Speaking at the Parliament about Internet technologies

Tomorrow I will be speaking at the Parliament in Rome about Internet technologies, starting from the Obama victory, and how it as able to knit together a series of tools with very effective results. At La Sala Delle Colonne of the Chamber Of Deputies, there will be an open session, with a conversation between Marco Montemagno, Antonio Palmieri, Paolo Gentiloni, Enrico Menduni, Antonio Sofi, Edoardo Colombo, and me, with about 100 additional people in the audience, who will hopefully be very active too.

Since the founding meeting of the Open Government Working Group a year ago I was hopeful that an opportunity would arise to attempt at sharing my views with professional politicians. At this time there will be from both the right, and the left, and I really am looking forward to understand their views.

There were a couple of frightening news today:

• Italy is the only country among 30 surveyed by Eurostat, where Internet usage among families declined between 2007 and 2008 (from 43% penetration, already very low, to 42%)
• the Italian Prime Minister declared that he will propose at the next G8 meeting the adoption of an agenda item for the worldwide regulation of the Internet

Part of what I will try to communicate tomorrow, is that the Internet is not just an excellent electoral tool; it is not just an additional channel for parties and governments to communicate. It is also a fundamental new platform for citizens to participate in the acts of government, transparently, and efficiently.

We are just at the beginning of a long, but necessary road for the thorough adoption of  Internet technologies for government, politics, and civic life in general.