the systems, you have to figure out a way to respond to people in a timely fashion."

One question is that of access:

But while getting more people on the Net is important, Net guru Esther Dyson points out that work needs to be done long before that happens. "The big problem usually is not access to computers," says Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings Inc. and author of Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. "The big problem is education, access to education, the ability to read and write. You can put computers in community centers, but only the literate people are likely to go use them. So it turns out not to be a computer problem but an education problem."

True, as I've said before when discussing Al Giordano's articles on participatory democracy, education without manipulation is going to be a mighty tall order in any attempt at organizing a democracy. But, at least in my mind (a cavernous thing to be sure), the increased access to government by those who have access to the internet, while leaving out a sector of the populace, still is an increase over today's access where corporations and lobbyists win out over any (or all?) individual citizen.

But, check it out for yourself in Von Hoffman's article.

....well, do what you want....you will anyway.