Computers as Communication: The Rise of Digital Democracy

Mediated Political and Social Participation: Examining the Use of the Internet by Mongolian Government and Civil Society Institutions

“…Scholars who study the community level impact frequently conclude that the Internet tends to mobilize already engaged people (Agre, 2002;Norris, 2001;Rogers & Malhotra, 2000), while other scholars argue that activities on the Internet are most often apolitical, but that the Internet has great populist potential (Thompson, 2000). Scholars of digital participation argue that democratic participation should be defined more broadly than the limited political praxis of elections, by including areas where ordinary people participate normally by posting comments, suggestions, and discussions (Dahlgren, 2005;Hamelink, 2000;Olsson, 2006;Pajnik, 2005;Poster, 2001;Wiklund, 2005).…”

Hurdles of access and benefits of usage for internet communication

“…The same survey shows that 72% report that the Internet has improved their lives ("Survey shows wide enthusiasm...," 1999). All statistical descriptions of the Internet as a communication innovation indicate that the Internet has now reached "critical mass," that level of adoption where the technology continues to expand with no likelihood of nonacceptance (Rogers & Malhotra, 2000). Katz and Aspden (1997) discovered that there are specific motivations for using and barriers against using the Internet.…”

From disparity to parity : understandig the barriers to inclusion of persons with visual disabilities in the digital revolution of Uganda

“…Although ARPANET allowed participants in a communication system to interact across large distances at minimal cost, it was restricted to the community of ARPA-funded computer scientists who had developed it (Rogers & Malhotra, 2000). However, ARPANet was only one among the 'network of networks' that soon became known as the Internet.…”

“…As for computers, their early use was limited to complex calculations and repetitive data handling tasks.. Rogers & Malhotra (2000) argued that computers could have developed in a quite different way had four of its pioneers (Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider, Robert W. Taylor and Douglas C. Engelbart) not articulated a vision that entailed computers as communication devices.…”

“…The first International Conference on Computer Communication was held in Washington DC in October 1972 (Rogers & Malhotra, 2000) but the widespread use of the Internet only started after the creation of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British researcher at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva. In 1993 two computer science students, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, at the University of Illinois developed the first graphical interface, Mosaic, that made the Web much easier to use.…”