One interesting test of the impact of IT on democracy is the current decision of the World Bank to cancel its Barcalona meetings which were set for next week, and instead hold a closed video-conference. The driver behind this was the potential for disruptive protests at Barcalona, of the sort that have followed other high level global meetings in recent times. The World Bank has argued that the teleconference will extend access, by allowing participation of people who could not attend the physical meeting. At the level of "optics" this is a blending of "the glass is half empty or the glass is half full". In 10 days the teleconference will have been over and many of us would like to see an analysis of whether this has contributed to democracy (through participation, transparency, accountability, or whatever) and how. We are lead to ask, what are the plans - designed in advance of the teleconference - to test the assertion of "greater participation" from the evidence of the conference? Sam Lanfranco Chair School of Analytic Studies and Information Technology York University, CANADA ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
