Postal services and modern information and communication technologies. TAB-Fokus

The letter mail volume has been declining globally for some years, in part due to the increased use of electronic communication means. In Germany, the number of letters could decrease by up to 29% between 2010 and 2020. This poses the policy-relevant question of whether the universal postal service, which guarantees a postal service of the same quality for all citizens throughout the whole territory, can be maintained at the current quality level. There are, on the one hand, options for policy action within the existing European framework legislation; on the other hand, completely new regulatory models, which address physical, electronic and hybrid communication systems in an integrated way, also need to be discussed

Regulations for access to the information society. Summary

Access to the information society takes place on different levels and includes the technical access of users to the internet, but also the ability of people to deal with this medium and to integrate it into daily media use and everyday routines. The access of providers of information and content to the internet or to certain internet platforms is also relevant in this context. However, the internet is not the only medium of social introspection, information and communication and enabling social participation, despite its further increasing spread: Press, radio and television are also media of access to the information society. Their offers of use and modes of use are changing more and more, and conventional demarcations are becoming blurred: One can watch television with a mobile phone, make phone calls with a computer, surf the internet via a cable connection, read the newspaper on an e-book reader, and programme the radio programme according to individual taste. These developments present legislators with the challenge of keeping pace with new types of hybrid offerings, devices and modes of use in media and telecommunications regulation and adapting regulation accordingly. The goal of media and network policy is to eliminate barriers for media innovations and at the same time not to lose sight of the normative aspects of provider and opinion diversity in an increasingly convergent media world. Against this background - at the suggestion of the Bundestag Committee on Economics and Technology - the responsible Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment commissioned the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) to work on this topic and to produce the present report. In the broadest sense, this report is about the connection between media innovations and media regulation. The central questions are: What role do governmental, regulatory requirements and measures play in a media world that is increasingly characterised by convergence, and in which the internet is becoming more and more important? What are the principle design potentials and options for politics? How can the innovation-theoretical and practical potentials of the new media be brought to fruition? With regard to the overarching theme of access, three topics have been identified as particularly relevant, which consequently run through the entire report: These are the topics of broadband, convergence and leading media. For the topic "broadband", a 6-country comparison was carried out in order to show the spectrum of state strategies in supporting network expansion and the spread of the internet among the population. The topics "convergence" and "leading media" were dealt with respectively in the presentation of the development dynamics in the media genres of press, broadcasting and internet

Internet for all? The Discussion on the "digital divide" revisited

Die Diskussion um das digital divide oder die digitale Spaltung, wie sie für den deutschsprachigen Raum übersetzt wird, wird nun schon seit nahezu zehn Jahren intensiv geführt.1 Vor allem im Rahmen der politischen Diskussion hat sich das Bedrohungsszenario einer digitalen Spaltung innerhalb der Gesellschaften festgesetzt. Aber auch weite Teile der wissenschaftlichen Debatte haben dieses Szenario aufgegriffen und aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven beleuchtet und analysiert. Obgleich sich diese Diskussion im Laufe der letzten Jahre sehr ausdifferenziert hat, ist die Stoßrichtung der Debatte, so unsere These, von einer dualistischen Struktur geprägt, die sich kontraproduktiv auf die Perspektive der Nutzungsbedingungen der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (im Folgenden auch IuK) auswirkt und bestimmte Sichtweisen ausblendet.2 Die Frage: Wer hat Angst vor der digitalen Spaltung?, die schon Mirko Marr (2004) gestellt hat, weist genau auf diese Engführung der Sichtweise, die in den folgenden Ausführungen diskutiert werden soll mit dem Ziel, den Umgang mit dieser Technologie als offenen Prozess umzudeuten, der keine Festlegungen der Nutzungsbedingungen des Internets vornimmt. Dieses Vorgehen vermeidet eine technikdeterministische Sichtweise und ermöglicht die Bewertung der Internetnutzung als eine funktionale Handlungsmöglichkeit unter mehreren Möglichkeiten. In den folgenden Ausführungen wird die Debatte um digital divide diskursanalytisch rekonstruiert, indem im ersten Schritt der originäre Diskussionszusammen-zweiten Schritt seine wissenschaftliche Differenzierung darzustellen (2). Im Anschluss daran wird der Versuch unternommen, diese Debatte nach techniksoziologischen Ansätzen zu bündeln (3). Schließlich werden in einem Ausblick kritische Stimmen dieses Ansatzes diskutiert, die das Bedrohungspotential des digital divide entkräften sowie von ihren deterministischen Komponenten der Technikentwicklung befreien wollen.digital divide; information technology; communication technology; internet

