karen louise smith

It seems that everything interesting these days is happening at the Convention Center in Toronto.

During the American Political Science Association (Sept. 3-6, 2009 - also at the Convention Center) I was able to attend workshop on Coding the Blogosphere run by Stuart Schulman. Currently, I am considering how I can use the toolkit to gather materials which can be collected via RSS feeds.

Today, I attended WIREDcamp, part of the Ontario Government’s showcase event. WIREDcamp builds upon the unconference ChangeCamp event in Toronto to consider government in the age of the internet and participation. It was open to ‘public’ participants defined very broadly (i.e. Ontario government, Federal government, municipal government, non-profits, etc.). I attended a variety of sessions that dealt with issues such as: Government participation on third party (i.e., typically corporate sites), eConsultation, and why government employees may feel a ‘chill’ to participate in certain online arenas. If you are interested in finding out more, the event is documented at: www.technowonk.ca

This is my badge from Showcase. They read the barcode on my badge before I could enter some areas of the event.

Today I presented a paper at OISE at the Learning Democracy by Doing conference. My paper was titled: Transparent Technology? Exploring the political and design values of eDemocracy for citizens. My paper explored:

• transparency as a design value in eGovernment websites
• conflicts between government and citizen definitions of transparency
• the CAIRS database as an example of different enactments of transparency
• design and use of technology as a form of ‘doing democracy’

I promised some of the audience members to place references online. Please click the title of this post to access them.

I registered to attend transit camp 2008 today. It is being held at MaRS on Saturday, April 5th. What should be very interesting about this camp is that it parallels an online consultation process.

Tim Querengesser is a journalist who has been writing some important pieces about the use of cell phones to propagate hate in Kenya. In a recent Globe and Mail article Querengesser states:

"The technology has pole-vaulted many African countries beyond their crumbling infrastructure and into the information age. But it has also exposed them to risks. No other continent struggles with ethnic conflict like Africa. With SMS the preferred method to communicate (they're cheaper than calls) and with cellphone-happy Kenya now picking up the pieces after ethnic war, the potential for SMS to incite hate is coming into focus."

I have paid close attention to Querengesser’s stories because in 2005, I traveled to Kenya to visit a friend who was completing an internship in Nairobi with a human rights organization. During my holiday, my friend and I threw on our backpacks and traveled around the country.

When we arrived in Lamu, on the eastern coast I remember that two posters made a strong impression on me. The first poster was pasted to the wall in one of the streets showing how fair elections should work. In cartoon style frames, the citizen was shown arriving to the polls, casting a ballot and having her finger stamped with ink. A second poster I saw was in the post office / internet café. The image of a globe, community and connectivity was conveyed.

Querengesser’s piece reminds me that overcoming the digital divide does not necessarily address a society's other inequalities.

A recent news story reports that under Prime Minister Harper, there has been a reduced access to scientists experienced by journalists seeking information. Scientists and civil servants more broadly are essential to share information and make government accountable to the people.

In a paper I am working on to explore the meaning of political and technological transparency, I came across an interesting quote from Canada's first Prime Minister. As Prime Minister John A. MacDonald argued passionately to defeat a motion to eliminate the Hansard in Canada after it had been in existence for only one year during our early parliamentary history. As documented by the Hansard Association of Canada he stated,

"As a matter of history, it is of the very greatest importance that the remarks of every hon. member, who has a responsibility as the representative of the people should, if we can afford it -- and we can afford it -- be as fully recorded in the official report as those of a leader. I hope we shall not commit such a great mistake, I hope we shall not make such a relapse into barbarism as to throw over the only means by which after generations shall be able to learn what were the subjects of interest engaging our attention, what was the style of speaking and the style of thought, and what were the moving impulses of the people and their representatives in Parliament" (1881).

Please see the Hansard Association of Canada website for the full text from 1881. I'll be continuing to think about the transparency of government as something that needs to happen both inside and outside of parliament.

I’m at home right now on the couch and Michelle Obama is on CNN and Larry King live. Seeing Michelle on TV reminds me to Google her husband on YouTube to find the Yes We Can music video.

The video is old news by now, but I felt the need to check it out anyways. When I arrived on YouTube, the counter displayed 3,409,935 views. After I played the video, I scrolled down and looked at the comments. As one might expect any political video with over 3 million hits, some of the comments contribute little to a deliberative public sphere. My overall impression of the video however, is that it packs a punch. The simple rhetorical refrain of 'Yes We Can' is inspiring to me. As a Canadian, I cannot vote in the US election but I will continue to watch with interest.

I mean what I say. It is now 12:31 am and Michelle has departed from Larry King. They've moved on to Mike Huckabee and apparently the Democrat/Republican coverage is in balance this evening.

The provisional schedule for Politics: Web 2.0 conference being held in April 2008 at Royal Holloway University in the UK just got posted. I will be attending and presenting a paper related to photoblogging and social change.

A recent article in The Star by Carol Goar, announced that the Canadian Health Network (CHN) is being axed. Part of my master's thesis research was to study screen capture video files (collected with consent) from end-users who looked for health information using the CHN. The fact that the CHN is a collaboration of organizations (i.e., government departments, non-profit health organizations, universities, etc.) and is a non-corporate source of health information makes it an interesting resource to study. I will be watching for further announcements and to see what the political rationale is for the funding cut.

I just read an article by Bruce Byfield at linux.com that the Green Party of Canada is the first to include support for FOSS in their election platform. Here is a quote from Bruce's piece:

"Thanks to a founding member of Free Geek Vancouver, the Green Party of Canada has quietly become the first major political party in Canada to make support for free and open source software (FOSS) part of its election platform. Like officials in the Green Party of England and Wales, deputy leader Adriane Carr sees the move as compatible with basic Green ideas, but IT consultant Neil Adair also points out the move serves the practical purpose of helping the party match the technical resources of more established parties."

The full article is also available.

Welcome to my drupal powered website.

Once again, I have an online presence. I have made it a drupal presence because in 2003, when Howard Dean was in the running to be the President of the United States, drupal was used to allow grassroots citizens to contribute, organize, and participate in his campaign. Four years later, I’m (metaphorically) giving drupal’s content management system tires a kick. I am confident that with interests in the intersections between technology and politics, I am in good company.

If you are interested in what other NGOs, non-profits, or politically oriented groups are using drupal you can check out: