Funferal

Talking this Tuesday

I’m giving a talk in NUI, Galway this Tuesday evening. The main topic will be the social aspects of electronic voting, based on the essay I posted recently. However, I may also touch on weblogs and the public sphere, as something I have also been writing on recently, and that got thrown into the announcement to Computer Society members. The hosts are the Computer Society in the university – the same people who invited me to speak last January. (This may be turning into the Ó Baoill annual lecture on computers and society! :-). Nice people, and I think it should be another interesting discussion.

If you’re reading this in the Galway area, it would be great to see/meet you at the talk. If not, I plan to have a copy of my presentation online shortly after the talk itself. Below I include the press release I’m sending around in relation to the event.
PRESS RELEASE – ELECTRONIC VOTING TO BE DISCUSSED AT NUI, GALWAY
11 January, 2004. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Much has been said recently about the technical shortcomings of electronic voting. This Tuesday the NUI, Galway Computer Society will turn attention to the social aspects of the issue when Andrew Ó Baoill addresses the society. Drawing on theorists such as Ivan Illich and Jurgen Habermas Mr. Ó Baoill will critique what he sees as the technophilic drive towards electronic voting, and highlight some of the dangers to the political process.
“Improvements in computing technology in recent years have been incredibly impressive,” according to Mr. Ó Baoill, “but this can lead to an unwise tendency to seek high-tech solutions as ends in themselves. The current government has been particularly prone to this, seeing electronic voting as a means to demonstrate to the rest of the world our willingness to embrace cutting edge technology. One minister’s supposedly conciliatory comment was that ‘egovernment’ should use the most advanced technology possible, but also bear in mind maintaining usability. This is a ludicrous inversing of priorities – we should of course seek to maximise usability, and use whatever technologies best aid this goal.”
Currently a PhD candidate at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, Ó Baoill is a Galway native who has been a lifelong political and social activist. A founder and former station manager of Flirt FM, he concentrates on issues of public participation in the media and society, with a special emphasis on the role of technology in such processes.
The talk – “Electronic Voting: the social aspects” – takes place this Tuesday 13th January, at 7pm, in room IT 125G, at NUI, Galway.