Society disconnects people from one another. When some who care about our communities and world do unite, we tend to do so weakly through organizations that cannot connect us directly.
Horizontal communication will let more people than ever before discuss and coordinate to fight injustice and make lives better. With democratic moderation of messages, people can communicate in large or small groups with minimal wasted time and potentially unlimited scaling. Above all, the network belongs to everyone equally, reversing the typical model where people belong to an organization that sets the agenda and controls communication.
A simple technique will make real the principles of openness, equality, and democracy: People will decide the extent of distribution of messages in the only democratic way practicable, by vote of a random sample. Messages can be be proposed for geographic communities and communities of interest, and will be informative or proposals for action. The latter can attract agreement and resources needed to make a plan possible.
We will, in short, build the best possible framework for social change.
People who care about our communities and world are too often disconnected from one another. When a few of us do unite, we tend to do so weakly through organizations that cannot connect us directly.
Horizontal communication will let more people discuss and coordinate to fight injustice, protect the environment, and make lives better than ever before.
With democratic moderation of messages, people can communicate horizontally in large or small groups. With current tools, people can discuss and plan in small to medium-sized groups. We can receive information moderated by someone else. And we can embrace or ignore decisions made by a few.
We will build a network to connect people directly with minimal wasted time and a potential for unlimited scaling.
We will, in short, build the best possible framework for social change.
A simple technique will make real the principles of openness, equality, and democracy: People will decide the extent of distribution of messages in geographic communities and communities of interest in the only democratic way practicable, by vote of a random sample.
In addition to news and information, people can put out plans and calls to action, which can attract agreement and resources.
rather than solely arriving fully formed.
As communities or a society, we cannot yet control the flow of information ourselves. We cannot make decisions or collaborate on ideas proposed by any one of us, because we have no way of even knowing about such ideas.
Technology won't be enough. Electronic communication will only be a part of our network, let alone the movements the network should support.
Mediated culture, alienating work, and unneighborly neighborhoods disconnect people from one another. When people who care about making lives and communities better do unite, we frequently do so through organizations that cannot connect us directly. Decision-making power lies with a few people. As a result, these organizations tend to use us (donate, sign this petition) instead of us using them (use this money to get us these resources, make this demand). No single organization can have all the best plans and actions, yet the invaluable mailing list of supporters inevitably belongs to the organization.
And most people don't connect even by proxy.
