Researching myself in circles/Provocative Post

I am currently writing a research paper about physical vs. digital public spaces. As part of that research, I'm looking into the merits of each, what does one offer that the other does not? Which is more effective when it comes to contributing to public discourse? Questions that I am really unable to answer stemming from the fact that most of my research is somewhat superficial and have only spent the last month investigating this broad topic. All I can offer is my own opinion and experiences which is what will follow in this post.

I don't really feel as though I operate within the public sphere… be it in the physical or digital sense. I do not attend townhall meetings or interact with people at Starbucks (see previous post) and discuss the current socio-political state of USC, California, the US, the World... And I believe that this blog is a testament to my lack of active/effective participation in the digital sphere. Honestly, both require a great deal of effort, time, confidence and really, knowing the right people to make my voice heard. I have had a level of experience with both. In High School I used to debate topics of “national importance” (I put this in quotations because it was for a mock government program) where I actually would discuss these topics with my peers from a fairly diverse background. And again, this blog is my attempt at digital participation.
Although there are different manifestations of the public space, that is the digital and physical, I believe that the obstacles of accessibility and of being heard exist almost on equal levels in both manifestations. I have argued in a previous paper that the internet allowed for mass mobilization among latino immigrant groups in Los Angeles. Such an event is fact and was documented in a dissertation by a USC student. While the dissertation examined the way these groups utilized social media to gain access to the discussion of how they are treated, I’m not entirely convinced that such an achievement is entirely indebted to the Internet. Social movements similar to this have, of course, occurred in the past, to a relatively high level of success. However, I will contradict myself by saying that in this particular case, in which personal videos taken of a riot where collected via the Internet allowed this group to circumvent traditional media forms (the evening news) to present their point of view. Something most likely impossible 30 years earlier. At the same time, this movement depended on an activist group to initiate this change and take the necessary steps to begin this mobilization process.
This post seems to be going nowhere (a symptom of the point I’m at in my research) but what I’m trying to outline is that access is still a central issue to political participation whether it takes places in the digital or physical realm. The Internet is not intrinsically open to all who wish to use it nor does it automatically give the participant a loudspeaker to enter the dominant/hegemonic discourse. There is a level of expertise and standing required to amplify that voice (seen in the activists groups mobilization of the individuals who took videos and America’s Representational democracy.) All that I have been able to discern from my research…and my opinion on this matter is that the Internet is merely and alternative to the physical, offering certain technological advantages such as user generated video, but is largely subject to similar issue facing the physical public sphere, access and voice.

wiiiifi

I’ve been noticing articles and blog posts concerning the presence of wifi in café’s and as someone who frequents Starbucks just to use their free internet, I feel like I might have something to say on this subject. As a student, the internet is essential to my education.  This is not an overreaction.  I communicate with my professors through email, am assigned electronic readings and many of my classes require that I turn in digital copies of my assignments through certain websites.  As a student, I also don’t have that much money (ie: I don’t have wifi at my apartment….this is kind of the result of a standoff with my roommate but whatever.) Thanks to the starbucks that is walking distance from my place, getting wifi is relatively easy. 

Wifi in cafe's-social place for digital access

social bookmarking soulmate?

Finding a social bookmarking soulmate is harder than it seems. especially when I don't completely understand how social bookmarking works and I find delicious to be really confusing and unorganized.  I don't like the internet sometimes. But here I am.

I think I found someone though (or as close as I could get to someone before I got to frustrated to continue.)


They have about 32312 bookmarks on their delicious accounts and extremely detailed tags. The one tag I was interested in was "government2.0" of  which there were 258 sites bookmarked with that tag.  However, I don't think this is a perfect match because my other interest "civicengagement" had only 1 tag.  There tagging process is extremely specific and organized, there were about 8746 tags categories, which was good helpful to me in finding whether they were interested in a similar topic to me, however there were very few, if any, comments added to the sites that were bookmarked.  One interesting site that my "soulmate" led me to was actually another blog: OpenSF that had a post about how governments use twitter that is perfect for the "readers" of this blog (I put readers in quotes because I have no readers) as it deals with public engagement with governments through the use of twitter which apparently leads to more influence.  which is pretty cool.

My soulmate also directed me to another blog simpl whose goal is this: "Simpl will connect government, business, nonprofits and individuals with ideas and resources to help them identify and solve problems." Awesome. I will definitely be looking more into that blog when I start doing more research on my paper and might also interest anyone who looks at this blog. The goal of simpl is somewhat different than what I am researching because it seems to regard government as a person and hopes to put them on equal footing with the rest of the public...which is something I had not considered before but really makes sense in terms of using the internet as a new, more easily accessibly public forum to communicate with government.  It sets up and also conforms to the idea of the internet as a somewhat utopian place where all participants are equal.  Here's a little tidbit I found pretty interesting in their FAQ section: "Another difference between the challenge approach and the Simpl approach comes in being able to step outside of your comfort zone and propose an idea or make a suggestion even in an area that is outside of your immediate expertise." I'm glad I found it.  Thank you social bookmarking soulmate.

Also, I would recommend checking this out: Citizen Experience.  apparently Gov2.0 is a commonly used term now like web2.0.  The origins are unknown however this site seems to epitomize it.  That is, using the internet (or web2.0...) to interact and hear form the public sector to affect public policy.  It's a North American company, but from the way they spell center (centre) I'm gonna say they're Canadian.  which is fine.

It looks like my soulmate bookmarks pretty frequently (at lest once a week) so I'm looking forward to whatever new sites I'm able to find through them and also go through the hundreds of sites they bookmarked under the government 2.0 tag.