The first component of this project will examine civic association websites. The grantee will gather data on the features, functionalities, and incoming and outoing hyperlinks of approximately 1600 prominent civil society websites in four East Central European countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic). Replicating a study conducted in 2002 will enable charting the dynamics of civil society website organization. Questions such as the following will be addressed:
o Overall, did websites move towards including interactive features? o Were some genre forms of online civil organizing more likely to inhibit website development, making it significantly less likely that websites were updated? o Is there more transnationalization after EU accession? o How do the websites of civic associations differ from government websites in East Central Europe?
For comparative purposes, the research team will gather the same kinds of data on civic associations in:
1) two other recent entrants to the European Union from the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, 2) two other countries that entered the European Union in a previous round of accession, most likely Ireland and Spain, 3) four core West European countries, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, and 4) Russia and the United States.
The project will also analyze survey data on 1000 of the largest civic associations in Hungary. The comprehensive questionnaire will include questions on technology use, the mission of the organization; its objectives, goals, and values; the types of activities it undertakes (e.g., demonstrations, petitions, lobbying, educating the public, conferences, and so on); patterns of technology adoption; patterns of funding; forms of organizational decision-making; patterns of accountability; and types of partnerships, collaborations, and linkages to other organizations.
