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MSc Thesis Communication and Innovation Studies Group Wageningen University, The Netherlands August 31, 2009 Internet for participatory democracy The experience of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet Yohanes Widodo 741507949090 Supervisors: Dr. Rico Lie Dr. Ir. Freerk van Wiersum Communication and Innovation Studies Group Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group Wageningen University and Research Center i

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MSc Thesis of Applied Communication Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, August 31, 2009. Yohanes WidodoContact: [email protected]

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MSc Thesis Communication and Innovation Studies Group Wageningen University, The Netherlands

August 31, 2009

Internet for participatory democracy

The experience of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet

Yohanes Widodo 741507949090

Supervisors: Dr. Rico Lie Dr. Ir. Freerk van Wiersum Communication and Innovation Studies Group Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group

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Internet for participatory democracy The experience of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet

By Yohanes Widodo Supervisors: Dr. Rico Lie Communication and Innovation Studies Group Dr. Ir. Freerk van Wiersum Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of MSc Applied Communication Science August 31, 2009 Wageningen University The Netherlands

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Acknowledgments Being grateful of having finished this thesis, I want to remember everyone to whom I would like to express my gratitude here: First, I thank the University of Wageningen for selecting me as a scholarship awardee, that has made my dream to study in a graduate level degree come true; even better I have experienced it in the leading European university in the Life Sciences that has broadened my view in many respects. I would like to thank all lecturers in Wageningen University, particularly those from MSc Applied Communication Science (MCS). My thanks also to the study advisor Marleen van Maanen-Nooij who has given her advices to help me made decisions with regard to the continuation of my study. I would express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors: Dr. Rico Lie for keenly guiding me in undergoing this ‘scientific training’ process; Dr. Ir. Freerk van Wiersum for giving me spirit, support, and motivation; Dr. Marielle van der Zouwen, my former supervisor, for her patience, motivation, and enthusiasm. I sincerely thank all interviewees from WALHI, WWF Indonesia, and Combine Resource Institution, who gave generously their attention and time. Thanks also for all friends that I have met both in PPIW and during my courses; you have helped me find fun, even in the midst of anxiety! I thank to my classmates: Joebel for friendship and music; also for Quian and Uci, for the solidarity. My deepest gratitude goes to my family for their love and support throughout my live. With great respect I would like to sincerely thank to Bapak in Tanahgaro; Bapak and Ibu in Palembang. They have prayed ceaselessly for me. In mentioning that, I gratefully remember my departed Mamak who has been my inspiration, and will always be. Especially I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved wife, Stefani Anieka Diany. Words will not be enough to describe how you have supported me since the very beginning. One thing I know for sure that I would not have accomplished my study without your love. I proudly dedicate this thesis to you and to our ‘junior’. Finally, looking back to the road I have taken reminds me not to forget to thank and praise the Almighty GOD for answering prayers and giving helps at the right time in His wondrous ways through so many people that I cannot name their names in this limited space. My thanks also for you! Wageningen, August 2009 Yohanes Widodo

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Summary The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks (network of network) which has been used as a medium for communication, interaction, and information. The increase of the Internet technology has caused this medium to become a medium for politics and public participation. This research is driven by the potential use of the Internet as a medium for public participation. This research aims to understand the contribution of Indonesian NGOs to developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. The research focuses especially on environmental NGOs which are active in the field of environmental governance. Three Indonesian NGOs that were selected as case studies are: WWF-Indonesia, WALHI, and Combine Resource Institution (CRI). The research is built around the central question: “How do Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet?” On the basis of a review of major concepts and theories, this questions was further operationalized in five specific questions: 1. What are the main strategic uses of the Internet for Indonesian NGOs? 2. What are the main internal strategic uses and the main characteristics of Internet

use by the NGOs? 3. What are the main characteristics of the external Internet use to develop public

participatory democracy? 4. What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by the

NGOs? 5. What are the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy

by the use of the Internet in Indonesia? To be able to study this question, I did an exploratory research by using multiple methods, such as in-depth interviews with the staffs of the NGOS, web analysis or observation of online medium (website and mailing lists) used by the NGOs, literature research, and workshop participation. The results of the research show that: 1. The main strategic uses of the Internet by Indonesian NGOs are various. The

NGOs have different strategic uses of the Internet, depend on the visions or orientation of the NGOs. WALHI uses the Internet strategically for political movement, shaping public opinion, and collaboration. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for communication, knowledge management, and environmental contribution. CRI uses the Internet strategically for developing content management, citizen journalism, and strengthening grassroots.

2. There are similarities regarding to the main internal strategic uses of the Internet by the NGOs. The Internet is used internally for communication and collaboration; workplace participatory democracy; consumption and production (searching and publishing information). The main characteristics of Internet internal use are “Information” and “Interaction”.

3. “Information” is the main characteristic of the Internet use to develop participatory democracy by the NGOs. CRI is more advance in respect to using Internet as a means for developing participatory democracy than WWF-Indonesia

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and WALHI. CRI develops participatory democracy by optimizing the different characteristics of the Internet use (Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization).

4. There is a correlation between internal and external use of the Internet, as found at WWF-Indonesia and CRI. However, the development of workplace participatory democracy does by itself not correlate to the development of public participatory democracy. There are some factors which influenced this correlation, such as the vision and mission of the NGOs, and the constraints of the development of participatory democracy by the use of the Internet.

5. The constraints of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are internal constraints; cultural constraints; content production; and human resource competence. The opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are the raise of the Internet user in Indonesia; access, hardware, and Internet connection cost getting more affordable; the emergence of Web 2.0.; the existence of social networking sites; and the raise of citizen journalism movement.

Therefore, the findings of this research led me to conclude that: • The Internet is as a potential medium for participatory democracy because the

Internet contributes toward the main characteristics of participatory democracy: Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization. These characteristics are the ‘cornerstones’ of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet.

• Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by creating websites, mailing list or forum. However, they have different strategic uses of the Internet, so that the implementation and the achievement in respect to stimulating participatory democracy are various.

• The Internet plays a role as an empowering tool to strengthen community development because it enhances public dialogue, civil society networking, and strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations.

• Citizen journalism or community-based journalism is the best and the most effective medium to develop participatory democracy.

The findings of this research lead to the following recommendations: • The need to raise awareness about the potential use of the Internet to develop

participatory democracy by giving room for sharing information, interaction, participation, and decentralization.

• The need to organize the members and people so that they can develop civil society self governance. By doing so, they can strengthen their issue, concern and orientation. In this way, the role of the NGOs is as a facilitator which invites people to get involved and to encourage them to participate. The NGOs need to train people and to build their capacity, so that people are more literate in using Internet and more capable in sharing their opinions, ideas, and thought.

• The need to developing participatory democracy in a strategic way. Developing participatory democracy is not only by creating website or forum or mailing lists. Websites, forum, or mailing list are just a tool or medium. The most important thing is how we can organize and encourage people to participate.

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List of figure Figure 1: Which e-Democracy? 7 Figure 2: The level of the characteristics of participatory democracy 11 Figure 3: The mixture of the characteristics of participatory democracy 11 Figure 4: Outline of research process 18 List of table Table 1: The NGOs and the media studied 20 Table 2: The key characteristic of Internet external use by the NGOs 41 Table 3: Strategic use, internal use, and correlation of internal-external use

of the Internet by the NGOs 42 Table 4: Indonesian Internet users 45 Table 5: Warnet and Internet users in Indonesia 45 List Appendices 1. WALHI Website (Old version, April 07, 2009) 61 2. WALHI website (New version, May 29, 2009) 61 3. WALHI mailing list (April 07, 2009) 62 4. WWF website (April 07, 2009) 62 5. WWF Supporter website (May 28, 2009) 63 6. WWF Supporter mailing list (May 28, 2009) 63 7. CRI website (April 07, 2009) 64 8. Jalin Merapi website (May 28, 2009) 64 9. Suara Komunitas website (May 28, 2009) 65 10. SIAR website (May 28, 2009) 65 List of abbreviation and acronyms WWF-Indonesia World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia office WALHI Wahana Lingkungan Hidup - Indonesian Forum for Environment CRI Combine Resource Institution NGO Non-Governmental Organization CSO Civil Society Organization APJII Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia - Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association LP3ES Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan dan Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial - Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education & Information ICT Information and Communication Technologies

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Table of contents Acknowledgments i Summary ii List of figure vi List of table vi List of appendices vi List of abbreviation and acronyms vi Table of content vii Chapter 1. Introduction 1

1.1. Background of the study 1 1.2. Research problem and research objectives 2

1.2.1. Problem definition 2 1.2.2. Objective of the study and research question 4

1.3. The organization of the report 5 Chapter 2. Conceptual Framework 6

2.1. Participatory democracy and the internet use 6 2.1.1. From direct democracy to participatory democracy 6 2.1.2. Key characteristics of participatory democracy 8 2.1.3. Level and the interaction of key characteristics 11 2.1.4. The role of the Internet in workplace participatory democracy 12 2.1.5. Strategic areas of the internet uses 13

2.2. Internet, social changes, and democracy 14 2.2.1. The internet and social changes 14 2.2.2. The internet and participatory democracy 14 2.2.3. Hypothesis 16

2.3. Sub research questions 17 Chapter 3. Research methodology 18

3.1. Research strategy 18 3.2. Selection of Cases 19 3.3. Selection of respondents or informants 19 3.4. Methods for data collection 19

3.4.1. Primary sources of data 19 3.4.2. Secondary sources of data 20

3.5. Research question and techniques used 21 3.6. Methods for data analysis 21

Chapter 4. Characteristics of Internet use by Indonesian NGOs 23

4.1. WALHI 23 4.1.1. Description of WALHI 23 4.1.2. The main strategic uses of the Internet by WALHI 24 4.1.3. The main internal strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by WALHI 25 4.1.4. The main characteristic of external use of the Internet by WALHI 25 4.1.5. The correlation of internal-external use of the Internet by WALHI 28

4.2. WWF-Indonesia 28

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4.2.1. Description of WWF-Indonesia 28 4.2.2. The main strategic use of the Internet by WWF Indonesia 29 4.2.3. The main strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by WWF-Indonesia 30 4.2.4. The main characteristic of the external use by WWF-Indonesia 30 4.2.5. The correlation of internal and external use by WWF-Indonesia 34

4.3. Combine Resource Institution (CRI) 34 4.3.1. Description of CRI 34 4.3.2. The main strategic use of the Internet by CRI 34 4.3.3. The main internal strategic uses and the main characteristic of use of the Internet by CRI 36 4.3.4. The main characteristic of external use of the Internet by CRI 37 4.3.5. The relationship of internal and external use of the Internet by CRI 40

4.4. Comparison of the characteristic of Internet use 41 Chapter 5. Constraints and opportunities of Internet use 43

5.1. Constraints 43 5.2. Opportunities 45 5.3. Optimist, pessimist, or skeptics? 47 5.4. Discussion: Citizens Journalism 48

Chapter 6. Conclusions 50

6.1. Main answer to research questions 50 6.2. Main conclusion 52 6.3. Recommendations 53 6.4. Reflections 53

Bibliography 56 Appendix 61

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Chapter 1 Introduction In this chapter I will provide a background of the Internet use with respect to the development of participatory democracy and the reasons of selecting Indonesian NGOs as case study. In section 1.1, I will describe background of the study and the reasons of why I chose Indonesian NGOs as case of study. In section 1.2, I will describe critical issues of the development of participatory democracy by the use of the Internet; the main question to be asked; and the objectives of the study.

1.1. Background of the study The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks (network of network) (Kelly, 2005). Until now the Internet has been mainly used as a medium for communication, interaction, and information (Desember, 1996). It enables human-to-human communication in small or large groups, ranging from interpersonal to mass communication, such as email, mailing list, forum, blog, bulletin board, etc. It can be used to enable immediate interaction such as instant messaging, chats, webcam etc. The Internet is also used for gaining information; primarily where the user, with client software, retrieves information from a host or server. In actual practice, people can use the Internet for a combination of communication, interaction, and information, in the same time. The characteristic of the Internet has brought about the Internet as a strategic medium for socio-political transformation (Nugroho, 2008b). The Internet is an informative medium which provides information and knowledge to be retrieved and shared. The Internet is an interactive medium that enables direct contact for everybody. The Internet is a participative medium in which “participation has been a fundamental component of the Internet since its inception” (Bowman & Willis, 2003). It enables the individual to become a person who can shape the society he/she lives in. The Internet can be used as a medium to deliver and to voice up the citizens’ aspiration in political process and to engage in the government’s business. The Internet is a decentralized medium that serves a horizontal, non-hierarchical and equal interaction and participation. Scholars claim that Internet provides the means for an effective and truly participatory democracy. Typically, these claims argue that non-hierarchical structure of Internet communications, as well as the lack of visual identity cues that predict social dominance (gender, race, age, class, etc), are absent (Lilie, 1998). The Internet is also a low-cost and easy-to-use medium so that it can be used for everybody. Based on these reasons, therefore, the Internet is a promising medium for public participation. The potential use of the Internet as a medium for public participation drives me to do this research. This research is using case studies of three Indonesian Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The three Indonesian NGOs selected are WWF-Indonesia, WALHI, and Combine Resource Institution (CRI). Indonesian NGOs are selected as case studies because of several reasons. First, NGOs are ubiquitous. NGO can be characterized as an organization or institution which is formally constituted; non-governmental in basic structure; self-governing; non-profit;

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voluntary; non-religious, and non-politics (Hadiwinata, 2003; Salamon & Anheier, 1992; 1997). NGO is a ‘third sector’ beyond government and private business actively develops and advocates public interest, emphasizes alternative models of community empowerment, and provides a practical and alternative way of social and economic development and advocacy of public interest to empower citizens dealing with state and business (LP3ES, 2000). Second, the transition of democracy in Indonesia has been indicated by the growth of civil society represented by NGOs. Within 10-15 years, many NGOs have emerged in Indonesia. Although the number is not clear, the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics (BPS) noted that the number of Indonesian NGOs has grown from 10.000 in 1996 to 70.000 in 2000 (Setiawan, 2004). Kastorius Sinaga (Bisnis Info, September 2001) stated that there are 13,400 officially registered NGOs alone, not to mention those unregistered, while in the 1980s there were only around 3,000. According to SMERU (an independent institution for research and policy studies focusing on social, economic, and poverty-related problems), there are around 20,000 NGOs throughout Indonesia. In contrast, LP3ES, another research foundation, compiled another directory which covers a select list of 465 NGOs in 26 provinces (Lounela, 2001; LP3ES, 2000). Third, the role of Indonesian NGOs in social and politics is significant. From 1970 up to now, NGOs have been present in every aspect of life and in some cases become the main actor of changes. Before 1998, NGOs seemed to have already provided opportunities for society to be involved in political activities. After 1998, the NGOs also play a new role as pioneer of civil society to develop and facilitate the transition to democracy. As an organization which commits to democracy, the NGO attempts to implement democracy in activities, programs, and everyday life. The NGO serves as civil society representative which allow them to be an important actor in developing participatory democracy.

