E-democracy in 2009

Well, the economic background is very bad for this year, as I am not the first to point out, and this will inevitably make this year tough going for many of us in the e-democracy community. Those of us in the private sector will have to tighten our belts, and no doubt charities and non-profits will also suffer from a drop in donations and sponsorship.

Against this backdrop one area which might be given a long overdue boost is open source software, as discussed by Bengt and others on this blog. Previously a subject not given too much consideration by many governments and public sector bodies because it was considered a bit technical and perhaps too risky, I sense that in 2009 there will be a new wave of interest in open source solutions for public and civic services, driven by the tight financial climate.

If this does happen it will be a long-overdue and welcome development, in the UK at least. It may also offer the opportunity for innovation and e-participation projects to continue on lower budgets.

Other random predictions for 2009: I think that Facebook will continue to grow in use and importance across society, with a corresponding rise in e-participation uses either through Facebook groups and applications or just as an adjunct to other tools. Again, this could lower the cost of online e-participation for many groups, since they will simply have to master and use an existing set of online tools, with an ever-widening reach.

And as Rolf has noted, the use of the internet in European elections will be interesting to watch, post-Obama: it will be interesting to track that on this blog. My paper on Obama on behalf of the UK’s Parliamentary IT Committee has now been published.
What will Europe learn from his example, and how will Obama himself continue his online momentum once he comes into office in a couple of week’s time?

Happy New Year to all,
Dan.