Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

OLO: here's to the next ten years

By Graham Young - posted Monday, 6 April 2009


While Vladimir may be free to say what he says in his own country, it is by no means certain that he, and I, might not commit a crime by publishing him in a country like, say, Australia, if what he said was deemed to be contrary to our national security interests.

Which brings me to another consideration. OLO was first and foremost an eDemocracy initiative. In the first years I felt considerable urgency to launch a whole suite of projects, because if we didn’t someone else was certain to see the possibility and do so. A decade later the potential of the Internet for democracy is still unrealized.

I’m not sure that it will ever be realized. Or that if it is, it won’t be mostly in a business as usual way. I referred to GetUp earlier on as showing how the long tail can be leveraged. But GetUp is really just an alternative type of political party. It doesn’t give members a real say in policy, and it stands for only a small, if significant, minority.

Advertisement

The potential that we saw in the Internet was to make it easier for voters to talk to each other and to those who form, influence and administer policy, as well as to politicians. We thought that it would provide a venue where the whole resources of the community could be brought to bear on common problems when and as they arose. We thought it could add to social capital by increasing civility and understanding.

It hasn’t done that over the last ten years, and my fear is that in the next ten it will actually tend to raise global "nervous anxiety" by increasing the speed of dissemination of ideas and undermining the institutions, like newspapers, that used to provide checks on what found its way into the public domain.

Modern societies run on trust, and the risk, and the likelihood, is that the Internet will make for a less trustworthy environment. Political organisations acting like GetUp will make sure that is so.

One thing that struck me about the contrast between 1999 and now is how little has really changed. With the notable exception of climate change, most of the sorts of concerns we had then are still with us.

So my last prediction is this. In the next ten years we may do business differently, but it will still be the same business. On Line Opinion was a Web 2.0 project conceived before the term had been invented. In 2019 we may well be onto Web 4.0, but it is very likely that it will be much the same thing, and I predict that we will still be there to see it unfold.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

19 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, an Australian think tank based in Brisbane, and the publisher of On Line Opinion.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Graham Young

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Graham Young
Article Tools
Comment 19 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy