-----Original Message-----From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 9:05 PM
To: egovbulletin
Subject: E-Government Bulletin - January 2002
* E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
The Email Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.
* ISSUE 107, JANUARY 2002.
Please forward this free service to colleagues
so they can subscribe by sending a blank
email to [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
- full details at the end.
We never pass on email addresses.
For further information, an online archive
and our privacy policy see:
http://www.headstar.com/egb <http://www.headstar.com/egb>
NOTE: As a navigation aid to blind and visually impaired people and
others using screen readers, all headings now begin with an asterisk and
end with a full stop.
* CONTENTS: IN THIS ISSUE.
Emergency network to combat terrorism
- intranet to co-ordinate disaster response.
Worm bites government
- rare evidence of virus vulnerability.
Candidates for e-voting trials
- councils volunteer for election pilots.
Government opens up its horizons
- open source software 'not hype'.
E-procurement trial extended
- new delay for online purchasing.
Census site falls victim to success
- Public Record Office blocks access.
Modernisation 'away days'
- PEG project hits the road.
News in brief: Policy implications; Bureaucratic barriers; IT trends.
Section two: Focus
- Emergency planning: Cabinet Office prepares for the worst.
Section three: Infrastructure
- GSI: Connecting to the backbone.
Section four: teledemocracy
- Online activism: Beyond the fringe.
[Contents ends]
* SECTION ONE: NEWS.
* EMERGENCY NETWORK TO COMBAT TERRORISM.
An internet-based emergency planning network to co-ordinate local and
national responses to terrorism and other major threats is due to go live
in March, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The 'HAZMOD' intranet is being developed by the Cabinet Office's
Civil Contingency Secretariat to help councils, police and fire authorities
and other relevant bodies plan for and cope with major accidents and
civil emergencies.
The system combines and modifies two existing software packages, the
Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability system developed by the
US Defense Threat Reduction Agency
( http://www.dtra.mil/td/hpac/td_hpac.html
<http://www.dtra.mil/td/hpac/td_hpac.html> ) and ArcIMS, a geographic
information systems package from digital mapping specialists ESRI
( http://www.esriuk.com <http://www.esriuk.com> ).
It will combine data on hazards, population and geography to simulate a
potential disaster in real time as a training tool for emergency planning
professionals. It will also be used in genuine emergencies to see how
many people are in each affected area, and how hard it will be to
evacuate and shelter them.
A trial was carried out last year with 50 test users drawn from six local
authorities - Bedfordshire, Cornwall, East Riding of Yorkshire,
Rotherham, Staffordshire and Vale of Glamorgan - plus Greater
Manchester Public Health Authority, States of Guernsey Civil Defence
Committee and the government's Emergency Planning College.
When the system goes live, password-controlled use will be extended to
the wider emergency planning community including central government
departments and the emergency services.
The pilot system included data on foot and mouth restricted areas, and
potential major accident sites such as oil or gas installations. Future data
'overlays' could include flight path and stacking data to assess hijacking
threats, and radiological monitoring. The intranet could also eventually
house bulletin boards to help users exchange advice and ideas.
For more on HAZMOD see:
http://www.co-ordination.gov.uk/contingency/hazmod.htm
<http://www.co-ordination.gov.uk/contingency/hazmod.htm>
And see also section three, this issue.
* WORM BITES GOVERNMENT.
Rare hard evidence of precisely how a password-stealing virus or 'worm'
infected computers worldwide last year has shown that public bodies are
vulnerable to attack.
The trail of evidence was transmitted to a bona fide Internet service
provider in California, Monkeybrains.net, following an apparent coding
error by the unknown creators of the worm 'BadTrans.B'.
Monkeybrains' owner Rudy Rucker decided to inform the individuals
infected and publish extracts on the internet as an "educational tool",
though he has not published compromised passwords. He has declined to
hand the database over to the FBI following a request, though he says he
would comply with any court order to do so.
