department of computer science city college of new york city college of new york spring 2006...

Department of Computer ScienceDepartment of Computer Science

City College of New YorkCity College of New York

Spring 2006Spring 2006

Copyright Copyright © 2006 by Abbe Mowshowitz© 2006 by Abbe Mowshowitz

CSc 375CSc 375SOCIAL ISSUES IN COMPUTINGSOCIAL ISSUES IN COMPUTING

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACY

A. Introduction

Focus on three issues:

- citizen participation in government

- freedom and security, especially censorship

- Internet governance


B. Participation in government & politics

1. Overview

IT offers possibility of encouraging citizen participation in political process

- rich interactive media

- shared memory (i.e., databases)


B. Participation in government & politics 2. Basic requirement: informed public a. formal education: traditional way of

inculcating responsible citizenship b. mass media: help to keep people informed c. new possibilities

- information used by officials available to public- citizen-official interaction- community exchange of information


B.3. Possible areas of participation

a. administration: not likely in routine day-to-day operations

b. planning and policy formation

- budgeting

- development of long-range plans

c. legislation (citizen input into debates)


C. Forms of citizen participation 1. Feedback in social systems

- societal feedback: social indicators designed to reveal problem areas- individual feedback: interaction mediated by ombudsman type programs dealing with individual grievances (e.g., NYS Consumer Affairs)- citizen feedback: participation in decision-making process [focus on this]


C.2. Existing activities relevant to citizen participation

- media feature programs: designed to inform public on social & political issues

- regular news broadcasts on TV & radio

- talk shows with audience participation

- government publications

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYC.3. Possible new initiatives

- electronic polling on policy planning issues- polling on legislation- large-scale conferencing to support direct input in policy making

-- group discussion -- polling -- interaction (citizens & officials) -- discussion ‘primed’ by specialists

OR background information made available


C.4. Will people participate?- political scientists skeptical: bulk of population ill-informed & apathetic

- different levels of participation likely

-- active in discussion

-- passively involvement (‘lurking’)

- incentive: ability to achieve countervailing power (e.g., mobilization for consumer action)


C.5. Arguments against citizen participation

Pluralist Technologist Radical

Basic position

Educated elites insure political stability

Expertise needed in decision-making

The people should be in control

Reason for

Opposition

Reaction & instability

Poor infor. giving poor decisions

Co-optation by estab.

Long-run fears

Authoritar.

government

Breakdown of govt./end prog.

Repression will continue


C.5.a. Notes on pluralist opposition (i) specific decisions are generally made by

relatively few people acting on behalf of the polity

(ii) erosion of public commitment to democratic rules (e.g., rejection of Bill of Rights)

QUESTION: Mechanics of decision-making not likely to change, but could belief in democratic rule be enhanced by online experience?


C.5.a. Notes continued(iii) Apathy needed to preserve stability of

public policies: system could not respond to demands of active citizens

BUT it also helps preserve ignorance & permit manipulation by elites

(iv) Administration requires consensus – not feasible in large groups

(v) Social scientists tend to be more liberal that general public, fear broad participation

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYD. Is there a real need for new forms of

citizen participation1. Increase in long range planning: requires

greater community participation in establishing goals

2. Imbalance in information access & opportunities to participate: reflected in apathy born of frustration

3. Democratic institutions require a concerned & involved citizenry

Can Internet help to inform, redress imbalance?


E. Censorship vs. free expression1. Philosophic foundations of free expression

argument a. absence of interference (J.S. Mill)

(i) person should be free to do what he wants so long as the action causes no harm to others(ii) truth will out: better to let ideas contend with each other than to let government control what we can say or read


E.1. Foundations (cont.)

b. Need for social inquiry (John Dewey)

(i) community depends on ability to seek answers to questions concerning its welfare

(ii) censorship would hamper social inquiry

QUESTION: Examples?


E.2. Balancing freedom and security a. Blocking software

(i) Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2001: schools obliged to use blocking software

(ii) should public and college libraries block ‘offensive’ sites?

(iii) who is to decide what is offensive?

(iv) what would Mill and Dewey say?


E.2. Balancing freedom and security b. Special cases?

(i) bomb making instructions(ii) information about critical infrastructure (dams, bridges, etc.)(iii) racist, sexist, neo-Nazi and similar sites

c. US Patriot act allows FBI to examine patrons’ (“suspects”) book purchase, and library borrowing & Internet use records


E.2. Balancing freedom and security c. Snooping (cont.)

- some libraries have taken to shredding records daily

- some have also posted notices about the US Patriot Act provision

CENSORSHIP LIMITS FREEDOM OF CHOICE; DOES IT ENHANCE SECURITY?

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF. Internet governance

1. New venuea. peculiarities of the Internet - shared infrastructure - no single owner - no central authorityb. Need for rules - manage technical environment - allocate resources - control criminal behavior

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.2. Governance structure

a. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)- created October 1998 as successor to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)- technical coordination body

-- Internet domain names -- IP address numbers -- protocol parameters & port numbers

(organization chart follows)

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.2.b. Statement of purpose

“ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.”

- From ICANN’s Website

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.2.c. ICANN Board of Directors

- internationally diverse

- oversees policy development process

- President directs an international staff

- ensure ICANN meets operational commitment to Internet community

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.3. Absence of political authority

a. ICANN has no authority beyond its technical coordination mandate

b. regulation is responsibility of national governments

c. current issues

-- crime

-- taxation of transactions

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.3.c. Issues (cont.)

(i) taxation: there has been a moratorium on online sales taxes, but that is likely to end as the volume of online transactions increases

(ii) crime: multiple jurisdictions pose a problem but international law and extradition agreements provide the means for prosecuting online criminals

TOPIC 10. IT & TOPIC 10. IT & DEMOCRACYDEMOCRACYF.3.c. (ii) crime (cont.)

- difficult cases: online behavior is legal in one jurisdiction and criminal in another

- private companies adopt the coloration of host countries

(could this be anti-democratic?)


Chinese bloggers using a new Microsoft service to post messages titled "democracy," "capitalism," "liberty" or "human rights" are told the expressions are prohibited

International agreements may be needed to preserve the democratic character of the Internet

department of computer science city college of new york city college of new york spring 2006...

Documents

forms of citizen participation

available slide

public citizen

computing slide

databases slide

consumer action slide

social issues

legislation citizen