[EM] Practical Democracy (and primary rule making) with Votorola

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Morning, Michael

Here's a copy of my post on the WDDM site:

Good Morning, All

I haven't been active for some time.  One factor is that I've lost 
contact with Roy Daine, who was one of the clearest thinking advocates 
of Direct Democracy I've met.  The circumstances under which our 
exchanges ceased lead me to fear the worst.

I'm writing now to be sure you are aware of Michael Allan's effort to 
make Direct Democracy real, rather than a topic of discussion.  He has 
created a software package called Votorola.  It is designed to combine 
collaborative drafting with communicative assent to build a consensus on 
the composition of societal norms (i.e., laws, plans and policies).

If you have a genuine interest in including everyone in the governmental 
process, this is an effort worthy of your careful examination.  Michael 
makes it available for implementation by any-sized community.  As an 
introduction, I urge you to review the material at:

   http://zelea.com/project/votorola/d/theory.xht

and then continue throughout the site to examine and evaluate the full 
process.  It is important to note that (in my opinion) Michael is less 
concerned with 'carrying the torch for democracy' than he is with the 
much more valuable task of making democracy a reality.

Fred