Tobias Escher at the OII

Coming up tonight at 8.30pm GMT at the Oxford Union (from their own account apparently the world’s most prestigious debating society) is a debate about whether or not

The Internet is the greatest force for democratisation in the World

This event is organized in the context of the first conference on Internet filtering by the Open Net Initiative (ONI) and brings together a host of exciting people that should have something to say on this issue. You can be as sure as hell that this is going to be a really interesting discussion, especially given that due to the conference there will be plenty of people in the audience with first hand accounts of government repression online.

If you feel sad because you cannot be there, check this blog as I will try to cover the debate live as it happens on this blog.

Speaking in favour of the Internet as a democratizing force are:

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales, the founder of Wikipedia

Chairman Bo Au Din (Burma PDP), the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Parliamentary Democracy Party of Burma

Ron Deibert, from the citizen lab of the University of Toronto

Challenging the idea of the Internet as favouring democratisation are:

Jonathan Zittrain (Professor at the OII and the Berkman Center)

Robert Amsterdam (the lawyer of Mikhail Khodorkovsky)

John Palfrey (Berkman Center)

You can find some more information on the speakers at the Oxford Internet Institute and for a (hopefully near live) coverage of the event stay tuned, only two more hours to go!