InCommunity
- are smart communities more civically and socially engaged?- One of the themes that seemed to permeate several of the formal presentations - as well as the informal interventions by an interested audience - was what I would call "the role of technology in strengthening (awakening?) civic responsibility". It was kicked off by Brian O’Connell in the context of a civic society; picked up again by John Eger on smart communities; questioned by Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid in terms of more local "rapports" (what about the local neighborhood, the family?); and it was turned “upside down” by Howard Rheingold, who has for long defended the power of technology in engaging (as in “mobil-izing") a society, through examples such as the 2000 political turmoil in the Philippines that brought down Estrada - after a public concentration in downtown Manila organized through text messaging.
