RE: [WDDM] Enitiatives.ch revolutionizes Direct Democracy-Press release

["Nicolas Durand" <nicolas(at)enitiatives.ch>]

Hi Ted,

I am not sure what you mean by "direct deliberative democracy", but I think
(if I understand the concept right), that Enitiatives is exactly that:

The process is:

1. Any citizen can start an Enitiative (=an idea, a project)

2. Other citizens will vote for it
 AND
   comment it (forum)
 AND
   make changes to it (Wiki)

3. When there are enough votes, a Working Group finalizes the project
according to what has been said in the forum and moves forward (letter to
govt, real initiative, etc.)

The Working Group is put together by members of Enitiatives. I arbitrarily
set the number of people in the WG to 7 (but this can be discussed). If
there are more, the WG is elected by all members of Enitiatives.

Does that answer your question?
Or am I missing something?

Oh, well, of course, yes, Enitiatives is, for now, an online-only system.
But nothing prevents Enitiatives members or anyone to take an action to his
village council or wherever and discuss it "face-to-face".

Nico

P.S: Why don't you sign up and launch a "dummy" or real Enitiative for
Canada, to get familiar with the system?
No Enitiative will be displayed before a reviewer approves it (just to avoid
spam and aggressive content), so you can play with it if you wish!



-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Becker
Sent: vendredi, 20. avril 2007 17:49
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Subject: RE: [WDDM] Enitiatives.ch revolutionizes Direct Democracy-Press
release

Hi Nico:

Good to hear from you...and welcome to the movement...all parts of it
you mentioned....plus another part that I'm gonna inform you about and
ask you to think of how to include it some way in your website.

When a number of us "global" DD types met in Pribram, near Prague in
1999 or 2000....I forget which....there was some debate and disagreement
over the importance of adding some kind of formal "deliberation" to the
I+R process....at one or more points.
The disussion revealed a fissure in the development of more and better
direct democracy in the world and what has occurred is that there really
are two movements, the direct democracy movement, which your website is
part of....and a great addition I might add...and the delib dem
movement...which is growing beyond belief.  For a view of that, look at
www.auburn.edu/jpd

Some in Pribram, including myself, Ned Crosby, Lyn Carson and Jiri
Polak...all agree that what we really need is a combination of the
movements into what I call D3, or DDD, "direct deliberative democracy."
What this does it to emphasize direct democratic components to rep dem
systems that include either face to face delibs, online delibs, or some
combo thereof.

I'd love to write about your website for the Journal of Public
Deliberation....but there is no option for deliberation on your citizens
initiative system.  One place that some have suggested a delib section
can fit into the I+R process is to let citizens discuss and edit the
proposition...before it becomes the official petition that people
finally sign up for.  Do you think this might be possible to do within
your system....if you agree it might be a helpful addition?

Let me know.  We have two parallel movements that need much more
intersection....and I'm in them both.

Ted.

> > > "Nicolas Durand" <nicolas(at)enitiatives.ch> 04/19/07 2:40 PM >>>
That's a really good point, Ted!

The fact is (I can only tell you what I know, and I'm fairly new to
the
field, but that's a start), that nothing like this existed in
Switzerland.
This is why I created Enitiatives.ch.
And since Switzerland already has 3 (or 4) languages, I made it
multilingual.

And it was not technically too complicated to make it multi-country.

So here we are: with a multilingual, multi-country free tool.

Unfortunately, tools alone do not change the world. What makes it
change is
the people who use them.

This is why we *need*
a) people who will do research and education in Europe (IRI) and
beyond
(IRI-Asia, IRI-California, Mehr Demokratie, Mas democracia, etc.)
b) people who work on a more global level (WDDM, IDEA)
c) a tool that allows citizens from all around the world to get
together to
discuss an idea on a national level and, finally, make it reality
(Enitiatives). For international ideas, there are plenty of (mostly
English-only) places like care2.org=thepetitionsite, which, btw, does
not
allow to comment a petition.

