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"Script: Did you know the word politics comes from ancient Greek "polis" - the city state in which the first kind of democracy was carried out by its citizens? They, like us today, identified problems and discussed them. We do it on the streets and in bars and sometimes begrudgingly at thanksgiving dinners. In Athens the citizens all came together on a designated hill outside of the city to discuss current issues and create policy solutions. Every free man, literally only free men by the way, had a say and a vote to decide on a policy for each issue. Thus word on the street was transformed into politics. This input from citizens into policy making is what we call direct democracy. Modern nation states, like Germany in our example here, do not share one common public space where all citizens could meet. Reaching an understanding about common issues merely by talking them over is unfeasible for the amount of people that would have to be included in our modern societies. The problems of our time are very much different from those of ancient Greece in three ways: Because of the diversity among our citizens mitigating their issues is far more complex. Moreover, to be a citizen today is no longer a vocation. Unlike the men of Athens we usually have to work to earn our living and do not have the time to spend all of our day pondering and discussing political issues. That may be part of the reason why many people today feel they do not have the adequate expert knowledge about those issues to contribute to the political sphere. What most modern democracies do instead, then, is have designated representatives from the populace devote their full time to be professional politicians. They carry out the public discussion of issues in our place. Mass media channels their discussions back to our societies. But only the politicians get to decide on those issues in the designated political arena. We, the public, do get the chance to vote for a representative of one world view or po

"The Commons Connection Around early 2000, when the name "liquid democracy" was first coined, questions about the maintenance of civil infrastructure swirled with especially fearsome intensity. I found myself thinking about commons (please ignore the stuff near the bottom of that page - it's quite obsolete) as a wider conceptual framework in which to include civil infrastructure. I started wondering if all tasks traditionally relegated to government could be thought of in terms of commons maintenance. So, I wondered... Could we not think of this fast, decentralized, collaborative decision making system as a means to ensure that the things we all hold in common - like civil infrastructure - stay properly maintained... By small, stealthy, distributed teams of anarchist kung-fu badasses, if need be... Even in the face of radical technological change...? For that too-grandiose purpose, Liquid Democracy was designed."

"Liquid Democracy is a fast, decentralized, collaborative question-answering system, which works by enabling chained answer recommendation. It occupies the middle ground somewhere between direct and representative democracy, and is designed to ensure that the things we all hold in common stay properly maintained (by small, stealthy, distributed teams of anarchist kung-fu badasses, if need be), even in the face of radical technological change."

"This book gives an in-depth insight into the philosophical, political and technological aspects of decision making using the internet and the "secrets" of LiquidFeedback, a computer software designed to empower organizations to make democratic decisions independent of physical assemblies, giving every member of the organization an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process."

"Ypart is a European-wide online participation platform specially designed for adolescents and youth. The goal of Ypart is to provide young people with a platform, where upon they can meet online, develop ideas, discuss concerns, and be able to engender a collective influence on political decisions. Ypart directs its service also at the youth and regional organisations in which adolescents partake."