When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they bravely conjured a new form of self-government. But they couldn t have imagined a mass society with instantaneous, many-to-many communications or many of the other innovations of modernity. So, replacing that quill pen with a mouse, imagine that you have to power to redesign American democracy for the Internet Age. What would you do?
This anthology offers forty-four essays, some large and sweeping, others more specific, that respond to this challenge. They are infused with the hopes of reenergizing, reorganizing, and reorienting our government for the Internet Age.
America s wonderful, messy experiment with a republican form of democracy is a work in progress, an unfolding story of astonishing possibilities and periodic disappointment. The storyline of this new century is the yawning chasm between the passion that Americans, particularly young people, have for a fair and just society, with the reality of near permanent incumbency for elected officials and a gridlocked political system.
Voting is our most visible political activity; it's easy to see and measure, but it s only a small part of the spectrum of political activities that form the backbone of our democracy. Political campaigns have begun to use an array of social media tools to connect with potential voters, but there are far greater uses for these tools beyond campaigns and elections. Social media and broad, enthusiastic participation together can profoundly affect governance and policy development, who runs for office and how, the communications between elected officials and citizens beyond elections, and the loosening of the death grip of moneyed, interests on politics and policies. This jarring juxtaposition of our political reality against the potential for great political change is vividly revealed in the awful uses of technology (e.g., touch-screen voting machines or microtargeting of voters by what beer they buy) versus wonderful uses of technology (e.g., cell phones used to mobilize voters or live-blogging of political events that engage thousands of people in direct conversation with candidates). Rebooting America is dedicated to understanding these differences and providing a vision of how we can realize our collective hope for a better future.
The essays are naturally as varied as the participants. They range from revisiting the need for checks and balances within government and between the government and its citizenry, to a radical reinterpretation of the public s right to know, to the exponential power of many-to-many deliberation to shape public policy. These essays confirmed our optimistic sense that the political system is due for substantive changes. Essayists Include:
Morra Aarons-Mele
Yochai Benkler
Lance Bennett
John C. Bonifaz
danah boyd
Harry C. Boyte
Matthew Burton
Steven L. Clift
Susan Crawford
Pablo del Real
Zack Exley
Allison H. Fine
Jan Frel and Nicco Mele
Julie Barko Germany
Newt Gingrich
Kaliya Hamlin
Richard C. Harwood
Scott Heiferman
Tara Hunt
Jeff Jarvis
Martin Kearns
Avery Knapp and Tennyson McCala
Gene Koo
Joshua Levy
Ellen Miller
Mark Murphy
Craig Newmark
Beth Simone Noveck
Andrew Rasiej
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Howard Rheingold
Douglas Rushkoff
Clay Shirky
Micah L. Sifry
David B. Smith
Matt Stoller
Aaron Swartz
Nancy E. Tate and Mary G. Wilson
Zephyr Teachout
Brad Templeton
Joe Trippi
Michael Turk
David Weinberger
Marie Wilson
