(keitai-l) Re: Italy: Elections by SMS. What do you think?

From: Steve Cavrak <cavrak_at_emba.uvm.edu>
Date: 06/17/04
Message-ID: <40D19AB9.1030709@emba.uvm.edu>
Giovanni Bertani wrote:

>Today, an SMS sent and firmed by the Council of Ministers of the 
>Italian Republic reminded all the Italian mobile phone users that 
>tomorrow is election day:
>  
>
>...
>
>What do you think? Is this a stupid idea or is just an example of 
>pubblic use of mobile tech?
>
>  
>

At first blush, I misread the "headline" ... I thought the Italians were 
actually going to VOTE via keitai ! That struck me as a very interesting 
proposition - the next step beyond internet voting / instant polling.

Thinking about it. No, it's not a "stupid idea," though it might not be 
a particularly good one. I'd view it as another experiment - and wait to 
see what we learn from it :) ... The evolution of things like the "web" 
is dynamic - "the web is the future of  the [book, newspaper, 
television, record industry, porn industry, ... ]." It was McLuhan who 
observed that "the first content of new media is old media."
Received on Thu Jun 17 16:21:01 2004