DEMOCRACY AT INTERNET SPEED
Ersu Ablak

Turkish Daily News
December 18, 2008 Thursday

The Internet has revolutionized everything not because it connected
computers together, but people. Therefore I believe the Internet is
not virtual but very real. The fact that people are interacting with
it and are affected by it makes me believe in the importance of the
Internet as a medium of opinion forming. The interest of youth in the
Internet makes this medium even more important as the youth of today
are increasingly forming their opinions with the information that
receive mostly from the net just like anyone else. People are feeding
each other with all types of information about almost everything
via Web sites, RSS feeds, podcasting, forums, applications, games,
etc However, not all information you can reach through the Internet
is true and many streams of information could be considered as junk
or appalling. But like it or not, information spreads very quickly
via the Internet and reaches a very diversified group of innumerous
people. Therefore it is essential to use the Internet as a means
of communicating opinions with a global reach by people who have
meaningful things to say. Without the contribution of people who
have considerable knowledge in any subject, the Internet can be used
for misinformation very easily and public opinion can be formed with
unrealistic pieces of information.

I have come across two important campaigns lately and I believe
these are very important in mediating opinions. Turkish intellectuals
have been neglecting the Internet for many years, but with the "We
Apologize" campaign at , they show they
have caught up with it. Two thousand people have signed to apologize
to Armenians for the events of 1915. For the purposes of this column
their political stance has no importance. I myself do not share many
of their ideas. But what is important is that the debate has been moved
to the realm of the Internet with a significant intellectual substance
rather than fighting and cursing over the subject in various forums. I
am sure that this move will create more meaningful discussion than what
has been going on. Sixty ex-ambassadors have written a declaration
condemning the aim of the campaign. The declaration itself has solid
information that the public wouldnt come across if the "We Apologize"
campaign did not spark the discussion in a more intellectual manner
via a powerful medium such as the Internet. I am very happy to see
that the Internet has enabled quality discussions in one of the taboo
subjects of Turkish politics. I hope that Turkish intellectuals will
use this tool to lead discussions in other points as well.

The other Internet-based campaign is It was started
by university students affected by the changes in the new Social
Security Law that was accepted by Parliament on Sept. 1. The law has
made it impossible for students to take part-time jobs and universities
to hire part-time workers. In order to protest this change in the law
and to communicate their point across Turkey, students chose to build
a Web site and create a Facebook group. The Group had 1,107 members
as this article was being written. The Web site claims there are more
than 20,000 part-time working students in Turkey.

Their aim is to unite them together to press for a change in the
current legislation. This campaign shows that you dont need money or
expensive lobbyists to create pressure on political circles because
the Internet enables you with a low-cost, easy-to-use environment
and media power with zero costs for distribution. Two years ago in
a discussion, Peter Leyden of New Politics Institute and the former
editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, said broadband technologies would
increase openness and the quality of democracy in every nation

"Therefore, broadband will not only be a revolution in communication
but also in democratization, especially for the United States," he said

I see that Turkey is not missing this revolution either