Mobile Democracy

In the 7th IBIMA, 2006, Brescia, Italy

Mobile Democracy: A Disruptive Innovation for Democracy-hungry Groups

Abdelnasser Abdelaal and Hesham AliDepartment of Computer Science

College of Information Science and TechnologyUniversity of Nebraska at Omaha

Omaha, NE 68182{aabdelaal|[email protected]


Agenda

Introduction IT and Social Applications Emerging M-Democracy Technology Previous work Proposed Model for M-Democracy Case studies Conclusions and Future Directions


Information Technology (IT)

IT is a super scientific discipline that includes the disciplines that address issues related to collecting, storing, managing, processing information, and employing information and algorithmic techniques to solve problems in various application domains.


State of the IT Discipline

Tremendous growth and development of Information Technology (IT) in recent years

The progress in core IT areas is happening fast - almost on a daily basis

The impact of this progress is not transferring with the same speed to other disciplines or to real-world applications

Some may argue that IT may have lost some of its exciting flare


Signs of the lack of “true integration”

The use of IT is not seamlessly integrated in our daily activities

IT-related interdisciplinary disciplines are struggling to achieve their goals and achieve them quickly

Major flaws in developing IT products for several critical applications

The digital divide issue


The New Role of IT

Integrate with various disciplines and create new exciting areas such as Bioinformatics and Media Technology

Provide the tools and innovations to other disciplines and help them achieve their goals

Take advantage of the growth of the new IT hybrid areas to further develop the core areas of IT


The Challenges for Integrating IT in Other areas

Clash of cultures in different disciplines It is against the mighty silo structure Potential overemphasis of the IT component Lack of proper resources Overestimation of needed resources More than one cook in the kitchen, which

recipe to use?


IT and Social Applications

Information and Communication Technology in general and mobile communication in particular have a number of societal applications: Civic engagement Electronic democracy Social inclusion for marginalized individuals Increasing social capital in the society

Definition: The term Mobile democracy refers to the usage of mobile interfaces by

citizens, activists, politicians to generate, disseminate, and receive political content for the purpose of improving civic engagement and policy outcomes.


M-Democracy

M-Democracy tools are particularly important for Democracy-Hungry Groups.

These are Groups that lack the necessary civic engagement and political participation capabilities due to:

The lack of affordable and reliable communications tools Time and distance restrictions to participate in the political

events; Government regulations that restrict political participation Disabilities and special needs

These Groups include rural residents, quasi-nomadic individuals, mobile workforce, youth, and developing societies.


Emerging M-Democracy Technology

Interfaces: Smart mobile phones, PDA, laptops, WiFi phones, satellite

radio and TV channels, dual-mode devices WiFi enabled cars Increased the number of trains, buses, cars, aircrafts, ships that

have wireless connections

Infrastructures: Satellite communications, 3G networks, Bluetooth, WiFi and

WiMax networks

Applications: Text messages, MMS, videoconferencing, mobile voting, RSS,

mobile blogs, Video and audio broadcasting, Mobile TV, telephony.


Technical Drivers of Mobile Democracy

Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) Dual mode devices can use both cellular systems (GSM,UMTS) and WiFi

& WiMax networks FMC reduces service tariff taking advantage of the high bandwidth of

WiFi, free frequency, and flat rate of the Internet unlike the cellular system which use metered charging rate.

Emerging wireless standards 802.11g can provide bandwidth up to 54Mbps, WiMax up to 70MBPs

compared to less than 2MBPs of 3G networks Improved QoS (i.e. security, reliability, real-time delivery, signal quality) Improved memory, user interface, CPU, and functionality

Deployment of municipal and community wireless networks There are thousands of public WiFi hotspots and hundreds of citywide

WiFi networks in the worldwide


Emerging M-Democracy Technologies

Source : http://www.3g-generation.com


Previous work

Brucher and Baumberger (2003) discussed the role of mobile technology in the democratic process.

DiMicco (2002) proposed a mobile voting application using ad hoc communications.

Suárez (2004) discussed the impact of mobile phones on Spain 2004 election which led to the fall of Aznar’s government.