Rucker's BadTrans.B database ( http://badtrans.monkeybrains.net
<http://badtrans.monkeybrains.net> ) shows
that some 176 computers in central and local government bodies across
the UK; the UK's three main political parties; and the US military were
among over 1,000 official systems worldwide to have passwords stolen.
The US government was hardest hit, with 268 passwords stolen from
Internet domains ending in the '.gov' suffix and 191 ending in '.mil', the
top-level domain used by the US military.
Others affected include the Argentine, Australian, Chinese, French and
Japanese governments, as well as around 100 email addresses from
within the EU administration.
'BadTrans.B' is a self-replicating virus or 'worm' that hides on host
computers and records keystrokes. Speculation is rife about its origins,
with some even theorising it is an escapee from a development program
run by the FBI itself, which recently admitted developing keystroke
surveillance software aimed at criminals under the codename 'magic
lantern'.
For more on the worm see briefing notice '228/01' from 2001 at the
UNIRAS UK government virus alert site:
http://www.uniras.gov.uk <http://www.uniras.gov.uk>
* CANDIDATES LINE UP FOR E-VOTING TRIALS.
At least three local authorities have submitted bids to the Department of
Transport, Local Government and the Regions to pilot e-voting in the
local elections due to take place in May this year.
Although the DTLR is not releasing the names of bidders, EGB has
learned that Sheffield City Council, Liverpool City Council and Swindon
Borough Council are among those that have responded to a call to
participate in nationally co-ordinated pilots. Though dozens of other
councils are understood to have developed proposals, relatively few
successfully convinced councillors to approve the submission of a formal
bid.
Sheffield is proposing to allow voting in its Hallam, Manor and Nether
Edge wards to take place from home computers, mobile phones and
electronic kiosks. If the plan is accepted, security will come in the form
of smart cards with PIN numbers and passwords. To prevent people from
voting more than once, polling stations will log offline votes on the web
as they happen.
Liverpool City Council has plans to provide telephone and internet
voting in up to three of its Riverside wards. Both Sheffield and Liverpool
plan to use technology supplied by BT and election.com.
Swindon has confirmed that it has entered a bid, but was not forthcoming
about the precise details of its plans nor the identity of its technology
supplier. The DTLR has said that once the winning bids are announced at
the end of January, it will source technology suppliers from an existing
'approved' list. The exclusivity of this process has angered those
advocating the adoption of an open source solution.
The main rival to BT and election.com's package is votehere.net
( http://www.erbs.co.uk <http://www.erbs.co.uk> ), a package being resold in
the UK by Electoral
Reform Ballot Services (ERBS), a commercial subsidiary of the
Electoral Reform Society. ERBS systems manager Joe Wadsworth said
that the company expected to be involved in one or two pilots having
submitted quotes to more than twenty local authorities.
NOTE: Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook told the Guardian
newspaper this week he plans to make the UK the first in the world to
introduce internet voting for a general election, possibly even in time for
the next one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,628776,00.html
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,628776,00.html>
* GOVERNMENT OPENS UP ITS HORIZONS.
The UK government has recognised that the open source software movement is
not "a hype
bubble that will burst" and could deliver better value than proprietary
systems, in a new draft
policy document released for consultation.
'Open source software - use within UK government' suggests that open source
solutions should
always be considered alongside proprietary ones in public tenders, and that
the government
should seek to avoid long-term 'lock-in' to proprietary systems.
Other proposals are for the government to obtain full rights to any bespoke
or customised
software it procures, "wherever this achieves value for money". The
government should also
"explore further the possibilities" of demanding an open source
specification for all government-
funded software research by academic institutions.
The document is available for consultation until 12 March on:
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/rfc/rfc_document.asp?docnum=429
<http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/rfc/rfc_document.asp?docnum=429>
Meanwhile a global group has formed to promote the use of open source
materials in schools via
an online portal, 'Schoolforge' ( http://www.schoolforge.net
<http://www.schoolforge.net> ).
