"E-democracy is a combination of the words electronic and democracy. In an evolving political and technological landscape here on Earth, many are fighting over the definition of this term. But a logical definition adheres to the word itself: a democracy that has "electronic" characteristics. E-democracy does not equal e-government, but is a form of it. It does not equal "wikigovernment" but is a form of it. Of course, defining "e-democracy" can be just as difficult as defining democracy when you get down to brass tacks. But because the Internet connects millions of people and can be a tool for governance, e-democracy has the potential to become one of the first forms of large-scale direct democracy on Earth. Canada and Sweden are now both trying to enact forms of this system of government, by working within the traditional political process to elect e-democracy friendly politicians, with the ultimate goal of overhauling the entire system of their nations' governments. Sweden's party Aktiv Demokrati aims to build a genuine direct democracy; Canada's Online Party has taken a milder approach with citizens in a more advisory capacity."

"Collaborative governance is a process and a form of governance in which participants (parties, agencies, stakeholders) representing different interests are collectively empowered to make a policy decision or make recommendations to a final decision-maker who will not substantially change consensus recommendations from the group.[citation needed] Governance can employ different degrees of public consultation and participation,[1] ranging from non-participation (the community is unaware of any decisions taken), informing (telling the community what is planned and to understand problems, alternatives and solutions), consultation (to obtain public feedback on analysis, alternatives and/or decisions), collaboration (to partner with the public to develop alternatives, identify preferred solutions, and make decisions), to empowerment (placing final decision-making into the hands of the public). Collaborative governance is governance with characteristics of both collaboration and empowerment.[citation needed] Some models of collaborative governance have been criticized as allowing ad hoc deliberation to drown out minority opposition.[2] "

"Open-source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open source and open content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is democratically opened to the general citizenry, employing their collective wisdom to benefit to the decision-making process and improve democracy.[1]"

"Nonviolent Communication (NVC) (also called Compassionate Communication or Collaborative Communication[1][2]) is a communication process developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s.[3] NVC often functions as a conflict resolution process. It focuses on three aspects of communication: self-empathy (defined as a deep and compassionate awareness of one's own inner experience), empathy (defined as listening to another with deep compassion), and honest self-expression (defined as expressing oneself authentically in a way that is likely to inspire compassion in others). NVC is based on the idea that all human beings have the capacity for compassion and only resort to violence or behavior that harms others when they don't recognize more effective strategies for meeting needs"

"Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement of participants and the resolution of objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its origin in the Latin word cōnsēnsus (agreement), which is from cōnsentiō meaning literally feel together."

"Consensus democracy is the application of consensus decision-making to the process of legislation in a democracy. It is characterised by a decision-making structure which involves and takes into account as broad a range of opinions as possible, as opposed to systems where minority opinions can potentially be ignored by vote-winning majorities.[1]"

"Sociocracy is a system of governance, using consent-based decision making among equivalent individuals and an organizational structure based on cybernetic principles.[1] The most recent implementation of sociocracy by Gerard Endenburg,[2] also known as Circular Organizing, was developed as a new tool for governance of private enterprise, but has been adopted in many different kinds of organizations including public, private, non-profit and community organizations as well as professional associations."

" Wikidemocracy is a model of government based on the open source and "wiki" concepts that have already been brought to the private sector, i.e. Wikipedia. Some people think it is the future of democracy. The idea, at its most basic level, is bringing common citizens to the law, and allowing for a transparent law process and maximum public input using the latest technology. The pinnacle of this theory is allowing community members in any given jurisdiction direct access to its laws. Using wiki style editing, people can actually edit their demands into laws."

Movie as manifesto about postscarcity

Dear Theo,

I would like to take you up on your offer which Aaron mentioned to me - regarding helping us research certain topics.
We are considering the biogas digester as a viable choice for producing cooking gas - and electricity by burning in an engine. From what I understand, this is a proven technology, and in heavy use in places such as Germany. It seems to us that this is the quickest way for us to go truly off-grid (with local biomass clippings) in our electricity and cooking gas needs.
Our specifications are:
1. 5 kW electric continuous power output from generator
2. Biogas for cooking for 24 people
3. Year-round operation (silage feedstock in winter)
4. Primarily grass clippings as feedstock
5. Continuous feed-through system
6. Biogas for space heating and greenhouse heating in winter
If you can help us, that would help us to upgrade our infrastructure to sustain 30 people with their electrical and cooking needs by year-end 2013. This could be a major contribution to the success of our project. We further aim to develop gas compression for fueling our car/tractor fleet later in the future - if we gather the sufficient support - by end of 2015.
I have added you as an editor for the Biogas project in the Control Panel of our Flashy XM interface -http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Flashy_XM
Please familiarize yourself with that interface. The specification for that interface, in development, is at http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Flashy_XM_Specification
Let me know your thoughts. If you can help us with this, please set up a Skype appointment with us via Aaron.
Thanks,
Marcin

Hello again. The first results of this research, as a primary State of the Art (SoA), have been published here :
http://bit.ly/NApltw

Besides, I took the initiative to send an email of first contact (similar as the one sent to Sandru above, to Biogas Bob Hamburg. In the SoA we got by now, Bob is considered as one of the eminence in the Biogas digester environments.

Looking forward to get Marcin and/or Aaron feedbacks.

