Alan-- Thanks for your contribution! I agree with Birgitt, particularly on the coast to coast meetings. I was part of an event in Phoenix that had Christopher Gates, President of the National Civic League as the keynote speaker. He did a marvelous job of talking about the need for what he calls "citizen democracy" - people coming together to engage in civic dialogue, decision making and action on public policy issues (sounds like a call for open space to me). He drew a line with "representative democracy" (not working so well these days) at one end, "direct democracy" - using the internet to obtain citizen input (votes) at the other end, and "citizen democracy" in the middle. His take (and I agree) is that "direct democracy" by itself is not the panacea some are touting. It's the community and "fire" of dialogue, decision and actions that we need.
BJ Peters Birgitt Williams wrote:
Hi Alan, I smiled when I read your exuberance about doing something to move the democratic party forward. I encourage you to consider why it might work a lot better to use OST either coast to coast meetings or the OS-online software to gather more than ideas. I believe step one of your plan will generate ideas much as in a brainstorming, but that does not build the community and the passion. Birgitt -----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
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