Digg, Wikipedia, and the myth of Web 2.0 democracy. - By Chris W. It's getting harder to be a Wikipedia-hater. The user-generated and -edited online encyclopedia—which doesn't even require contributors to register—somehow holds its own against the Encyclopedia Britannica in accuracy, a Nature study concluded, and has many times more entries. But even though people are catching up to the idea that Wikipedia is a force for good, there are still huge misconceptions about what makes the encyclopedia tick. While Wikipedia does show the creative potential of online communities, it's a mistake to assume the site owes its success to the wisdom of the online crowd.
Social-media sites like Wikipedia and Digg are celebrated as shining examples of Web democracy, places built by millions of Web users who all act as writers, editors, and voters. In reality, a small number of people are running the show. According to researchers in Palo Alto, 1 percent of Wikipedia users are responsible for about half of the site's edits. Every model has its drawbacks. Futarchy: Vote Values, But Bet Beliefs. By Robin Hanson This short "manifesto" describes a new form of government. In "futarchy," we would vote on values, but bet on beliefs.
Elected representatives would formally define and manage an after-the-fact measurement of national welfare, while market speculators would say which policies they expect to raise national welfare. Democracy seems better than autocracy (i.e., kings and dictators), but it still has problems. There are today vast differences in wealth among nations, and we can not attribute most of these differences to either natural resources or human abilities. These policies are not just dumb in retrospect; typically there were people who understood a lot about such policies and who had good reasons to disapprove of them beforehand.
Would some other form of government more consistently listen to relevant experts? "Futarchy" is an as yet untried form of government intended to address such problems. Futarchy seems promising if we accept the following three assumptions: Bringing Democracy to America with FOSS: voting | Free Software. “Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of Western civilization?” “I think it would be a very good idea.” “But what about American democracy?” “I think you better start using open source voting machines.” OK, maybe Gandhi didn't say ALL of that, but if he were asked the question, I can see him saying something like that, based on our election history this century. It's now over a month after the November 7, 2006 midterm elections, and the verdict in Florida's 13th Congressional district is still up in the air.
Like many people predicted and feared, the culprit in this very foreseeable escapade in Floridian electoral “democracy” is the very commercial (and very proprietary) voting machines. What I see here, merely epitomized (again) by a Florida voting debacle, is more than the lack of competency of American “democracy” to conduct fair and accurate elections, but more truthfully, it really illustrates a disdain for doing so.
I propose we start the OVPC (One Voting-machine Per Country) project. Decisions.gnuvernment.org | Where GNU meets decision making. E-Democracy. The BBC is to launch a political webcasting platform known as Democracy Live, Helen Boaden, Director of News at the BBC, told delegates at Headstar’s E-Democracy ‘08 conference in London this month. The site “will offer live and on-demand video from all the main UK institutions and the European Parliament. Users will be able to search across the video for representatives and issues that are relevant to them. They will be able to find out more about their representatives in the institutions and follow their contributions,” Boaden said.
The site will also provide information on how the institutions of UK government work and what powers they have, as well as providing a resource of must know information concerning the issues in the news. In her keynote speech, Boaden focused on the role of citizen journalism enabled by new technologies in a modern democratic free press. “The London tube bombings of July 2005 brought the realisation that news gathering had changed forever, she said. DDGG. First Virtual Congress on World Citizenship and Democratic Global Governance Discuss with leaders and members of world democracy movements This paper is an Extract of: Dialogues and Conversations Participation and Moderation/Mediation: Ways and Means towards Re-inventing Democracy and Good-Governance Heiner Benking, Independent Scholar, Berlin (PLEASE NOTE: Below you find the full list of content.
The Focus and Width/Depth of this paper.................................................................................... 2 Foreword........................................................................................................................................................... 4 Dialog (IESC 0911)............................................................................................................................................ 5 The „SCHOOL OF IGNORANCE?
Panetics (Ralph G. Open Society Institute and Soros Foundatio. 20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA. Www.PetitionOnline.com - Free Online Petit.