Excellent piece!
Freedom of Speech & Association are Essentials! When "civilization's scale" requires technology for their exercise... then that technology is also essential in its design, implementation and broad availability.
Humanity's evolutionary development shapes both our natures and capabilities in social interaction and group decision.
This has significant implication for design of group-decision systems (e.g. government).
That's enough on that here. But I hope you'll take a look at the following links which deal with the vital role of the political micro-transaction (under $1) especially in networked situations and Electoral/Geographic Networking facilitation (including systems of "scaled-anonymity).
And perhaps even more importantly, to begin consideration of essential characteristics of any platform hosting such capabilities (e.g. neutral & transparant with certain needed safeguards).
I'm slowly laying out underlying theory on my blog:
http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com
Additional links:
Chagora Proposal http://www.netsquared.org/projects/chagora
Prototype & FAQ http://www.Chagora.com/faq.aspx
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/culturalengineer
facebook http://profile.to/culturalengineer/
twitter id http://twitter.com/CulturalNgineer
Additional thought must be given as well to monetization and ownership. For various reasons I believe (surprisingly) a for-profit structure under a unique design owned by its universal donor-base as individuals (not government)may be best. And I can't deny I hope it can draw some interest so I can continue my work independently.
I would love to be able to attend more of these conferences and join this conversation if I can ever get a bit of sponsorship or investment and will be attending the Personal Democracy Forum in NYC June 29 & 30 thanks to their gracious generosity.
I look forward to the chance to speak to any interested in hearing more!
Regards,
Tom Crowl
CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com
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