The disruptive innovation theory has been used by Raynor (2005) to show the promises of wireless communications.


Proposed Model for M-Democracy

We propose a framework for M-Democracy that takes into account the emerging mobile and wireless technologies and the drowbaks of currnet civic engagmnet tools.

This model uses the disruptive innovation theory to show the increasing impact of mobile communications on political participation and civic engagement.

It shows that M-Democracy technologies are growing to supplement conventional information dissemination and civic engagement facilities particularly for DHGs.

According to the disruptive innovation theory, the inferior technology, in terms of performance, will eventually substitute or complement current technologies particularly for specific segments of users or applications.


Drawbacks of Mainstream Media

Failure of mainstream civic engagement tools Traditional mainstream media (TV, radio, newspapers) Failed to achieve political inclusion of the society at

large. These media are asymmetric when it comes to political

participation. Audiences can passively receive political content but

cannot generate E-Democracy tools and capabilities are not available to

about 85% of the world’s population due to the lack of Internet access.


Proposed Model for M-Democracy

Many-to-many engagement

M-democracy

Direct democracy Customized democracy

Real-time participation

Advancements of Mobile and wireless communications

Failure of mainstream media to bridge the political divide

SMS MobiTV

Moblogs

WAP

RSS

MMS

DABDVB

VoIP

Affordable democracy

Mobile Voting

A framework for M-Democracy as a disruptive innovation


Key Properties of M-Democracy

Affordable political participation In terms of time, effort, flexibility and portability

Many-to-many civic engagement citizens can communicate with each other and their representatives

via emails, videoconferencing, online forums, etc Direct democracy

Constituents can contact their representatives directly using mobile phones

Customized democracy Citizens can create their own infrastructure or application of interest

Real-time participation Mobile communications provide anywhere, anytime, and real-time

participation Low-regulated democracy

Unlike traditional media, authorities have less control of the content of text messages, emails, online forums, Moblogs, etc


Case Study 1: Egypt

Egyptian bloggers: They have grown to be the main political reform

force. Where they use mobile phones to document and

disseminate the violations of security forces and post them on open sites

Organize demonstrations, and promote freedom of speech in Egypt

Egyptian oppositions used laptops to provide voters with their voting number in front of the voting stations during elections of 2005


Case Study 2: Nepal

Recently in Nepal: Cell phones used to mobilize demonstrations

asking the monarchy government to return democracy in 2005

The government cut of mobile services to prevent oppositions form using it to coordinate demonstrations

After International pressure, the government returned the elected government and the mobile service as well


Case Study 3: Wireless Omaha

Free or Affordable Wireless Infrastructure with a focus on addressing the digital divide issue

The University has been collaborating with city official to provide wireless coverage in public libraries, civic centers, and city parks

The impact of connectivity Omaha Public Library informal survey The impact on the growing Hispanic population


Other Case Studies

Mobile text messages have been used to arrange for demontrations againest the President in the Philippines and eventuually led to his removal

Short Message Service (SMS) has been used to engage young people in Canada, register voters in South Africa, increase vote turnout in UK, and complete tax forms in Norway

WiFi networks have been used to politically engage native americans in public affairs through a community wireless network funded by HP


Conclusions

IT has a chance to transform various disciplines and serve as a key driver for significant development

Integration of emerging technologies in social applications has the potential of improving civic engagement and political inclusion

Significant results can be achieved when technology specialists and application experts work side by side in incorporating technology in effective ways

M-democracy will emerge as a key development in the political process


Next Steps Developing open-source software for mobile democracy

and applications (M-Voting, Moblog, MobiTV, news portals).

More initiatives for open access and local solutions to bridge the digital divide particularly in underserved and remote areas.

Awareness of the potential civic engagement capabilities of emerging wireless and mobile innovations.

Frequency deregulation, government incentives to initiate local initiatives in order to increase the deployment of citywide wireless networks taking advantage of the recent developments in wireless standards and mobile technologies.


Acknowledgment

Nebraska Research InitiativeNSF EPSCoR