nettime: Internet & Politics Coonference (Munich)

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Internet & Politics - Modernizing Democracy through the Electronic Media
International Conference of the Academy of the Third Millenium

http://www.akademie3000.de

Date: 19. - 21. February, 1997
Place: European Patent Office, Munich/Germany, Erhardstr. 27 

Information and registration: Academy of the third Millennium, Arabellstr. 19 A,

81925 Munich/Germany, phone: 49-89-92503559, fax: 92503464, 
Email: team@akademie3000.de and 100656.1315@compuserve.com

Theme of the conference:
The internet can pave a quality path to a new dimension of communication between
citizens and politicians by easily achieving feedback and offers a variety of
new communication possibilities across borders which specially in a situation of
increasingly globalized competition are of great importance:  politics, science,
economy, communities and citizens can interlink optimally and offer innovative
platforms for the knowledge society.  
There are great initiatives already, specially in the Scandinavian and North
American countries, Canada in particular. Here the internet as a modern
communication tool in politics and administration already appears almost
self-evident. Not so in most of the European countries.
The democratic society rightfully expects answers to pressing questions from
policy-makers: 
How will the state react to the communication revolution? Which political
consequences are to be expected in education and training? How can new forms of
participation be developed? 
How can public services become more citizens-oriented? 
 
The conference "Internet and Politics" of the Academy of the Third Millennium
will offer opportunity to discuss some of these pivotal challenges to politics
and to propose perspectives for the European democracies.
As speakers experts from theory and praxis are invited. They come from so
different fields like science, online-communities, politics, administration,
industry, education and the media.
The conference is accompanied by an online-exhibition demonstrating and
explaining the worldwide most interestesting political Internet projects.  

Program of the Conference: 

19. 2. 1997, Morning 
"Electronic democracy"
Interactive citizen participation, televoting, e-mail communication with the
government and representatives  there is no area in politics and administration
left untouched by the changes in the new media.  It is important to understand
this process, to broaden it, and to actively 
shape it. 

Hubert Burda, Publisher, Munich 
Opening address

Edmund Stoiber, Ministerpresident of Bavaria, Munich
Opening address

Claus Leggewie, Political Science, NYU, New York
A new era of Athenian democracy? Introduction to the the conference theme.

Lawrence Grossman, President of the Horizons Cable Network, New York
The electronic republic. The convergence of the different electronic media is
increasingly changing the relationship between the people and their governments.

Martin Bangemann, Member of the European Commission, Brussels
Electronic democracy is the key to empowering Europe for the future. Work and
projects of the DG XIII

Andrew Blau, Communications Policy, Benton Foundation, Washington, DC
'Making democracy work'. Overview of political networking in USA.

Steven Clift , Board Chair, Minnesota E-Democracy, Minneapolis, Mn., and 
Scott Aikens, Program Coordinator, Minnesota E-Democracy, Cambridge, UK
The Minnesota E-Democracy project. Experiences with a citizen-oriented
electronic form of democracy.

Jorg Tauss, Member of the German Parliament, Bonn
The networked politician. Virtual discussions with constituents increase
political competence.

Ekkehart Gerlach, Project Manager, Vebacom, Dusseldorf
InfoCity NRW. What does the homo connectus expect from the net?


19. 2., Afternoon
"The networked people between publicity and privacy"
Global networking, on the one hand, increases individual liberties;  on the
other hand, it intrudes massively in one's right to privacy.  Balancing both is
necessary, as is the search for innovative solutions.  Politics must examine how
civil rights can realistically be protected and what is a feasible scope for
shaping policy.  

Geert Lovink, Media theory, founding member of the Amsterdam citizen net,
Amsterdam
"De digitale Stad Amsterdam", a citizen net with model character. 

Douglas Schuler, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and co-founder
of the Seattle Community network, Seattle, Wa.
Public space in cyberspace. Community networks are the key to developing an open
and equal society.

Spiros Simitis, Civil and Economic Law, University, Frankfurt
Freedom of speech and protection of the personality. Normative and technical
conflicts in guaranteeing civil rights.
 
Eli Noam, Finance and Economics, Inst. for Tele-Information, Columbia
University, New York
American and European telecommunications policy between de-regulation and
re-regulation.
        
Daniel J. Weitzner, Law, Center for Democracy and Technology, Washington, DC
Civil liberties in the digital age. Advocacy of democratic values requires
strong new coalitions.

Paneldiscussion: "Possibilities and limits of electronic democracy"


20. 2., Morning
"Regional - Transnational - Global"
The dynamics of the world economy demand creative fantasy of politics.  Who will
stay in the game of global competition, who will drop out?  What are the chances
and new possibilities for the regional and local economy, and how can they be
promoted?  How to avoid society breaking up into "information haves" and
"have-nots"?

