Report: Power to the Edges

Die US-amerikanische e-Volve Foundation hat einen Report über die Chancen des Internets für zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen veröffentlicht. Den Report gibt es als 1,17 MB grosse PDF-Datei zum downloaden, ebenso eine ca. 7 MB grosse Präsentation, ebenfalls im PDF-Format.

[…] This report provides an overview of the state of online democracy; what it is, where it is headed, and what it means for activists and those who support them. A literature review was completed, online discussions were monitored and nineteen in-depth interviews with leaders in the fields of online technologies, nonprofit capacity building, citizen engagement and social networks were conducted. This effort is intended to be a snapshot in time, not the ultimate guide, and to serve as a jumping off point for further discussions to occur online about how these tools and the culture of online civic engagement can be further developed and scaled for broader, deeper and more lasting citizen action.
[…]
For the purposes of this report, we use four meta categories to describe the kinds of activities included in online civic engagement (more information and examples are available in the Appendix.)

* Collaboration: many people working together on a single activity, effort or project. Types of technology include wikis, and Yahoo groups discussion boards.
* Communication: talking with and among constituents. Examples include email, chat rooms, listservs, text messaging using cell phones, and instant messaging
* New media/Content development: generating and disseminating original news. Examples include web sites, web logs (blogs), newsletters, RSS (news syndication software), and podcasting (regular audio programming delivered via the Internet to an iPod or other MP3 player).
* Organizing/Collective Action: coordinating the activities of large numbers of activists and supporters. Examples include smart mobs, meet-ups, virtual phone banks, online petitions, and volunteer management databases.