Comments on: Clegg and the Digital Revolution

By: Sam Zubaidi

Sam Zubaidi — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:22:38 +0000

So glad to have been directed to and read this. My views are identical to those expressed within, i.e. we, the people, now have a greater control over our lives than ever before, accountability of organisations and bodies is immediate and potent, yet the final bastion of inefficiency and quasi-dictatorship is our political structure.

Great to see someone else has recognised this anomaly. Now, my question is, what can we do to change this?

By: Lance Howard

Lance Howard — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:56:30 +0000

Talking about access and digital technology in Africa, I can tell you from first hand experience this year in Uganda, there was coverage for mobile phones even in remote areas of the Murchison Falls National Park and up Mount Elgon in the east of the country. I regularly lose coverage here at home on the road between Fleet and Aldershot!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:38:29 +0000

From a sociological perspective the interesting question is whether the net qualitatively changes the social world any more than the printing press, the telegraph, the mail, or the telephone did when they were invented. I’m not convinced that it does. I disagree, in that I think it does... or rather, will. Although at the moment, the net refers mainly to PC use. I don't think profound changes will take place until other methods of access become widespread too. Have a look at this post about digital technology aiding development in rural Kenya.

By: Matt Munro

Matt Munro — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:16:11 +0000

I’m not convinced that the net really will negate established structures. Business and government are busily imposing their structures on it, and you could argue that ownership of the net, in the physical sense, is a perfect model of gloablised monpolistic capitalism (restrictions on software and hardware, creeping censorship, elite dominance etc etc) and there is a tendency to assume that it is a tool of the majority when IIRC only around 30% of the worlds populance have net acess.
From a sociological perspective the interesting question is whether the net qualitatively changes the social world any more than the printing press, the telegraph, the mail, or the telephone did when they were invented. I’m not convinced that it does.

By: Leon

Leon — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:49:11 +0000

I think it’s more than about delivering ‘services’ to one and other too…

By: jameshigham

jameshigham — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:05:03 +0000

Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube – are about something very different: they are about the surveillance society, the new-feudalism and post democracy post-2010.