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VoterIt is not surprising that most governments of the world have web sites — in fact, many call themselves "e-governments". In early November, the United Nations issued a report entitled “E-Government at the Crossroads” which showed that 173 of the U.N.’s 191 members had Web sites. (see patrickWeb story for details). That is the good news. The bad news is that only 20% of people with Internet access use them. This is because most e-government sites offer limited content and most do not have compelling nor useful transactions. Beyond that is the ultimate power of the Internet for citizens around the world — the ability to be heard and to express opinions to their political leaders.

We are beginning to see signs of political participation via the Internet in America as many candidates vie to connect with voters for the upcoming 2004 elections. While pre-election communications by candidates may be a good thing, the principal long term benefit is for governments to encourage their constituencies to help make policy. The U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs said that the U.N. sees the Internet as a means of "advancing and consolidating transparency and democracy".

Janet Caldow, Director of IBM’s Institue For Electronic Government, wrote a paper called, e-Democracy: Putting Down Global Roots, where she describes how e-democracy is a natural outgrowth of e-government. She says that e-democracy efforts will start to bear fruit in this decade. The same technology infrastructure that is enabling internal government transformation and government services to citizens can support sweeping changes in e-democracy. Janet says "It’s time to graduate from the now commonplace delivery of information and government services online to a more strategic view that promotes the philosophy and practice of democracy in the free world".

Another person who knows a lot about e-democracy is Steven Clift. Steven is an online strategist and public speaker who is focused on the use of "the Internet in democracy, governance, and community". For the last decade he has worked to improve democracy and citizen participation through the use of the Internet. He says he "seeks to change the world one e-mail at a time". Take a look at stevenclift.com and you will see just how extensive his involvement and expertise is. Steven hosts DoWire.org – Democracies Online Newswire where he shares knowledge and practical advice directly to thousands of subscribers.

Steven will be releasing a new paper in a month or so and you can see the sections of it roll out here.