Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Serendipity

When I got home after the Saint Louis/Washington Tea Party on July 4th I had several emails waiting for me. One of them had the subject line: NPR.org - Redefining Citizenship In The Digital Age. I opened it and realized that it was sent to me by mistake.

This occassionally happens to the email address that received this wayward missive. The service provider is well known and my username is the sort that others frequently have. The email contained a link to an NPR story about how technological advances are changing the responsibilities of citizenship. I occasionally eavesdrop on the enemy radio broadcasts of NPR so I gave this one a listen. Here's the summary from that link:
What does it mean these days when when [ed: the mainstream media uses editors to catch errors before you notice them] the government makes something public? Just print it and put it on a shelf somewhere until somebody slips it to Bob Woodward? Host Scott Simon speaks to Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, about redefining citizenship in the digital age. Rasiej also talks about what social media and technology experts have learned in the aftermath of Iran's disputed elections.
Key quote from the audio: "I'm proposing the Public Means Online Act... information should not be considered public unless it is online..." I like that idea. I like it a lot. However, I don't think that government has to be the one that provides that online copy. There's a pretty strong argument that they shouldn't be since they may have an incentive to alter, destroy, or block access. Below you will find a YouTube playlist of Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) public healthcare forum. This is not exactly what Andrew Rasiej talks about on NPR, but it is The Transparent Society envisioned by David Brin. I'm still uploading video segments from the healthcare forum and adding them to the playlist, but I expect to be done late Wednesday evening.

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