Civic Electronic Networks :: Political Science Essays

Civic Electronic Networks Who would ever believe that a stereo-typical gangster teenager and a wealthy businessman would ever be able to debate and have equal say in government politics and their community affairs? With technology advancing almost daily, many cities like Santa Monica, California and Blacksburg, Virginia, have been able to make equal communication possible with the use of civic electronic networks. These civic electronic networks allow citizens to speak and debate openly on any topic they desire. John Schwartz and Pamela Varley wrote articles describing actual experiments with electronic democracy that took place in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Santa Monica, California. Though each city used very different scenarios for their civic electronic network, both of these real-life cases allowed for people to actually test and participate in the civic electronic network and see its impacts on their community. Blacksburg Electronic Village, or BEV, was created in Blacksburg, Virginia with the money by grants from Bell Atlantic and the cooperation of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. With around 60 percent of Blacksburgs citizens having email, 40 percent having full Internet access, and all-access computers in the library almost the whole town is wired. John Schwartz, a science writer at the Washington Post, wrote an article entitled The American Dream, and Email for All, describing the experiences of community members of Blacksburg, Virginia. He explained how the BEV successfully fused small-town folk with high-tech communications(242). Schwarz explains, that the BEV has not only acted as a communication tool for the town but as an asset to each individuals personal life. People of Blacksburg, Virginia are able to pay their bills, print-and-redeem coupons, and have custom-order packages delivered via the BEV. According to Schwartz, The folks in Blacksburg dont yearn for the flash and dazzle if it doesnt have payoff in utility(241). The BEV seemed to work incredibly well for the citizens of Blacksburg, but would a system like that work everywhere? Probably not. Being a small town, almost all the citizens have access, and most of the community businesses were able to promote their trade easily, so no one was left out of the loop. Also, because Blacksburg is a town where everybody knows each other there wasnt much uncivil commentary. A community member explained, (In Blacksburg), if you yell at somebody, theres a good chance youre going to see them on the street. So, folks in this small town were lucky, however, in a city or large suburban area things could have been very different.