The community was formed partly in response to one of the proposed
elements in the settlement of the ongoing US Government vs Microsoft
competition trial, whereby Microsoft would provide 1 billion dollars of
software and hardware to underprivileged schools. Schoolforge says the
proposal "appears to offer an alleged monopoly still more ways to further
its grasp", and is calling for the courts to insist that Microsoft provides
hardware alone, allowing schools to run open source software.
* E-PROCUREMENT TRIAL EXTENDED.
The Office of Government Commerce, the Treasury agency that oversees
government buying, has said it is extending the trial of its 'TenderTrust'
e-tendering system until the end of February
( http://www.ogctendertrust.com <http://www.ogctendertrust.com> - see
E-Government Bulletin, May and
August 2001). The trial was originally scheduled to end in November last
year.
The disclosure follows an admission last month by chief secretary to the
Treasury Andrew Smith that the government would have to "revise" its
target of moving all central government procurement online by the end
of this year. The government has yet to publish a revised target.
The OGC has not given a reason for the TenderTrust trial extension,
although Smith has admitted to Parliament that "further work is needed
to maintain the right level of security and increase take up of the service
across government".
The OGC also last month launched pilots of three new e-procurement
systems, but it denied that any of them were potential replacements for
TenderTrust as they are designed to handle relatively small purchases.
The National Assembly of Wales will be the test bed for buyn@w
<mailto:buyn@w> , a
solution developed by Accenture ( http://www.accenture.com
<http://www.accenture.com> ), Ariba
( http://www.ariba.com <http://www.ariba.com> ) and Epylon (
http://www.epylon.com <http://www.epylon.com> ).
Meanwhile the Driving Standards Agency, the Department of Trade and
Industry and the Food Standards Agency will test a package from e-
procurement specialist Biomni ( http://www.biomni.com
<http://www.biomni.com> ). And, finally,
Ernst & Young ( http://www.cgey.com <http://www.cgey.com> ) and Elcom
( http://www.elcom.com <http://www.elcom.com> ) are providing a trial
solution to the
Environment Agency.
* CENSUS SITE FALLS VICTIM TO SUCCESS.
The Public Records Office yesterday took down its recently launched online
database of
household and personal details taken from the 1901 Census, to allow it to
create extra
capacity to deal with enormous demand for the service.
The web site ( http://www.census.pro.gov.uk <http://www.census.pro.gov.uk> )
was overwhelmed by demand when it
opened last week, with around 30 million attempts a day to log on. The
developers will
double the number of users that can access at a time to two million, and
should be in a
position to relaunch next week.
The office has also suspended the credit card micro-payments required to
access detailed
information about individuals, the proceeds from which will go towards
putting earlier
population surveys online.
* NEWS PEG.
The government-backed Promoting Electronic Government project for councils
is running a
series of low-cost 'away days' during January and February to help
authorities manage the
modernisation and e-government agenda.
PEG is due to complete its work this year and deliver a set of free
materials for councils including
'health check' tables for self assessment and guidance notes on partnership
and procurement.
Dates and venues for the 'away days' are 29 January in Colchester; 30
January in Guildford; 31
January in Bristol; 4 February in North Shields; 5 February in Leeds; 6
February in Derby; and 7
February in Manchester. For more see the pdf file
http://www.eipdg.org/Peg_awaydays.pdf
<http://www.eipdg.org/Peg_awaydays.pdf> or
register at the PEG home page http://www.peg.org.uk <http://www.peg.org.uk>
* NEWS IN BRIEF.
* E-POLICY: The government is encouraging public policymakers to
consider electronic service delivery implications of their work, in the last
of eight principles to boost e-commerce outlined in its UK Online
strategy:
http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/publications/guidelines/eprinciples
<http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/publications/guidelines/eprinciples>
* ONE, TWO, E: The Progressive Policy Institute, the US think tank of
the 'third way', has identified a new objective for online government,
breaking down bureaucratic barriers. This will be more than a technical
challenge to government agencies, the institute says:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/ppi <http://fastlink.headstar.com/ppi>
* IT TRENDS: In its annual 'IT Trends' survey of local government, the
Society of IT Management says councils should research and market new
electronic services before introducing them rather than simply acting to
comply with central government targets:
http://www.socitm.gov.uk/public/surveys/trends2001.html
<http://www.socitm.gov.uk/public/surveys/trends2001.html>
[Section one ends]
* SPONSORED NOTICE: E-GOVERNMENT SECTOR REPORT:
The leading online news service netimperative.com has produced its first
sector report on
e-government, including research and case studies aimed at private sector
companies
looking to work with public sector partners.
