Redefining Citizenship In The Digital Age
What does it mean these days when when the government makes something public? Just print it and put it on a shelf somewhere until somebody slips it to Bob Woodward? Host Scott Simon speaks to Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, about redefining citizenship in the digital age. Rasiej also talks about what social media and technology experts have learned in the aftermath of Iran's disputed elections.
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SCOTT SIMON, host:
I was in New York at the Personal Democracy Forum this week. Top officials from companies that included Twitter, Microsoft, Craigslist and Google were there to talk about the interception of technology and politics. Lots of interesting new ideas were percolating, so we invited the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, Andrew Rasiej, to talk about some of them. He joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. ANDREW RASIEJ (Personal Democracy Forum): Pleasure to be here.
SIMON: Andrew, what lessons have you absorbed about social media, technology, or anything else for that matter from events in Iran?
Mr. RASIEJ: Well, it's very, very clear that it's getting harder and harder for authoritarian governments to quell dissent. And as we see more and more people with cell phones and social networking tools like Facebook and other technological connecting points, we are going to see a larger and larger exposure of the way in which governments interact with their people and how people interact with each other.
So even if in the short term we haven't seen technology overthrow a government, as time goes on it's going to be harder and harder for any authoritarian organization/government to quell free speech.
SIMON: Do you think any of these technologies may change the whole notion of what citizenship is?
Mr. RASIEJ: Well, we as a country always expected that our elected leaders would delve into the details of our government's activities on our behalf and make decisions for us while we were very busy in factories or in the fields toiling every day. But as the industrial age has grown and made more free time available to individuals and as technology has made information more ubiquitous, it's very clear that we currently have a broken system where our elected leaders spend 90 percent of their time keeping themselves in office and very little time digging into the details of making decisions about our country.
So in the digital age, citizenry now provides an opportunity for civic engagement to be relevant to people's lives, where their actions and their organizational ability can be put to use for the benefit of the whole.
SIMON: And you think that the whole concept of public might be redefined.
Mr. RASIEJ: Well, as we have a more networked public sphere, it's pretty clear to the country and the world that everyone is connected to each other. And it's time for our government to acknowledge this fact as well. So I'm proposing that we create something called the Public Means Online Act, which would be defined where whatever information the government commits to making public, the standard for public should include freely accessible online.
Information cannot be considered public if it is available only inside a government building, during limited hours, or for a fee. Almost all our public sphere is now online. Our information should be there too.
SIMON: Andrew Rasiej, founder and publisher of Tech President and the Personal Democracy Forum, thanks so much.
Mr. RASIEJ: Pleasure to be here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
