Weblog on the Internet and public policy, journalism, virtual community, and more from David Brake, a Canadian academic, consultant and journalist

Archive forJuly 16th, 2002 | back to home

16 July 2002
Filed under:E-democracy at11:44 pm

The UK government has just launched a green paper (a policy discussion document) on the UK government’s commitment to e-democracy. According to VoxPolitics – an e-democracy campaign group – this was “the world’s first offical eDemocracy policy” (actually except for Finland’s). They say the initiative appears to be more about adding Internet elements to the existing process instead of changing the process in response to new possibilities. If this is so, then it is an opportunity missed.

It takes a long time to change systems as large and complex as central government, so the sooner it is recognised change is necessary, the sooner the changes can begin. Alas, if you look at the tiny amount of time spent discussing Internet issues at the last election you can see why there is apparently no great urgency.gay a watch moviewhite movie chicks themovies sex zooamatuer movieanimal movie housebj moviecdgirls moviecheyenne movies silvercurvy moviesfree movies daily pornkobe tai free moviesmovies privatetwink moviesmovies free bbwdaily sex movies freebang movies bus freeamature moviesmovies free bestiality Map9353 last words mp3 famous42 accurian 198 mp3mp3 tp 3gpmya mp3 01 search mp3 danceabiyoyo mp3 song1 mp3 gbmp3 clips acdcencode mp3 audition batch adobe Map

Filed under:Copyright at6:30 pm

Janis Ian has written a lengthy but interesting defence of MP3 sharing (saying, amongst other things, it helps smaller artists get exposure) and attack on the music industry.

It’s true that the music industry does not seem interested in using the Internet effectively as a promotional tool or to cut out the cost of distribution. But it is also true that 1) it is hard for the industry to figure out how to “cut the cake” of earnings in this new business environment, so “official” music sharing software tends to be experimental and offer only fragmentary access. And unfortunately 2) a widespread and well-marketed move to paid-for music downloading even at low cost might not stand much chance of success if a parallel system of easy to use totally free music download software exists alongside it. Some say that this would not be a problem, but if I was a music executive I would not be much interested in betting my company on it!

(Thanks to Harald for the link)