News Release

Moritz College I/S Journal Announces Publication of E-Democracy Issue

April 7, 2009

I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, a publication of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, is proud to announce the publication of its E-Democracy issue. I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society is an interdisciplinary journal of research and commentary concentrating on the intersection of law, policy, and information technology. Through its lead editors Rachel Burlage and Sarah Rahter, I/S Journal collaborated closely with local and international authors to publish this issue examining cross-disciplinary research on digital governance. The E-Democracy issue addresses specifically how new technologies can step in to facilitate the robust public deliberation so lacking in twentieth-century representative democracies.

Each article in the E-democracy issue addresses to what extent and in what ways online government information and consultation initiatives can shape democratic life. The E-democracy issue is proud to feature five articles written by leading experts in the fields of law, political science, communication, public policy, information science, and cyberlaw. In the Issue's Introduction, Professor Peter Shane, executive director of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, notes that "the authors in this volume implicitly underscore the complexity of the communications environment in which democratic action occurs and the multiple dimensions along which that environment ought to be evaluated as successful or not."

The E-Democracy issue is the result of a grant received by Professor Peter Shane from the National Science Foundation and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University. This funding resulted in a March 2008 symposium held in Columbus, Ohio, where scholars comprising the International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policy Making discussed a diverse body of theoretical and applied research surrounding e-democracy as an interdisciplinary study. Four of the five articles in this issue were presented by scholars in E-Governance at the 2008 Symposium: Online Consultation and Public Policy Making: Democracy, Identity, and New Media. For additional questions or information, please contact Natalie Bennett at bennett.515@osu.edu.