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

[Michael Allan]

Fred Gohlke wrote:
> Until I read your message, it hadn't occurred to me how easily Votorola 
> could be used ... right now ... to put pressure on elected officials to 
> accomplish a specific objective.  It would be particularly effective when a 
> community initiative is stalled by political posturing.

Right, because nothing can stand against a consensus.  And the voting
mechanism guarantees a consensus, provided it is socially feasible -
meaning no essential, deep division on the issue.

It's almost possible right now, but not quite.  Most of the technical
pieces are in place, or they soon will be.  But it could be 6 months
or more before we learn how to administer the neighbourhood trust
network.  That's the crucial thing.  We need it to authenticate the
voter lists.  Without it, we're just another Internet poll, stuffed
with votes from who-knows-where.  With it, and with a turnout of a
thousand or so in a particular town, or region, we enter the sphere of
local politics.

Expectation of that entry will help to drive the initial turnout.

> I wish I'd picked up on that possibility earlier in our exchange because it 
> needs greater discussion.  I'm a slow thinker to begin with, and I focus 
> most of my attention on seeking out the weaknesses in the Practical 
> Democracy concept, so I missed it.

Well, almost nobody sees it yet.  You've joined a very small group!

It may have helped that we connected Practical Democracy and Votorola.
It's almost like new ideas can only travel by foot, and they need
bridges to cross.

> Your note helped me realize implementations of Votorola can give the public 
> an effective tool to address specific issues.  This is not your benign 
> 'Letters to the Editor' anymore, it is a means of focusing the attention of 
> the people and bringing the weight of the community to bear.  A few 
> successful events like that, given a reasonable amount of publicity, will 
> be the crack in the dam.

"Focusing the attention", that's the key.  So if it's a letter to the
editor, we don't allow it to disappear into the back issues.  We keep
on publishing it, under continual redraft, because we're voting on it.
And when we vote on it, we deliberately hold our votes in place, day
in and day out.  We expect something to be done about the issue.  We
expect an answer to our letter.

Votorola actually allows you to vote for letters to the editor.  In
fact, you can vote for any object at all, regardless of its form.  So
a public initiative (legislative bill, policy statement, electoral
nomination, etc.) may start life in an everyday form, such as a
newsaper article, a blog post, or even a casusal remark.

Imagine expressing an opinion to a friend in private conversation.
She agrees so strongly, that she pulls out her iPhone, raises a new
issue on the pollserver, and casts the initial vote for you.  Your
opinion then becomes the focus of a wider attention, and the potential
nucleus of a future consensus.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/