1.2. Research problem and research objectives

1.2.1 Problem definition

Indonesia is a country which has experience the era of democracy and the revolution of ICTs in the same time. The Internet came to Indonesia in 1994 (Lim, 2006). Indonesia began to join the ‘information super highway’ of the Internet in 1996 (Hill, 2005). Internet users in Indonesia were growing rapidly. APJII (2003) stated that the Internet users in Indonesia increased 770 % between 1998 to 2002 (from 0,5 million to 4,5 million). The number of Internet users is about 16 million in 2005 and then went up gradually to 20 million in 2007. Within 10 years, the internet went from being the haven of computer experts, academics and researchers to a mainstream medium. While internet in Indonesia can be considered as an emerging issue, however, the Internet use by Indonesian NGOs for activisms and civil society movements is apparent. The rapid development of the Internet in Indonesia has made more public participation and civil society socio-political activisms were connected to the Internet (Nugroho, 2008b). The Internet is used to provide extensive public participation and socio-political activisms. The NGOs and activists used the Internet to share information and consolidation to fight against the New Order authoritarian regime (Lim, 2006; Nugroho, 2008a). After 1998, the Internet is used to consolidate

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democratic process. The Internet is used as alternative medium for citizen participation. It was indicated by an increase of active citizens. They initiate and involve in participatory journalism and blogging activism. They are collecting and disseminating news through the Internet and act as government watchdogs. The Internet use by Indonesian NGOs has shown the significant development. From a survey of 268 Indonesian NGOs, there were 94.03 percents of civil society organizations (CSOs) used personal computers (PCs) and 86.94 percents had access to the Internet (Nugroho, 2008a). Although most of the Indonesian NGOs and CSOs believe that the Internet strengthens the achievement of organization goals, the use of the Internet for advocacy and campaign is still not significant. The use of the Internet by the NGOs is less compared to the companies. The knowledge, competence, and skill in using ICTs by NGOs and CSOs have not been applied optimally (Nasution, workshop 12/12/2008). It is clear that the adoption and use of the Internet in NGOs are important. Factors encouraging the adoption of the Internet in NGOs in general are the need to obtain information and to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency (internal), and the need to bring mutual relationship and collaboration among organizations instead of competition (external) (Nugroho, 2008b). The Internet is used as ‘glue’ between NGOs and the stakeholders/public and within the NGOs. However, Nugroho (2008b) did not clearly show the contribution of NGOs to develop and to facilitate participatory democracy through Internet. This research, therefore, wants to examine how participatory democracy as a way of life (Dewey, 1946; Visnovsky, 2007; Wegmarshaus, 2006) is implemented into practice by Indonesian NGOs and how they deal with their organization, members, and the public through Internet. The practice of participatory democracy can be seen in internal organization (between the managers, staffs, and members within the NGOs) and external organization (between NGOs and stakeholders/public). These perspectives are based on the idea that the Internet provides access for people in a direct way of communication. Internet can be used to increase, stimulate, or develop participatory democracy internally and externally. Internally, Internet has revolutionized the manner in which organizations and individuals access and share information (Anandarajan & Simmers, 2001). It facilitates the involvement of the employees/members in decision making process (workplace participatory democracy). Workplace participatory democracy is important because it provides available information, good communication and interaction between manager/employers and employees or among employees. Externally, NGOs also use the Internet to connect with external stakeholders and to develop public participatory democracy. This research scrutinizes whether the Internet use by the NGO really facilitates participatory democracy and gives wider room for the staffs and employees to participate in decision making process (internal NGOs) and for public participation among societies (external NGOs). There are four critical issues which will be studied through this research. The first issue of this study is about the Internet use as a strategic medium to accomplish the vision and mission of the NGOs. Nugroho (2008a) identified there are five strategic

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areas of Internet used by Indonesian NGOs: collaboration, mobilization, empowerment and development, research and publication, advocacy and monitoring. However, Nugroho (2008a) did not mention the use of the Internet as strategic medium to develop participatory democracy. Hence, this research will look at the strategic use of the Internet by selected Indonesian NGO and whether the Internet is used as strategic medium to develop participatory democracy. The second issue of this study concerns the correlation between internal and external practice of participatory democracy of the NGOs. This research will study how the practice of workplace participatory democracy relates to public participatory democracy. In my opinion, there are three conditions of the correlation between workplace and public participatory democracy through the Internet: (1) Workplace participatory democracy becomes a ‘playground’ for public

participatory democracy. The NGOs build all the ways of interaction through Internet within organization, they practice with it and develop it into more mature. Then, they export it or use it for the relation with external stakeholder (the public).

(2) The NGOs implement workplace participatory democracy and public participatory democracy mutually. They practice in internal NGOs, and at the same time they develop public participatory democracy.

(3) The practice of workplace participatory democracy doest not directly relate, stimulate or facilitate the development of public participatory democracy. So, there is no correlation between internal and external use of the Internet.

The third issue of this study concerns the question of how the characteristic of the Internet relates to the characteristic of participatory democracy. Information, communication, and interaction are basic characteristics of the Internet; participation and decentralization are important characteristics of the Internet. The Internet has certain characteristics that relate to interaction (the way people interact) and participation (the way people participate) to the participatory processes. These characteristics are very important for the development of participatory democracy because through these characteristics the NGOs can enhance participatory democracy. This research will study what are the main characteristics of the Internet the NGOs are using and what characteristic they are using so that the NGOs can develop and enhance participatory democracy. The fourth issue of this study concerns on the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy through the Internet. The scholars recognize some constraints/problems of the Internet use for enhancing democracy, such as digital divide, problem of access, media literacy, etc. This research will study which specific constraints faced by Indonesian NGOs and citizen in developing participatory democracy through the Internet. These issues will be further elaborated in Chapter 2.2.2. The research will focus especially on environmental NGOs, which play active role in the field of environmental governance. The analysis is drawn from in-depth interviews with the staffs of the NGOS and the observation of online medium (website and mailing lists) used by the NGOs. I hope by understanding this issue, this research will be relevant to build awareness of the potential use of Internet to enhance public participation and to inspire strategic development of Internet in Indonesia.

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1.2.2 Objective of the study and research question

This research aims to understand the contribution of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. As I described in the introduction section with respect to the circumstances the existence of the NGOs and the Internet in Indonesia followed by the description of the problem, the main research question addressed in this research can now be as follows: “How do Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet?”

1.3. The organization of the report The report is organized as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction In this chapter I describe background of the internet use with respect to the development of participatory democracy and the reasons of selected Indonesian NGOs as case study. I also describe critical issues of the development of participator democracy by the use of the Internet. Chapter 2: Conceptual framework This chapter contains the conceptual framework. I identified and discussed four key characteristics of participatory democracy and why the different characteristics are important to participatory democracy; the level and interaction between the key characteristics. Chapter 3: Research methodology I will explain the research strategy, research design, the selection of the cases, the selection of the respondents or informants, methods for data collection, and research questions and methods/techniques used. Chapter 4: Characteristic of the Internet use by the NGOs In this chapter I will present a short description of the NGOs and describe the strategic use of the Internet; the main characteristic of the internal use of the Internet; the main characteristic of the external use of the Internet; and the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet. Chapter 5: Constraints and opportunities of Internet use by the NGOs This chapter presents the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia. I also present my point of view about the future of the development of participatory democracy in Indonesia by the use of the Internet. Chapter 6: Conclusions In this chapter, I will present the main answer to research questions and the conclusions of this study. I will do that by answering the earlier formulated sub-question and the main questions and offer the final conclusions. I also present the recommendations and reflection of this study.

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Chapter 2 Conceptual framework 2.1. Participatory democracy and the internet use 2.1.1. From direct democracy to participatory democracy The notion of democracy comes from the Greek demos (people) and kratos (rule, or governance). Democracy means people participate in making decisions either directly or through electing their representatives (Kersten, 2003; Escher, 2008) or government of the people, by the people, for the people (Heywood, 2002). The old concept of democracy is Athenian democracy, applied in Athena, a city in Greece, in 5th BC. They applied direct participation of its citizens (one man one vote) and did not elect officials to represent them. Direct democracy imposes severe limits on the size of a democratic state. Representative democracy is used in which people are being represented by elected government officials. However, there is a lack of trust in electing the representatives in a society that has grown over-organized, hierarchical, and authoritarian. Representative democracy tends to limit citizens participation to voting and leaving actual governance to politicians (White, 1996). This condition has urged a demand of greater citizen participation. The New Left in the early of 1960s and through 1980 promoted direct democracy so-called participatory democracy. Participatory democracy means that people participation is the most important quality of democracy. Participatory democracy is a capacity of people to deal constructively with its tensions so as to make and carry out decisions (Daubon, 2005). It emphasizes broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political system (Zittel, 2003). It promises a broadened citizen involvement and contribution, leading to greater legitimization and acceptance of public decisions, greater transparency, and efficiency in public expenditure, and greater citizen’s satisfaction (Renn et al, 1995) and creates opportunities for all members of a political group to make meaningful contributions to decision making. It involves participants throughout the planning processes, from initiation to decision implementation and monitoring (Chambers & Kymlicka, 2002; Hanberger, 2001). Participatory democratic theory envisions the maximum participation of citizens in their self-governance, especially in spheres of society beyond those that are traditionally understood to be political (e.g. the workplace and the family) (Hilmer, 2008). It is aligned with John Dewey, as the most important advocate of participatory democracy (Westbrook, 1991). Dewey draws on Jefferson’s idea of democracy as a way of life, a form of life, not only as a form of government. Democracy is understood as a certain ‘spirit’, as an approach, and it may be found in each sphere of organized social life; moreover, democracy and its methods of organizing social behavior may be applied to every structure of society (Wegmarshaus, 2006). Dewey stated:

“The keynote of democracy as a way of life may be expressed; it seems to me, as the necessity for the participation of every mature human being in formation of the values that regulate the living of men together: which is necessary from the standpoint of both the general social welfare and the full development of human beings as individuals” (Dewey 1946, in Wegmarshaus, 2006).

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Dewey’s term for “participation” is “sharing” and “(mutual) contribution”. As a way of life, democracy is part of a genuine way of human which is the social being that can be implemented every where and every time: in the family, communities, corporate, and government. Participation is a must. The consequences of the absence of active participation in public issues are ‘breeds indifferent, routine, and passive minds; a subtle form of suppression; and lack of effective responsibility’ (Visnovsky, 2007). To elaborate the framework of participatory democracy, I am interested to use Escher (2008) idea in Figure 1. From this figure, we can find that participatory democracy relates to (or consists of) strong democracy; deliberative democracy, and discursive democracy. To have a framework about participatory democracy, I use the definition or the concept of strong democracy, deliberative democracy, and discursive democracy and try to find the keyword (the underline is the chosen keyword) of each concept. According to Barber (1994) strong democracy is “A democracy that reflects the careful and prudent judgment of citizens who participate in deliberative, self-governing communities.” About deliberative democracy, Hindman (2008) stated that “Democracy should be more than just a process for bargaining and aggregation of preferences. True participation requires citizens to engage in direct discussion with other citizens”. According to Dryzek (1990), discursive democracy is “An approach which puts discourses at the centre of democracy. It starts from the assumption that the deepening of democracy requires the intensification of communicative exchanges in several social contexts, encompassing the definition of rules and institutions, processes of decision making and everyday interactions.”

Figure 1: Which e-Democracy?

Source: Escher, 2008 From these definitions, I do summarize that participatory democracy is a process of citizen participation through communicative exchanges and direct discussion in a deliberative manner to develop self-governing communities. In this process, people need the kind of knowledge and information that facilitates collective action, participation and engagement (Strömbäck, 2005). The concept of participatory democracy can be broken down in to key characteristics.

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Key characteristic are the main factors that determine participatory democracy. I identified four key characteristics of participatory democracy: Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization. They are taken from the keywords of the definition of strong democracy, discursive democracy and deliberative democracy. “Information” refers to knowledge and information. “Interaction” refers to deliberative; direct discussion; communicative exchanges. “Participation” refers to citizen’s participation. “Decentralization” refers to self-governing.

2.1.2. Key characteristics of participatory democracy

Why and how the different characteristics are important to participatory democracy will be detailed as follows: a. Information “Information” is a key characteristic of participatory democracy. It can be seen from the concept of ‘informed citizenry’. To participate in all kind of democratic processes, citizens must have more information and knowledge in order to know about the issue being considered or be addressed (Stromer-Galley, 2000) and to make rational decisions and to support or criticize current practice or policy. The information is used as political ammunition and basis for political decision making. Access to information is an important component to participatory democracy because the more access to information, the better chance to develop participatory democracy. Without information we can not develop participatory. The Internet allows citizens to be better informed. It provides unlimited access to information and knowledge that can be used for self learning, empowerment, and self determination. As ‘informed citizens’, they can expand their abilities to access, use, create and disseminate information. Internet allows the public to become more knowledgeable about public affairs and more articulate in expressing their views. The information sharing through website becomes more interactive with the emergence of Web 2.0 which provides ‘users add value’ (O’Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 is also used to develop weblog which is based on users generate content. It is the pioneer of a new form of journalism "by the people and for the people" (Gillmor, 2004) which offers a more democratic choice of information. Web 2.0 also enables web browsers to have more control on their information sources to match their needs through the aggregation of information via RSS feeds (Vedel, 2006) which helps users to make contact with other users sharing the same interests and encourages the formation of social networks. b. Interaction

“Interaction” is a key characteristic of participatory democracy. It comes from the concept of deliberation (Elster, 1998; Dahlgren, 2002) as a discussion among free and equal citizens. It is an essential procedure of open interaction aimed at achieving consensus through rational, tolerant, and civil interaction and debates (Zhou, 2008). Democracy requires interaction of all of a community's voices, a public (Daubon, 2005). Citizen must be able to communicate, interact, which each other and discuss politics and public issue. Participatory democracy considers communicative interaction among citizens as a central element. Interaction is seen as the fundamental of (and expression of) participation. Interaction provides more accurate, effective, and satisfying communication process. It occurs with more communication message

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exchanges taking place within a dialectic framework. That kind of communication process can not occur in the one-way and top-down communication medium. Traditional or conventional media restrict or limit opportunities for interaction and communication to occur easily among citizens (horizontal communication) and between citizens and political leaders (vertical communication) (Stromer-Galley, 2000).

The Internet is a ‘master medium’ on the basis of interactive potential (Tedesco, 2007). It is the ability to respond to the user, almost like an individual participating in a conversation (Roger, 1986) or the processes by which the user acts upon and reacts to information (Mitchell, 2003). The Internet is more interactive than older (one-to-many) mass media because it combines certain features of both mass media and interpersonal media and gives the receivers more power. According to Roger (1986), source and receiver play interchangeable role, exhibiting reciprocal influence. So, it is impossible to think of a source and receiver in a communication system with a high degree of interactivity. Instead, each individual is a participant. The Internet can make every member of the audience a potential publisher because of its ability to do interactive communication. It allows users to shape the content they receive and to interact directly. According to Oblak (2003) the Internet enables the formation of communicative interaction on many different levels: interaction between citizens through formation of new interests groups; interaction between citizens and other actors of civil society who already have established distinctive interest groups, and civil associations; and interaction between citizens and institutionalized political actors, representatives and members of the governmental elite. The Internet facilitates interaction and enables unmediated many-to-many communication on large scale (using mailing lists, newsgroups, and numerous other modes). It forms an online forum as a social aggregation emerged from the Internet when people carry on the public discussion, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships (Rheingold, 2000). A forum is an online communication among multiple users, generally through text-style communication (Feerst & Steward, 2008). It allows citizens to actively speak and engage in group decision making. In a forum, citizens treat the public affair in a public, speaking in front of other citizens. The Internet extends the ability of participation from same-place, same-time, to any-place, anytime (Insua et.al, 2007). Thus, actual discussion and information exchanges can happen. c. Participation “Participation” is the key characteristic of participatory democracy because the active involvement of citizens in decision making is the optimal form of democracy. The central concept of participation is that citizens transform themselves from bystanders to actively involved people, aiming to realize what they perceive as the ‘public good’ or ‘common good’ (Rowe&Frewer, 2000). The Internet enables the individual (who has his/her own will and ability) to shape the society he/she lives in. Internet offers opportunities for citizen participation and maybe even more direct democracy (Escher, 2008). The existence of this power stimulates people's involvement and participation in decision making.

