Showing papers in "Journal of Information Technology & Politics in 2011"
TL;DR: In this article, an exploratory case study based on fieldwork consisting of in-depth, semistructured interviews and group discussions with administrative, legal, political, and technology staff involved in an online citizen engagement initiative in “TechCounty,” a pseudonymous U.S. local government authority operating in one of the most favorable sociodemographic and technological contexts imaginable.
Abstract: This article presents an exploratory case study based on fieldwork consisting of in-depth, semistructured interviews and group discussions with administrative, legal, political, and technology staff involved in an online citizen engagement initiative in “TechCounty,” a pseudonymous U.S. local government authority operating in one of the most favorable sociodemographic and technological contexts imaginable. In contrast with many of the dominant approaches in the literature, the article reveals how a rich, complex, and sometimes surprising array of internal institutional variables explains the initiative's failure. The article highlights the fragile and uncertain adoption of online engagement by public organizations and the significance of this study's method for building theory and guiding future research.
95 citations
TL;DR: The EU Profiler project as mentioned in this paper is a large-scale, interdisciplinary, and pan-European research endeavor, taking a step beyond the conventional approaches by including party self-positioning and by using internet-based information technology to offer full documentation of the positions that are identified.
Abstract: This article frames and describes a novel method of political party positioning within the European Union and beyond. The EU Profiler project, a large-scale, interdisciplinary, and pan-European research endeavor, takes a step beyond the conventional approaches by including party self-positioning and by using internet-based information technology to offer full documentation of the positions that are identified. In addition to conventional expert coding, some 270 political parties in Europe have been invited to place themselves on 30 issue dimensions. Where it proved possible, each coded position for each party is then fully documented with extracts from party manifestos, party leaders' speeches, or relevant press or policy statements. The resulting data offer unique opportunities for comparing the accuracy and efficiency among party positioning techniques, and explore for the first time and in a systematic way the auto-positioning of political parties throughout Europe.
92 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that, despite the commonly held assumption to the contrary, mature, high-quality Web sites are more accessible than lower quality ones, and Web accessibility conformance claims by Web site owners are generally exaggerated.
Abstract: Equal access to public information and services for all is an essential part of the United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights. Today, the Web plays an important role in providing information and services to citizens. Unfortunately, many government Web sites are poorly designed and have accessibility barriers that prevent people with disabilities from using them. This article combines current Web accessibility benchmarking methodologies with a sound strategy for comparing Web accessibility among countries and continents. Furthermore, the article presents the first global analysis of the Web accessibility of 192 United Nation Member States made publically available. The article also identifies common properties of Member States that have accessible and inaccessible Web sites and shows that implementing antidisability discrimination laws is highly beneficial for the accessibility of Web sites, while signing the UN Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities has had no such effect yet. The article d...
77 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze trust in electronic voting in Latin America using data from two field experiments conducted in Argentina and Colombia and find that voters generally exhibit high levels of confidence in e-voting, although this depends on individual characteristics such as age and education, as well as on the particular type of technology used.
Abstract: We analyze trust in electronic voting in Latin America using data from two field experiments conducted in Argentina and Colombia. We find that voters generally exhibit high levels of confidence in e-voting, although this depends on individual characteristics such as age and educa- tion, as well as on the particular type of technology used. We contrast our findings with those from industrialized democracies and show that conclusions derived from American and European e-voting experiences cannot be directly extrapolated to the Latin American context. Overall, our results suggest that e-voting could provide an attractive alternative to traditional voting procedures in the region.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate interest group activity on the Internet, addressing two sets of questions: 1) has the Internet allowed small or poorly funded groups to compete equally with well-resourced organizations? 2) to what extent do group characteristics explain their online activities?
Abstract: This study evaluates interest group activity on the Internet, addressing two sets of questions. First, has the Internet allowed small or poorly funded groups to compete equally with well-resourced organizations? Second, to what extent do group characteristics explain their online activities? Using a sample of 200 environmental groups, I evaluate which Web sites receive the most exposure and identify features facilitating information dissemination and public participation. The results indicate that well-resourced groups receive greater Web site traffic and inbound links and are more likely to use all Web site features. Additionally, membership organizations are more likely than nonmembership organizations to fundraise and issue action alerts.
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the history of this mobilization and show how a dedicated network of experts brought about conditions for institutional transformation that contradicted prevailing neoliberal policy proscriptions, and argue that the FLOSS agenda emerged as a result of the actions of a network of insurgent experts working within elite political, technical, and educational institutions.