When I was looking for a place to express my comments (and sometimes
anger)
about the Swiss law, I did not fid it. My approach is thus different
(or
rather complimentary) from the existing movement: it's a more
practical, on
the ground, almost guerilla approach: the "system" does not provide
what I
need - I'll make my fellow citizens make it happen! I have somewhat
the
feeling that if I wait for the Swiss government to provide what I want,
my
children will retire before anything happens...

What I hope will happen in the near future is that many countries will
join
Enitiatives. When a few of them will actually make things change,
citizens
from all over the world will look at them and say "wow, this looks
cool,
maybe it could make things change in MY country as well".

What we need now is to get the ball rolling. And this can only be done
with
all of us pushing in the same direction.

Tell me what I can do...

Nico


-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Becker
Sent: jeudi, 19. avril 2007 03:14
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Enitiatives.ch revolutionizes Direct Democracy
-Press
release

...and why, oh why, is this guy...these guys.....and WDDM, CCIDD, IRI
EUROPE, MEHR DEMOKRATIE....not in touch with one another and linking
and
thinking of how to best network?

Ted.

> > > <Media(at)Enitiatives.ch> 4/18/2007 10:20 AM >>>

<http://www.enitiatives.org/>

Auf Deutsch En français In italiano

For a truly Direct Democracy
Press release

Switzerland and Canada: the Internet and Direct democracy

Enitiatives.ch revolutionizes direct democracy

A new Internet tool aiming to promote and facilitate popular
initiatives
is born. Behind this project unifying ideas is Nicolas Durand, who
wants
to accelerate the process of direct democracy globally and to spread
the
Swiss political model to other countries. This April 19 marks the
double
anniversary of the introduction of the right of referendum in
Switzerland (the first in the World) and the official launch of
www.enitiatives.ch and www.enitiatives.ca

April 19, 1874 Decision by the people to introduce the right of
referendum into the Constitution
April 19, 2007 Official launch of Enitiatives.ch, engine for a new
generation democracy

A legal aberration at the origins of the project

Nicolas Durand's project started from an observation: "the legal
aberration around gender inequality in the Swiss Constitution" affirms
the founder of Enitiatives.ch. "This law left me only two
alternatives:
to circumvent it or do everything to change it".

The Swiss citizen active in the non-governmental organizations (NGO)
in
Geneva proposes citizens to create communities of interest around
"virtual" initiatives. Each citizen can launch an idea on the website
at
various levels - communal, cantonal or federal. The projects voted on
by
the net denizens will be submitted to the people, who will accept it -
or not - through a "traditional" vote.

Uniting around ideas, not a party

Enitiatives.ch gathers net-citizens around ideas without political
affiliation. As soon as an idea at the federal level finds 25,000
supporters, the initiative process can be launched by a committee of
committed citizens. This process can thus go very quickly. The
government could also make decisions according to the projects
discussed
on the site.

Exporting Enitiatives.ch beyond borders

The concept of Enitiatives.ch is popular, even in countries which do
not
have a mechanism of direct democracy as sophisticated as Switzerland:
the Canadian site (www.enitiatives.ca <http://www.enitiatives.ca/> )
will be launched tomorrow. "I am currently in discussion with European
and Uruguayan partners as well as Indian members of the Movement for a
Global Direct democracy. Most of them are convinced that launching
other
national sites will accelerate the process globally". If all goes as
planned, we will soon have an enitiatives.in
<http://www.enitiatives.in/> , and many others should then follow.

Enitiatives.ch - For a truly Direct Democracy : www.enitiatives.ch
<http://www.enitiatives.ch/>

For any questions, please contact Nicolas Durand
Tel. +41 79 542 32 73
Email : info(at)enitiatives.ch -  www.enitiatives.ch
<http://www.enitiatives.ch/>

Geneva, on April 18, 2007        approx. 2' 400 signs spaces
included