-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Steve Smith wrote circa 11-05-09 12:16 PM: > I challenge us (at Glen's urging) to come up with /Use Case Scenarios/
I _hate_ that word: "scenarios". It's jargonal and off-putting to me, which perhaps relates to the accusation that I have more formal methods at hand. ;-) I think it's best to focus on what/how we could measure what we care about. To model is very closely related to "to measure" ... and in my formality, if you can't measure something, you can't model it. So, the real question goes back to those of us who were stimulated by Mohammed's question. We'll have to formulate some measures for openness, participation, and obfuscation. Now, before Vlad hits me again with his argument that circumscription begets conclusion, I can mitigate it by saying that the measures should be parallax. There have to be _enough_ variation in the measures so that the interested parties can champion at least one of them as their own. For example, when I brought up the initiative process, that is a form of participation. If we included that mechanism in our democracy, I'd be forced to say that it is participatory, even if Obama had inherited the throne, all the legislators were cronies, and the court were kangaroo. But the initiative process isn't the only participatory mechanism. And a measure that ... measures that type of participation would be fundamentally different from a measure of "representativeness" of, say, the electoral system, the parliamentary system, etc. Similarly, we should come up with a suite of measures for openness. Obama's execution of bin Laden, interviews on 60 minutes, and keeping the pictures secret is a good example. We should pick measures that evaluate Obama's disclosure as "closed" and some as "open". In the end, what we have is a opportunity for abduction. We have at least 3 predicates (open/closed, [non]participatory, and transparent/opaque). Ideally, we have several predicates in each category. The number of solutions that satisfy those predicates should be infinite and explorable. We should then be able to come up with several mechanisms, including the families implied by the stories outlined by Eric, Mohammed, Hussein, and Vlad. In the end, a model capable of instantiating even _some_ of those satisficing mechanisms should help us be more open-minded about how obfuscation arises in democracy. - -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iD8DBQFNyFjZpVJZMHoGoM8RAgKsAJsH4BF8gFLpmS5ea0pci4LeBIrNGACdGqXC A19hw9ZuONMFJK8dJiPkrrk= =vr1R -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
