Thousands of participants display their cell phones as flashlights, as they listen to Okean Elzy, one of the most successful Ukrainian rock bands during a Pro-European Union rally in the Independence Square in Kiev. 2013. AP Photo/Sergei Grits.
On the occasion of the Political Communication Summit held in Buenos Aires on June 8-10 in which he was as a guest speaker, DemocraciaAbierta interviewed Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí, one of the leading political consultants in Spain, promoter of apps4citizens - a meeting space for different actors (organizations, businesses, governments and citizens) to identify, promote and develop mobile applications for social engagement and civic participation -and, in partnership with Google, of Go App 2016. His last published book is Tecnopolítica.
Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí defines technopolitics as "political action, political communication, and – partly - political management, through technology." He means proximity technology, that of personal devices - mobile phones, computers, tablets -, an extraordinarily powerful, flexible, friendly and versatile technology, with fewer and fewer entry barriers and increasing potential. The technological power of these devices enables action, communication and political management. But technopolitics is more than that:
