Facebook Democracy

Iceland Likes Facebook: Iceland’s government is getting social. Parliamentary officials are using Facebook to ask citizens to help draft the country’s new constitution. Starting in April, Iceland’s constitution council posted draft clauses on Facebook so citizens could read them and offer their opinions and suggestions. Talk about transparency. People all over the world have taken note of Iceland’s progressive adoption of social media and are praising the small country for its encouragement of democratic engagement; for example, one commenter posted, “You are a model for every freedom and democracy defender all over the world. Our hopes rely in you. I wish you the best from Spain.” Iceland isn’t the only one though; other governments and political figures use social media sites to connect with the public, like our own country, for example. The White House has strong social media presence with its Facebook page and Twitter (@Whitehouse). Also, The White House recently posted on its blog (yes, they have a blog too) the results of Facebook and Twitter surveys it conducted. They may not be asking you to write constitutional amendments yet, but  the Obama administration wants you to participate via social media too. All Facebook

How Did They Know?: Looks like they were on to something back in 1982. Nearly three decades ago, The New York Times published a story called, “Study Says Technology Could Transform Society,” which describes the findings of a report commissioned by the National Science Foundation that “speculates that by the end of this century electronic information technology will have transformed American home, business, manufacturing, school, family and political life.” While some of the report’s predictions about teletext and videotext weren’t quite accurate, other predictions about privacy, advertising and an emerging online industry were spot on. Poynter