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French Democracy Goes Online
Representative's Oratory Free to All on Globe
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Paris:- Wednesday, 27. March 1996:- As on Monday, I
started out to look for one or two stands at the Salon de
Livre, rather than cruise the 500 or so, and I felt I had
unfinished business from Monday - a stand I wanted more
depth from - so, as is the rule - I turned up an entirely
different subject.
You understand, I am looking for 'meaningful' photo opportunities at the same time as I am looking for something specific - and today I was cutting across the hall on the 'E' path - what are these things called? - 'E' Train? - these routes inside the Salon - looking for the 'Marianne' busts, and I found the Assemblée Nationale. To be at the book fair makes sense for the Parliament, because it is a prime publisher of new texts - of laws, for example. All the same, this is the first year the Assemblée Nationale of France has had a presence here. |
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The thing that stopped me was the Web address on the panel
- only after I had wandered on a bit further to the
Sénate stand, and found one there too. I went back
to the Assemblée Nationale to find out more.
Only online since early this year; if you drop into the Assemblée's site you will find that you can download Acrobat-formatted verbatim texts of the debates, and these are the most recent texts. |
| This may seem banal to you, whether you live in France or not. Ask yourself this: can you get a verbatim account of your country's last Thursday's parliamentary session? Ready to print, as well? |
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Maybe you can - but the idea that a French citizen can cut
through all the closed doors, media filters, penetrate to
the heart of government in the centre of Paris - to the
part of the heart that is conducted in public - and
actually scrutinize... Exactly who said what to whom about
which specific question - this is a revolutionary idea.
In a highly centralized state such as France, the idea of allowing each and all citizens equal access is... Novel. |
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(In Friday's Libération), Laurent Mauriac takes
Nicolas Negroponte of the Media Lab at MIT to task for
suggesting that France may be a bit... Backward, at odds
with the Internet - also for being so bold as to suggest in
the April 'Wired,' in an open letter to President Chirac,
that the Internet could reinforce cultural identity.
According to Mr Mauriac, Mr Negroponte has no right to 'give lessons' to France; that his motives can be traced to the fact that the Italians bought 50,000 copies of his book, 'Being Digital,' and the French only 10,000 - and that Negroponte is basing his deductions on a deficit sale of 40,000 books. This is France and the French often don't realize what is funny about being French, is being... French. Libération has a big stand at the salon and on opening day last Friday, hosted a debate entitled, 'Culture: version Française, version Américaine.' |
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Professor Nicholas Negroponte is a professional planet
earth 'futures messenger,' and as Libération points
out, an Internet guru. As he probably wrote his April
'Wired' column last December or January, he may have not
been aware that the French Senate would be online a few
months later - and Libération, at the salon, may or
may not have been aware that the stands of the
Assemblée Nationale and the Sénate were
nearby; and both were online.
I could be wrong - because I don't read Libé every day - but it seems to me that France has gone and done what the good professor suggested; and Libération is unaware of the significance of it. |
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Or, could it be that Libération, long a supporter of
multimedia - with a regular Friday section of the paper
devoted to the subject - could it be that Libération
is ultimately afraid of online - could it be afraid of
getting removed as a filter between the government and the
governed?
Such weighty questions! It was a pleasure to talk to Elizabeth Valot, of the firm ORT*, chief of the Assemblée's site; and to Isabelle Vught-Pion, chief of the Sénate's Web site - about the possible implications of citizen access, for democracy. Too bad Mr Negroponte was not there to give us a few predictions. |
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Irony of all - the President of the Assemblée
Nationale, M. Philippe Séguin - a somewhat skeptical
supporter of European Union - is reported to be the power
behind putting the French parliament online. The internal
affairs of France are now open to the public - of the
world, as well as France.
The Assemblée Nationale's Web URL: The Sénate's Web URL: |
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Quote, from the Assemblée Nationale transcript of
the session of Tuesday, 26. March 1996: (out of context and
abridged):
Plusieurs députés - 'Scandaleux !' *ORT has also produced a demonstration CD-ROM that contains the revisions to the French Constitution, of 4. August 1995 and 22. February 1996. The complete version will be entitled, 'Constitution.' |
| Send email concerning the contents to: Ric Erickson, Editor. Metropole Paris © 2008 – unless stated otherwise. |
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