The report, which includes an article by e-Envoy Andrew Pinder and studies
of Bracknell
Forest and Tower Hamlets councils, costs 99 pounds. For more information
email Derek
Parkinson on [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> or
telephone 0207 5574866 quoting reference
EGB.
[Sponsored notice ends].
* SECTION TWO: FOCUS
- EMERGENCY PLANNING.
* CABINET OFFICE PREPARES FOR THE WORST.
by Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Emergency planning is a low-profile public service, conjuring images of
secretive maps in war-
rooms. It has also become something of a figure of fun for the official
advice published in the
cold war era in the event of nuclear attack - 'paint your windows white'.
But since September 11 the capability of public bodies to plan efficiently
for major emergencies
has become the focus of intense policy scrutiny. And increasingly the
Internet is being seen as the
key to improved co-operation between relevant agencies, and rapid
dissemination of vital
information to the public and media.
In central government, responsibility for emergency planning passed in 2001
from the Home
Office Emergency Planning Division ( http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd
<http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd> ) to a new Cabinet
Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat.
Internet projects overseen by the new secretariat include the ambitious new
'HAZMOD'
emergency planning intranet - see news, this issue - as well as support for
the Cabinet Office's
Government Information and Communication Service ( http://www.gics.gov.uk
<http://www.gics.gov.uk> ) to run a cross-
government emergency online News Co-ordination Centre (
http://www.co-ordination.gov.uk <http://www.co-ordination.gov.uk> ).
The NCC grew out of the web-based 'Millennium Centre' project, established
at the turn of the
Millennium to feed an expectant media with tales of technological
catastrophe. This site (no
longer functioning) received almost 1.5 million hits in the few days between
going live and the
morning of 4 January, when it was scaled back after a disappointing absence
of Armageddon.
The principle had been established as a success, however, with more than 200
officials feeding
information from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and all UK regions back
to the Millennium
Centre team in Whitehall, working in shifts to provide a 24-hour service.
The NCC was duly relaunched on 21 March to cover all emergencies, and has
been retained ever
since, with a similar 24-hour staffing potential, a telephone call centre
and links to information
providers across the public and private sectors. Topics it has covered
include the fuel protests and
the foot and mouth epidemic, with a surge in interest following September 11
and the US anthrax
scare. A sub-site covering the capital has now been launched as well,
'London Prepared'
( http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk <http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk> ).
Other relevant online initiatives include the Unified Incident Reporting &
Alert Scheme
( http://www.uniras.gov.uk <http://www.uniras.gov.uk> ), part of the
National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre
( http://www.niscc.gov.uk <http://www.niscc.gov.uk> ) set up to co-ordinate
defence against electronic attacks on the national
infrastructure. The scheme sends computer virus and other security alerts by
email to qualifying
recipients in the public sector, and the information is also available to
all on its web site.
And following recent spates of serious flooding, the Environment Agency for
England and Wales
has set up its own 24-hour online flood warning service, including advice on
flood protection
( http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood
<http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood> ).
Such services are enormously useful as first ports of call or background,
but may have trouble
keeping up with the pace of constant media demand in the digital age.
Back in 2000 Bob Wade, a senior press officer at the government's Central
Office of Information,
produced a sobering analysis of the impact of new 24-hour digital news media
on crisis
management (see http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd/professionals/media.htm
<http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd/professionals/media.htm> ).
"During the disasters of the late 1980s it became clear that the advent of
the 24-hour media and
its rolling news demands were catching many off-guard," Wade said. "If you
don't feed the
media accurate information fast, all can go pear-shaped very rapidly."
