This document provides an overview of topics to be covered in a cyberpolitics course, including: 1) The socio-technical development of the Internet and how technological innovations shaped its creation and structure. 2) The relationship between technology and politics, and how changes in information technologies impact socio-political systems. 3) Issues around how the Internet may or may not democratize society through applications like e-democracy software. 4) How political systems integrate online spaces and the meanings of concepts like online deliberation, representation, and public spheres.

1. JUS 394
CYBERPOLITICS
arizona state university
spring 2008
professor: merlyna Lim

2. What will we learn?

3. the visualization of Internet routes of a partial portion of
World’s Internet connections
Socio-technical landscapes of the ICT
how the Internet has come about of chronological topography? focusing on the technological makeup of the
Internet, in this part the physical and conceptual production of the Internet is analyzed. the discussion is
focused on the technological of the Internet as a result of innovations in hardware and software, which
basically are rooted in the use of distributed network and the creation of the Internet Protocol (IP), as well
as social objectives embedded in these technical processes.

4. mutual shaping of (information) technology & politics
what’s happening with certain socio-political arrangements if its technology is being replaced by other
technology? moving from paper-based to computer-based system, what are the implication of such thing? is
politics changed by such changes? are technologies merely passive tools in politics? what do you think
Internet is capable of changing? what has Internet done to politics? what has politics done to the Internet?

5. democratizing society..... is that as easy as dragging “e-
democracy” software to your application folder?
does the Internet truly democratize society? if not, what does it do? has society so far
been democratizing the Internet?

6. plugging political systems to the Net....
deliberation online...... or undeliberation online? online representation..... online public
sphere.... what does all of those mean?

7. social movements, cyberactivism, global, national, local...
from Battle in Seattle, Indymedia,1996 Serbia revolution to 1997 Zapatista movement
to 1998 Indonesian Revolution to 1999 People Power of the Philippines and many other
global events... what does Internet contribute? things may not work like they seem to
appear.....

8. can the Internet punch you on the nose?
think about surveillance, control, hacking, cracking, spamming, radicalism, uncivil
society...... and list goes on and on.....

9. is this the future?
well.... i don’t think so... and certainly hope it’s not so!
what are possible scenarios of the future? hard to know......
but let’s think really hard about this!!!

10. life is not fair..... world is not...
realities bite....... bytes don’t solve real problems?
where things went wrong?

11. and here is the reality of life......
politics is embedded within broader social context
the narrative of everyday life is not about ‘big’ politics.....
some might be hooked to politics.... some look at the political stuff when certain issues
emerge...... yet some just stay on ‘porn’
today’s and future’s politics is inseparable from culture