RE: WWDDM controversies

[Josep Lluís <jllortega(at)andorra.ad>]

Dear friends,

I have been looking though the many topics currently posted at the wiki and forum for consideration. I strongly favour specific discussion on specific questions. However, this time I would like to give my opinion on different subjects, in a way that I hope makes global sense. This is why I am writing this rather long message and sending it through the mailing list. I will try to add specific sections to the wiki when I have a bit of time. I apologise if anything of what follows is out of some context I am not familiar with, but I am writing frankly in the hope of contributing to our common goal of promoting direct democracy.

I am afraid I don't still fully understand some of discussion going around. I thought the world wide direct democracy movement was a meeting point for direct democrats to meet, discuss, learn, make proposals, establish projects (I have a few of my own), connect and support initiatives around the world, and gather momentum toward implementing direct democracy at every level of political governance, including upcoming global governance. This I find clear and simple.

Then, this movement can organize itself through different means, using as many resources as appropriate, as long as they are more or less coordinated. For example, I support the idea of using discussion forums whenever possible in addition to mailing lists, I find wikis extremely useful for collaborative work, and if we had access to some expert system which could help us better communicate, I would welcome it (as a matter of fact I am very curious about it). BUT, I don't see mailing lists, discussions forums, wikis or expert systems as organizations, they should be ours means of work, important, but only in that sense. Whenever something better is found let's leave the old resource behind.

So, I don't understand what merging a forum with a wiki or with a movement or with an organization actually means. We can use everything, if we use everything rightly and optimally. For example:

• Some of the discussions started at the wiki could perhaps be held at the discussions forum.

• I maintain another wiki which has the capability to embed other sited into its pages through iframe tags. Could this be possible in our current wiki engine? If so, we could make the wiki a big portal to the other resources.

• Can we have an experimental expert system we can try? This would be wonderful.

• I can offer what I call open share resources (http://ascop.editme.com/openshare) that could be used by the wwddm, for example, an open journal (see how it looks embedded into the wiki for World Citizenship, Global Justice and World Democracy at http://ascop.editme.com/ejournal) and an open encyclopedia (also a wiki itself, see it also embedded at http://ascop.editme.com/cyclopaedia).

As regards to new members, I suggest accepting everyone who just asks except if there is argued opposition from any existent member. In that case, we should have a vote.

Finally, as regards to decision making, deciding about decision making has proved bitter indeed within other groups I am involved with, and I wouldn't like to see this again here. My proposal would be as follows:

I suppose we agree that decisions are made equally among all members. Thus, each member has a vote and each vote has an equal value. Members can choose to vote or not. A proposal/problem must be presented by a minimum of 2 members and sent to a Research Writer who then posts the proposal on the wiki and starts a discussion forum. Each member is notified when a new forum is begun though the email list. Only wwddm members can start forums and vote. However the general public can watch and participate in the discussion. During this discussion period, members can give their opinions and facts to be included in the possible options. The findings are compiled and presented by the Research Writer in the form of a Research Report, a summary of the actions and/or inaction to be voted upon by members. In general a 2 week period could be broken down as follows:

• 6 days for the forum to discuss all matters pertaining to the problem/suggestion ;

• 2 days for the Researcher Writer to compile and have ready the Research Report ;

• 6 days to vote on the possibilities.

Once a vote has been tallied the decision is sent to all members and posted on the wiki or other website. (this is not originally mine, but I have adapted it to what I believe to be our needs).

This is how I would orient and develop the wwddm in the future ahead, I hope it makes sense.

Best regards

Josep