Democracy 2.0
The concept for Democracy 2.0 originated when Josh Wolf started his campaign for mayor of San Francisco last year. Realizing the inherent flaws in a representative system, he set out to assess the feasibility of true democracy using the web 2.0 technologies that have facilitated unmitigated communication in other arenas. At the 2008 Journalism that Matters session in Minneapolis, Josh proposed the Democracy 2.0 panel to help expand the conversation and to gauge interest in exploring new models of self-government.
Initial thoughts on democracy
- America is not a democracy, it is a republic
- A Need to be honest
- Apply Web 2.0 to government
- Wiki Legislation is a possible starting point
- Media activism has a role in democracy
- “What Democracy is…” is unique to each person
- At the local level there is more democracy
- There is a pernicious aspect to lawsuits
- The best free press benefits society
- Exploring what it means to engage in a democracy
- Frustrations over advertising power
- Pro-democracy & “Capital slime”
- Improve Journalism
Wiki Legislation
- New Zealand put up a wiki to ask for suggestions on a bill
- There are problems and limitations with wikis
- Wikis can be used to promote discussion
- Collaborative writing tool
- Wiki poor tool for discussion, but good tool for writing a document
- Start with many documents and work toward consensus
Other Notes
- Anonymity v. pseudonymity v. verifiable ID
- The role of citizenship
- Participation
- Decision-making at lowest level possible
- Movement to change government
Links from discussion
Synanim – A new tool that doesn’t appear to be live yet
May First/People Link – Progressive people exploring mutual aid
WAGN – a possible candidate for the next wiki
Next Steps
Building a new democracy cannot be completed in an afternoon; in fact just identifying the flaws in our governmental structure could extend into eternity. In order to explore possible future models for a real democracy, we decided to create a Democracy 2.0 e-mail list. If you’d like to join the conversation, please send Josh (hi<at>joshwolf<dot>net) an e-mail with Democracy 2.0 as the subject.
Attendees:
- Priscilla Pope
- Cory Heidleberger
- Brian Russell
- Ruby Sinrich
- Jane Johnston
- Sara Taver
- Kate Meyers
- Harriet Hamilton
- Chris Pommier
- Sarah Majka
- Phil Wilson
- Brein McNamera
- Ben Melancon
- Tom Atlee