Hi, Alan and others! Yours is an intriguing idea. The Democratic Party almost has obviated its reason for existence by failing to distinguish itself from the Republicans. Perhaps it can again become the party of the demes. We may not have the money, but we sure have the ideas and the votes. Best Wishes,
Jim -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Alan Silverman Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 7:28 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Help with Idea / Democratic Party - Internet - New Technology First I want to say hello and tell you how happy I am to be here. I feel that I am at home. I worked at IBM in large systems networking, data storage and I/O. At IBM there were not many people like me, both highly technical and politically liberal, creative, spiritual. I left there in 1999. Now there still aren't many people like me, with my technical expertise and a deep understanding of how the new technologies can transform society. I'm working on an important idea, part of a matrix of ideas I've pondered for a long time. Steps: 1. Write an "Open Letter to the Democratic Party", the gist being that, considering outcomes of the past two elections, the Democratic National Committee should ask Democratic voters and the American people: "What should we do now?" The ideas will be submitted, discussed, and refined on Internet forums. People from anywhere can join. The goal being to create innovative solutions, concise well articulated plans with a high degree of granularity, intended to address specific problems faced by the Democratic Party and America. 2. Once the letter is written, get prominent individuals to sponsor the idea. 3. With their sponsorship, publish the letter in the NY Times or some like venue (Solon Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly?) The letter describes in detail the confluence of four technologies making it possible to gather ideas together and quickly refine those ideas into solutions. The final technological key is digital certificates, also called digital signatures. In the short term we use this forum, these technologies, to figure out what the Democrats must do in light of the past two elections. In the long term it will answer the question, "Who should be making decisions and creating policy". The answer being: "Whomever has the best solution," with everyone getting an equal shot and the process itself being out in the open for everyone to see. The Democratic Party is in crisis. If we step in and say, "We have the solution to your problem", it will work. It must work, because this is the democratic solution. If we don't say this now the Democratic Party will surely move in a different direction. I have written a lot already. Should I just put it all up here for analysis and discussion? Thank you, Alan Silverman http://thefuturevision.virtualave.net/ Ps. You may also want to look at http://www.hf.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/hnctt/get/show106/19.html?nogifs * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
