Personal Democracy Forum 2008
Note by Mr. John Breyault:
Zephyr Techout: There's almost a terrifying amount of power in this room.
We collectively have so much power in deciding what we value.
Two different ways of discussing Internet politics:
1) Industrial
Mass, efficiency, cleverness in extracting resources are praised.
Ex: 1 million ppl on Facebook for Obama. 5M watching Obama youtube vids. Etc. etc.
The efficiency in distributing tasks - Ex. mobilizing volunteers
2) Democratic
More interested in distributing power - not mobilization - participation
Both are very American languages
How do we build architectures - where we give people the capacity to create
Model: American Associations
5% of people were president of their citizen assoc. at one time
How many people TODAY have the knowledge and power to create a group to change their society
Q: Is technology enabling power to be distributed or is it just distributing tasks?
Finishes with a recitation of Whitman's "As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days."
We collectively have so much power in deciding what we value.
Two different ways of discussing Internet politics:
1) Industrial
Mass, efficiency, cleverness in extracting resources are praised.
Ex: 1 million ppl on Facebook for Obama. 5M watching Obama youtube vids. Etc. etc.
The efficiency in distributing tasks - Ex. mobilizing volunteers
2) Democratic
More interested in distributing power - not mobilization - participation
Both are very American languages
How do we build architectures - where we give people the capacity to create
Model: American Associations
5% of people were president of their citizen assoc. at one time
How many people TODAY have the knowledge and power to create a group to change their society
Q: Is technology enabling power to be distributed or is it just distributing tasks?
Finishes with a recitation of Whitman's "As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days."
