Net & Politics 2007 (Top 10)

PoliticsOnline and the World E-Gov Forum are proud to announce the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. For the seventh year in a row, PoliticsOnline subscribers and visitors from around the world have voted to select the top 10 individuals, organizations and companies having the greatest impact on the way the Internet is changing politics.

This prestigious award seeks to recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online. This year marked the toughest year ever in choosing the 25 finalists. The integration of politics and the Internet are reflected in this year's diverse, international nominees.

The winners, those top 10 nominees who receive the most votes, were announced at the World E-Gov forum October 3-4, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, (Paris, France).

Australian Council of Trade Unions Rightsatwork.com.au Rightsatwork.com.au is run by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, representing working families against the conservative Howard Government's radical workplace policies. Email campaigns educated people about the IR changes and encouraged them to take actions opposing them online. More than 85,000 Australians signed a petition, a record at the time. In three months, the email list grew from 4000 to 95,000, standing now at 170,000. Multiple small online donations from supporters allowed unions to roll out sophisticated advertising. The site's blog, RightsWatch, was a hub for people seeking help after being disadvantaged by the laws. Every query was answered by trained staff. Members of the public provided support. The web was used effectively to organize offline meetings nationwide to discuss the laws and encourage support of the unions' campaign. Vitally, with just weeks until the federal election, workplace laws are rated as a top factor that will sway Australians' votes.

Brett Solomon / GetUp! Action for Australia getup.org.au GetUp! has more members than all the major political parties in Australia and has been effective in influencing policy at a Federal level. It is an organization which empowers Australians and which has particular appeal for people who communicate best, electronically!

Congressman Dr. Ron Paul ronpaul2008.com Ron Paul is considered to be the best friend of the internet by his supporters. Ron Paul is against federal intervention in the internet and against unwarranted net wiretapping of citizens. Ron Paul voted against the amendment for internet neutrality which forsakes the free market in favor of government price controls, would chill investment in broadband network and deployment of new broadband services, would reduce choice for internet users and disrupts experimentation and innovation of the internet. Ron Paul is a medical doctor and his experience in congress spans over the past 4 decades. Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital. He has never voted to raise taxes. He has never voted for an unbalanced budget. He has never voted to raise congressional pay. He has never taken a government-paid junket. He voted against regulating the Internet. He voted against the Iraq war.

Pambazuka News pambazuka.org Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organizations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organizations, civil society organizations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. With a readership approaching half a million, Pambazuka News publishes podcasts, videocasts and books; supports African women and marginalized groups to develop blogs, radio programs, and podcasts to enable them to give voice to their experiences; supports women's organizations to use mobile phone technologies to act on violence against women and illegal seizures of land; and developed civil society blogs for monitoring the African Union. The growth of Pambazuka News reflects a commitment to fostering a community of African citizens who hold their governments to account.

cafebabel.com cafebabel.com Cafebabel.com is a leading European media innovating in the field of citizen journalism and multilingualism. Created in 2001 by a group of Erasmus students, the concept was to create the first European transnational media, relying on contributions from citizen journalists from all over Europe. With a network of 1200 citizen journalists in more than 14 countries, it has become a leading Eruopean media targeting the 18/35 years old. Furthermore, cafebabel.com is entirely translated in 7 languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Polish) thanks to a unique network of voluntary translators in Europe. In June 2007, the first e-community of Europeans was launched, creating the first multilingual social network, bloging platform and forums for EUropean citizens. With over 300 000 visitors per month and 30 000 subscribers on its newsletter cafebabel.com has changed the perspective of European citizen on Europe. It is a revolution in the field of internet journalism.

The On-nara Business Process System, Korean Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs On-nara system is a new work management system simultaneously run by 55 central administrative agencies in Korea since 2007. This system enables all the task lists, status, and other related information at the central levels to be registered, utilized, shared and recorded in an electronic manner. The most significant characteristic of the system is that it manages the entire government decision-making process from planning policies, up through reporting and securing approval while it records any proposed opinions and revised contents in the course of the process. Now 92% of all documents from central government agencies are being processed with the system. The system facilitates communication and information sharing, which leads to greater participation and democracy within an organization. All the materials produced with the system are preserved, utilized as national records, and provided to the public as policy information, contributing further to a transparent and open government.

National Democratic Institute ndi.org The National Democratic Institute is a pioneer in applying SMS-messaging to citizens' efforts to safeguards their elections. With NDI assistance, civic groups across three continents have utilized cell phones to quickly capture information on turnout, polling and results. Combining a SMS-based reporting system with NDI's rigorous observation methodology, these groups have achieved unprecedented levels of oversight of elections. Using these tools, monitoring groups can enhance the integrity of elections by alerting authorities to problems in time to be remedied, and by publicizing an assessment of the quality of polling and tabulation to expose problematic elections and increase public confidence in credible elections. In contentious and politically tense situations such as Montenegro's Referendum on Independence and recent elections in Sierra Leone, the ability to quickly comment on the conduct of elections contributed to stabilizing a potentially volatile post-election environment.

Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister, Sweden bildt.blogspot.com Carl Bildt, Prime Minister of Sweden 1991-1994 and Foreign Minister 2006-present, is one of the pioneers in online political communication. In the 90s, he was one of the first world leaders to use e-mail. In the last years, he has been a devout blogger, first as the UN Secretary General's special envoy to former Yugoslavia, and then as the Swedish Foreign Minister. He is, as far as I know, the highest ranked politician in the world who writes his own blog. By reading his entries it is possible to get a very good understanding of what's going on in Swedish and European foreign policy, and his personal remarks often make their way into mainstream media. Here are links to his blogs: carlbildt.wordpress.com (in Swedish), yukbog756.blogspot.com (photo blog), bildt.blogspot.com (in English), www.bildt.net (personal homepage, not updated for a year).

Gov2u gov2u.com Gov2u is a Greek NGO promoting e-democracy as an optimal medium for enabling a more participatory form of government. Gov2Demoss is an open source, generic but customizable, informative and collaborative e-participation platform awarded with the European Good Practice Label. In Spain with the cooperation of the private company SCYTL, 64 municipalities are implementing Gov2Demoss in the framework of the eConsensus project with the aim to foster public participation and consultation over the Internet; to improve the communication between councils and the citizens they serve; and to provide virtual forums to help citizens organize communities of interest and thus participate more effectively and constructively in public life. eRepresentative is a EU co-funded project investigating the potential impact of ICT to support the work of elected officials at the national, regional and local level by making legislative services more effective and tailored to their needs.

John Edwards johnedwards.com John Edwards works hard to communicate directly and succinctly by speaking through the internet about actual and desperate problems faced by all of us as we try to maintain our standard of living. Those of us who are financially secure can easily see the fragility of such good fortune, especially in the face of a growing class of have-nots who have been expected to take the burden of our prosperity. Mr. Edwards has taken on their cause, bless him, even though it will certainly not get him elected. As a candidate he at least has a forum and is willing to use it. I have learned through past campaigns that the candidates who seem less likely to get elected are free to speak more honestly. This is an unexpected benefit of out system and the internet for which we are thankful. Mr. Edwards is my favorite Don Quixote in the midst of all the careful and empty rhetoric of typical campaigns. I wish he could prevail and succeed in bringing these things to pass.