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Meijer et.al (2009) stated that citizens use the Internet for participation can be categorized in to three types of participation. First, the Internet is used to facilitate policy participation (to support or undermine government policies). The Internet allows to revive the direct democracy by online consultations, focus groups, opinion polling and surveys, public referenda, electronic voting (Vedel, 2006). Second, it is used to facilitate political participation (directed at influencing political decision-making and agenda-setting). Third, it is used to facilitate social participation (to increase social capital). These are facilitated by Web 2.0 which enables users to contribute to developing, rating, collaborating and distributing content. The key concept of Web 2.0 is participation in which ‘the former audience’ decides (O’Reilly, 2005) what is the best or important for them. It also influences public opinion and citizen who participates in public decision making through citizen journalism. Citizen journalism (or user-generated media or participatory journalism) is users’ activity to create news content and share it online. It optimizes the potential use of the Internet to get citizens participated in contributing news reports to citizen journalism, weblogs, etc. By doing this, citizens are allowed to involve in political participation such as the organization of protests (Scholz, 2006; Joyce, 2007). Citizen journalism empowers the formerly passive audiences and ordinary citizens. It gives individuals power in the marketplace of ideas (Hewitt, 2005) by doing fact-checking, self-selection and become their own editor. It alters the traditional distinction between news producer and passive audience. d. Decentralization “Decentralization” is the process of dispersing decision-making governance to get closer to the people or citizens (Caluser M & Salagean, 2007). It is the concept that brings the government ‘closer to the people’ and more easily allows the community to engage in the practice of democracy (Bland, 2002). “Decentralization” is the key characteristic and relates to participatory democracy because it enables active citizens to involve in decision-making processes. The Internet supports participatory democracy because it is an open, global, decentralized network which provides the potential use for non-hierarchical communication. These systems will be immune to censorship, monopoly, regulation, and other exercises of centralized authority (Agre, 2003). It enables small groups of individuals to become creators and users in the production of their information environment. It is reducing hierarchical barriers to communication and promoting more opportunities for citizens to communicate with political leaders. The Internet emphasizes principles as delegation and decentralization and not centralization and hierarchy (Holitscher, 2004). It eliminates ’intermediary bodies’ (Vedel, 2006) so that citizens are able to involve in directly public affairs. The Internet is a cyberspace which substitutes public places for political gathering and discussion in the past. Now, such gatherings take place online which transcends geography, national identity, and all kinds of hierarchies: race, class, age, and gender (Ioannidis, 2002). The Internet is a new public sphere in which democratic processes are conducted in the form of a decentralized public discourse. The Internet is a decentralized communication system (Poster, 1995) in which everyone may initiate a call and send a message to many receivers, in "real time"—the same manner of the broadcast system.

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2.1.3. Level and the interaction of the key characteristics

In Figure 2, I drew upon how each of the characteristics contributes to and correlates with participatory democracy. In this figure we can see that each characteristic has different level of participatory democracy. “Information” has the lowest level because the NGO has dominant role in disseminating information while the members or public are passive. “Interaction” has higher level because it gives members and public rooms for communication and interaction with the NGOs and/or others citizens. “Participation” has higher level than “Information” and “Interaction” because it provides bigger room for public involvement, not only for interaction, but also for sharing information, expressihighest level of participator The NGOs are more giving supports and self- governance and to orga

ng aspiration and opinion, etc. “Decentralization” is the y democracy because the role of the NGO is less.

facilitation for the members or public to develop nize their community.

Figure 2: The level of the characteristics of participatory democracy

Figure 3: The mixture of the characteristics of participatory democracy. Each key characteristic of participatory democracy is able to stand alone, relate, or overlap with other key characteristics. In Figure 3, we can see that in the participatory democracy context, the key characteristics are mixed. For example, information transfer gives some possibilities for the interaction, too. Sharing information can also be seen as interaction, in the sense of responding or commenting information or posted message. Sharing information can also be seen as a form of participation in the context of citizen journalism or participatory journalism.

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It occu aring formation and knowledge. Everybody will present their ideas in as well as taking

& Simmers, 2001). The

and interactive, which is more emphasizing on engagement and conversation (Argenti, 1998; Goldberg, 2009).

decisions. They ask for more open communication to share their ideas and enthusiasm and not just be

agement (Argenti, 1998). Conversely, lack of volvement of the employees will make them feel alienated and less willing to accept

d interaction within an organization, ertically (top-down, bottom-up) and horizontally (Geser, 2001). Top-down is used

g and managing members nd public (Geser, 2001). ‘Equilibrated’ and ‘Decentralized’ model are related to

embers and how internet is used to integrate and to maintain this process.

rs because the Internet enables people to communicate or interact by shinthem out (Tim Berners-Lee, in Verghese, 2007).

2.1.4. The role of Internet in workplace participatory democracy

The ubiquitous nature of the Internet and its universal connectivity/networked capability have been revolutionizing the manner in which organizations and individuals access and share information (AnandarajanInternet has altered the atmosphere of the workplace and of the way we work. It has also transformed organizational management from a command-control and formal (directive mechanism) to be more inclusive

Employees need to be involved in communication to make their own

told on what to do (Argenti, 1998). The involvement of the employees in decision making process can be defined as workplace participatory democracy. Workplace participatory democracy allows wider input from all staffs at every stage by making access to information, tools, policy-making discussions, elections, etc (Rheingold, 2008). Workplace participatory democracy is important for the organization because it provides available information, good communication and interaction between managers/employers and employees or among employees. It will motivate employees to work better, more productive and also gives credibility for the maninchanges that managers then imposed upon them. The Internet becomes a new method for workplace participatory democracy in which people can participate in the decision making process through discussion, input, fact-gathering and voting (Gurovitz, 2009). It enables unlimited information and provides a robust, two-way communication and a better internal communications. It facilitates information sharing and collaborative working perceived openness and collaboration, accountability and speed to engagement (Verghese, 2007). The Internet enhances existing communication anvfor informing, mobilizing and indoctrinating members and the public. Bottom-up is used for the members to articulate their demands and expectations or to propose candidates as well as to express criticism and support. Horizontal communication is used for the exchange of information and opinions, for discussions and deliberation. The Internet can be used as a facilitative tool for integratinaparticipatory democracy. ’Equilibrated’ model provides deliberative decision making between organization and the members. ‘Decentralized’ model provides service for the members by catalyzing communication and group processes among the members, facilitating the flow of information and communication, mediating interaction partners and catalyzing the emergence of online communities and other social groups. Form this model, we can determine the power relationship between the organization and them

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2.1.5. Strategic areas of the internet use

Nugroho (2008a) identified that there are five strategic areas of Internet used by Indonesian NGOs: collaboration, mobilization, empowerment and development, research and publication, advocacy and monitoring. Regarding to these strategic areas, the following hypotheses for critical review can be identified. • Collaboration: Indonesian NGOs use the Internet to facilitate and to enhance

collaboration within and between organizations. The Internet provides an easy and efficient medium of exchanging thoughts with people.

used to mobilize grassroots for rallies, protests and voluntary works, donation and petition (campaigns and calls for

build capacity) of the civic communities they work with.

tion in) and dissemination

• n advocacy have used the

Regthacon atory democracy towards society. This

. The NGOs build all the ways of the interaction through Internet within organization; they practiced with it and

h societies. • Correlation: Internal practice of participatory democracy within the NGOs is

n between internal practice of participatory democracy and external/public participatory democracy. It means that a good

• Mobilization: The Internet has been

action), political pressure and critics for government. • Empowerment and Development: The Internet is used as important information

source for Indonesian NGOs to offer alternative perspectives of development agenda and empowerment (improvement of livelihood and

• Research and Publication: the Internet has been tremendously functioned as instrumental for NGOs research and publication activities. It facilitates information acquisition substantial for research (informaof publication (information out) which has brought new dimension in civil society movement in Indonesia. Advocacy and monitoring: Major NGOs working iInternet to help in shaping public opinion. They also use the technology as a means for monitoring activities since there will be more information is available and transparent on the Internet (Nugroho, 2008a).

2.1.6. Correlation between internal and external use of the Internet

arding the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet, I assume t internal use of the Internet to develop workplace participatory democracy can tribute to the development of particip

correlation can be seen from three forms:

Playground: Internal practice of participatory democracy within the NGOs is used as a playground for public participatory democracy

developed into more mature and export it or use it for the relation wit

corresponding with the development of public participatory democracy. They practice in internal NGOs, and at the same time they develop public participatory democracy in external NGOs.

• No-correlation: There is no correlatio

practice of participatory democracy in internal organization doest not directly stimulate or facilitate to the development of participatory democracy to societies at large.

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2.2

Thewohas affected human life and societies experienced in individual, organization, and

with ‘a window to the world’ (Rogers, 1986). It enables information, ideas, and knowledge to freely flow through

y boundary that exists between people is geography (Lin & Atkin, 2007) and consequently has formed the so called

nt of communication media” (Soules, 2007).

ing to potential opportunities” (Finnegan 1988, in Chandler, 2002) and "it amplifies or accelerates

articipatory democracy feasible and easy (Thornburg, 1992) and it allows millions of people to voice out their political decision directly, without

the public debate free from any form of censorship (Ioannidis, 2002).

. Internet, social changes, and democracy

2.2.1. The internet and social changes

innovation of ICTs and Internet has made revolutionary transformations in our rld. It has transformed communication system and the way people communicate. It

social life. The Internet also extends human senses (McLuhan, 1964). It allows an individual to reach out in space and time, and provide us

all information society, where the onl

‘information society’.

From the history and the use of technology, the scholars have acknowledged that ICTs and communication medium are the main activators influencing social changes. Paisley (in Roger, 1986) concluded that “technological change has placed communication on the front lines of a social revolution." It is in line with the observation of Harold Adam Innis (in Smith, 1998) that major changes in communications technology result in social change and “a key to social change is found in the developme

ICTs and communication medium provide more information for the public. It has affected decision making process about many aspects of life “moving from the center of government and out into society” (Smith, 1998) and it can expand citizen participation and enlarge democracy. However, technology is not a single determinant of social transformation as stated by soft technological determinists (cf. Chandler, 2002). They believe that technology along with other factors as the causes of change. “Technology is an enabling or facilitating factor lead

existing processes" (McLuhan, 1986). It means that social process or the use of technology in a routine practice (custom) within and through the institution is important.

2.2.2. The internet and participatory democracy

A truly participatory democracy in which people are engaged in every decision making process at each level of government may not be feasible. In this context, a medium is needed to facilitate this process. The Internet becomes new medium that can be used to develop or facilitate participatory democracy. Moreover, the Internet will make p

representatives, and make their own contribution to

The Internet brings people together in a manner of Athenian democracy or the old New England town meetings, where each citizen was provided with an equal right to speak. Individuals play a more direct role in their own governance, through "the power of citizen-to-citizen communications" (Gaynor, 1996). However, there is no real agreement to the true nature and consequences of the internet to change the

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democracy. Opinions strongly differ from whether or not the growth of the internet will result in expanded democracy. According to Muñoz & Soyza (2009), we can generally sort the broad range of opinions into three perspectives: (a) the cyber-optimist or cyber utopians; (b) the cyber-pessimist or anti-utopian or dis-utopian; (c) the cyber-skeptics. a. The cyber-optimists Cyber-optimists or cyber utopians argue that the Internet is able to transform democratic rocess to be more egalitarian, informed, and participatory. The Internet will allow for a

be able to voice p and be heard within the public sphere. Cyber-optimists believe that political

fast, easy, and cheap (Castells, 2004). They claim that the ternet facilitate freedom of expression and access to knowledge and information.

lic ngagement and increase citizen participation.

the political process. Davis argues that the Internet will simply rovide a new forum for political participation and deliberation for those who are

. Therefore, the Internet is utilized by few political elites.

ptrue ‘participatory democracy’ in which citizens can govern themselves without interference of bureaucrats and legislators. Ordinary citizens are able to involve in direct democracy. Individuals and groups from around the world will ucommunication online is in To understand the significance of the Internet to democracy, we can use the concept of technological determinism (technology-led theory of social change). According to this concept, “technology is the big mover and shaker behind major social transformation at the level of institution, social interaction, and individual cognition” (Chandler, 1995). Based on this concept, scholars claim that the Internet is democratizing politics. They promote that internet fuels democratization because it has a great potential to improve democracy, empower citizens, enhance pube The internet is redistributing political influence, broadening the public sphere, increasing political participation and involving citizens in political activities (Hindman, 2008). It allows citizens to participate in debates as they happen in deliberative way (face-to-face and real-time conversations). It amplifies political voice of ordinary citizens. Citizens are able to use the internet to organize themselves which would have been impossible in the pre-Internet era (Hindman, 2008; Kahn & Kellner, 2006). b. The cyber-pessimists The cyber-pessimists or anti-utopians or dis-utopians or techno-realists emphasize the negative effects of the Internet, for instance: the risk of surveillance, concentration of wealth, elite control of information and the growth of inequalities (Gaynor D, 1996; Sassen, 1997). According to Davis (1999), the Internet will not fundamentally change the character ofpalready engaged politically Scholars who have come to conflicting conclusions about the Internet’s political impacts proposed a key problem of access, so-called digital divide. It commonly refers to the gap between those who do and those who do not have access to new forms of information technology (van Dijk, 2006; Warshauer, 2003). Nielsen (2006) divided the issue of digital divide into three stages:

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(1) Economic divide: people can’t afford to buy computer/Internet; (2) Usability divide: people can’t use a computer (lower literacy skills); (3) Empowerment divide: not everybody will make optimum use of the opportunities

al/motivational access, material ccess, skills access, and usage access. Prior to the material or physical access came

et, emerged the otivation to

sofdigappccess. If we want to achieve high participation, we need media literacy as an ability

.2.3. Hypothesis

he Internet has the potency to transform democracy and to develop participatory

• Indonesian NGOs have a good understanding about democracy and participatory y have practiced it internal organization. Therefore, they can

easily implement the participatory democracy in broader context (public).

s:

t is easier to

• aking process, for example through electronic voting (Vedel, 2006).

ion-making process. People are able to log in to the Internet, be well-informed, discuss

that such technologies offered. From this explanation, the digital divide is not only regarding the physical access but also mental and skill access; or demographic variables use (income, education, age, gender, ethnicity, urban/rural background).

Van Dijk (2006) defines digital divide into mentathe wish to have a computer and to be connected to the Internmotivational access (‘the-wants’ and ‘the-want-nots’). After having the muse computer and physical access, one has to learn to manage the hardware and

tware. Lack of computer skills becomes the essential issue. The usage access of ital media is the final stage and ultimate goal of the total process of technology ropriation. Societal participation is mostly influenced by skill access and usage

ato access, analyze, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms (content creation). c. The cyber-skeptics The cyber-skeptics argue that the Internet does not have significant effects on societies, despite the hype. Skeptics propose the idea that technology is never fixed and will adapt to compensate for existing models and systems (Castell, 2004). According to the cyber-skeptics, the Internet does not have a dramatic impact on the reality of ‘politics as usual.'

2

Tdemocracy. It is related to the cyber-optimists and based on arguments: • Indonesian NGOs have the resources. They have no constraint of Internet access

because in general they have computers with the Internet connection. • Indonesian NGO activists believe in the potential use of the Internet to facilitate

participatory democracy.

democracy. The

It is also based on the notion of the potential uses of the Internet in politic• Internet improves the information availability to the public because of the quantity

of data and range of sources offered and also its interactive facilities. Imobilize people by reducing costs that traditionally were an obstacle to political commitment.

