• Blog Growth Slowing

    Could blogging be near the peak of its popularity? The technology gurus at Gartner Inc. believe so.One of the research company’s top 10 predictions for 2007 is that the number of bloggers will level off in the first half of next year at roughly 100 million worldwide (link the Age)

  • Victoria gets first Greens in Parliament

    Greg Barber is one of three Green representatives recently elected to ‘Northern Metropolitan’ region in the 40-seat Legislative Council with Greens colleague Sue Pennicuik and one DLP member (with which he will share the balance of power). These are the first Greens in the Victorian Parliament. Here is an interview I did with Greg for…

  • What is the International Network of E-Communities?

    Also see the ‘Delclaration of Open Networks’. The INEC Declaration on Open Networks outlines the imperative need for Open Networks and the benefits they are to provide to communities. In ten articles, the open networks are presented as the network which best caters the needs of signatory communities. Open networks must be operator-neutral, symmetric, are…

  • What is the Virtual Knowledge Studio?

    Recent transformations in communication and information exchange have created new opportunities for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. It is not self-evident, however, in what ways scholars can best use these possibilities while maintaining and further developing their specific roles in academia and society. This new KNAW programme, The Virtual Knowledge Studio for the…

  • Victoria’s ‘Connected Communities’ project

    Connected Communities is a project from the Victorian Government with the ambition to (funny enough) ‘connect communities’. It appears to be driven by the ‘digital divide’ thesis (here are the details link). But I have never really understood what a ‘community’ is. The term has become so ‘normalised’ that it is rarely discussed critically. It…

  • What is the Deliberative Democracy Consortium?

    Central to our work is the conviction that the outcomes of deliberation result in qualitatively better, more lasting decisions on policy matters. Participation in such forums is a central to democratic renewal. Essentially, our view is that democratic deliberation is a powerful, transformational experience for everyone involved–citizens and leaders alike–which can result in attitudinal shifts…