The paper discusses genre theory in the field of e-Democracy. A framework for analysing communicative genres related to four stereotypical e-Democracy models is suggested. A case study of a web based discussion board in a municipality illustrates the implications of applying the genre lens to the e-Democracy research and practice, with lessons learned to considered in the future efforts on e-Democracy. Based on observations from the case, a theoretical concept of autopoietic cybergenre is suggested and its potential significance for future e-Democracy initiatives is addressed. An autopoietic cybergenre, such as a web-based discussion board, includes inherent capability for meta-communication enabling continuous structuring of the purpose(s) and parts of the form of the genre in question itself.
Citation:
?ystein S?b?, Tero P?iv?rinta, "Autopoietic Cybergenres for e-Democracy? Genre Analysis of a Web-Based Discussion Board," hicss, vol. 4, pp.98c, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'05) - Track 4, 2005