Abstract: Under the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian state has advocated the use of Free/Livre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) throughout the public sector. How did FLOSS adoption gain traction as a developmental strategy across a large federal bureaucracy that had embraced information technology policies supporting export-oriented growth and market liberalization during the 1990s? In a historical case study, I argue that the FLOSS agenda emerged as a result of the actions of a network of insurgent experts working within elite political, technical, and educational institutions. I trace the history of this mobilization and show how a dedicated network of experts brought about conditions for institutional transformation that contradicted prevailing neoliberal policy proscriptions. The Brazilian FLOSS insurgency offers insights into the means by which a group of elites endeavored to reframe debates about technology-driven economic growth around questions of state-led acces...
27 citations
TL;DR: In 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate Internet service providers under its own interpretation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Abstract: In 2006, a major telecommunications bill was held up because it did not include guarantees for something called “net neutrality.” Republicans strongly opposed these guarantees, while Democrats strongly favored them. The debate over net neutrality continued during the long campaign leading up to the 2008 presidential election. When the Obama Administration took office in 2009, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski revived the idea of codifying net neutrality rules. In April 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate Internet service providers under its own interpretation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The FCC adopted a new strategy because of the Court's action. It opted not to undertake a major revision of the Telecommunications Act, but instead to attempt to regulate Internet service provision under modified “common carriage” rules, just as basic telephone services h...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the fragmentation of political communication in the context of Norwegian election campaigns is discussed. But the analysis offers no evidence that the voter agenda has fragmented over time, and online voters are preoccupied with the same issues as the rest of the electorate.
Abstract: This article addresses the fragmentation of political communication in the context of Norwegian election campaigns. The fragmentation thesis refers to two distinguishable, interrelated tendencies: New technology providing incentives to tailor campaign communication to specific voter categories, and the audience fragment due to increasing number of media outlets. The consequence is asserted to be fragmented voter agendas. The findings undermine the fragmentation thesis as a general tendency. Norwegian parties hardly use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to multi-tailor campaign messages to different voter categories. The voters who considered online sources important for electoral information also identified traditional sources as important. Furthermore, the analysis offers no evidence that the voter agenda has fragmented over time, and online voters are preoccupied with the same issues as the rest of the electorate. The article addresses how both general countervailing forces as w...
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze how open source works at the levels of both practice and ideology, and reveal how many Internet Division staffers drew on open source projects such as the collaborative building of the Linux operating system as a model for their campaign work.
Abstract: Extending an emerging body of work documenting the migration of technical production models into other domains of social activity, this article analyzes how “open source” works at the levels of both practice and ideology. Through interviews and analysis of public documents relating to Howard Dean's run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2003–2004, this article reveals how many Internet Division staffers drew on open source projects such as the collaborative building of the Linux operating system as a model for their campaign work. In the process, they helped create a series of technical and organizational innovations in online campaigning that have subsequently become core features of electoral politics. At the same time, staffers strategically and publicly deployed the frame of the “open source campaign” as a cultural resource. Situated within narratives of the new economy and participatory democracy, staffers' framing of the campaign as a radical techno-democratic effort provided jou...
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the key players concerned with Singapore politics in the cyberspace and examine the nature of the social network comprising these players, and argue for their implications on the evolving political discourse.
Abstract: Adopting Friedland, Hove, and Rojas's (2006) concept of the networked public sphere, we set out to achieve two key objectives: identify the key players concerned with Singapore politics in the cyberspace and examine the nature of the social network comprising these players In spite of Singapore's recognized success in deploying information communication technologies for economic progress, the liberalizing effects of the Internet have been limited Using a descriptive social network analysis approach, we explore the dynamics that are taking place online and argue for their implications on the evolving political discourse The study reveals that political bloggers and political parties dominate the cyberspace, while issue-based advocacy groups and media agencies are relegated to less important positions In addition, high levels of interactivity are observed among political bloggers These findings are of significant relevance to countries where media systems are stringently regulated by the government, as
23 citations
TL;DR: The rhetorical discourse found among free, open source software (F/OSS) movements is being expanded beyond the traditional constituency of software hackers to encompass a larger group of non-expert users and other advocacy organizations, suggesting the prospects for the emergence of a larger technological and cultural freedom movement in the future are assessed.
Abstract: This article argues that the rhetorical discourse found among free, open source software (F/OSS) movements is being expanded beyond the traditional constituency of software hackers to encompass a larger group of non-expert users and other advocacy organizations. In so doing, the initial goals of free software advocates are being dramatically expanded to include broader aims of digital freedom and social justice. Utilizing the concept of social movements from political sociology, this article first outlines the key aims and discourses surrounding the free software movement by discussing the emergence and development of F/OSS efforts such as the GNU/Linux operating system and the GNU Public License (GPL). Second, I provide examples of how the free software discourses have been adopted, altered, and expanded by a number of organized groups over the past decade. These groups, such as the Creative Commons, digital privacy advocates, and global development agencies, have adopted some of the core concep...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the emergence of large-scale "commons-based peer production" projects such as Wikipedia from an institutional development perspective and argue that the lower transaction costs and information abundance found online transform a subset of public goods problems, essentially replacing free-ridership with mass coordination.
Abstract: This article considers the emergence of large-scale “commons-based peer production” projects such as Wikipedia.org from an institutional development perspective. The argument it makes is threefold. First, that that the lowered transaction costs and information abundance found online transform a subset of public goods problems, essentially replacing free-ridership with mass coordination as the central challenge. Second, that the boundaries of this subset are defined by a “power-law topology” that leads to the emergence of online hub spaces and serves to resolve search problems endemic to the anti-geographic online landscape. These boundary conditions limit the overall impact of commons-based peer production for the political space. Third, that all such hubs move through a common five-stage institutional development process, directly related to standard models of the diffusion of innovation. Identification of the institutional development process behind Wikipedia leads in turn to the stipulation of...
TL;DR: In this article, a theory of omnivorous information habits is proposed to explain the increasing number of people who make active choices to get political news and information from several media technologies, sourced from multiple news organizations.
Abstract: Technology convergence and rising expectations for interactivity have had a significant impact on the news diets of U.S. voters. While television may appear to be the most important single media in this system of political communication, for a growing portion of the population, news diets are defined by combinations and permutations of secondary media. What explains the changing distribution of primary media choice and the dramatic rise in secondary media? We offer a theory of omnivorous information habits to help explain the rising number of people who make active choices to get political news and information from several media technologies, sourced from multiple news organizations, and then engage with news and information through varied interactive tools. Data from 2000, 2004, and 2008 demonstrate not just the growing importance of secondary media, but the importance of the Internet in particular. Indeed, elections have become occasions in which people make significant changes in their informa...
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic investigation of every federal department and independent agency for evidence of a current or past blog with a focus on three questions: which agencies are using blogs, how are they using them, and why are agencies blogging?
Abstract: This article reports on a systematic investigation of every federal department and independent agency for evidence of a current or past blog with a focus on three questions: Which agencies are using blogs, how are they using them, and why are agencies blogging? The question of why becomes particularly important as more agencies establish this online presence. We examine the relationships among the mission of the agency, the audience of the blog, and the form of the blog to address these questions. We also explore the relationship between blogging and the technological sophistication of the agency generally, and portray patterns of duration and density of traffic on the blogs. A number of hypotheses related to agency constituency-building and communication are examined.
TL;DR: Open source software has long been used by government agencies, and prospects for increased use have been greeted enthusiastically by knowledgeable government employees who understand open source's contribution to the core responsibilities that the government has toward the public.
Abstract: Open source software has long been used by government agencies, and prospects for increased use have been greeted enthusiastically by knowledgeable government employees who understand open source's contribution to the core responsibilities that the government has toward the public: access for all, vendor independence, archiving, special government needs, and security. But mobilizing the necessary forces in government to procure open source software has proven difficult. This article highlights the factors that instigate and carry through the adoption of open source in government: an external trigger; an emphasis on strategic goals; an information technology staff with sufficient dedication, technical sophistication, and creativity to make the transition; and high-level support at the policy-making level. The article reports on the attempt to introduce OpenOffice.org in the mid-2000 decade into agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and compares that case to cases in Peru, Brazil, and Muni...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the use and impact of digital media in the 2008 Canadian federal election and examine the extent to which different digital media were employed by candidates and parties.
Abstract: This article examines the use and impact of digital media in the 2008 Canadian federal election. It examines the extent to which different digital media were employed by candidates and parties. The research informs a wider debate between competing schools of thought on the democratizing potential of the Internet. The article demonstrates a mixed role of digital media in the election. Structural, human, and financial resources can be identified as advantaging established parties access to both conventional and online media. The pattern of adoption of different forms of digital media is also significantly affected by factors internal to professional politics.
