re-inventing democracy

"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."

"Online platforms for participatory democracy are flourishing in Italy and they are being initiated by civil society and local governments alike. Some of these tools are limited to 'social reporting,' where citizens are asked to recount problems and disruptions; others strive for empowering people with some sort of liquid democracy that allows people to debate and even propose legislation. But all of these platforms grew out of a deep dissatisfaction toward Italian politics and politicians, as shown by the high level of abstention in the 2013 national elections as well as the contemporary success of the Five Star Movement, an anti-establishment party that suddenly became the second most popular in the parliament's lower house. In the last few years, the economic crisis, the corruption scandals and the governments' inability to make structural reforms - such as changing the current electoral law, which establishes a proportional voting system that does not allow citizens to vote directly for individual candidates - fueled anger as well as political will among the public to demand that government give them a say on all levels of decision-making. "

" Democracy is the gold standard for good governance in modernity. Modern democracy is also fantastically expensive. After all, you only have to write a constitution, establish legislative, judicial and executive branches in permanent opposition to each other, ensure that they have enough assistance to understand the issues they're dealing with, build a civil service so that actual work can get done, regulate that civil service so it can't take over, establish a market sector to deal with everything the government shouldn't do, regulate the market sector so it can't take over, build a media infrastructure to ensure the people in whose stead you govern understand what you're doing, hire more government aides to talk to the media, regulate the lobbyists who talk to the media, hire more aides to talk to the lobbyists… "

"Bürgerbeteiligung auf kommunaler Ebene Offene Kommune ist eine neutrale Bürgerbeteiligungplattform mit dem Ziel, einen direkten Dialog zwischen Bürgern, Kommunen und Organisationen zu ermöglichen. Sie können OffeneKommune jetzt testen und zu den ersten Anwendern gehören. Nehmen Sie dazu mit uns Kontakt auf."

"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."

"Zwischen Februar 2011 und Januar 2013 sammelte die Enquete-Kommission Internet und digitale Gesellschaft des Deutschen Bundestages auf dieser Plattform Ideen, Anregungen und Meinungen zur Zukunft der digitalen Gesellschaft."

these are the 10 steps 

"What if we could hear the voice of every voter, what if every citizen could vote safely and wisely, and what if every voter could see the choices of citizens globally? What if we could make democracy global and have it be transparent?"

"I left Istanbul in mid-June to join a 10-week program in Silicon Valley to solve global grand challenges through technology. On the first day, futurist and director of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil, and futurist and CEO of X PRIZE foundation, Peter Diamandis, laid out our mission at Singularity University: Create a positive impact on a billion people in a decade and create disruptive innovation. The first thing that came to my mind were the demonstrations and police crackdowns I had just left behind in Turkey, and whether there was a way to disrupt this failed system of governance. + "

"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."

" Today the Public Software Group [1] released LiquidFeedback Core version 2.2.4 and LiquidFeedback Frontend version 2.2.3 including:"

"Doc Searls makes a great talk on the State of the Net in which he explains how we are reaching the personal data cloud. And also how, also this time, like in the past, with computers, mainframe, networks, mobiles, the corporate world is trying to control those data. And in doing so they limit their usefulness. What gets built outside always becomes more valuable than what is being built inside. Inevitably ending to support those corporations prefer to interface with what is outside than build their own walled gardens."

"Vast Internet surveillance. A cross-border network of state-sponsored digital snoopery. Governments shrugging their shoulders at widespread protest against the omnipresence of Big Brother. The NSA spying scandal has taught us a lot in recent weeks. One lesson in Germany, however, has gone largely unnoticed. The Pirate Party, hailed only recently as a new kind of political activism, is dead."

"One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful."