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Today:
Millions online
Tomorrow:
Billions online
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Information wants to be free.
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Is There No Room for a Chalkboard in a
Networked World?
On Monday, March 19, 2001 the Charlottesville, VA City Council
made an historic decision to provide a message board for citizens of the city
to post comments regarding city politics and policy. They allocated $200,000
to construct the forum. That seems like a lot of money for a message board until
you realize that they are actually building a large chalkboard at the Thomas
Jefferson Center in downtown Charlottesville. That's right, a real chalkboard,
probably made out of slate. With the construction expected to begin in two years,
this project will qualify as a real stone-age innovation reminiscent of the
petroglyph-ridden Newspaper Rock in Canyon Lands National Park. But, in a digitally
networked world, is there room for a chalkboard?
Charlottesville is proud of this project. Josh Wheeler, the associate
director of the Jefferson Center, told the Washington Post (3/21/2001, p.B4)
that it is "an unprecedented statement by elected officials that the exercise
of First Amendment rights are not only tolerated but invited." Council
Member Meredith Richards voted for it despite her worries that it may "foster
threats and libel and hatred and expressions of slander." Such commitment
in the face of an unfettered free market of ideas should be applauded. That
it should be instituted in Thomas Jefferson's backyard signals that his lesson
of open public discourse has been learned.
But to wait two years for the construction seems a bit unreasonable.
Charlottesville's claims of "unprecedented" opportunity for public
discourse would be seriously watered down by the time the chalkboard is completed.
Furthermore, a quick Internet search reveals that several cities and towns around
the nation have already implemented an online version of this community forum.
Peru, Nebraska, for example, has
had a message board on the town’s Web site since 1998, if the date on the
oldest posting can be trusted. Other localities that offer this resource to
citizens include Middleton,
CA; Des
Moines, WA; Dauphin Island,
AL; Dansville, NY;
Tampa, FL; and
my hometown Lewiston,
ME. Norton, MA used to have
one, but its city council voted to replace it with a community calendar on September
6, 2000. According to David Gudas, who manages the message board for Lewiston,
ME, the city gets a post about once a week. Aside from one person who posted
about 50,000 "5's" to the board, the citizens of Lewiston have been
quite respectful of the forum. This suggests that when given the opportunity
to express themselves in public, citizens are likely to do so responsibly. Charlottesville
Council member Richards should be assured.
It is interesting to note the differences between the Charlottesville
chalkboard and the online message boards in other localities. While both allow
unfiltered opportunities to post comments in a local public forum, the chalkboard
actually requires that a citizen be physically present. Perhaps this may increase
the degree of accountability among those posting messages. On the other hand,
it may decrease the probability that people will take action. Typically, we
can expect that citizens would learn about an issue while reading the newspaper,
listening to the radio, watching TV, or surfing the Internet. The time delay
between learning about this issue and actually going down to the chalkboard,
unfortunately, may reduce the likelihood that a comment would be posted at all.
This loss of momentum, on the other hand, can be virtually eliminated using
an online message board because the information and the opportunity to post
comments can both be accessed simultaneously.
Charlottesville's decision to use a chalkboard at the Jefferson
Center instead of a message board on their well-developed municipal Web site
raises questions regarding their true commitment to meaningful government/citizen
dialogue. Though centrally located downtown, the chalkboard cannot be as easy
for government officials to read as a message board viewable on their desktop
computer. Will citizens take the time to go to the chalkboard and write their
policy comments? If citizens do take the time, will the appropriate public officials
come down to read them? In the end, public discourse is only meaningful if it
is timely and read by the right officials. If it is neither of these things,
the chalkboard will be just another quaint tourist attraction in beautiful Charlottesville,
VA.
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