A Book & Concepts Discussion Series

Paul Schumann – CenTexWFS

Democracy for the Rest of Us: The Minimal Compact & Open Source Government: Adam Greenfield
Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower: Ethan Zuckerman

“In many ways, we human beings are cursed with a relatively short lifespan, not least because any one of us lives long enough to perceive the longer ways unfolding through history.”

Source: The Innovation Commons

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To run the program for any purpose
To study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs
To redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
To improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits

“While Moore and Ito have justifiable enthusiasm about the phenomenon we're seeing emerge from interconnected communities - the grow weblogs as an alternative to "mainstream" media, the success of grassroots campaigning in the United States - this enthusiasm needs to be tempered by some skepticism about who is currently using social software, and who has potential to use it. While these tools, in theory, have the potential to increase citizen involvement in collection, debate and action, in practice, they're being used by a small, elite group.”
Do you agree with this statement?

“Late in 2002, Nua Internet Surveys estimated there were 650 million Internet users worldwide, concentrated in North America, Western Europe and the wealthier nations of Asia. This estimate suggests fewer than one percent of Africa's 800 million people are Internet users, in contrast to nearly 50 percent of North Americans. The number of participants in the weblog community is likely to be a small fraction of those 650 million worldwide users. The Perseus Blog Survey estimates the existence of 4.12 million blogs, only 1.4 million of which are regularly maintained. The NITLE weblog census, using a different methodology, estimates 1.7 million "likely" weblogs, 1.1 million of which are estimated to be active. If we accept either set of numbers at face value, webloggers seem to represent a small fraction of Internet users, perhaps a quarter of a percent. The NITLE statistics go on to suggest that 62 percent of weblogs are in English, implying that many of these weblogs are maintained by North Americans (with substantial blogging populations in Iran, Brazil and Poland.)”
Is this relevant or of any concern?

Is there any reason to presume that technology enabled democracy is transferable between languages, nations or cultures?
Do the social technologies offer any advantages to third world countries that would assist in the fostering of democracy?
Are there other technologies that would be better suited to the third world?
Does the initial form of Extreme Democracy need to include the world?

DeanSpace
- Exiting DeanSpace: Clay Shirky
- DeanSpace, Social Networks & Politics: Jon Lebkowky
- What is DeanSpace?: Aldon Hynes