Posted by
Russell McOrmond-2 on
Nov 18, 2006; 7:28pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/BBC-Web-fuelling-crisis-in-politics-tp756p758.html
Gurstein, Michael wrote:
> I would say that Russell McOrmond (on this list I think) and his group
> around Canadian copyright issues have gone about as far along this road
> as anyone I've seen and I think anyone interested in this subject (I
> know that I am) would do well to take a very close look at what he and
> his colleagues have been doing.
I'm here. Hope it is OK that I dive into some "thinking out loud"
as "just some guy" without a political science background that has been
trying to learn. I'm a technical person, coming from a community that
is not known for getting politically engaged (In fact, many of my peers
believe in the "Net will route around it" ideology when it comes to
politics, and think I'm wasting my time).
I suspect you are thinking of the information sharing BLOG, mailing
lists, letter writing campaign and 2 petitions at
http://digital-copyright.ca . There is also some pretty exciting
things happening around the Community of Practice of
http://goslingcommunity.org I think part of the success has been because of what I learned from
the Community Networking movement over the last decade and a half.
While digital communications tools are great for educating, engaging and
organizing people, that activities in the online world can't be the goal
itself. Online activities need to translate to offline activities, with
the greatest impact we have had being the submissions to various
consultations, showing up to consultations, showing up to conferences
(Techlaw conferences at UOttawa, CopyCamp in Toronto, KMDIs various
events, etc) and the multiple batches of *PAPER* petitions tabled in the
house.
Far too many online groups think that online petitions will impact
policy, and I have yet to see this happen. It impacts policy in that
people who have signed things online might feel "buy-in" to do something
offline, but if all they did was sign an online petition then that is
the end of that (IE: no real impact).
Paper petitions, as low-tech as they are, go through a process in the
house. They show up in Hansard, and show up in the summaries which MPs
and other policy makers use to figure out areas of policy. We can bitch
and moan that we would like online petitions to count, but we can also
bitch and moan about how a snail-mail letter has greater impact on an MP
than an e-mail.
Look for "Copyright" on the Journals Index. This is just for the
39'th parliament, and we have had petition entries in the past few
indexes as well:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/housechamberbusiness/ChamberIndex.aspx?View=J&Parl=39&Ses=1&File=jour-39-1_7-e.htm&Language=E&Mode=1 * By the way: If anyone in this forum, or anyone that people in this
forum knows or could bug, have not yet signed our two petitions: Please
do so, as it is critical for our policy work to demonstrate the size of
our community!
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ The reality is: the harder it is for you to do it, the greater the
impact on the political process as it is seen to matter to you. Signing
online petitions are the lowest form of engagement (better than
nothing), with sitting down with policy makers in person being the
highest form (I've met with many MPs, and was a witness at a
parliamentary committee).
I will meet with Patricia Neri (Director General, Copyright Policy
Branch, Canadian Heritage) and Jean-Paul Boulay (Director, Policy
Development) on Tuesday. I met the past Director General, but this is
the first time meeting with Ms. Neri. I'm using online forums to get
feedback on policy summaries, which is critical for any face-to-face
meetings like this
http://www.cluecan.ca/pipermail/discuss/2006-November/001014.html To see an MP that has decided to experiment with some of this, check
out newly independent MP Garth Turner's BLOG if you have not already.
It isn't unusual to have articles with over a hundred replies to them.
And the MP does read at least some of them as he does comment (inline
after the comment) from time to time.
http://www.garth.ca/weblog/ One of the comments I made recently is that he seems to comment more
to emotional comments and less to substantive policy discussion. It
would be interesting for someone with the time to analyze this phenomena
and see whether his BLOG actually proves part of what the BBC article
was saying about the immature status of what Garth likes to call
"Digital Democracy"?
Please also remember that it was his BLOG that was seen as the
primary reason he was kicked out of his party. The transparency of
BLOGs isn't very compatible with the party discipline of our current
parliamentary "democracy". We are talking about some major changes to
how government works before this type of thing would work well.
From the BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6155932.stm "They wanted 'sustainability', for example, but not higher fuel
prices, affordable homes for their children but not new housing
developments in their town or village."
Sounds like most of the policy debates I've been involved with all my
life. It isn't limited to the citizens, however. With politicians and
departmental bureaucrats I have seen them say that they want "DRM" (copy
control, -- they use a variety of terms) that is both interoperable (IE:
doesn't lock you into specific brands) and respects the rights of the
owners of information technology to make their own software and other
choices. The problem is: this is science fiction and not science as
"DRM" is built upon a use of technology to make content only
interoperable with "authorized" devices (those with the right digital
keys), and devices are locked down in order to treat their owners as
attackers.
Nonsense from a rational point of view, but who ever said that
politics in a democracy was rational?
I believe the Internet is fueling a crisis in politics, which is that
it is exposing to the general public just how irrational and ugly
democracy really is in a way that didn't happen in the past. Take the
filters (and the ideological blinders :-) away that are offered by the
mainstream media, and citizens get to see all the warts personally!
--
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <
http://www.flora.ca/>
Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/ "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
portable media player from my cold dead hands!"