• Internet offers extensive scope of discussion and debate, which in turn can serve to give fresh impetus to the public domain. Internet offers citizens more opportunity to participate in the decision-m

• Internet can be used to make it possible for the people to participate in decis

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the issues in the political forum, find solutions, and consequences, and then cast a vote (Stromer-Galley, 2000). In this study, I want to assess this hypothesis.

2.3. Sub-research questions

After I explained the different concepts and how I used them in my research to answer

1.

2. characteristics of Internet use by the NGOs?

4

stics of the Internet use to develop public participatory democracy?

Chapter 4

the NGOs? Chapter 5

e r

the main question, I also formulated the following specific questions:

No. Sub Research Questions Chapter What are the main strategic uses of the Internet for Indonesian NGOs?

Chapter 4

What are the main internal strategic uses and the main Chapter

3. What are the main characteri

4. What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by the NGOs?

Chapter 4

. What are the constraints and opportunities of developing 5participatory democracy by

Th elation between these various issues is illustrated in Figure 4.

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Chapter 3 Research methodology In this chapter I will discuss methodological issues, including the research strategy and design, the selection of the cases, the selection of respondents or informants, method for data collection, and research questions vis-à-vis methods and techniques.

3.1 Research strategy

The nature of the research is exploratory research. This research applies qualitative method using the case studies to learn ‘what is going on here’ (Schutt, 2006). Qualitative methods are “an array of interpretative techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency” (Van Maanen, 1983) of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the social world. This study employs a case study analysis approach by which it presents an in-depth description of the phenomenon in its natural setting (Yin, 1984). Case study approach was chosen because it allows in-depth understanding of the phenomenon or organization under study. The various phases of the research processes are illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Outline of research process

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3.2 Selection of Cases

Three Indonesian NGOs were chosen as case study based on two considerations. First, the different level and focus of the organization. WWF-Indonesia is an international/global organization. WALHI is a national NGO as a forum in Indonesia. CRI is a local NGO (based in Yogyakarta province). Second, the different focus of the organization. WWF-Indonesia mainly focuses on environmental conservation. WALHI is an environmental NGO focuses in advocacy and conservation. While CRI serves as an intermediary development organization, focuses on the development of media and ICT.

I want to examine whether different level of organization (international, national, and local) and different focus of the organization will influence the Internet use to develop participatory democracy.

3.3 Selection of respondents or informants The respondents or informants were selected purposively, on the basis of the involvement and responsibility on the Internet and ICTs development program of each NGO. The informants are the key persons of WWF-Indonesia, WALHI, and CRI dealing with the communication or Internet system and management. WALHI: • Muhammad Fadli (Head of Institutional and Resources Management

Department) • Eko Luruh Djatmiko (Management Information System Manager) WWF-Indonesia: • Primayunta (Resource Officer) • Rudi Permana (IT Manager) Combine Resource Institution (CRI). • Achmad Nasir (Director) • Ade Tanesia (Manager of Media and Knowledge Management)

3.4 Methods for data collection

3.4.1 Primary sources of data

a. Interviews Personal in-depth semi-structured interviews have been used to collect information about how the NGOs use the Internet in internal organization (internal communication and workplace participatory democracy) and external organization (external communication and public participatory democracy). Semi-structured approach was chosen because it can provide rich detailed data of greater value, especially because this research is to explore a phenomenon of the Internet and participatory democracy. The interview was held for about 60 minutes on average in Bahasa Indonesia.

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b. Web analysis and online observation This method focuses on observing online media (website, mailing list, etc.) used by the NGOs. In this approach, I did web analysis or online observation to collaborate the evidence gathered from the interviews. Considering various form of Internet-based citizen participation, two types of medium (websites and mailing lists) are chosen because these media are mainly used by the NGOs to communicate externally, with public. The websites and mailing lists are observed virtually. It is not participant observation or action research since I did not get involved in the actual development process and I did not engage in any conversation that took place in the mailing lists. Online media analysis is conducted to analyze the characteristic of online media used by NGOs. Evidence of participatory democracy through the Internet can be seen by understanding the characteristic level of Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization through the websites and mailing lists. I did qualitative interpretations on the website and mailing lists of the NGOs, based on the key characteristics. This research observed the following media: No. NGO Name of the medium URL 1. WALHI WALHI official website

WALHI official mailing list http://www.walhi.or.id http://groups.yahoo.com/group/walhinews

2. WWF-Indonesia

WWF-Indonesia official website WWF Supporter website WWF Supporter mailing list

http://www.wwf.or.id http://www.supporterwwf.org http://groups.yahoo.com/group/supporter-wwf

3. CRI CRI official website Jalin Merapi (Merapi Network) Suara Komunitas (Community Voice) Saluran Informasi Akar Rumput (SIAR) (Information Channel for Grassroots)

http://www.combine.or.id http://merapi.combine.or.id http://suarakomunitas.net http://www.siar.or.id

Table 1: The NGOs and the media observed

3.4.2 Secondary sources of data

a. Literature research The literature review was carried out to establish theoretical framework about the use of the Internet and participatory democracy. A large amount of literatures has been used to draw the concept of participatory democracy and to identify the significant characteristics of participatory democracy by the use of the Internet; how the Internet is used in internal management of organization; and what is its impact to the transition to workplace and public participatory democracy. b. Workshop participation When I did field work, I participated in a workshop “ICT as a tool of social change for civil society” held by Yayasan Satu Dunia (http://www.satudunia.net) in Jakarta, 12/12/2008. The speakers of this workshop were:

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• Yanuar Nugroho (Researcher ICT and Civil Society): Indonesian civil society and ICT

• Rini Nasution (Director SatuDunia): Building awareness of sharing information and knowledge among Indonesian civil society

• Winarko (Organizer of Lapindo victims website): Champaign and advocacy Lapindo victims through Lapindo victims website (http://www.korbanlapindo.net)

• Muhammad (Indonesian Gay Society in Malang): Developing network movement through website

• Agus Hamonangan (Moderator of mailing list of Kompas Reader Forum): Mailing list as alternative medium for sharing information and knowledge.

The speakers shared experiences on how they used the Internet to support their campaign and advocacy. The workshop tried to find a direction on the use of ICT for campaign and advocacy of Indonesia civil society organization, so that the performance of advocacy movement of Indonesian NGOs and CSOs become more educated, creative, and efficient.

3.5. Research question and techniques used In order to answer the various research questions, the following specific methods and techniques were used. No. Research Question Methods/Techniques 1. What are the main strategic uses of the Internet for

Indonesian NGOs? Interviews; workshop participation

2. What are the main internal strategic uses and the main characteristics of Internet use by the NGOs?

Interviews

3. What are the main characteristics of the Internet use to develop public participatory democracy?

Web analysis; online observation

4. What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by the NGOs?

Interviews, Web analysis; online observation

5. What are the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia?

Interviews, literature research, workshop participation.

3.6. Methods for data analysis Information from the interview was transcribed and interpreted based on research critical issues. Web analysis or online observation has been done by using qualitative interpretation based on the indicators of the key characteristics of participatory democracy, as follows: a. Information Qualitative interpretations about the website and mailing list of the NGOs were described based on these indicators: • Goal of medium: news and information, opinion, debate, protest, etc. • Target audience: specific audience (media/journalists, academicians) or public. • Accessibility: the medium can be accessed freely or limited. • Contributor: NGO staffs or user/citizens.

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• Quantity of information: less or more information; updating. • Quality of Information: trust worthiness and news worthiness (the more

characteristics of newsworthy the information has, the better the information is). • The level of information : low – medium/moderate – high b. Interaction Qualitative interpretations about the website and mailing list of the NGOs were described, based on these indicators: • Moderation : moderated or un-moderated • Type of communication: one-way or two-way. • Level of interaction of the medium: low – medium/moderate – high. c. Participation Qualitative interpretations about the website and mailing list of the NGOs were described, based on these indicators: • Type of participation: online discussion, fund raising, etc. • Participant’s number: few or many. • Types of participants: professionals, volunteers, or normal citizens. • Level of participation of the medium: low – medium/moderate – high. d. Decentralization Qualitative interpretation about the website and mailing list of the NGOs are described, based on these indicators: • Level of access to political decision maker. • Level of deliberative decision making. • To what extend they facilitate self governance. • Level of decentralization of the medium: low – medium/moderate – high.

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Chapter 4 Characteristics of Internet use by Indonesian NGOs This chapter will answer the following questions: (1) “What are the main strategic areas of Internet use by Indonesian NGOs?” as discussed in chapter 2.1.5. (2) “What are the main internal strategic uses and the main characteristics of Internet use by the NGOs?” (3) “What are the main characteristics of the Internet use to develop public participatory democracy?” (4) “What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet in Indonesian NGOs?” I will analyze each of the three NGOs, first by providing a short description of the NGO. Then, I will describe the strategic uses of the Internet; the internal main strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by the NGOs; the main characteristic of the external use of the Internet; and the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet.

4.1. WALHI

4.1.1. Description of WALHI

Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) or the Indonesian Forum for Environment is the largest forum of non-government and community-based organizations in Indonesia and a national member of Friends of the Earth International. It was established on October 15, 1980 in

Jakarta by 10 NGOs, with the support from the Ministry of Environment and Population. WALHI focuses on increasing public awareness of environmental issues, including air pollution, water pollution, pesticides and forest protection. WALHI conducts campaigns with the federation and with other international networks which have the same concerns on environmental justice. It is represented in 25 provinces and has over 438 member organizations (as of June 2004). It stands for social transformation, people’s sovereignty, and sustainability of life and livelihoods. WALHI works to defend Indonesia’s natural world and local communities from injustice carried out in the name of economic development. WALHI has developed into the largest, most popular and most influential environmental forum in Indonesia since 1980. In the 1990s, WALHI started to get involved in national policy advocacy and assisting communities that were victims of environmental destruction and development policies. By the end of the 1990s Indonesia was in serious economic and political crisis. During that time WALHI played an important role in the pro-democracy movement, highlighting the link between environmental and human rights abuses. In the post ‘reformation era’, WALHI commits to become an inclusive environmental movement that can work both inside and outside the state system. WALHI works across Indonesia on a variety of issues, including: forestry, mining, fresh water management, pollution, foreign debt and corporate-driven globalization, coasts and oceans, disaster management, national policy and law reform, and good

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governance. They also work to ensure adequate legal representation for various community groups in their struggles to gain justice.

4.1.2. The main strategic uses of the Internet by WALHI

WALHI has been using the Internet since 1989. According to Tedjabayu (1999), WALHI is the first NGO obtaining access from the Internet which got a link-up with an ISP in Europe. WALHI has developed the website since 1992. WALHI has been integrated nationally through the Internet in 1994. WALHI has used the Internet strategically for (1) Mobilization, (2) Advocacy, monitoring and shaping public opinion. (1) Mobilization As an organization focusing on political issues of environment, WALHI uses the Internet strategically for mobilization and advocacy work. WALHI conducts collective actions, such as protest or demonstration, donation, petition, political pressure and critics for government. WALHI believes that the internet is more effective, easier and cheaper for mobilize people and supporters.

“[F]or collective action, we consider the Internet is more effective, easy, and cheap. For Global Day alliance, for example, the response is obvious. We got public responds, not only from Jakarta but also from other regions which suddenly appeared.” (Fadli, interview, 15/01/2009).

One of examples of public support is using cyber alert. People fill in the email account and address on the website. In Lapindo mudflow case, for example, they got 1.000 supports. They printed it and they send the hard copy of list of the supporters to the President of Indonesia. (2) Advocacy, monitoring, shaping public opinion WALHI uses the Internet for advocacy, monitoring, and shaping public opinion. For example, if there is human right violation or environmental violation, they use the Internet to blow up the issue. According to Fadli (2009), it is easier and more effective to use the Internet to gain international support. They sent chronologies and what kind of support they need and they put it on the website. For some cases, they use personal email. WALHI also asks for colleagues to spread trough their networks. WALHI also uses the Internet as a means for monitoring through online newspaper and websites. WALHI had success stories of using the Internet for asking international support.

“The first case is a plan of building a pulp factory by international corporate in South Kalimantan. After we mobilized international support, the investor canceled the plan. The second case is Indocement. WALHI asked for support from people in a short time and we got international support. Finally, Indocement canceled the project and start to negotiate with fishermen.” (Fadli, interview, 15/01/2009)

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4.1.3. The main internal strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by WALHI 4.1.3.1. Internal strategic use of the Internet by WALHI The Internet is a very important medium for internal of WALHI. They use the Internet for (1) Communication and collaboration; and (2) Workplace participatory democracy. (1) Communication and collaboration As a national organization, WALHI needs an effective and efficient medium to collaborate and to communicate with 25 regional executives all over Indonesia. According to Djatmiko (2009), 80 percents of their communications are using the Internet and various applications of the Internet. The reason is the effectiveness of Internet as a communication medium. For example, to build a discussion for decision making of 25 provinces using conventional media is very slow and expensive. They use Intranet or internal website as information resource. Data are classified based on issues, office needs, and asset management. In advance, it enables direct connection, especially for updating data and information from the regional executives. For day to day communication, WALHI uses mailing list and email. Internal mailing list is used for communication and decision making. Discussion has been conducted trough mailing list in a certain time with specific topic led by moderator. They do not use video conference due toe the lack of Internet bandwidth. However, they use one-by-one communication via Skype and Yahoo Messenger (YM). (2) Workplace participatory democracy The Internet eases discussion for internal decision making. However, they still rely on face to face or direct communication for internal communication. Internet (cq. internal mailing list) is only used for discussing ‘technical’ issue which does not influence the policy of WALHI. For policy decision making, WALHI has annual meeting in which all regional executives gather for official decision making. 4.1.3.2. The main characteristic of Internet internal use by WALHI

From the observation and the description of Internet internal the strategic use by WALHI, I found that the main characteristics of Internet internal use by WALHI are “Information” and “Interaction”. They mainly use the Internet for sharing information and communication or interaction, while the characteristics of “Participation” and “Decentralization” are less significant.

4.1.4. The main characteristic of Internet external use by WALHI

In this part I did online analysis about the characteristic of Internet external use by WALHI based on the four key characteristics of Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization. The media observed are (a) WALHI official website and (b) WALHInews mailing list.

