Opening the WDDM Online Constituting Convention

[<WDDM webmaster>]

Welcome to the renewed WDDM!
    So far 16 applications for the WDDM membership have been received.
To see the details of all of them, please go to "Internal WDDMnet Matters" area
near the bottom of the WDDM main page, its address is
http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/internal/
    To enter this area you will need to enter your user name and password. User
name is your surname all in lowercase, and the initial password is the same for
everybody:  wddm0
    Here is the exact list of the user names I have created (hope that there
are no types in them):
  sagi
  eggum
  clayson
  lim
  valach
  macphail
  gottlieb
  adeney
  kolar
  metanomski
  cutler
  ciogolea
  becker
  salgui
  ortega
  harrison

    In the internal area you can change your password to whatever you wish.

    Please, review all the applications, and let others know if you have any
objections to any of them. (I personally do not have any.)
    Is 5 days enough to do this? Everybody should send back to the whole
mailing list (wddm@world-wide-democracy.net) a confirmation that they received
this message, with all their comments on the applications and perhaps any other
initial proposals and comments.

    So far we have not received any official objections from the "old WDDM"
against this web-based community, that is just being born here, to consider
ourselves its successor. Therefore, I think that we can assume we are its
"legal" successor, and use the name WORLDWIDE DIRECT DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT and the
abbreviation WDDM.
    George Sagi and perhaps some others will most probably comment on this.
(Only a few of the original members submitted applications so far.)

    My personal hope: We will find some basic common DD platform that we would
be able to show to the "outer world" while respecting the individual members
differences in opinion on various details. We will not insist on a single model
of DD or a single way to achieve it. We must not forget that the World is a
very diverse place, and each little region of it may have their own preferences
and experiences.

    We cannot be a model of the society at large, we are just a group of people
with a common goal or vision. So we do not have to accept absolutely everybody.
But I hope we will stay wide open, and will be excluding only real
mean-spirited Internet vandals.

    I only volunteered to get this site/association of the ground, and do not
want to impose my preferences permanently on others. At any time, you can
select a different webmaster, and a different structure, and move the site
elsewhere (right now, I am hosting it together with my personal site under the
same hosting account, which results in a discount for the WDDM hosting).

    We may need one more mailing list moderator (to substitute for me if I am
not available). But that is not urgent, becase right now, the only two roles of
our mailing list moderator is to process the new members applications and to
allow non-members to post to this mailing list (wddm@world-wide-democracy.net).
This list is supposed to be for the internal discussions only. You can post
messages without moderator's approval. All old messages may be retrieved by the
members only (using the get e-mail address - see the mailing list help page).
    More urgent may be to select a WDDM "organizing moderator" (or whatever you
want to call this position) to preside over the online discussions and
processing of proposals. I would prefer to stay with the technical (web site)
matters, and I do not have time to do everything anyway.

    All members will have their personal areas on this web site, where they can
post everything they wish for the outer world to see. All your differences with
the future WDDM common platform can be discussed here. (Right now I am still
working on this area.)

    We can have an arbitrary number of e-mail addresses of the type
user_name(at)world-wide-democracy.net . If you wish, you can get such personal
e-mail accounts, or we could use these addresses for various polling and voting
functions.

    Initially we are starting with the simple rules still posted on the main
WDDM page (I'll soon move them into the Archive). If you want to change
anything, please, make your proposals.
    There are already a few proposals from you in the Archive, with links added
to your CV in the list of all initial member applications.

    So I am looking forward to your ideas (to be addressed to the whole list).
But, first please review all the applications, so that we can have an mutually
approved initial membership.

    All the best,
Miroslav