Internet communication in and with developing countries. Summary

Developing countries and modern information and communication technologies (ICTs): How do they go together? This often-discussed, but rarely examined in detail topic is dealt with in this book, primarily on the basis of sub-Saharan Africa, a world region with considerable obstacles to development. The focus is on internet use, which is particularly prerequisite-rich. In fact, the hurdles for a development-promoting use of modern ICTs and especially the internet are still very high there. The results of the study, which is rich in material and for which research was also carried out on site, not only point to the potential of ICT for development, but also show that internet use in sub-Saharan Africa is already diverse and is currently developing dynamically. There are considerable opportunities and needs for an expansion of the information society in this region of the world, not only with regard to the fields that are the focus of the study (democratisation, economy, education and research). Proposals on how to react to this politically and promote development through networking are another focus of this report

Electronic Petitioning and Modernisation of Petitioning Systems in Europe. Summary

After TAB had already presented a first report on the subject of electronic petitions in 2008 (No. 127), which dealt in particular with the pilot project "Public Petitions" of the German Bundestag, TAB Working Report No. 146 focuses on the further development of the e-petitions platform of the German Bundestag as well as other national petition procedures in Europe. It examines how the functioning, use and evaluation of the German Bundestag\u27s e-petitions platform have developed after an initial fundamental modernisation in its fifth year of operation. For this purpose, among other things, extensive surveys of petitioners were conducted. In addition, it was of interest to see how the online procedure of the German Petitions Committee, which in the opinion of TAB has been successfully established, compares with corresponding activities in Europe. To this end, an extensive survey was conducted on the parliamentary petition and ombudsman bodies in the 27 member states of the EU as well as Norway and Switzerland and also a separate country study on the petition and ombudsman system in Great Britain, including Scotland and Wales. The report contains a wealth of concrete suggestions for improving the current petition system and discusses three further, medium-term development options with their advantages and disadvantages for the petition system of the German Bundestag: > the general publicity of petitions, > the introduction of a national parliamentary ombudsman for personal complaints, and > the further development of the petition system in the direction of an instrument of direct democracy

Public electronic petitions and civil participation. Summary

In the course of its long history, the petition system has been repeatedly adapted and modernised to changing conditions, including the internet as a new medium for transmitting and publishing petitions as well as for communicating about petitions. Accordingly, the German Bundestag started a two-year pilot project "Public Petitions" in 2005, in which petitions could be made public and discussed via the internet and supporters could be recruited. On the initiative of the Petitions Committee, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) was commissioned to carry out an evaluation of this pilot project. This was to be embedded in a more comprehensive examination of the question of what new possibilities, but also what problems, the use of the internet in petitioning could lead to. KEY FINDINGS > Even in modern democratic states governed by the rule of law, petitioning has not lost its appeal; in fact, its importance has increased in many places. E-petition systems make a particular contribution to this. > Although e-petition systems are not yet widely used, they are currently one of the central activities in the field of e-democracy and e-participation, especially in the parliamentary sphere. It is to be expected that in the next few years government agencies will increasingly introduce electronic petition systems. > The pilot project "Public Petitions" of the German Bundestag can be considered a success, despite some serious shortcomings in its implementation. With it, petitions are made publicly accessible via the internet, the petition process becomes more transparent and citizens can actively contribute with supporting signatures or contributions to discussions. > With the pilot project, the first steps towards more transparency, accessibility and participation have been taken. However, not even 2% of all petitions are currently published on the internet. It remains open whether the German Bundestag wants to continue along this path towards more transparency and publicity. > Electronic petition systems have so far not led to a general increase in the number of petitions and only to a very limited extent to a greater representativeness of those involved: Women, population groups with lower levels of education and younger age groups continue to be significantly underrepresented among petitioners. > The problem that the desired and realised greater discursiveness, as expressed in the discussion forums on petitions on the internet, is not adequately received and processed by the actual petition addressees remains largely unresolved. > Although the political effects of electronic petition systems are difficult to assess, it can be said with all due caution that the introduction of electronic petition systems has strengthened the respective petition bodies in terms of publicity and that - due to the greater publicity of petitions - it can be assumed that the political system reacts more sensitively and attentively to citizens\u27 concerns