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a. WALHI official website (http://www.walhi.or.id) WALHI official website is used to facilitate one-way communication from WALHI to public. It is aimed to disseminate information, news, statements, or protest towards environmental policy. News and issue presented consist of environment and society categorized in Information, Media Release, Campaign; Call for Action, Event, etc. Type of issues or topics of campaign include: environment, water, disaster management, pollution, energy, globalization and debt, forest, coast and oceans, reforming environment and natural resource, and mining. The level of “Information” of this website is medium/moderate. Almost all articles, statements, and protest posted were created by WALHI staffs. This website is opened for public. However, the target audience tends to focus on media, academicians, and politicians. The quantity of information is not significant. In my observation (07/04/2009), I found that there were articles posted in 2005 still appeared in the front page (less actual). In new version (May 2009), I found more information. In addition to WALHI Video Campaign Gallery, this website also published special report of World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado, North Sulawesi (11-15/05/ 2009). The level of “Interaction” of this website is low. Although the new version of website is more sophisticated, I found that it was still lack of interaction. It used one way approach (from WALHI to public). The interactions between readers and authors and among the users are low. In the old version (observed in 07/04/2009), there were no shout box or comment box. In the new version (observed on 20/06/2009), shout box, comment box, and interactive feature are not available, although Djatmiko (interview, 15/01/2009) promised that WLAHI would apply Web 2.0 platform to make it more interactive. The interaction only has been facilitated through Contact-hyperlink, address, fax, phone, and email in the bottom of the web page. The level of “Participation” of this website is medium/moderate. It provides participation through ‘call for action’ (political participation), ‘fund rising’, and ‘online polling’. For example, it was appeared “Take Action of Lapindo mudflow” which linked to Friend of the Earth (FOE) website. In my observation in 29/05/2009 there were “Call for action for ‘Lapindo Black Friday”. Fund rising has been conducted through Sahabat WALHI (http://www.walhi.or.id/kotaklingk/donatur/.) Polling online was provided on the new version of the website about “WOC for whom?” These kinds of participation are still initiated by WALHI (top down approach). The level of “Decentralization” of this website is low because it does not provide chances for public to organize or to govern themselves. The management and content of this website are dominated by WALHI. Sahabat WALHI, as a group of members, is not organized well. There is no information about what kind of activities they can do after being registered and whether they can organize their selves through the Internet. As a conclusion, the main characteristic of WALHI website is Information, and the characteristics of Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization are low. b. WALHInews mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/walhinews) WALHInews is a mailing list developed by WALHI since 19/07/2002. According to Djatmiko (interview 15/01/2009), it is not a discussion mailing list. The aim of this

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mailing list is the same with WALHI official website: “to overwhelm the public with the update environmental issue from the Regional Executive”. It tends to be one way communication although the members can take part in giving information. It is an open mailing list. The audience of this mailing list is dominated by environmental activists and WALHI staffs. The number of members of the mailing list was 415 members (07/02/ 2009) and it decreased to 396 members (24/06/2009). As an official mailing list of a national organization likes WALHI, the number is low. The low of participant number will be followed by the level of interaction, participation, and decentralization. The level of “Information” in this mailing list is medium/moderate. The quantity of message posted is about 150 postings per month (12.692 messages in the archive in 08/04/2009). It is mainly used for disseminating information about environment published by online newspaper (kompas.com, thejakartaglobe.com, suarapembaruan.com, antaranews.com, etc) and press releases of WALHI. The benefit for the members is they can get actual information about environment from online newspapers or mainstream media. However, for some people it is not so interesting because they can find these kinds of information from the websites. The level of “Interaction” of this mailing list is low. As an environmental NGO focusing on policy and advocacy, I imagined that there were a lot of discussions and interactions through this mailing list. In my observation (February-May 2009), the interactions were lacking, although it is set for discussion. Feedbacks or comments from the members are little. There are many actual topics attracting for discussions, such as “Capres/cawapres Dinilai Tidak Punya Konsep Lingkungan” (The candidates of the President/Vice President has no concept about environment) posted in 25/06/2009. However, there were no discussions about it. The level of “Participation” is also low. Only few members shared information and posted messages. Most of the members were “lurker” (passive). The Decentralization characteristic is low. Almost nothing happened on this mailing list (the members are passive). The low levels of “Interaction”, “Participation”, and “Decentralization” are influenced by the strategy of WALHI ‘to overwhelm the public with the update environmental issue’ (Djatmiko, interview, 15/01/2009) so they has set and oriented this mailing list as an information medium (one-way communication). The content of this mailing list was dominated by WALHI. This strategy is not interesting for members and users because they can obtain this kind of information from mainstream media by them selves. As a result, the members are not interested to participate. The members are not motivated to share information, to build interaction and discussion and to strengthen their online community. They tend to be passive. WALHI should make this mailing list as a discussion or interaction medium (two-way communication). It needs to be organized strategically by WALHI, for example, by choosing some members as moderators who will be responsible to organize this mailing list, to develop interactions, and to invite participation from members and

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among members. WALHI needs to promote this mailing list extensively so that they can increase their members. As a conclusion, WALHI mailing list is mainly used for Information (one-way communication from WALHI to public) while the characteristics of Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization are low.

4.1.5. The correlation of internal and external use of the Internet by WALHI

Although WALHI has been using 80 percents of the Internet use for internal communication, the Internet use for workplace participatory democracy is not significant. Internet was not used optimally to develop workplace participatory democracy in internal decision making process. Internet, especially internal mailing list, has been used for deliberative discussion for trivial or technical issues. The Internet has been used for information and communication. However, they still rely on face-to-face meeting. Regarding to the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by WALHI, there is no correlation between internal use and external use of the Internet by WALHI because the external use of the Internet to develop and facilitate participatory democracy is not significant. WALHI realizes that they need citizen’s involvement and participation. They also realize that the Internet has opportunity to develop and to enhance participatory democracy. However, it has not been applied yet because “the Internet access of the Internet in Indonesia is still lacking. Compared to the other ICTs, cellular phone is more promising than the Internet.” (Fadli, interview, 15/01/2009).

4.2. WWF-Indonesia

4.2.1. Description of WWF-Indonesia

WWF-Indonesia is an independent member and a network of WWF International. It affiliates in almost 100 countries worldwide. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) started to work in Indonesia in 1960s. In April 1998, the Indonesian Program office was transformed into WWF-Indonesia. WWF-Indonesia became a national organization within the WWF Global Network. WWF-Indonesia prioritizes their work in important centers of biodiversity known as the Global 200 eco-regions. They are currently running conservation programs in 23 sites in 16 provinces throughout Indonesia in a number of marine, freshwater and forest ecosystems. They strive to save the diversity of species by promoting sustainable conservation that can give continued social and economic benefits to local communities. They also work with various stakeholders to restore damaged ecosystems and mitigate various threats such as climate change and toxic chemicals. WWF-Indonesia’s ultimate goal is to stop and eventually reverse environmental degradation in order to build a better future where people live in harmony with nature.

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Their mission is to conserve biodiversity to reduce human impact through: promoting strong conservation ethics, awareness and actions in Indonesia society; facilitating multi-stakeholders efforts to preserve biodiversity and ecological processes on eco-regional scale; advocating for policies, law and law enforcement that support conservation; and promoting conservation for the well-being of people, through sustainable use of natural resources.

4.2.2. The main strategic use of the Internet by WWF Indonesia

WWF-Indonesia has realized the role of ICT and internet since 1999. WWF-Indonesia has used the Internet strategically for (1) Communication and collaboration (2) Knowledge management (3) Contribution to environment. (1) Communication and collaboration WWF-Indonesia has Action Network program in which the Internet is used to communicate lively from the field. Activities from the field has been updated using notebook equipped with broadcast satellite for taking picture and publishing. In this process, if someone has problem in an area with the same climate, demography, and geography, he or she can directly contact fellows in different area with the equipment they have. They are peers which can contact each other through Internet and/or ICTs.

“As a knowledge worker, we do not think that people should be in one building. Wherever, he or she should be connected, can be accessed their knowledge. The Internet is not seen as cost. If they do not have Internet connection, we should equip with 3G connection or else because we hire someone in WWF not for hiring his or her presence but her or his capacity or knowledge. For this role, can be contacted is a must. It is important for participatory in decision making and sharing and integrated proposal. Everybody has been involved comprehensively. Internally, getting connected is needed.” (Permana, interview, 14/01/2009)

(2) Knowledge management Knowledge management is a practice to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences (McInerney, 2002). According to Permana (interview, 14/01/2009), the Internet contributes to knowledge management. WWF has many valuable documents, then they initiate to open to public. They managed it, so all final documents in the server are free and can be accessed by public. (3) Contribution to environment The use of Internet has direct impact to environment. Using the Internet, they can reduce the use of flight transportation which has strategic values to environment. Online meeting is used as an initiative of WWF to cut travel cost. WWF has followed a movement of giving compensation for flight. In this context, the Internet is used strategically for reducing carbon foot print.

“WWF globally see carbon footprint as a serious threat related to climate change, for example: how ICTs can contribute to reduce carbon by substituting face to face meeting with video conference.” (Permana, interview 14/01/ 2009).

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4.2.3. The main internal strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by WWF-Indonesia

4.2.3.1 The main internal strategic uses of the Internet by WWF-Indonesia As an international NGO, the Internet is very important for WWF. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for (1) Collaboration (2) Knowledge management (3) Workplace participatory democracy. (1). Communication and collaboration For internal communication, WWF Indonesia has intranet and global intranet in which all WWF staffs are registered and all documents are put on it. They use it for collaboration. They also use email and portal as a central website for all information. It is divided into several community work practices or workgroups. Each workgroup is completed comprehensively by calendars, discussion forum, file management, etc. They can communicate in specific area of their knowledge. For example, in support department, they provide content about policy and activities or manual of organization which can be accessed everyday. The idea is how they can interact within small group. For new comers, they can start easily with one of the most important things that they need to know. WWF-Indonesia has used the Internet as communication medium because the Internet enables that wherever they are, they can be contacted. So, there is no constraint of communication. (2). Workplace participatory democracy WWF-Indonesia has used the Internet for participatory democracy or democratic decision making. Internet gives the ease for staffs to express their aspiration and share their thoughts. They were asked for inputs and opinions which can influence the decision making level. The most important thing is that the Internet builds togetherness process. It also develops sense of belonging that WWF is not only owned by a small people or a certain level. So, they have a chance to participate in decision making process as well. Participatory democracy has done through online polling. For example, they have a plan to build a new office. They post plan and design to the website and ask people to choose. 4.2.3.2. The main characteristic of Internet internal use by WWF-Indonesia

From the description of Internet internal the strategic use by WWF-Indonesia, I found that the main characteristics of Internet internal use by WWF-Indonesia are “Information”, “Interaction”, “Participation” and “Decentralization”. They have used the Internet not only for sharing information and communication/interaction, but also for developing workplace participatory democracy. They have applied the four characteristics of participatory democracy for developing workplace participatory democracy.

4.2.4. The main characteristic of the external use of Internet by WWF-Indonesia

According to Permana (2009), the dynamics of WWF members relate to public engagement towards public policy is still low. Participatory democracy involving citizens in policy environmental decision making through Internet did not exist. What

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they have done is they proposed a position paper as inputs for some stakeholders. For example, they wrote a position paper about Jakarta flood issue and climate and they put their idea to the website. In practice, they facilitated direct participation in spatial planning.

“We invited people in participatory decision making through face to face meeting. For example, in Kerinci Seblat area, WWF launched agreement of community conservation. People have decided which area for conservation, protected area, buffer zone, etc.” (Primayunta, interview, 14/01/2009.

WWF uses mailing list and website to develop external communication. Supporter WWF mailing list is used as interaction medium for WWF and supporters and to share information about nature conservation. WWF official website provides space for members to participate in content management, for instance, in Marine Buddies community website. Community involvement is also facilitated through Supporter WWF website. The supporters are mediated via website and e-newsletter. Internet is also used for fund rising from the people through the Internet.

“WWF Indonesia develops Baby Trees program (for individual) and New Trees program (for company and institution). The same patterns are applied for Supporters with Forest Guardian and Junior Conservationist. After online registration and giving donation, automatically the user are registered as Supporter.” (Primayunta, interview, 14/01/2009).

To study the main characteristic of the external use of the Internet used by WWF-Indonesia, I did online analysis of WWF-Indonesia online media: (a) WWF-Indonesia official website; (b) WWF-Indonesia Supporter website; (c) WWF-Indonesia Supporter mailing list, based on the four key characteristics of Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization. a. WWF-Indonesia official website (http://www.wwf.or.id) The level of “Information” of WWF-Indonesia online website is medium/moderate. It provides information about WWF Indonesia; news and facts, press release, publication, image, etc. It focuses on giving information about programs, fund rising for supporters, job vacancy, etc. In addition to information, this website presents academic publication, such as reports, position papers, campaign materials which can be downloaded by users or members. There is also online library, linked to http://rafflesia.wwf.or.id/library. In this website, we can retrieve some publications, books, articles from the media, news, etc. From this site, we can see how WWF uses the Internet for disseminating information and knowledge management. The level of “Interaction” on this website is low. In my previous observation (June-May 2009), there was no comment box for visitors/users to give comments. Since June 2009, this website has provided comment box below the posted articles. As a new feature, the feedback is still lacking. This website also provided hyperlinks of WWF programs, such as Carbon Foot Print Calculator, Rhino Care, Save Sumatra, Eyes on the Earth, Fire Bulletin, etc.

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The level of “Participation” of this website is also low. WWF-Indonesia has asked active participation with features, such as “how you can help”; “make a donation”; “getting involved”, and “reduce your impact”. However, the participation is not obvious. The level of “Decentralization” of this website is medium/moderate. WWF-Indonesia has used it to organize members by using citizen journalism approach. According to Primayunta (interview, 14/01/2009), WWF-Indonesia website provided a space for citizens to send and publish articles. However, these articles need to be verified. It also invites people to join WWF Supporter, give donation, take action, and send e-petition. Marine Buddies website (http://www.marinebuddies.org) is one of the website developed by WWF-Indonesia which develops interactive and user generated content. In this website, users are able to create postings, send messages, interact with other users and upload videos. Users are invited to be a member, give donation and upload pictures. I conclude that WWF-Indonesia has developed participatory democracy through this official website. The characteristic levels of “Information”, “Interaction” and, “Participation” are low; while the level of “Decentralization” is medium/moderate. b. WWF-Indonesia Supporter website (http://www.supporterwwf.org) As a community website, this website is used as a medium for communication and information between Supporters and WWF-Indonesia. It provides online supporter activities, such as Forum, Quiz, Wallpaper, Mailing List, and send e-card. However, some services are limited to supporters (not for public). Supporter room, for example, is only for Supporter who has active membership. The level of “Information” on this website is medium/moderate. The information are mainly about WWF activities and program, such as eNews Earth Day, workshop of paper recycle, launching of WWF-Indonesia office in Jayapura, WWF Street Event, etc. This website also provides interactive information via video (Youtube) and SAlam (online bulletin) for supporters. The level of “Interaction” of this website is high. The first impression of this website is it is an interactive website. On the left sidebar there are hyper links of Sobat Panda (Panda’s Friend) room, Gabung Suporter (join to Supporter) and Supporter Polling. On the right sidebar, we can find Photo Gallery and Shout box. This website enables everyone to post comments or questions and to get answers from WWF-Indonesia. Inputs, comments, questions, and critics about WWF can be posted in Shout Box. “Interaction” can also be seen through WWF Supporter forum in http://supporterwwf.org/forum/. This forum has 6.320 members, including professionals, volunteers, and students. However, only registered users (active members) can interact through this forum. Un-registered users can only read posted articles. However, the level of interaction in this forum is low. For example, a topic about “the more paper used will reduce forest”, is only commented by 13 commentators.

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The level of “Participation” of this website is medium/moderate. This website provides rooms for members to participate, such as for fund raising, online recruitment of the members, sending creativity, etc. WWF receives articles, tips, pictures, or wallpaper design which will be chosen to be put in the website. Supporters have been invited to get involved in WWF environmental conservation program by giving annual donation and helping WWF campaign. The level of “Decentralization” of this website is high. Through this website, supporters can create program, develop activities, and organize their group by them selves (WWF staffs are only as facilitators). As a conclusion, WWF Supporter has applied four characteristics of participatory democracy (Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization) on this website. c. WWF Supporter mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/supporter-wwf) WWF Supporter mailing list was created as a medium for discussion for WWF, Supporters, and public as written in the description of the mailing list : “To all members, feel free to have discussions and sharing opinions, information, experiences, etc. related to nature conservations.” WWF Supporter mailing list was created in 18/04/2006. It is used for sharing news and information, opinion, debate, protest, etc. This mailing list is fully opened for public and can be accessed freely. The members are environmental activist, professional, volunteers (Supporter WWF), and citizens. The members were about 1.107 (27/05/2009) and increased to 1130 (25/06/2009). The level of “Information” of this mailing list is medium/moderate. Information ranges from 50 to 222 per month. The quality of information is good because it is based on the trust-worthiness and news-worthiness of resources. Information are dominated by members and WWF staffs. Information from online newspapers are less. The level of “Interaction” of this mailing list is high. For instance, there was a member posted a message titled “Ada masukan?” or “Is there any input?” (posted 19/06/2009). The member told about his plan to develop a project of outdoor restaurant which concerns to environment. He asked for inputs from members. Within two days, there were 13 members who gave inputs. Discussion on this topic happened lively. From the archive I also found there are many messages using [Re:] as a symbol of feedback or comment from members. This kind of interaction describes the level of participation of this mailing list. The level of “Participation” of this mailing list is high. There are many members contribute to share information, ask information, and participate in discussions. The level of “Decentralization” of this mailing list is medium/moderate. Although it is organized by the WWF-Indonesia, it provides rooms for members or Supporters to organize and to develop plan and activities by their own idea. From this observation, I conclude that the main characteristics of WWF-Indonesia Supporter mailing list are Interaction and Participation (high), while Information and Decentralization are medium/moderate.

