Communications - February 2012

figure 2. african citizens sending comments and questions to the White house through sMs, July 2009.

How do we radicate poverty?

We R proud of U!

What about Nigeria?

“We, the
people!”
Dear Prz,
welcome to
Africa!

tain socioeconomic strata in the digital divide. Studies of the influence of communication technologies on the interaction of citizens and their governments show small but significant differences across technologies. 2 A short discussion in the following sections on the role of technology in e-government and e-democracy (with a focus on Internet and wireless phones) supports understanding of the two case studies explored later in this article.

enabling Platform

The importance of the Internet as an
enabling platform for e-government
and e-democracy is well established
through a number of research stud-
ies. 3, 9 A less obvious option until re-
cently—cellphones and especially
short message service (SMS) commu-
nication—is an increasingly important
asset in the political world. M-govern-
ment, or “the utilization of all kinds
of wireless and mobile technology,
services, applications, and devices for
improving benefits to the parties in-
volved in e-government, including citi-
zens, businesses, and all government
units,” 15 emerged in the early 2000s as
an alternative to the relative passivity
and infrastructure-intensive nature of
Web browser-based e-government. Its
use is seen in China, Kenya, Saudi Ara-
bia, and other countries. Both Internet
connectivity and cellphones empower
citizens, encouraging participation in
political discourse that occasionally
crosses national borders, as explored
in the first case study.

key insights

;;; Governments worldwide use mobile telephony, the internet, and other technologies to engage citizens in political dialogue, giving rise to e-democracy.

;;; Text-mining contributes to the dialogue between citizens and their governments, using concept extraction to close the loop in government decision support.