Stephen Downes

The focus of this newsletter issue is a document (15 page PDF) on necessary conditions for digital democracy. It's divided into three sets of conditions: support, design, and external foundations (such as digital literacy). The emphasis is on trust and legitimacy, so support addresses things like procurement, accountability and identity. Design addresses hybrid participation, regulating AI, and multiple models of participation. All these make sense and would apply equally well to digital education technology. But missing from the account are questions of privilege and insider access. All the digital democracy provisions in the world won't make up for the lobbyist who meets with or emails the government official on a regular basis. Privileged access and influence undermines democracy faster than anything else, and this applies equally to education systems.