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4.2.5. The correlation of internal and external use of the Internet by WWF-Indonesia

The Internet internal use within WWF-Indonesia is obvious. It has been used to facilitate and develop workplace participatory democracy. Deliberative discussion has been on going through internal mailing list and online conference. They have gathered inputs and opinion from employees through Internet which can be used in internal decision making. The Internet also facilitates the sense of togetherness and sense of belonging between employees and managers and among employees. For external need, WWF-Indonesia has not oriented the use of the Internet to facilitate and develop public participatory democracy because they saw the constraints of Internet access among citizens.

“The Internet Indonesia is still high cost, something that WWF can not facilitate for people. WWF can only publish citizen’s activities. For example, in Kalimantan, WWF-Indonesia facilitates people with eco tourism. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet to promote events in Kalimantan relate to ecotourism” (Permana, interview, 14/01/2009).

In Marine Buddies and WWF Supporters website, WWF-Indonesia has utilized Internet not only for information medium, but also for interaction, participation, and developing self-governance of their community and group. The key characteristics of participatory democracy have been used and implemented in WWF-Indonesia online medium. WWF-Indonesia has been used the Internet as a medium for public participation. Regarding to the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by WWF-Indonesia, I found a correlation. I observed that internal and external use of the Internet have been done mutually. In internal organization, they have applied the use of the Internet for workplace democracy. At the same time, they have been applying the Internet use to develop public participatory as well.

4.3. Combine Resource Institution (CRI)

4.3.1. Description of CRI

The idea of community based information network (Combine) started in 1999. In 2001, Combine grew into Combine Resource Institution (CRI). Presently, Combine focuses on marginalized communities such

as the urban poor, peasants, labors, indigenous and geographically-isolated people. Combine concerns in how to develop network of knowledge and information to empower poor or marginalized communities. This network allows possibilities of distributing and sharing information both among members of communities, between communities and external parties. Combine has set its goals: utilizing local wisdom, focusing on good governance and encouraging small society oriented economy that supports the values of community productivity, environmental sustainability, humanity and justice.

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CRI provides resources and expertise in consultation; training and research specifically related to information systems, community based journalism, community organizing and participatory planning. CRI now scales itself up by including the use of ICT in its program. CRI realizes that the ICT will help, if an organization can use it strategically. Integrating ICT with community media is also part of their agenda. CRI develops programs, such as software for village to support transparency of local government. CRI also develops portals, such as Suara Komunitas, Jalin Merapi, and SIAR.

4.3.2. The main strategic use of the Internet by CRI

CRI has been using the Internet strategically for (1) Content management (2) Strengthen grassroots (3) Develop citizen journalism. (1) Content management Content management is a set of processes that support the evolutionary life cycle of information or content, such as documents, multimedia files or any other file type which follows a content lifecycle which requires management (see http://www.contentmanagement.eu/). Content management ranges from content authoring or acquisition through to content publishing or deployment and Web site management (Boiko; 2001). It consists of phases: create, update, publish, translate, archive and retrieve which can be done by the use of the Internet. As an NGO focuses on media development, some of CRI’s programs are convergence between radio and the Internet. They use radio to connect with community because the Internet is still accessed by a few people. They use radio as information center and try to improve the radio with internet connection so that the radios have ability to develop a content management. The Internet is chosen because it enables citizens to have a network and it has a chance to develop citizen journalism so that citizens are able to manage the content of the community and share local problems by themselves (Tanesia, interview, 20/01/2009). (2) Strengthen grassroots The idea behind this vision is that marginal communities only become an object of information all the time. If they have their own ability to manage information, they will become stronger and they can build a network among them. However, if we talk this issue in Indonesian context, it is too far. In their mindset, the information is still assumed as an unimportant thing. Information did not become a mainstream. CRI has to struggle hard to promote this issue (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009). To develop community media, they need to increase the capacity of people. CRI more focused on developing network by making a link among community media. To make a link, they need technology.

“The Internet is chosen as a medium because CRI wants to develop three communication patterns. First, in condition of existing gap between elite and grassroots, we try ‘to earthed’ elite’s term by modifying article and academic document so that it can be understood by grassroots. The second is mainstreaming. The issues and discourses in grassroots sometimes are

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regarded as irrational, non-academic. CRI wants ‘to mainstream’ local issues. The third is horizontal communication among citizens and communities.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009).

According to Nasir (2009), Internet is the most possible medium which enables this communication patterns. As a result, since 2005, CRI has used the Internet for this purposes. CRI develops Internet network in some community radios so that they can share information mutually and they can manage the website together. At first, information exchange occurred. In advance, CRI hopes more real exchange occur, for example business transaction among communities. If horizontal transaction occurs, the cost and price will be lower. These are the Internet uses to strengthen the grassroots by CRI. (3) Develop citizen journalism CRI is eager to develop citizen journalism because a rapid progress of citizen journalism will encourage democratization. In citizen journalism approach, citizens do not only become an object of the press. They are able to publish events and affairs around them. As a result, public space is not monopolized by elites’ opinion.

“Information about the community has been written by media. However, media put their selves as a speaker who covers problems of the community. The community simply becomes an object of the report.” (Suparyo, 2009)

Citizen journalism is able to cover the lack of news material from the mainstream media which prioritize high magnitude. In the mainstream media, the editor does not take in to account normal people in developing news, so public issues sometime are forgotten. CRI develops citizen journalism by using website/portals. CRI facilitates citizen journalism with the convergence of community radio stations and citizens bulletin.

4.3.3. The main internal strategic uses and the main characteristic of Internet use by CRI

4.3.3.1. The main internal strategic uses of the Internet by CRI The Internet has been used for many purposes in internal organization of CRI. CRI has been using the Internet strategically for (1) Consumption and production; (2) Communication; and (3) Workplace participatory democracy. (1) Consumption and production The Internet is used for consumption (searching material for training, writing, and reference) and production (publishing online media for campaign). (2) Communication There are some facilities, features, and applications of the Internet used by CRI. • Internal website is used as an information medium for people to know about CRI. • E-mail is used to communicate with partners and donors.

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• Messenger is used for online meeting or conference with staffs outside the office. • Internal mailing list is used to update the progress of the program and activities. • Virtual office is used to put valuable archives and agenda about activities and

programs. • Website is used for donors to give input, critique or suggestion directly and

interact through website. • Server is used as a place to save valuable data which can be accessed from outside. (3) Workplace participatory democracy The Internet is helping to implement workplace participatory democracy. According to Nasir (interview, 20/01/2009), participatory democracy relates to transparency and decentralization. Participatory democracy emerges when everybody can give input, suggestion, and can discuss through internet. Decision making process can not get off the dynamics emerged in the mailing list. Discussions in internal mailing list can be brought to managerial meeting and sometimes the decision is made directly in the mailing list. Transparency occurs, for instance, the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) can be accessed by everyone through the Internet. Decentralization occurs when everybody can propose program. However, they still rely on face-to-face official meeting. 4.3.3.2. The main characteristic of Internet internal use by CRI

From the description of Internet internal the strategic use by CRI, I found that the main characteristics of Internet internal use by CRI are “Information” and “Interaction”, “Participation” and “Decentralization”. They have applied the four characteristics of participatory democracy for developing workplace participatory democracy.

4.3.4. The main characteristic of Internet external use by CRI

CRI develops programs, such as software for village to support transparency of local government. CRI also develops some portal, such as Suara Komunitas, Jalin Merapi, and SIAR. Suara Komunitas portal is to develop communication sharing among radio communities or community media. Jalin Merapi is a network of radio community in the area of Merapi volcano as a part of early warning system. They build a network to broadcast update condition of Merapi volcano and to expose the potency of economic and natural resource around Merapi Volcano. They also develop SIAR (Saluran informasi akar rumput or Information channel for grassroots). It is a news agency for community media. To understand the Internet external use by CRI, I did online analysis based on the four key characteristics of Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization on the following media: (a) CRI official website; (b) Suara Komunitas website; (c) Jalin Merapi website; (d) SIAR website. a. CRI official website (http://www.combine.or.id) Combine.or.id is an official website of CRI. The main characteristic of this website is “Information”, while “Interaction”, “Participation”, and “Decentralization” are less dominant. CRI website is mainly used as a medium for general information about CRI

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organization. It provides hyperlinks, such as About (Vision, Mission, and Person), Services (Community Media Development, Production House, Publication, Research, Public Library, and Applied ICT); Activities (Accomplished activities and On Going Activities), and Partners (NGOs and International Organization, Civil Society Organization, Government Institution, and Funding Organization). CRI has built three websites to respond the needs in specific area which converge the media with ICT:

(1) Suara Komunitas (Community Voice) (http://www.suarakomunitas.net); (2) Jalin Merapi (Information Network Across Merapi Volcano)

(http://merapi.combine.or.id); (3) Saluran Informasi Akar Rumput (Information Channel for Grassroots)

(http://www.siar.or.id). b. Suara Komunitas website (http://www.suarakomunitas.net//)

Suara Komunitas or is a community website which is organized by community media all over Indonesia (community radio, print community media, and individual contributor). In ‘About Us’ titled “Saat warga bersuara, tidak hanya disuarakan” (When citizens have a voice, not just being voiced), it is explained that citizens life differs in each community. Every community has their own uniqueness. They live and solve their problem faced in different context. The differences become a basis for the existence of Suara Komunitas portal.

As a press agency opened for public, Suara Komunitas aims to disseminate information to the competent authorities. For example, if there is corruption case in a village, Suara Komunitas has obligation to publish it, so that it will get attention to the competent authority to be solved. Community media activists publish the information in their community (via bulletin, community magazines, and community radio), while Suara Komunitas publishes it to external community so that the information will get a bigger resonance.

Suara Komunitas develops citizen journalism approach by collecting and sharing concepts, ideas, and events in the community. They create a system which enables them to share information and knowledge through Internet. They apply their own news worthy which is different with mainstream media. They do not emphasize high/big magnitude. For instance, we never found news like “Gumantar Krisis Air Bersih” (Water Crisis in Gumantar, posted in 18/06/2009) in the mainstream media because Gumantar is a small village in Kayangan sub-district, in Lombok Utara district, West Nusa Tenggara province. The mainstream media are not interested to publish this kind of news because the magnitude of this news is low/small. The level of “Information” of this website is medium. As a community media, the target audience of this website is citizen. This website is updated frequently, about five postings per day. However, the quality of information is low. It makes sense because the authors are citizen who are still lacking of skills, knowledge, and professionalism. Suara Komunitas provides information from villages, regions, and smalls cities in Indonesia. It is open to various topics focused on local information. The most important thing is that the news is based on fact, not based on gossip or rumor. In my observation in 26/05/2009, community news have dominated the content of this website.

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The level of “Interaction” of this website high. Visitors and users are able to give feedback on the postings or articles. Everyone can give comments without moderation and registration. It provides un-moderated interaction and two-way communication. The level of “Participation” is also high because most of all information are created by citizens or community media activists. The level of “Decentralization” of this website is also high. It develops self governance community through citizen journalism approach or participatory journalism approach. Everybody can register and fill in the available form easily. After that, the users are able to post news, information, pictures, or articles on the website. They are provided with Press ID card so that they have access to political decision maker. They can write news and events about public service. I conclude that the main characteristic of Suara Komunitas are “Participation” and “Decentralization”. Through this website, CRI provides more spaces and opportunities for people and members to organize their selves through citizen journalism approach. c. Jalin Merapi Website (http://merapi.combine.or.id/) Merapi volcano (2.980) is categorized as the most active volcano in the world located between Central Java and Yogyakarta. At the beginning, Jaringan Informasi Lingkar Merapi (Information Network of across Merapi volcano) or Jalin Merapi website was developed as an early warning system. It is organized by the cooperation of three community radios in the area of Merapi volcano: Radio Lintas Merapi, Radio K FM, and Radio Merapi-Merbabu Community (MMC). The level of “Information” of this website is medium/moderate. It is aimed to provide information about the condition of Merapi volcano and the dynamic of the community around Merapi. The information are categorized in to Merapi Info; Local Economy; Environment; Culture and Local Wisdom; Citizen Speaks; Analysis; Tourism; Disaster Management; and Clippings. The website has been updated frequently. However, the quality of information or article published is low because the authors or contributors are not professional journalists. The level of “Interaction” of this website is low. Comment boxes for the article published are not available. Interactions or feedbacks from the readers are facilitated through moderated Shout Box and SMS 0819-33-277638. The level of “Participation” on this website is medium/moderate. Information are taken from the field and investigated by citizens. However, the numbers of participants and messages posted are not significant. The level of “Decentralization” is also medium/moderate. It develops citizen journalism approach in which citizens can post articles and opinion about events and the dynamics of the community. I conclude that the main characteristics of Jalin Merapi website are “Participation” and “Decentralization” (high). It gives chance for citizens and community radio activists to involve and to organize this website, while the characteristics of “Information” and “Interaction” are medium/moderate.

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d. SIAR website (http://www.siar.or.id) Saluran Informasi Akar-Rumput (SIAR) or Information Channel for Grassroots is a medium for co-organizing information among Indonesian community media. SIAR utilizes the Internet to support to create a medium which fulfills the element of speed, accuracy, interactivity and democracy. SIAR is aimed as an effort in building synergy among community media through information network. CRI stated that this website is used for sharing news and information among the communities and to facilitate content diversity which enables cooperation among communities to prevent monopoly of information. The information presented in the website is mainly local content. The contributors are the citizens from community radio. However, the level of “Information” of this website is low. In my observation, the website was not managed well. The information published are lacking because the information was not updated frequently. Interactions are facilitated by comment box below the articles, Shout box, Guestbook, and SMS 08180-438-9000. The comments are not moderated. However, the level of “Interaction” of this website is low. Interactions and comments from visitors are lacking. As a medium for serving community information, SIAR put citizens of community as the main actors. SIAR facilitates community to play active role and giving a contribution of content to other communities through website. Citizens are able to participate in posting news and information in this website. They choose and decide the types of information which will be produced and shared through the website. However, the level of “Participation” of this website is low. The number of information published by citizens is few. The level of “Decentralization” of this website is medium/moderate. SIAR facilitates more spaces and opportunities for people at the community to develop participatory communication. As a form of the decentralization, SIAR is handled by contributors from community radios. They do not only receive content, but also send content to other communities through SIAR. The main characteristic of SIAR website is “Decentralization”. It applies citizen journalism approach which enables citizens to participate, interact, and develop self governance through the Internet. However, the implementation is not well organized so that the level of “Information”, “Interaction” and “Participation” are low.

