“Le regole della partecipazione”. Due giornate di studio all’Università di Perugia. 5. March 2010 – 21:55 by University Bergamo

Per chi oggi è interessato alle pratiche emergenti della partecipazione – cittadini, associazioni, partiti, apparati amministrativi, parlamenti e governi – è sempre più cruciale mettere a fuoco lo statuto giuridico, gli spazi di istituzionalizzazione della partecipazione e l’attuazione concreta delle opportunità partecipative collegate.
I vincoli o i limiti delle sperimentazioni hanno spesso a che fare con i gap fra diversi livelli d’azione e possono soffrire di un debole o ambiguo raccordo con le normative. D’altra parte i problemi non sono solo ‘procedurali’, ma si pongono anche sul piano sostanziale: l’esclusione politica dei cittadini corrisponde spesso ad una esclusione sociale e rimanda quindi ai problemi dei contenuti della cittadinanza. Una comprensibile ansia di novità – ‘nuovi’ metodi per partecipare, ‘nuove’ tecnologie applicate alla partecipazione, come nel caso del Web 2.0 – può far dimenticare questi aspetti e può condurre a trascurare sia le opportunità già presenti negli ordinamenti giuridici dei sistemi democratici e forse poco valorizzate, sia i limiti delle sperimentazioni in corso. Allo stesso tempo è necessario tener conto dei caratteri delle culture giuridiche (e politiche) che caratterizzano ciascun paese.

In due dense giornate internazionali di lavoro l’Università di Perugia propone un’occasione preziosa di riflessione e confronto su questi ed altri temi più specifici collegati.

Al link indicato è possibile trovare tutte le indicazioni sull’iniziativa.

“Le Regole della partecipazione. Cultura giuridica e dinamiche istituzionali dei processi partecipativi”.
Università di Perugia, 11-12 Marzo 2010

http://www.unipg.it/convegni/Giurisprudenza-2010/locandina.pdf

Anna Carola Freschi
(Università di Bergamo) Read the rest of this entry »

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How democratic countries try to control the Internet 23. September 2009 – 12:41 by Hans Hagedorn

Controlling Internet Content is a sensitive issue for all governments – democratic or non-democratic. However, the kind of censorship applied in China or Iran is a complex matter and should be discussed by other authors. This article gives a short overview of current activities in recognized democratic countries. It raises the question, if national regulation of the Net is appropriate at all.

German Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen, recently caused a lot of protest from net activists. In an attempt to fight child pornography, she introduced a law that obliges Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to install „Stop-signs“ in front of corresponding websites. Her opponents criticize this plan, because of the stop-signs being technical insufficient (they can rather easily be circumvented through other DNS-Servers) and they just hide the problem instead of fighting it.

German Minister Ursula von der Leyen facing protests against her Internet filtering plans. by jan.gosmann, flickr.com, CC by US 2.0

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‘Miss Manners’ in the Era of Web 2.0 23. February 2009 – 18:58 by Julia Glidden

When I was growing up in New England my mother used to use Emily Post’s finishing school in Connecticutt as a barometer for ‘good manners.’  Think of what ‘Miss Manners’ would say – or some such refrain – would inevitably meet my teenage breach of New England social protocol.  Now all fully grown up (or at least nearly!) and living in England (or the ‘real thing’ as my mother would say), I have found myself thinking about Miss Manners more and more…. Not so much because I am intent to replay my adolescent battle with my mother, but because of the real angst I have seen Facebook cause.  I can still remember vividly the first time someone I have known for years ‘de-listed’ me as a friend.  The cold impersonality of the gesture.  The sense of powerlessness I felt in the situation.  Was it a mistake?  Did I do something wrong?  Should I follow up and check?  Would I be breaching ‘Miss Manners’ School of Internet Protocol if I did?   In the end, I cracked and asked the person.  Turns out this person was trying to ‘clean up’ and ‘cut back’ on online clutter and did not realise that ‘cleaning up’ up a Friend’s list  in this way could be taken in such a brutal light.  Many notes of apology were subsequently sent to similarly ‘de-listed’ friends…..  Following this encounter, I have since been with a few colleagues when they have likewise found themselves ‘de-listed’ and asking the same questions as me…..  So I ask you – what is the correct protocol. And how do we make sure we all know it…… Or are at least aware enough about it to not unwittingly hurt friends or shut off contacts via a medium that is meant to bring us all closer together?

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Report from first eParticipation Study workshop “eParticipation in Europe: current state and potential” 16 May 2008 in Brussels (BE) – NOW ONLINE 9. June 2008 – 10:39 by Danish Technological Institute

The draft report together with the agenda, presentations and list of participants from the first eParticipation Study workshop “eParticipation in Europe: current state and potential” on 16 May 2008 in Brussels (BE) is now available on www.european-eparticipation.eu (under workshop 1)

The workshop reports summaries of the presentations are not meant to give the full details of the presentation – these are available on www.european-eparticipation.eu – the report does however include a summary of the discussion on various presentations.

Please keep an eye on the website www.european-eparticipation.eu as a lot of new reports will shortly be published on our latest research on eParticipation, but also the eParticipation and eDemocracy community on www.epractice.eu (including blogs dated 26 May and 9 June 2008 on the workshop.

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