Acceso usuarios
Franc Trcek
The article analyses the current state of informatization of the residents of the City of Ljubljana and their readiness to work and live in a Virtual Ljubljana. Special emphasis is placed on their willingness to take advantage of the democratic potential that the Internet offers as a means of active integration in the political participation at the local city level.
It has been concluded that virtual city democracies can also serve as a new platform for affirming the legitimacy of spatial planning, facilitating communication between the city administration and the manifest (self)organised groups of people, the public and especially, the non-manifest and often excluded and unidentified groups of residents. Yet at the current level of informatization in the City of Ljubljana, this new area of political participation remains an unused opportunity, even though informationalized groups of residents have expressed the desire to become an active part of the local virtual democracy. In the particular example of the City of Ljubljana, the issue of the digital divide remains unresolved, which is not surprising considering the poor development of policies aimed at overcoming the informational exclusion at the city level.
