David Moore of the Participatory Politics Foundation has posted Yochai Benkler: Blueprint for Democratic Participation, on the OpenCongress Blog.
In this post, Mr. Moore describes Professor Benkler’s presentation entitled Blueprint for Democratic Participation, at the 2012 Guardian Activate Summit, on 3 May 2012, in New York.
Mr. Moore elaborates on two key empirical findings reported in Professor Benkler’s talk: that during the anti-SOPA/PIPA movement of 2011-2012, very large numbers of citizens used OpenCongress and other free law services to read the proposed legislation as part of a process of informing themselves about the issues; and that the eparticipation functions of OpenCongress and other free civic-engagement services played a crucial role in enabling citizens to deliberate about the issues and to express their views about the legislation to members of Congress.
For more information, please see the complete post.
HT @ppolitics.
Tags: Anti-SOPA movement, Blueprint for Democratic Participation, David Moore, eparticipation, Free access to law, Guardian Activate Summit 2012, Legislative information systems, Legislative information systems in the anti-SOPA movement, OpenCongress, Public access to legal information, Yochai Benkler
May 11, 2012 at 7:21 pm |
Thanks for the mention, Rob – I’m interested anytime in hearing feedback on our vision. If any Informatics community members are interested in delving into OC’s analytics, we’re open to partnerships (academic or non-profit, of course) – drop me a line. And I’m always interested in learning about other studies like Prof. Benkler’s, illustrating networked activism (see, e.g., Wiki Government by Prof. Noveck; participatory democracy academic literature; etc.) — email me with any leads. And if any charitable funders happen to be reading this, we’re eagerly seeking tax-exempt non-profit funding to keep OpenCongress afloat with just two full-time equivalents… support our public-mission work. Thanks again Rob, it’s a privilege to have you reading.