Such high media pressure can be even harder to handle for local councils,
which are responsible
for local emergency planning. Richard Ellwood, a spokesman for the Emergency
Planning
Society ( http://www.emergplansoc.org.uk <http://www.emergplansoc.org.uk> )
which supports professionals across the field, says:
"While news is breaking, council staff have too many other things to do than
keep public access
web sites up to date, and there is a reluctance to commit to online services
they cannot deliver. So
the here-and-now stuff is probably best left to online news services.
"But the Internet is good for the slower-moving stuff like background on the
foot and mouth
crisis, and it's also good for communication within and between partner
organisations." Many
councils are already using password-access 'extranets' to send out emergency
information and
co-ordinate responses, he said. However despite a great deal of innovation
locally, systems
integration problems meant there was no effective online national network of
local emergency
planners as yet.
For those with morbid turn of mind, some councils have even put edited
versions of their 'major
incident plans' - until now largely internal documents - onto the web in the
spirit of open
government, so you can see what would happen in your area if a crisis were
to occur.
One such is West Berkshire Council ( http://www.westberks.gov.uk
<http://www.westberks.gov.uk> ), where council members
took the decision to place the plan online almost in its entirety, with only
a few sensitive elements
such as contact lists removed. To find it search the site for 'major
incident plan'.
Not all councils are making the most of new media for emergency
communications, however. A
recent Audit Commission Best Value inspection of Buckinghamshire County
Council's
emergency planning service found that overall the service was good but the
county, along with
the four district councils in its area, has "a poor record of communication
with the public during
incidents and a limited range of communication techniques".
The commission concluded the councils were unlikely to improve their record
in this area unless
they enabled residents to obtain timely information through the most
appropriate forms of
communication, including web sites.
Similar criticisms have emerged in the US, where according to a recent
report by FCW.com, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency ( http://www.fema.gov
<http://www.fema.gov> ) has found that state
governments need better communications capabilities to respond to future
emergencies.
It is always to be hoped that such preparations will never be needed, but it
seems that public
bodies must start to make better use of the internet in planning for any
eventuality in an
increasingly uncertain world.
[Section two ends]
* SPONSORED NOTICE: FREE DATA PROTECTION RESOURCES.
The Data Protection Act 1998, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Freedom of
Information Act
2000 are combining to have an enormous impact on how public sector bodies
handle the personal
data they collect in implementing e-government.
Act Now is a consultancy specialising in data protection training for the
public sector. Its web site
carries free resources designed to help organisations comply with the law.
For more information
visit http://www.actnow.org.uk <http://www.actnow.org.uk> or e mail Ibrahim
Hasan on [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[Sponsored notice ends]
* SECTION THREE: INFRASTRUCTURE
- GSI.
* CONNECTING TO THE BACKBONE.
by Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
The connection of all central government departments to the Government
Secure Intranet (GSI), and local government bodies to a sister network -
LGSI - are essential building blocks towards the government's vision of
modernising services.
The new networks will use the same standards for storing and
moving data that are used for internet applications, allowing
government agencies to communicate with each other and citizens
using web sites and email. New networks will also support transactions,
opening the way for wider use of electronic procurement within
government, and for people to make payments - council tax installments
for example - from their home computers, digital televisions or mobile
phones.
Broadly, the GSI/LGSI project has three main strands: the replacement
of clunky existing networks; the creation of software applications to aid
this process and assist communication with the public; and the adoption
metadata standards.
Despite positive noises from the e-Envoy's office, progress in each of
these areas has been patchy. Additionally, because they are
interdependent there is a real prospect of the whole project moving at the
rate of the slowest individual process.