4.3.5. The relationship of internal and external use of the Internet by CRI

Almost all Internet applications have been used to support CRI internal organization and to provide wider spaces for public participation and to strengthen grassroots. It is accordance with the concern of CRI to develop communities through media. The Internet has been considered as a strategic medium. Since in the beginning, CRI has realized that Internet enables to develop top-down/bottom-up approach and horizontal communication through citizen journalism approach.

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Regarding to the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet to develop participatory democracy, I found a correlation. The Internet use to develop workplace participatory democracy and public participatory democracy has been done mutually by CRI. CRI developed public participatory democracy by providing Internet hosting, website, and training for people. By doing these, step by step, people are able to organize community media for and by their selves. CRI has integrated Internet and radio community. These steps are very effective because for citizens who have no internet connection, they can still be facilitated by community radio.

4.4. Comparison of the key characteristics of Internet external use by the NGOs Table 2 presents a comparison of the key characteristics of external use of the Internet by the three NGOs. I summarized my findings based on this table. • “Information” is the main characteristic of online media developed by NGOs. • The levels of “Interaction”, “Participation”, and “Decentralization” of the

NGOs’ official websites are lower than supporters or community websites. It makes sense because the NGOs mainly use official websites as one-way communication medium from NGOs to public.

• Key characteristic levels of participatory democracy of NGOs’ online media are various. Key characteristic level of participatory democracy of WALHI online media (official website and mailing list) are the lowest. Key characteristic level of participatory democracy of WWF-Indonesia and CRI are higher. This NGOs develop online media (websites and mailing lists or forum) and facilitate members/supporters and communities by using citizen journalism approach.

Key characteristic of participatory democracy No NGO Online Media Information Interaction Participation Decentralization

Official web Medium Low Medium Low 1. WALHI Official mail list Medium Low Low Low Official web Low Low Low Medium Supporter website Medium High Medium High

2. WWF-I

Supporter mail list Medium High High Medium Official web Medium Low Low Low Suara Komunitas Medium Medium High High Jalin Merapi Medium Medium High High

3. CRI

SIAR Low Low Low Medium

Table 2: The key characteristic of Internet external use by the NGOs Table 3 presents comparisons of strategic use of the Internet, internal use of the Internet, and the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by the three NGOs. WALHI uses the Internet strategically for mobilization; advocacy, monitoring, and shaping public opinion; and collaboration. WALHI uses the Internet externally for supporting political movement. Internally, WALHI uses the Internet for communication, collaboration, and workplace participatory democracy. However, there is no correlation between internal and external use for public participatory democracy developed by WALHI.

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WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for communication and collaboration, knowledge management; and environmental contribution. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet internally for communication, collaboration, and workplace participatory democracy. There is a correlation between internal and external use of the Internet for participatory democracy developed by WWF-Indonesia. CRI uses the Internet strategically for content management; strengthen grassroots, and develop citizen journalism. Internet is used internally for consumption and production; communication; and workplace participatory democracy. There is a correlation between internal and external use of the Internet for participatory democracy developed by CRI. No NGO The strategic use of the

Internet The internal strategic use of the Internet

Correlation of internal-external use

1. WALHI • Mobilization • Advocacy,

monitoring, shaping public opinion

• Collaboration

• Communication and Collaboration

• Workplace participatory democracy

No correlation

2. WWF-I • Communication and Collaboration

• Knowledge management

• Environmental contribution

• Communication and collaboration

• Workplace participatory democracy

Correlation

3. CRI • Content management

• Strengthen grassroots

• Develop citizen journalism

• Consumption and production

• Communication • Workplace participatory

democracy

Correlation

Table 3: Strategic use, internal strategic use, and correlation of internal-external use

of the Internet by the NGOs

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Chapter 5 Constraints and opportunities of Internet use by the NGOs This chapter wants to answer the question of “What are the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet by Indonesia NGOs?” I also present my point of view about the future of the development of participatory democracy in Indonesia by the use of the Internet. The findings are taken from the interviews with NGOs’ staffs and literature research.

5.1. Constraints Basically, the three NGOs do not have a constraint of access or internet connection because they have used the Internet an important medium in daily activities. However, in reality, the NGOs have some constraints in developing participatory democracy. (1) Internal constraints The attempt to develop participatory democracy within the NGOs sometimes has to deal with internal constraints, such as un-equal participation, miss-communication, and negative image of Internet communication. First, un-equal participation happened internally. For example, in CRI, there were very active members and passive members (lurker). Lurker refers to the act of viewing other peoples' conversations but not participating by them selves (silent participants). Second, written communication using Internet sometime enables miss-communication and miss-understanding. Third, for some people, Internet communication is assumed as ’a-social’.

”People talk trough internet chat, although they are in the same room. The Internet is reducing direct communication. It can be seen in a positive or negative point of view. Positively, the Internet communication is quicker and more efficient. Negatively, direct communication is something that is not replaceable, because it involves the emotion.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009).

(2) Cultural constraints Cultural constraints consist of limited use of the Internet by government officials, the characteristic of Indonesian citizens and negative image of Internet. • The Internet is limitedly used in decision making of the government, although in

certain levels (the third echelon of government officials), they have actively used the Internet. However, the officials don’t effectively use the Internet as a medium for official communication. They still use traditional communication, such as sending the letter and hard copy (Fadli, interview, 15/01/2009).

• Indonesian citizens are un-expressive. So, it is not easy to be more open to express their thought and opinion. It is also caused by lacking of language skills and education. “We can buy technology. However, there is still cultural problem.” (Permana, interview, 14/01/2009).

• The Internet is promoted in a negative way. ”Media dominantly publish the negative image of the Internet: pornography and crime. They rarely publish, for example, that the Internet can educate children.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009).

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(3) Content production Majority of Indonesian people perceive the Internet as a consumption tool. They use the Internet more for ’downloading’ and not for ’uploading’. The same condition happens for the activists within the NGOs. Although they have been facilitated with the Internet resource, however, they did not optimally make use the resource.

”Compared to non-activist Internet users, the NGO activists are less active. For example, the NGO activists are difficult to be asked for sharing information because in majority, they perceive information as exclusive thing kept by themselves. It is conflicting with the Internet nature: sharing.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009).

At this point, for CRI, technology is not a critical issue. The main problem is about content, not about technology.

“That is why we are starting from the content. Our approach is not by teaching people (such as farmers or fishermen) to use the Internet, but how we can utilize the Internet. If in a certain area there is no Internet, it is no problem. We can use other technology, such as radio. CRI perceives community radio just as a medium, yet as an information point in the community which can be used strategically and optimally for community. As an example, community radios are retrieving information on the Internet, translate it in to local language, and then publish the information through radio. It answers two issues. First, language issue: they become translator. Second, technical issue: not all people need to search information through the Internet. They just listen to the radio.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009).

(4) Human resource competence The competence of human recourse is not trivial in this regard. To develop participatory democracy means to enhance the capacity of people so that they can speak and to express their thought by themselves. Sometimes it is not easy due to the low level of education, low computer literacy, and low internet literacy of the people. From the experience of CRI, (CRI is connecting 70 community radios from 600 community radio in Indonesia), the low capacity and competence of the human resource is significant constraint that needs to be addressed.

”It is not easy because from the capacity aspect, when the people use the Internet, they need to use written or literal tradition to write article and news on the website. They have to learn new things at the same time: Computer, Internet, and Writing. While, their education level is low and their job are farmers. However, CRI feels optimist that the people can be upgraded although it needs more time and effort.” (Nasir, 2009).

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5.2. Opportunities In addition to the constraints of developing participatory democracy, here I present a general overview of the current facts of the Internet in Indonesia as an opportunity of developing participatory democracy. (1) The raise of the Internet users in Indonesia According to data from the Associations of ISP in Indonesia (APJII) in 2005 there were 16 millions Internet users and it increased to 25 millions in 2008. Internet World Statistics in January 2007 (Table 4) shows that the Internet users in Indonesia were 2 million in 2000 and increased to 20 million in 2007. The penetration of Indonesian Internet users increased from 8.9 % in 2007 to 10.5 % in 2008.

Year Users Population Penetration (%) Source 2000 2,000,000 206,264,595 1.0 % ITU 2007 20,000,000 224,481,720 8.9 % ITU 2008 25,000,000 237,512,355 10.5 % APJII

Table 4: Indonesian Internet Users

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/id.htm (2) Access, hardware, and Internet connection cost getting more affordable Although there is still limitedness of infrastructure and access to the Internet and not everyone can access Internet in Indonesia, especially in Eastern part of Indonesia (Djatmiko, 2009), the Internet connection is getting affordable. Digital divide is getting narrow because cellular phone is getting cheaper and Internet connections are ubiquitous, particularly by the existence of ‘Warung Internet’ (Warnet). Warung Internet or Internet kiosk is one of the solutions created by citizens to provide Internet access for people and to reduce digital divide. Although it can not cover all Indonesian people, however it offers lower cost for people to use the Internet. Without having PCs or ISP, everybody can use the Internet through Warung Internet. Table 5 indicates that the number of Warung Internet in Indonesia is growing. According to APJII survey (2007) more than 42% Internet users in Indonesia are accessing the Internet from Warung Internet.

Description 2002* 2003* 2004 * 2007** 2008*** Number of Warnet 3.200 4.000 6.000 10.000 12.000 Number PC Users 3.500.000 4.800.000 5.800.000 - - Number Internet User 4.390.000 8.000.000 12.000.000 25.000.000 -

Table 5: The number Warnet and Internet users in Indonesia Source: APWKomitel (*), Awari.or.id (**) Detik.com (***)

The Internet has come to the village by the program of Internet Desa (Internet for village) and Internet untuk Warga (Internet for citizens) or RT-RWnet. In some community radios, the Internet is not only used for the need of internal radio. They

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also distribute the Internet for communities. An example is ’Internet for village’ program called Kusir Angkringan in Timbulharjo village, Bantul, Yogyakarta.

(3) The emergence of Web 2.0 The emergence of Web 2.0 has been perceived as an opportunity for participatory democracy. According to WALHI, using Web 2.0, public can discuss and express their opinion, for example towards statement of WALHI. Information can also be received from public by using certain verification mechanism.

“WALHI will develop Web 2.0 further by adopting Youtube for campaign and publication to documenting environmental cases from the regions. By doing so, public opinion can be driven so that they can perceive what is happening. These steps are convinced to influence policymaker.” (Djatmiko, interview, 15/01/2009).

However, Nasir from CRI has different opinion on how the emergence of Web 2.0 can be used optimally by the NGOs. According to Nasir (2009), the implementation of Web 2.0 by the NGOs is still far.

“The use of Internet within the NGOs is still very minimum. They only use email, mailing list, and messenger. Most of them use the Internet only for communication.” (Nasir, interview, 20/01/2009)

(4) The existence of social networking sites The existence of social networking sites in Indonesia is significant. According to Google Trends (26/06/2009), Indonesia ranks as the 3th country which brings the most traffic in Facebook.com. Facebook usage in Indonesia is increasing quickly. Nickburcher.com (2009) showed that the percentage of growth from December 2008 (897,040 users) to March 2009 (2,236,380 users) was 149.3%. Now, the number of Facebook users in Indonesia is about 3.2 million (Aini, 2009). Survey of Mobile Guide magazine (No. 23/2009) showed that 36% of Internet users in Indonesia use the Internet for browsing and 29% for social networking. We can see this tendency by comparing data from Alexa (26/06/2009) about the top 10 favorite sites for Indonesian users, as follows: (1) Facebook.com (2) Google.co.id (3) Yahoo.com (4) Google.com (5) Blogger.com (6) YouTube.com (7) Wordpress.com (8) Friendster.com (9) Kaskus.us (10) Detik.com. From this data, the need to develop social networking and social participation is significant in Indonesia. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, Friendster, YouTube, dan Kaskus are very popular because trough these sites, people build social relationship by using the Internet (Satvika, 2009). Jasmin (2009) stated that Indonesia is in fact a very prominent country in the global mapping of social networks. It shows that Indonesians are a large group of devoted people who regularly engaged in connecting and networking via the Internet. As a social networking medium using Web 2.0 platform, Facebook is promising for developing participatory democracy. There are many NGO activists joined in Facebook. They have tried to build online community or group NGO members using

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Facebook. However, it is not clear to what extent the Internet has potency to connect the virtual world and real world (Nasir (interview, 20/01/2009). Jasmin (2002) is also questioning if Indonesians can go further than just for ‘networking’, for example, if the network can incubate and execute some ideas which will be useful for people. (5) The increase of citizen journalism movement Citizen journalism can be described as “anything that included add-on reporting, blogging, online forums and anything else open to public commentary” (Aini, 2009). Indonesian citizen journalism does have the talent to grow up. There are some websites developing citizen journalism approach, such as Panyingkul.com, Wikimu.com; Kabarindonesia.com; Halamansatu.net; etc (Vivijanti, 2007b). Blogging, as one of the examples of citizen journalism, essentially is a private journal, however, it could be an activity for someone to exercise in expressing his opinions and getting the thoughts out of his head and to develop social network (Wicaksono, 2008). The increase of Indonesian bloggers is phenomenal. Enda Nasution, an Indonesian blogger, estimated at the end of 2009, there will be 1 million Indonesian bloggers (Detikinet.com, 09/01/2009). Mullenweg, the founder of Wordpress, stated that in Januari 2009, there were 143.000 of Indonesian blogger using Wordpress in the last 6 months. Blogspot.com stated that until January 2009 there were 587.000 blog from Indonesia (Satvika, 2009). The increase of citizen journalism movement in Indonesia is also supported by social networking sites (Facebook, Friendster, Wordpress, Kaskus and Twitter) which also provide a tool for citizen journalists to report any events they see, a compliment to what the mainstream media is lacking; sharing expression and a room for amateur journalist. It is also influenced by the increase of technology and mobile internet, in which we can write, take a picture or footage, record, and upload the news to the Internet. It is real time news that makes citizen journalism exist (Aini, 2009).

5.3. Optimist, Pessimist, or Skeptics? In view of these developments, I am optimist that the existence of the Internet in Indonesia can really be utilized to develop participatory democracy in Indonesia. Referring to my hypothesis (Chapter 2.2.3.), my optimism are based on four reasons. First, as demonstrated by the study cases, several Indonesian NGOs have used the Internet for long time (cf. Nugroho, 2008a). The important of this use was demonstrated by the example that WALHI has made 80 % of their communications by using the Internet. Second, Indonesian NGOs believe that they need public participation. “Without public participation we are nothing. Public or citizens are the reasons of the NGOs’ works” (Djatmiko, 2009). They also consider that the Internet has potency to develop public participation. However, in the implementation of the Internet use, I found that there are different strategic uses and approaches to how the NGOs use the Internet. CRI has emphasized their vision and mission to develop people empowerment through

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community, and their use of the Internet to develop participatory democracy is more significant and more advance, compared to WALHI and WWF-Indonesia. Third, Indonesian NGOs have facilitated workplace participatory democracy in internal organization by the use of the Internet. Therefore, they can easily implement participatory democracy in a broader context to public. However, this argument needs further consideration. From this study it is clear that the practice of workplace participatory democracy does not directly influence the development of participatory, externally. This depends on the strategic use of the Internet by the NGOs. For example, WALHI as an NGO focusing on political issues and advocacy, the Internet is used for mobilization and campaign because it is easier to mobilize people using the Internet by reducing costs. Fourth, the Internet essentially enables citizens to develop self-governance without the interference of bureaucrats or NGOs. The role of bureaucrats or NGOs can be minimized just for facilitation, assistance, and supporters. By minimizing the role of bureaucrats and NGOs, Internet can stimulate the sense of solidarity, sense of belonging, and solidity among citizens. This is demonstrated in the case of WWF-Supporter and the communities developed by CRI. By developing self-governance by the use of the Internet, individuals and group members will be able to voice up and be heard within the public sphere and it allows citizens to participate in sharing information, interactions, and debates in deliberative way. If these conditions are supported by a clear vision and the understanding and awareness about the potency of the Internet, there will be a more significant role of the Internet to strengthen participatory democracy and to empower citizens.

