A seminar organized by the ONDIS research project of the Finnish Academy Of Science (“On-line discussions as Political Activity”) and the University of Tampere

Tampere, Finland, November 24-25.11.2006

The Finnish city of Tampere, one of the pioneers in utilizing the practices of eGovernance in developing and supporting an active citizenship and civil engagement, witnessed in the end November 2006 a most exciting and path breaking experience regarding the political use of Internet in many respects. The “Politics on the Internet” seminar gave an intellectual haven for many academics to discuss and contemplate the use and facilitating nature of the Internet in respect of political life and democracy.

The seminar was simply a success. Both academic and informal parts were in balance and rich in contents. Academically the five plenums and four workshop sessions were all stimulating and dealt with different aspects considering the politics on the Internet. The necessary informal evening events (sauna, ice swimming and seminar dinner in Viking restaurant) offered possibilities to go further in discussing the details of different forms and implementations of the political uses of Internet and other computer mediated technology. Likeminded people met, and many new connections were tied.

During the seminar, different forms of democracy and civil participation were under a close and profound evaluation. One major question, namely, “what sort of implications the Internet has to democracy?”, popped up frequently in various discussions. Do the use of ICT-information and communication technology as a political tool serve civil society actors to transcend the limitations of politics bound in order to promote their own political visions, influence public debate agendas, challenge official policy, and act politically in innovative ways? And vice versa, how can political institutions employ the new technology in order to increase and improve the political participation of citizens?

The crucial question was not resolved, yet. Only partial answers were given. Summarising the discussion, the conclusion was that the nature of democracy is not about to change, it is still in the hand of demos. Instead, the practices are developing into more reciprocal and activating direction due to facilitating nature of new technology. New ICTs give an efficient tool to enhance active citizenship. Also, in some remarks it was stressed that the ICT is expanding the boundaries of democracy beyond the national borders.

However, the frictionless co-operation between arrangers is but one tiny component to making a seminar work. Most of all, it was the people that made this event memorable and fruitful. On behalf of the organisers, I would like to express our deepest appreciation to all those wonderful persons all around the Europe, who joined our seminar, and made it an intellectual exploration worth to remember.

Jarmo Rinne

Who is Jarmo?

Jarmo Rinne researcher and PhD-student in Online Discussion as Political Action (ONDIS) research project funded by the Finnish Academy of Science. His academic interests are civil participation in strengthening democratic governance and political activism in real and virtual environment. He has published articles in English and in Finnish. Also he has co-authored four text books of Social studies and EU for secondary schools. The EU-text book is also forthcoming in Swedish.