<nettime> The vaguaries of Internet Democracy

[Felix Stalder <stalder@fis.utoronto.ca>]

The vaguaries of Internet Democracy:

According to the German weekly _Der Spiegel_ [1], almost 17.000 individuals
have registered for the election of the ICANN Board. About half are
Americans (6915), the other half are Europeans. Of the Europeans, 61% are
Germans (4107). This might be a bit surprising. Germany, with high local
phone rates, is not necessarily the most advanced country when it comes to
Internet use. However, two major initiatives, one by the Bertelsmann
Foundation called  _Democratic Internet_[2], and one by the said weekly and
other mass media [3], have created more public awareness than anywhere
else.  As a comparison the number of registrants in France is 323, for all
of Britain it's still under 700.

This reminds one a bit of municipal votes where the turnout is so low that
the results reflect more the ability of special interest groups to mobilize
their member on single issues, than the opinion of the public. Not that
Germany is a special interest group, but the differences in mobilization
have more to do with old media and with online culture.


[1] http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,77799,00.html

[2] http://www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/english

[3] http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/icann/



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Les faits sont faits.
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