So far, so good. Probably some of you still remenber the story. What I’m interested mostly in the press and politicians reactions. The Partido Popular argued that this was some sort of conspiracy arranged by the Socialist Party (PSOE) then in the opposition, now in the government. The press was also full of articles on whether the socialists were “guilty” of inviting people to join an illegal demonstration (you are not supposed to start demonstrations the day before the elections).
The rest of the press and the “experts” were fascinated on the SMS part. It was -according to them- the first cellular phone revolution.

To me, the key element, that was mostly ignored, was the irrelevance of such elements. I doubt that the Socialist party started the sms and e-mail campaing. I’m quite sure that they helped in spreading the chain, but the main point is that these efforts were mostly irrelevant. If now I hired thousand of people to send sms to the Spanish citizens inviting them to join a demonstration in Madrid to as our president Rodríguez Zapatero to start wearing dreadlocks I’m sure it will be a complete fiasco. Citizens were angry with their government, they feel like they were lying to them, and whatever particular use an individual or a group may try to do of this network it probably became useless.

The SMS part works fine for a technology magazine, but it is not the main point. As William Gibson wrote, the street finds its own uses for technology. If they weren’t any mobile phones, people would have use something else. The October revolution didn’t need mobile phones to get started...

So, what is the main part of e-participation that our politicians in Spain are missing? It is not the technology. And more importantly, e-participation does not mean let’s make people adapt to whatever project we have in mind. E-participation is not like a series of elections or referenda. But still, politicians and most press here view e-participation as just a way of presenting new and cool e-gadgets or as some sort of directed politicial expression. There seems to be no political activity beyond following the thesis of one party of another.

Fortunately, people find their own uses for technology and express themselves, like in our recent demonstrations.

Wrap up...

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