The most fundamental stage - connecting central government bodies to
GSI - has made significant progress. In total, there are now 81 bodies
connected, including 54 central civil departments; eight central non-civil
departments such as the Ministry of Defence and the National Criminal
Intelligence Service; four devolved government departments - National
Assembly for Wales, The Wales Office, Northern Ireland Civil Service
and The Scottish Agricultural Science Agency; 11 non-departmental
public bodies; and four other agencies - the Competition Commission,
the Treasury's Office of Government Commerce, the Government
Gateway ( http://www.gateway.gov.uk <http://www.gateway.gov.uk> ) and the
Legal Secretariat to the
Law Officers.
LGSI is a GSI extranet for local authorities, with an entry-level service
originally costed at around 10,000 pounds and a secure link to the
internet for an extra 3,000 pounds. For unitary authorities the
recommended starting point is a higher-bandwidth service at 16,000
pounds with secure internet access for an additional 4,000 pounds.
In late 1998, a pilot project kicked off, with a team formed from around
10 local authorities working with the government and it private sector
partner Cable & Wireless. The aim was to identify best practices such as
community security policy, determine roles and responsibilities in
managing shared content, and act as a showcase for the potential benefits
of LGSI.
Since then, however, little progress appears to have been made. When
asked by E-Government Bulletin, the Office of Government Commerce
declined to name any current LGSI applicants or any additional bodies
that have connected to LGSI since the pilot.
A possible reason for this lack of progress is security, an issue sharpened
by the 11 September terrorist attacks. The security gatekeeper for GSI is
the Communications-Electronics Security Group
( http://www.cesg.gov.uk <http://www.cesg.gov.uk> ), party of the signals
intelligence agency
GCHQ.
All connections to GSI must be approved by a GSI Accreditation Panel,
which enforces a Community Security Policy largely formulated by
CESG.
To speed up the migration process, the CESG Listed Adviser Scheme
(CLAS) was launched to bring in private sector companies and
consultants to advise and work on systems up to the classification of
'secret'. Work requiring higher classification is conducted by CESG staff
alone.
According to CESG schemes manager Ian Mitchell, there are currently
more than 230 CLAS members, and he says there are no indications that
government departments are experiencing difficulties in engaging the
service of consultants when required.
But if cost and security aren't serious barriers to entry to GSI, then
uncertainty about the identity of the provider may well be. In 1996,
Cable & Wireless negotiated a contract to be the sole supplier of hosting
and connectivity services for GSI, a contract that is due for renewal in
May 2002. A 'prior indicative notice' for the re-tendering was placed in
the Official Journal of the European Communities some months ago, and
interest has been signaled from "a large number of suppliers," according
to an OGC spokesman.
Any change to the current contract raises questions about what support
existing GSI users will be given in the migration process, and how
existing contracts and fees will be handled. The spokesman said: "in the
light of current circumstances, departments are reviewing their business
continuity arrangements. If necessary, GSI contractual arrangements will
be put in place to support these." This seems to mean that central
government would shoulder the burden of any additional costs incurred
by a change of supplier.
Both OGC and Cable & Wireless refuse to comment further while
discussions are taking place, but the short space between this year's
deadlines to renew the service contract and the 2005 deadline to place all
government services online means that any new supplier would have to
hit the ground running or risk further loss of momentum to this vital
project.
[Section three ends]
* SECTION FOUR: TELEDEMOCRACY
- ONLINE ACTIVISM.
* BEYOND THE FRINGE.
by Daniel Jackson [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
The Internet may not have had a great impact on the 2001 UK general
election, with online voting
and effective online political campaigning still some way off. But in one
area of politics at least
the net may already be playing a significant role: namely, the promotion of
pressure groups to the
forefront of British politics.
The concept of small groups being empowered by the Internet is not new but
there is evidence
that this long-prophesied phenomenon may finally be becoming a reality, with
a sharp rise in the
activity of single-issue political organisations over the past few years.
Many would argue that this
trend is attributable to the use of the Internet, with for example strong
web-based campaigns
appearing during last year's election on environmentalism, euro-scepticism,
education and equal
rights.
Some, like Tim Turner of the UK Green Party, believe such pressure groups
could use the net to
seriously challenge the dominance of the big parties. Turner says these
organisations could,
perhaps with the backing of major charities, "knock any political party out
of the water" on a
chosen issue.
