Since Fidel’s (Castro) departure from office and his brother Raul’s succession, bans on Cubans buying consumer electronics, cell phones and staying in luxury hotels have been lifted. But these activities which used to be illegal were common place – the difference is that now, they’re legalized. Many Cubans have been buying these technologies on the black market. Internet access is still tightly restricted by government, but that hasn’t stopped people from getting online.

While this definitely isn’t the case in a communist regime, many democratic countries are looking at using Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate collaboration and engagement with its citizens:

1. Citizens as consumers of government services
2. Citizens as employees of the public service
3. Citizens as stakeholders in the policy making process.

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