Help with Idea / Democratic Party - Internet - New Technology

Sat Jan 11 15:21:13 PST 2003

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:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Alan
Silverman
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 7:28 AM
To: OSLIST at 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

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

>From  Sat Jan 11 18:19:03 2003
Message-Id: <SAT.11.JAN.2003.181903.0800.>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 18:19:03 -0800
Reply-To: bjp1 at cox.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: BJ Peters <bjp1 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: Help with Idea / Democratic Party - Internet - New Technology
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

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:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Alan
>Silverman
>Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 7:28 AM
>To: OSLIST at 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
>
>*
>*
>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
>Visit:
>
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
>*
>*
>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
>Visit:
>
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html