TL;DR: An automatic annotation approach that implements an innovative coding method (Core Sentence Analysis) by computational linguistic techniques (mainly entity recognition, concept identification, and dependency parsing) to gather data on party-issue relationships from newspaper articles.
Abstract: Among the many applications in social science for the entry and management of data, there are only a few software packages that apply natural language processing to identify semantic concepts such as issue categories or political statements by actors. Although these procedures usually allow efficient data collection, most have difficulty in achieving sufficient accuracy because of the high complexity and mutual relationships of the variables used in the social sciences. To address these flaws, we suggest a (semi-) automatic annotation approach that implements an innovative coding method (Core Sentence Analysis) by computational linguistic techniques (mainly entity recognition, concept identification, and dependency parsing). Although such computational linguistic tools have been readily available for quite a long time, social scientists have made astonishingly little use of them. The principal aim of this article is to gather data on party-issue relationships from newspaper articles. In the first...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored information and communication technology (ICT) uses for protest politics, focusing on the case of a 2008 protest in Korea, and found that heavy, moderate, and nonprotesters were differentiated, particularly regarding the use of Web sites of social movement organizations (SMOs), mobile phone, and e-mail.
Abstract: This study explored information and communication technology (ICT) uses for protest politics, focusing on the case of a 2008 protest in Korea. Based on a survey of citizen activists (N = 322), it examined informational and coordinative uses of eight different ICTs for protest participation. The results indicated that heavy, moderate, and nonprotesters were differentiated, particularly regarding the use of Web sites of social movement organizations (SMOs), mobile phone, and e-mail. Across all types of protesters, the portal site was the most prominently utilized tool, while online micromedia showed little contribution. The findings call for the reconsideration of the waning role of SMOs in contemporary protest politics, and the differentiation of the public-oriented ICT from the private use of ICT regarding its contribution to expand civil society.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze how activists, rooted in the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement, interfere in European Union decision-making in order to advocate principles of freedom, openness, transparency, access to information, participation, creativity, and sharing.
Abstract: This article analyzes how activists, rooted in the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement, interfere in European Union decision-making in order to advocate principles of freedom, openness, transparency, access to information, participation, creativity, and sharing. The analysis is based on a case study of a French activist group's campaign against the strengthening of copyright enforcement measures and for Net neutrality in the reform of the Telecoms Package—a set of five directives regulating the European Union's telecommunications sector. I discuss how free and open source principles sustain their action repertoire and claims during the campaign in the light of recent literature regarding Internet activism and the FLOSS movement.
TL;DR: This article presents a framework for understanding the moral culture of the computing field today that draws on contemporary research in the fields of cultural and economic sociology, situates current open source communities and moral controversies in open source software within this framework, and suggests some lessons for bringing “open source” into other domains.
Abstract: The concept of “open source” has spread in usage from the world of computing to virtually every domain imaginable: from government and publishing, to academic research, health care, and the military. The usage, appeal, potential, and pitfalls of this concept are improved by an understanding of the context in which it emerged: computing in the second half of the 20th century. In particular, the concept emerged out of a long-running political and moral discourse about rights and obligations between programmers and computer users. This article presents a framework for understanding the moral culture of the computing field today that draws on contemporary research in the fields of cultural and economic sociology, situates current open source communities and moral controversies in open source software within this framework, and suggests some lessons for bringing “open source” into other domains.
TL;DR: In this article, a theory of aesthetic democracy for the cyber-environment is proposed, which explores the difference between effects on democratic governance versus effects on democracy and then develops the concept of aesthetic democratic.
Abstract: Are information technologies good for democracy? Could cyberspace be a more democratic “place” in the world? To explore these questions, this article juxtaposes the supposedly democratizing effects of information technologies against Walt Whitman's and John Dewey's idealized “aesthetic democracy,” a passionate relationship that embodies a public spirit toward oneself and one's fellow citizens. Although information technologies are often understood as a means to increase or deepen democracy, such claims equate democracy with a set of practices or forms, but the forms themselves are not inherently democratic. Aesthetic democracy, I argue, sheds light on the democratic pitfalls and possibilities of information technologies and cyberspace. This article provides a theory of aesthetic democracy for the cyber-environment by first exploring the difference between effects on democratic governance versus effects on democracy and then developing the concept of aesthetic democracy. The next section applies a...
