overview

This guide considers online politics: representation, citizen activism, hate sites, the interaction of government agencies with the community, digital diasporas and other issues.

It highlights writing about issues such as the digital divides, notes primers for online activism and some case studies, considers hate sites and censorship, and looks at work relating to the operation of parliaments, courts and executive agencies in the 'age of the internet'.

     contents of this guide

The following pages cover -

• Issues - an introduction to debate about the impact of the internet on politics in Australia and other parts of the world
• studies - a more detailed exploration of research about public opinion, campaigns and general marketing
• campaigns - use of the net by national parties and individual candidates, online community building and the use of the net in swaying public opinion (ranging from Microsoft's lobby groups to US 'decency' groups and Greenpeace)
• hacktivism - cybervandalism, online terrorism or agitprop by the digitally oppressed? There are also pointers to Indy Media.
• tool kits - primers, technical reports and studies of particular campaigns
• hate sites - use of the net by extremists for vilification, recruitment and legitimation. The page includes pointers to projects that monitor and evaluate hate sites
• hate speech - broader questions about hate speech, responsibility and censorship and recruitment.
• representation - how members of national, provincial and local legislatures are using the net ... and how parliamentary agencies are changing.
• courts - courts and judicial processes in online environments
• government - the interaction of executive agencies, advocacy groups and the wider community.
• voting - technologies that are specific to e-politics, such as the proposed Election Markup Language XML standard, and reports on online voting systems
• petitions - questions about 'e-petitions'
• revolutions - perspectives on the myth that the internet is innately democratic and dissolves autocracies
• diasporas - digital diasporas and politics
• fora - the nature, evolution and influence of online policy fora such as Australia's DNS and LINK Lists and ICANNWatch

    next page  (issues)