Kindly yours

Théo & Ynternet team

Here is the answer from Bob Hamburg, and my answer to him afterwords


On August 15th 2012, Bob Hamburg wrote :

> Dear Theo, and others,
> Finally! I am quite glad to hear from yo'al. It was many months ago that I saw a TED talk on the global village construction set. I tried to make contact at that time. It seemed to me like you might need some sort of fuel to run all your fantastic equipment. All this mechanical equipment seemed great, but I thought there might be a place for a bit more biology, yea?
Let me just present a few first thoughts. I consider digesters as much more like domestic animals than technological manifestations. I seek to raise shit-eating fire-breathing dragons -- in symbiotic integration with other biological production systems.

It takes about 15-20 cubic feet of biogas per KWh. A 5 KW generator system would thus require (15-20 cu ft X 5 KW X 24 hr) 1800-2400 cu ft per day [around 60 cu meters]. i.e. quite a lot. A healty, well-fed and watered, and warm [95-100 degrees F] digester can be expected to produce about 1 volume of gas per day per volume of digester. With these figures, it would appear that quite a large digester would be needed just for electricity. Although some of the energy lost through transition from gas to electricity can be recovered by using engine coolant to heat the digester, direct burning is far the most efficient use of biogas. I am biased toward wind and photovoltaics for electricity.
As to your other specifications, they are certainly feasible -- given adequate...interest. I continue to be taken with the many mutually beneficial thermal interactions possible through greenhouse-digester integration. Much of my current efforts are toward a digester set in the ground under growing tables in a greenhouse. That, and increasing recognition of the potential for nutrient-rich digester effluents in further production.

One other [priliminary?] note: I suspect that regeneratively produced alcohol, a la David Blume or whatever, is more appropriate for mobile needs than biogas. Note that propane liquifies at about 280 psi. Methane liquifies at about 5000 psi. I.E. It takes huge energies to compress biogas to make it useable for mobile needs. And huge bags of low pressure gas are...clunky? to say the least -- especially in the wind.

While I seem to be able to deal with email, 'fraid I'm still abysmally incompetent [and quite hesitant] at all other computer networking, but your certainly welcome to use any of this anyway you see fit.

Since I see most "experts" as learning/knowing more and more about less and less....I'd almost rather be viewed as a fanatic.

I do hope I can be of some service in furthering your efforts. I actually have a contracted book to write these days -- Dragon Husbandry: The Why and Wherefore of Biogas Systems -- but I would be interested in visiting the Missouri farm. Wonder what train connections are like?

Sincerely,

Biogas Bob Hamburg

Omega-Alpha Recycling Systems
Symbiotically Integrated Anaerobic Digestion
Biological Repair NOT a technological fix
When you're up the creek, you need some OARS!
www.omega-alpharecycling.com

================================0

MY ANSWER TO BOB

Hey Bob

Really great to read you :-)

Thanks a lot for your first contributions, and also for your preliminary note on regeneratively produced alcohol.
Yes, one of the key issue is to succeed in chosing the best tool to produce energy.

I'm not a tech-expert, neather is Raphael nor Aaron.
We are facilitating the identification of experts, and bringing them to collaborate online or on site in Missouri at OSE headquarters.

Marcin and some other industrial designers and self-made technicians are co-working on the GVCs development, helped by quite a few facilitators such as Ynternet.org team (Raphael & me). There will soon give a a signal and enter into technical questions.

I'm located in Switzerland and Brazil, Raphael is in France, and OSE headquarters are in Missouri USA.

So for the next step of a potential mutual support, two simple questions :

1. Could you imagine having a skype talk with Marcin or a delegated of OSE he will point, about your vision of the best method to provide energy for such village under construction. For example, about biogas digester versus regeneratively produced alcool for OSE villages ?
If yes, what is your skype account ?
Marcin's skype account is marcin_ose
And/or could you start by writing in short terms your opinion about strengh and weaknesses ?

2. Where are your located ?
In USA it seems (to be Honest, I initially thought that you were living in Hamburg Germany!)

Can we maybe ask you to fulfill this form :
Click here to fulfill the OSE Flash Mob Form
OSE Flash Mobs are impromptu problem solving sessions between remote collaborators. Here is a video explaining how they work:
Click here to watch the OSE Flash Mob Video (explaining why and how Flash Mobs)

Finally, I noticed that you're not an expert in computing/internet, and we understand very well.
I just wish to point you that OSE intention are pure since all the products and plans are under a free licence, aloowing anybody to access, reproduce and modify the machines,

Thanks in advance, your work is awsome, kind regards

Théo

A selection of stats in English : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_digestion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogaz ... and in French and German too look at the page, the guy made a kind of micro SoA and posted it in his blog. You also have a link to a tool in German to calculate the production of a biogas digester

Aaron from OSE headquarters writes : "as far as current research, we recently interviewed a man to help with our agriculture, and his current farm includes a methane digester designed by 'Biogas Bob':http://www.omega-alpharecycling.com/ "

The author of this HowTo biogas digester might be a good resource person : http://www.greenoptimistic.com/about-us/ "To construct a good biogas plant, you should not only respect the dimensions as indicated on the drawing but also follow the correct construction method. Hereunder, in a step-by-step fashion, the right construction method of the 2047 design GGC model biogas plant is given."

The first result is inn English, it is the guidebook (12 pages) on "Preparing this training material all the important information have been collected from the booklets & research materials". Source : Biogas Training Center (BRC) Chendu, Sichuan, Chaina.

more results while adding the keyword "design" it seems the topic is quite largely documented

schemes and images on googleimage, showing the large panel of structural options to build a biogas digester, and also the common elemenst of each technical plan