The web is not the only internet technology that has proved useful to
lobbyists: email has become
the weapon of choice for anti-globalisation protesters, who use it to hound
the World Trade
Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
As Neil O'Brien of the anti-Euro campaign 'no-euro.com' says: "Single-issue
groups do have
clear advantages over conventional political parties - we have stressed our
non- party status,
allowing us to recruit people who would otherwise steer clear of 'political'
activity."
And Colin Delaney of the US portal politicalinformation.com wrote in 1999:
"This could be the
real internet political revolution: a non- stop online campaign, launched
from thousands of
sources targeting hundreds of issues across the country and around the
world"
( http://www.politicalinformation.com/features.html
<http://www.politicalinformation.com/features.html> ).
Other commentators remain sceptical, arguing there is equally strong
evidence that technology is
actually increasing political apathy.
Back in 1995, an article by Jonathan Alter in Newsweek magazine entitled
'The couch potato
vote' warned of the danger of citizens using technology to impulsively
register pseudo-opinions
on something they know little about - the potential problem of an 'instant
referenda' culture.
Ignace Snellen (see E-Government Bulletin, issue 98) agrees, warning that
the consequence of
such a single issue driven political process could be the formation of
incompatible policies. Other
observers stress too that it is aggregated power, not individual power, that
creates an effective
democracy.
On the other hand, the established parties are likely to see the dangers and
head them off. The
main parties have already looked to steal a march on their single-issue
opponents through their
own issue-related sites in 2001. For example, Eurosceptic Conservatives
promoted
www.imperial-tories.com <http://www.imperial-tories.com> (no longer
operational); the Liberal Democrats launched
www.scraptuitionfees.com <http://www.scraptuitionfees.com> , and Labour had
a sub-site aimed at young people, 'RUUp4It'
( www.ruup4it.org.uk <http://www.ruup4it.org.uk> - no longer operational).
A 1999 report in the Harvard Journal of Politics by Margolis, Resnick and
Wolfe, 'Party
competition on the Internet' (
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/prp/toc/prp4.4.html
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/prp/toc/prp4.4.html> ) found little
evidence to date of equalisation in cyberspace, simply because of the
advantage enjoyed by the
larger political parties and institutions in terms of resources. The
established interests which
already dominate most of the communications, transactions, elections and
political processes of
advanced industrial countries are extending their influence to these
processes in cyberspace.
Established organisations can afford to invest heavily in new hardware and
software to make the
most of the information revolution. They are also more likely to use
professional full-time staff to
run their web sites. This gives them a big advantage when responding to the
needs of voters,
compared with small organisations that tend to use untrained volunteers to
run their sites.
However, the continuing dominance of the UK's political parties should not
hide the fact that
many new and effective parties and movements are springing up online all the
time. With the help
of the Internet, political competition can become more vibrant than ever,
but this will require all
parties and institutions to continue to rise to the challenges and
opportunities the internet offers.
NOTE: This article is adapted from part of a European Journalism Studies MA
dissertation
submitted by Daniel Jackson to Cardiff university in December.
[Section four ends]
* HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin,
e-mail [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Please encourage your colleagues to subscribe!
To unsubscribe at any time, email:
[log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
For further information on subscription, including how to
subscribe or unsubscribe from an alternative email
address and how to find out if an
particular address is subscribed, see:
http://www.headstar.com/egb/subs.html
<http://www.headstar.com/egb/subs.html>
Please send comments on coverage or leads to
Dan Jellinek at: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Copyright 2002 Headstar Ltd
The Bulletin may be reproduced in full as long as all parts
including this copyright notice are included.
Sections of the report may be quoted as
long as they are clearly sourced and our web site address
( www.headstar.com/egb <http://www.headstar.com/egb> ) is also cited.
* PERSONNEL:
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Deputy Editor - Phil Cain [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Reporter - Tamara Fletcher [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our web
site.
[Issue ends].
************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************
|