Abstract: This study tests two theories that may explain why individuals demand e-government services: self-interest and symbolic politics. Using a unique survey of local government e-service initiatives, we find that both explanations do well to predict e-government usage and demand for better access and training programs. We also uncover distinctive attitudes and behaviors among low-income and minority respondents, which suggests they are more likely to use these services and potentially benefit from expanded programs. These findings should help policy-makers understand and tailor e-government initiatives to needy populations.
TL;DR: A framework to measure activity and potential for open source software development and use at a country level is presented and several indices of diverse variable lists and weighting and aggregation methods were developed and tested for robustness.
Abstract: This article presents a framework to measure activity and potential for open source software development and use at a country level. The framework draws on interviews with experts in the open source software industry and numerous existing studies in the literature to identify relevant indicators. Several indices of diverse variable lists and weighting and aggregation methods were developed and tested for robustness. The results provide a first step toward more systematically understanding the current state of open source software internationally.
TL;DR: This is the second special issue of JITP that features selected and peer-reviewed submissions from a thematic conference, sponsored by the journal, and the choice of “The Politics of Open Source” as a central theme cast a comparatively wider net in terms of possible interpretations of the subject and its meaning as it is related to politics.
Abstract: This is the second special issue of JITP that features selected and peer-reviewed submissions from a thematic conference, sponsored by the journal. The first sponsored conference and subsequent special issue, entitled “YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States” (JITP 2010, vol. 7, nos. 2–3) was a relatively confined topic from the perspective of technology and politics. The choice of “The Politics of Open Source” as a central theme for our second conference and this special issue cast a comparatively wider net in terms of possible interpretations of the subject and its meaning as it is related to politics. The papers that we received reflected a truly diverse and interdisciplinary approach to the study of technology and politics, a portion of which are included in this volume. But before I describe the papers chosen for this issue, I think it is important to provide introductory information about “open source”— particularly for those readers unfamiliar with the phrase. At its heart, open source in software development seeks to provide users with access to readable software code, instead of just the unreadable compiled software that can be run. The actual idea of sharing computer code dates back to the very early days of computing. For example, in the 1950s, IBM established a “share” user group in an effort to pool software development (Campbell-Kelly, 2003). In the 1960s, IBM and other large-scale computer manufacturers often sold their machines with “free” software preinstalled, meaning that the readable source code was included and available. This gave users the ability to improve and modify the code if they so desired. In this era, hardware was the commodity being sold, not the software that ran on it (Muffatto, 2006). In addition, in the 1960s and 1970s, programmers at academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed practices of software sharing and collaborative production (Levy, 1984), and this practice grew as the Internet spread (Tuomi, 2002). However, in the 1970s and into the 1980s, practices changed. Computer and software firms increasingly treated the software programs they developed as commercial, proprietary products. Software was shipped to the customer with copyright licenses that placed restrictions on the number of computers on which the software could be installed. Moreover, the readable software—the proprietary source code logic— was not included in the shrink-wrapped packages; only the unreadable “runtime” software was provided to the end-user. In the article that follows this introduction, John Sullivan describes the emergence of the “Free Software Movement” in response to this trend toward closed, proprietary software. Sullivan’s article is a nice start to this issue, for it summarizes the efforts of computer programmer Richard Stallman to articulate important freedoms that should be attached to all software, including the freedom to study how the program works and the right to improve the program. Both of these freedoms require the source to be available, readable, and openly accessible. Sullivan also describes the great innovation
TL;DR: A systematic process to determine whether to engage in collaborative software development of desktop applications in a government setting and whether the conditions are favorable to pursue collaborative development for an existing project is discussed.
Abstract: This article discusses a systematic process to determine whether to engage in collaborative software development of desktop applications in a government setting. Section One discusses collaboration and collaborative development. Then, after assessment of the strengths and weaknesses, a development team should have a better understanding for choosing a program-specific solution for collaborative development. Section Two assesses whether the conditions are favorable to pursue collaborative development for an existing project. An algorithm is provided for government agencies to gauge the success of collaborative development for a specific application. If a development team is able to (a) obtain copyright permission ; (b) create an open development infrastructure; (c) pass through federal, organizational, and legal barriers; and (d) freely release the application's source code to the public, conditions may be favorable for collaborative development.