Horst Teltschik, Chairman of BMW, Munich, Keynote speech

Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the board of the Daimler-Benz InterServices (debis)
AG, Berlin
Chances and risks of the globally acting company

Andrew GrahamEconomics, Balliol College, Oxford, UK
Nation state and global economy. New conflicts between political objectives.

Steven Miller, Executive director of Mass Networks Education Partnership,
Cambridge, Mass.
"Civilizing Cyberspace". Success and deficits of the American  National
Information Infrastructure (NII).

Esther Dyson, Chair of The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Edventure Holdings,
New York
Networking in the Eastern European countries. From state's control to
selfregulation.

Herbert Schiller, Communication, University of California, San Diego, Ca.
The information society between corporatization and democratization.

Paneldiscussion: "The feasible scope for regional and national policy"


20. 2., Afternoon
"Reinventing Government and Adminstration"
Many countries even now utilize the net consequently for modernizing the public
domain.  Politics becomes citizens-oriented, public institutions become
customer-oriented service providers, the citizen is a party to the
decision-making process, government, economy, science, and communities network
for the benefit of business and society. What is to learn from the experiences
of the net pioneers in other countries?

Pierre Bourque, Author and political columnist, Ottawa, On.
Connectivity, interactivity, productivity. An overview of national and regional
government networking in Canada.

Richard Simpson, Executive officer of the Information Highway Advisory Council
of the Canadian Government, Ottawa, On.
Realizing the social and economic potential of the Internet. The Government of
Canada is in the express lane on the Information Highway.

Joachim Jens Hesse, Public Policy, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK/European Centre
for comparative government and public policy, Berlin
Lean government and a citizen-oriented administration. New possibilities for the
overdue reform of government and administration. 

N.N., British Labour Party, London
"Communicating Britains Future". The British Labour Party has set the agenda to
developing the British knowledge society. 

Christa D. Slaton, Political Science, Auburn University, Al.
Televoting empowers democracy. Lessons from the "Hawai Televote" project. 

Presentation of the "Munich Declaration" (15 theses on Germany)
Paneldiscussion: "Modernizing the European Democracies"


21. 2., Morning
"Perspectives for the Networked Democracy"
A swift interspersion of the net in society presupposes a cooperative effort of
politics, economy, and communities.  It is the task of politics to guarantuee
the basic right to information.  This does not only concern the opnenness of
information and of net access but also the making available of meaningful
content and appropriate information structures. Only then can the net become a
democratically used mass medium.

James Fishkin, Political Science and Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin. Tx
Experimens in tele-democracy. The public opinion poll tries out new models of
deliberative polling.

Israel Rosenfield, Neurophysiology and History, City University of New York
Psychology and the Internet: new forms of disembodied Selves?

Walter van de Velde, Artificial Intelligence, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels
How to find what I really want to find? Intelligent agents are to reduce the
information overload by following personalized search criteria.

Benjamin Barber, Political Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N. J.
 Technology for what? The Internet for whom? Policy's primate in implementing
the new technologies.

Paneldiscussion: "What democracy do we want?"


21. 2., Afternoon
"The next Generation Internet"
The extent of changes in society through the new media is barely visible yet.
All the more, politics is called upon to intervene.  Public institutions must be
enabled to adapt flexibly and actively to societal change and to help shape it.
An important part falls to education and training, fields that must develop the
ability to prepare the next generation for the knowledge society.

John Gage, Co-founder of the USA NetDay project, Sun Microsystems, Mountain
View, Ca.
The Californian NetDay Project. Coalitions to improving our children's
educations.

Robert McClintock, History and Education, Columbia University, New York
Educating for the 21st century. Information technologies have the potential to
renovate education and society for the better.

N.N., Microsoft, Seattle, Wa.
Planning the future. Strategies of a global player for the design of
technological standards.

Robert Cailliau, Physics, head of World-Wide Web Office, CERN, Geneva
The technological possibilities of providing computer-assisted tools for a
knowledge universe.

Volker Steiner, Director Multimedia Communication, Deutsche Telekom, Bonn
The Deutsche Telekom and the Internet. Visions for a global infrastructure of
the World Wide Web.

John Heilemann, National affairs editor, WIRED Magazine, Washington, DC
No future without the young generation. The information technologies provide new
tools for the mediation of politics.

Paneldiscussion: "Educating for the knowledge society"

Registration: Academy of the third Millennium, Arabellstr. 19 A, 81925
Munich/Germany, 
phone: 49-89-92502300, fax: 92503464, Email: team@akademie3000.de and  
100656.1315@compuserve.com

Registration fee: DM 390,-- (DM 150,-- for university assistants, DM 75,-- for
students); fee includes lunch and morning and afternoon coffee.
http://www.akademie3000.de


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