Grassroots Political Campaign in Russia

This chapter analyzes the transmedia strategies of opposition candidate Alexey Navalny's campaign during the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. The goal is to highlight how the use of information and communication technology contributed to the development of democratic practices in Russia. His westernized, grassroots political campaign was a novelty in the country, involving online fundraising, door-to-door canvassing, engagement of volunteers, digital projects, and meetings with voters, for instance. The argument is that, although Navalny lost the election, his candidacy represented advancement in terms of both the use of new media and the promotion of democratic development in the midst of autocratic Russia. If the progress will be maintained, it remains to be seen. The theoretical framework includes the reality of the Russian political scenario and the conceptualization of transmedia storytelling strategies in the context of participatory politics. The methodological approach is based on the transmedia analytical model by Gambarato (2013).

ICT, Media, and the Egyptian Revolution

The utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Egypt has irrevocably changed the nature of the traditional Egyptian public sphere. The Egyptian online society can be viewed as a multiplicity of networks. These networks have developed, transformed and expanded over time, operating across all areas of life. Nonetheless, in essence they are socio-political and cultural in origin. Network communication changed the way audiences consumed news, with traditional media –especially independent and opposition– starting to utilize ICTs to access online information to develop their media content, in order to escape government control. Several media organizations also started to expand their presence online so that, as well as providing news content, they also provided readers with a ‘space' to interact amongst themselves and with media organizations. Audiences started to provide detailed descriptions of Egyptian street politics, posting multimedia material, generating public interest, and reinforcing citizen power – and, hence, democratic capacity.

Video Surveillance

Pervasive usage of video surveillance is rapidly increasing in developed countries. Continuous security threats to public safety demand use of such systems. Contemporary video surveillance systems offer advanced functionalities which threaten the privacy of those recorded in the video. There is a need to balance the usage of video surveillance against its negative impact on privacy. This chapter aims to highlight the privacy issues in video surveillance and provides a model to help identify the privacy requirements in a video surveillance system. The authors make a step in the direction of investigating the existing legal infrastructure for ensuring privacy in video surveillance and suggest guidelines in order to help those who want to deploy video surveillance while least compromising the privacy of people and complying with legal infrastructure.

Utopia, Labor, and Informational Capitalism

Through the lens of a political economic approach, I consider the question whether or not social media can promote social change. I claim that whereas media have consistently channeled technological utopia/dystopia, thus be constantly linked to aspirations and fear of social change, the answer to that question does not depend on their specific nature but on historically specific social relations in which media operate. In the case here considered, it requires examining the social relations re-producing and produced by informational capitalism. More specifically, I examine how the productive relations that support user generated content practices of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. Drawing on Fuchs and Sevignani's (2013) distinction between “work” and “labor” I claim that social media reflect the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Internetworked Social Movements and the Promise of Politics

This chapter analyses the Spanish social movement of the 15M, and the influence of Information and Communication Technologies on it. Drawing a distinction between liberal and republican citizenship, the first part of the chapter discusses the interactions between technology and social movements in terms of political participation. This part compares and contrasts characteristics of online-based interactions with offline mobilisations in Spain. The second part of the chapter compiles a set of features that can be found in current Internetworked Social Movements, and its meaning from the perspective of political engagement. The chapter concludes that ICTs contributed to the recuperation of republican politics with current examples that suggest that forthcoming movements will promote this kind of participation.

Approaches to Development in M4D Studies

There is no doubt that the proliferation of mobile phones in developing regions has opened up a range of possibilities and new avenues for individuals, governments, development agencies and civil society organisations. But we also know that development is a disputed concept and conveys a range of different connotations. Therefore in this chapter we examine the areas, where mobile phones are discussed as vehicles for development (i.e. M4D), and how mobile communication is related to the idea(s) of development today. To examine this, we have reviewed M4D articles in three major conference series and open source journals during 2008-2012. Three dominant areas of M4D emerge out of our sample: livelihood, health and civic participation. We find that M4D is largely based on an economic understanding of development and biased towards techno-determinism. We conclude this chapter by suggesting a future path for studying the impact of mobile communication in developing regions, something what we label as a dialectical approach.

The Pamphlet Meets API

This chapter explores traditional social movement theory and attempts to modernize and explain contemporary movements with consideration of the digital tools being utilized by citizens on the ground. The ability to transcend borders and traditional boundaries using digital media, to facilitate international participation and develop communication, and the dissemination of information and coordination among activist networks around the world is hugely important. This chapter asserts that modern contentious collective actions and contemporary movements have received an infusion of autonomy and grassroots energy fueled by the internet, digital technologies, and social networking platforms using Applied Programming Interface (API). Arab Spring movements in Egypt and Tunisia illustrate the use of social media within this emergent framework.

Microblogs, Jasmine Revolution, and Civil Unrest

Weibo provides an alternative channel for many Chinese citizens to obtain non-censored news contents and share their opinions on public affairs. In this book chapter, the authors employed Jürgen Habermas's concept of public sphere to examine how Chinese Weibo users (i.e., microbloggers) make the most use of this social medium to form a public sphere to contest omnipresent state power. Habermas's analytical framework helps to better comprehend the role of social media and its interactions with other stakeholders in Chinese politics. The role of social media in shaping this less controlled sphere of political deliberation and participation was examined using a case study approach. The authors analyzed the Chinese Jasmine Revolution to discuss the interrelations among social media, civil society, state power, economic development, political process, and democratization in China. The case study identified Weibo's essential role as a device to bypass existing government censorship, to mobilize users, and to empower Chinese Internet users to engage in political activities to foster its nascent civil society.

Developer Challenges as a Platform for Citizen Engagement with Open Government Data

Every year, state and national governments churn out enormous quantities of data on public life. The rapid growth of information and communication technologies presents new opportunities for everyday citizens to manipulate, use and disseminate these data in innovative ways. “Developer challenges” harness this potential by inviting citizens to experiment, play and develop data-based applications for the public benefit. This chapter explores the evolution of government initiated developer challenges in Australia and uses existing theoretical approaches to assess their impact, benefit and potential to generate value. The authors find that while developer challenges can provide an effective platform for citizen engagement, more attention must be paid to the quality of the data and to the activities carried out after the events finish. Moreover, the authors propose that in order to generate value there needs to be a higher level of involvement from the government with the applications developed during these challenges.

Designing and Implementing e-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India

Attracted by the new Information and Communication Technologies, actors across the world have adopted computer-based systems for use in government as a means of reforming inefficiencies in public administration and public service provision. This book chapter, through the study of an electronic property tax collection system in Bangalore, India, seeks to unravel the social dynamics shaping similar e-government initiatives. The research upon which this chapter is based analyses prevailing actor behaviour, motivations, and interactions; examining not only the interplay of local contingencies and external influences acting upon the project's implementation and transformation, but also the disjunctions in these relationships which inhibit the effective exploitation of ICTs in the given context.