5.4. Discussion: Citizen Journalism From the experience of WALHI, WWF-Indonesia, and CRI, I found a lesson learned that the Internet can be used to develop participatory democracy. This approach may be further optimized by applying citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is also known as ‘public’, ‘participatory’, ‘democratic’ (Base, 2008) or ‘street journalism’ (Witschge, 2009). Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information" in order to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires (Bowman and Willis, 2003). The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others (Glaser, 2004).

J. D. Lasica (2003) classifies media for citizen journalism into the following types. First, audience participation (such as user comments attached to news stories, personal blogs, photos or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras, or local news written by residents of a community). Second, independent news and information websites. Third, full-fledged participatory news sites. Fourth, collaborative and contributory media sites. Fifth, other kinds of ‘thin media’ (mailing lists). Sixth, personal broadcasting sites (video broadcast sites).

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One of the examples of citizen journalism developed by NGO is Suara Komunitas (http://www.suarakomunitas.net//). Through this website, CRI wants to show that people have a big potency to determine the direction of change. Suara Komunitas has aimed that two-way communication between grassroots and authorities occurs and people have bargaining power vis-à-vis authorities. Suara Komunitas emphasizes social, political, and cultural changes. Suara Komunitas also develops local economic growth by doing promotions using inter-regional network. The increase of local economic potency has been managed by Pasar-Komunitas (Community Market) website (http://www.pasarkomunitas.com) which aims to strengthen the potencies of local economy by providing information focused on economic issue and community empowerment. This website is opened to community media and community groups. They can post articles and also promotion of products. There are four reasons of why citizen journalism approach or model can be used to further develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. First, the rise of citizen journalism is mostly due to the fact that there are some popular topics ignored by the conventional newspapers. This hints at the need for a place to voice out some perspectives held by the public that are not taken into account by the media (Vivijanti, 2007a). Second, this model channels citizens' voices and promotes people's involvement in the public arena—in an independent media from the public, for the public (Yuliyanti (2007a). Citizen journalism can be used to change traditional journalism; to find and create a new type of journalism; and ‘to change the world’ (O’Connor, 2007). Third, the increase of citizen journalism in Indonesia could really complement the media, as the journalist can seek out public views and get more news direct from the source. The rise of citizen journalism could make a great change as people will have access to a wider spectrum of viewpoints. As an example, citizen journalism (netizen) will make the local newspapers and government focus their eyes on an issue that had been neglected. Fourth, citizen journalism is developing a writing culture. Studies revealed that Indonesians are closer to verbal culture than writing culture (Permana, 2009; Vivijanti, 2007b).

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6. Conclusion

In this chapter, I will present the summary and the conclusions of this study. I will do it by answering the earlier formulated sub-question and the main questions and offer the final conclusions. I also present the recommendations and reflections of this study.

6.1. Main answers to research questions The main question of this research was “How do Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet?” Based on empirical data generated from the interviews, workshop participation, web analysis/online observation and literature research, I will summarize my findings in this chapter and present my conclusions through answering the earlier formulated sub-questions. Sub-question 1: “What are the main strategic uses of the Internet by Indonesian NGOs?” The results from the study show that the main strategic uses of the Internet by Indonesian NGOs vary amongst different organizations. The NGOs have different strategic uses of the Internet, which depend on the visions or orientation of the NGOs. They may be summarized as follows: 1. WALHI WALHI is an environmental NGO focusing on increasing public awareness of environmental issues, and involving in pro-democracy movement. WALHI uses the Internet strategically for political movement, shaping public opinion, and collaboration. Internet is used for mobilization, public campaign, and call for collective action to respond specific environmental issue. WALHI uses the Internet also for advocacy, monitoring, and shaping public opinion and to collaborate with WALHI regional executives all over Indonesia and international networks which have the same concerns on environmental justice. 2. WWF Indonesia WWF Indonesia is an environmental NGO focusing on promoting sustainable conservation that can give continued social and economic benefits to local communities. Their mission is to conserve biodiversity to reduce human impact. Compared to WALHI, WWF-Indonesia has different strategic uses of the Internet. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for communication, knowledge management, and contribution to environment. The Internet is used for communication and collaboration within the organization and with external organizations and stakeholders. The Internet is also used to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences (support knowledge management) so that it can be used by internal organization and public. The internet is also used for giving contribution to environment because the Internet use can reduce the paper use (from the trees) and oil use (for transportation). 3. CRI CRI is an NGO focusing on developing network of knowledge and information (media development) to empowering the poor or marginalized communities. This

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network allows the possibility of distributing and sharing information both among the members of communities, between communities and external parties. CRI uses the Internet strategically for developing content management, citizen journalism, and strengthening grassroots. As an NGO concerning on media development, the Internet is used to develop content management (to create, update, publish, translate, archive and retrieve information and knowledge). The Internet is chosen for developing citizen journalism medium, because it can be used by the citizens to collect, report, and publish news and information. The Internet can be used to manage and to organize the communities. The Internet is also used for strengthening citizens in which citizens have their own ability to manage information and to build a network and communication among citizens. Sub-question 2: “What are the main internal strategic uses and the main characteristics of Internet use by the NGOs?” The research findings show that there are similarities regarding the main internal strategic uses of Internet within the NGOs. Communication and collaboration are the main internal strategic uses of the studied NGOs. Eighty percents of internal communication within the NGOs is by means of the Internet. Second most important strategic use of the Internet is for workplace participatory democracy. The three NGOs have been applying workplace participatory democracy by the use the Internet. The Internet is used as a medium in internal decision making process. The third most important strategic use concerns consumption (for searching information) and production (for producing or publishing information via website, magazine, etc.). There are also similarities among the NGOs regarding to the main characteristics of Internet internal use. “Information” and “Interaction” are the main characteristic of Internet internal use by the NGOs. The Internet is mainly used for sharing information and interaction or communication. WALHI mainly applies “Information” and “Interaction”, while WWF-Indonesia and CRI applies the four characteristics of “Information”, “Interaction”, “Participation”, and “Decentralization” for workplace participatory democracy. Sub-question 3: “What are the main characteristics of the Internet external use to develop public participatory democracy?” The research findings show that “Information” is the main characteristic of Internet external use to develop participatory democracy by the three NGOs. CRI is more advance in respect to using the Internet as a means for developing participatory democracy than WWF-Indonesia and WALHI. CRI has optimized the different characteristics (“Information”, “Interaction”, “Participation”, “Decentralization”) to develop participatory democracy by the use of Internet. The Internet is not used only for information, but also for interaction, participation, and decentralization. Sub-question 4: ”What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet by Indonesian NGOs?”

Internal use of the Internet for workplace participatory democracy can influence or contribute to the development of public participatory democracy. The findings show that there are correlation between internal and external use of the Internet, as demonstrated in the case of WWF-Indonesia and CRI. However, the development of

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workplace participatory democracy does by itself not correlate to the development of public participatory democracy. For example, WALHI has developed workplace participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. However, the implementation of public participatory democracy by WALHI is only basic.

There are some factors which influenced a correlation between internal and external Internet use, such as vision and mission of the NGOs and constraints of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. WALHI, for example, sees physical constraints (lack of Internet access of the citizens) and cultural constraints (internet literacy, character of Indonesian people, etc) as reasons of why they did not optimize the use of the Internet to develop participatory democracy.

Sub-question 5: “What are the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia?” The constraints of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are (1) internal constraints (2) cultural constraints (3) content production (4) human resource competence. The opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are (1) the increase of the Internet user in Indonesia; (2) access, hardware, and Internet connection cost getting more affordable; (3) the emergence of Web 2.0; (4) the existence of social networking sites; and (5) the raise of citizen journalism movement.

6.2. Main Conclusion Building the answers given on the five sub-main questions above, I can now give answer to the main question which was formulated as: “How do Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet?” First, this case study supports the argument that the Internet is as a potential medium for participatory democracy because the Internet contributes toward the main characteristics of participatory democracy: “Information”, “Interaction”, “Participation”, and “Decentralization”. These four characteristics are cornerstones of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. Second, this study finds that Indonesian NGOs have developed participatory democracy by the use of the Internet by creating websites, mailing list, or Internet forum. However, they have different strategic uses of the Internet, so that the implementation and the achievement in respect to stimulating participatory democracy are variable. This study found that CRI is more advance in developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet rather than WALHI and WWF-Indonesia. Third, this case study also supports the idea that Internet is an empowering tool to strengthen community development because the Internet enhances public dialogue, civil society networking, and strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations.

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Fourth, in order to further strengthen Internet-use for participatory democracy, a citizen journalism or community-based journalism approach is the best and the most effective means to develop participatory democracy because it enables people/users to collect, to report, and to share news and information. It allows people to interact and to discuss with others and enables people to manage content of information and to organize their selves by the use of the Internet.

6.3. Recommendations This study’s recommendations are aimed at helping NGOs and stakeholders which are involved in developing and strengthening participatory democracy in Indonesia. 1. The need to raise awareness the potency of the Internet to develop participatory

democracy. The Internet is a master and spectacular medium for information, interaction, participation, and decentralization.

2. The need to support people to develop strong civil society self governance and to organize their selves. With strong self governance, they can strengthen their issue, concern and orientation. In this regard, the NGOs play a role as facilitator. NGOs need to invite people to get involved and to encourage them to participate. NGOs need to train people and to build their capacity so that they are more literate in using the Internet to share opinions, ideas, and thought.

3. The need to develop participatory democracy in a strategic way. Developing participatory democracy is not only by creating website, forum, or mailing lists. Websites, forum, or mailing lists are just tools or medium. The most important thing is how to organize and to encourage people to participate and to share their aspirations and interest.

6.4. Reflections I will give my reflection on some issues regarding the approach and the process of doing this research. a. Reflection on the process and methodology

When my supervisors asked me to change my topic and to do research about ‘Internet and participatory democracy’, at the beginning it was not easy for me to catch up. I found that scholars discussed about the potency of the Internet for democracy, however, most of them are focusing on democracy in political context. For example, some papers I found focus on the use of the Internet in political participation, elections, political movement, etc. I found few studies discussed about the Internet, participatory democracy and NGOs. I needed to struggle to elaborate conceptual framework of the research. I was motivated to do this research because I am interested in Internet studies for long time. I observed and joined citizen journalism movements in Indonesia, and through them I can talk to the activists. Luckily, when I did the field work, I had a chance to participate in a workshop of ”The role of ICTs for CSOs in Indonesia” in Jakarta. From this workshop, I got insights about the use of the Internet in Indonesian NGOs. I was very happy because at that moment, I met with Yanuar Nugroho, Indonesian researcher at Manchester University, who has done researches about Internet and civil society in Indonesia.

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In the field work, I had no significant obstacles. For interview, I got contact of the interviewees from the NGOs’ websites. I sent email to them. However, the respond was very slow. More than a week, I did not get the reply. It can be the first impression for me on how Indonesian NGOs use the Internet. Finally, I could contact them via telephone, not via email. So, it was easier for me to contact them by phone than by email. b. Reflection of the conceptual framework During the process, some additional concepts emerged that were not originally included in the theoretical or conceptual framework. For example, the literature reviews and the research about “Adoption of the Internet in rural NGOs in Indonesia” by Nugroho (2008a), it is not mentioned about strategic use of the Internet ‘for participatory democracy’ and also the concept of ‘citizen journalism’. From this study, I found that these concepts are significant to understand the adoption and contribution of the Internet to develop participatory democracy. c. Reflection of the representativeness of this study This research was not aimed to make claim that the results are representative for overall Indonesian NGOs. I selected case-study method (not statistical survey) which is largely exploratory, descriptive, and investigative, with relatively less emphasis on the ability to be generalized. The results also show that strategic uses of the Internet to develop participatory democracy by NGOs are not generic. They serve more as instances of good practice of using the Internet to develop participatory democracy. However, it is reasonable to treat the cases studied as likely to be representatives of overall NGOs, based on the reasons: • The development of participatory democracy by the use of the Internet by

Indonesian NGOs is still few. • The driver of using the Internet by Indonesian NGO comes from donors. Some of

participants of workshop (12/12/2008) said that one of the reasons of using the Internet or developing NGO’ websites because it is a requirement from the donors. So, the intention of using Internet to develop participatory democracy can be less strategic for Indonesian NGOs.

• Although participatory democracy is not a new issue for Indonesian NGOs, the trend of using the Internet to develop participatory democracy by Indonesian NGOs is quite new.

• Some NGOs concern on using the Internet to develop participatory democracy, such as: Combine Resource Institution (CRI) (http://www.combine.or.id), Yayasan Satu Dunia (http://www.satudunia.net), and Yayasan Air Putih (http://www.airputih.or.id). They intensively develop community empowerment and participatory democracy by the use of media, particularly the Internet.

d. Reflection of findings compared to the other research findings Compared to the other research findings, especially the research of Nugroho, the results show different trends. Nugroho (2008a) focused on the drivers of the adoption of the Internet in Indonesian NGOs, internally and externally. His study found that the

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driver of the adoption of the Internet in Indonesian NGOs, internally, is ‘the need to obtain information and to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency.’ While, the findings of this research show that internally, the NGOs use the Internet for communication and collaboration, workplace participatory democracy (internal decision making process); and for consumption and production (searching information and or publishing information via website, magazine, etc.). However, in a certain context, these can be seen as efforts for improving organizational effectiveness and efficiency and for increasing the performance of the internal management. The results from the research show that externally, the main strategic uses of the Internet by Indonesian NGOs vary amongst different organization, depend on the visions or orientation of the NGOs. WALHI uses the Internet strategically for political movement, shaping public opinion, and collaboration with regional executives all over Indonesia and international networks. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for communication, knowledge management, and environmental contribution. The Internet is used for communication and collaboration and to support knowledge management. CRI uses the Internet strategically for developing content management, citizen journalism, and strengthening grassroots. While Nugroho (2008a) found that the driver of adopting the Internet externally is the need to bring about mutual relationship and collaboration among organizations and building networks among others. The use of the Internet has become mainly major support for NGOs’ networks expansion. In my finding, the Internet external use is not only for communication, collaboration, and networking, but also for political movement, knowledge management, and strengthening grassroots. e. Recommendation for future research Based on my empirical and theoretical findings, I found two issues that need to be studied further. The first is about low or un-equal participation with regard to the existence of “lurkers” (the members or users which tend to be passive) which results low participation in some websites and mailing lists. It could be done by analyzing the posting, authors, and the reasons of sending posting and the reasons of why some are lurking. The second is about the different characteristics of citizen journalism in project Indonesia. Beside citizens journalism projects developed by NGOs, there are citizen journalism projects developed by citizens (non-NGO) and mainstream media. Through this research we can find how they practice and implement participatory democracy and what are differences among them. ***

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Appendices

Appendix 1: WALHI official Website (Old version, April 07, 2009)

Appendix 2: WALHI official website (New version, May 29, 2009)

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Appendix 3: WALHI mailing list (April 07, 2009)

Appendix 4: WWF official website (April 07, 2009)

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Appendix 5: WWF Supporter website (May 28, 2009)

Appendix 6: WWF Supporter mailing list (May 28, 2009)

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Appendix 7: CRI official website (April 07, 2009)

Appendix 8: Jalin Merapi website (May 28, 2009)

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Appendix 9: Suara Komunitas website (May 28, 2009)

Appendix 10: SIAR website (May 28, 2009)

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