An addition to that recent string of papers on public engagement should be one by Ismael Pena-Lopez of the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. Ismael has been blogging for some years and on his site ICTOLOGY he presents for public consumption a variety of works including a recent one entitled ‘Goverati: E-aristocrats or the delusion of e-democracy‘.
I reported on Ismael’s presentation to a conference in May 2010, where he used the term ‘goverati’, we now have a complete paper outlining his thoughts. Whilst listing both the benefits and barriers involved in e-democracy Ismael still concludes as a majority of the other papers have done that it is not the ‘e-‘ thing that needs addressing but the ‘democracy’, since those traditionally excluded are not increasingly included within e-democracy. The ‘goverati’ are the same entrenched minority with the skills or allies to enable them to move from the traditional domains of influence to that on the Internet.
The Great E-mancipator 