Class Project: Government and Internet

I would like to present an idea for a final project.

Simply put, we should make an eBook fitting the title "Government and the Internet," or perhaps "The Impact of Digital Media and Culture on the Future of Government."

This stems from the discussion we had last Tuesday in class on how a variety of technologies could be used to implement a more direct democracy (we're presently a representative republic IIRC) and my gut reactions to the ideas presented.

Potential topics could include

• Ideas for using modern media for enhancing current governance
• What does not work in our current government?
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Language and digital progression
• Social Media: Changing Apathy to Activism (Thanks Marissa Pielstick)

Potential structures could include

• Temporal
• past - historical examples and analysis
• present - barely disruptive changes that can be effected Now (Twitter, Facebook, direct democracy
• future (speculative) - what will happen in the future as these and other changes take their natural courses over a long time
• Topical
• Politics and technology
• Culture in an Internet Age
• Machiavelli and Social Media
• Scribes to Books to Newspapers to...???
• Control, Openness, etc...

The scope would be broad and the target high: this document should drive, shape, and refine a revolution in how government is defined and conducted.