Online Practices and Policy Development: Strategic Allignment for Democratic Change in Belarus
October, 2008
Belarusian pro-democracy actors have already established their presence online.
The next step is to use their online venues in order to effectively consolidate agents of democratic change.
The Internet , and new ICTs in general are seen as tools for circumventing authoritarian state pressures and surmounting communication cleavage as they allow it allows to significantly reduce the costs associated with political communication generate new ways of interactions between individuals, which in turn produce qualitative effects on political activism.
Situating this possible impact within the context of Belarus this paper seeks to specify the feasible ways in which those uses might produce visible effects on fragmented and isolated civic and political pro-democracy actors in Belarus, focusing primarily on strategic alignment of actors' policies and ICT practices.
Having this alignment in view, the paper presents recommendations on effective online communication and position propagation (web presence) and on (participative deliberation and collaboration (civic engagement) for promoters of democratic change in Belarus.
Full version:
http://www.e-belarus.org/docs/online_practices.pdf
Appendix 1. Internet Tools Use In Civic Campaigning 2004-2007
Appendix 2. Tips For Non-Partisan Political Websites
Appendix 3. Working With Bloggers
Appendix 4. Description And Evaluation Of eParticipation Tools
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