Update: I reread this post, and realized, that I didn't link to Extreme Democracy. Just to set the record straight: Tom Atlee will talk about his work and book The Tao of Democracy. Ross Mayfield will introduce us to the concepts behind Extreme Democracy and Zack Rosen will show us the latest version of CivicSpace.
If
you check Amazon for The
Tao of Democracy You will find rave reviews of the book. The one from the
top 100 reviewer Robert D. Steele is especially interesting: This book focuses
on what comes next, after everyone gets tired of just "meeting up" or "just
blogging." This book is about collective intelligence for the common good, and
it is a very fine book. He is missing the following: Still lacking--and
I plan to encourage special organizations such as the Center for American Progress
to implement something like this--is a central hub where a citizen can go, type
in their zip code, and immediately be in touch with the following (as illustrated
on page 133 of New Craft):
- a weekly report on the state of any issue (disease, water, security, whatever);
- distance learning on that issue;
- an expert forum on that issue;
- a virtual library on that issue including links to the deep web substance on that issue, not just to home pages of sponsoring organizations;
- a global calendar of all events scheduled on that issue, including legislation and conferences or hearings;
- a rolodex or who's who at every level for that issue;
- a virtual budget showing what is being spent on that issue at every level; and
- an active map showing the status of that issue in time and space terms, with links to people, documents, etcetera.
This is so interesting, because at the Futures Salon next Thursday the 16th of September we will not only have the author of Tao of Democracy Tom Atlee present his latest findings, but we will also have tool makers Ross Mayfield from Socialtext and Zack Rosen from CivicSpace who probably can tell us how far we are in developing such a solution.
I am really excited about bringing these people together. [More info about the event and speakers]
As always the Future Salon is free and open to the public, spread the word. SAP Labs in sponsoring, so there will be some refreshments during the first hour of networking and socializing. Please RSVP by sending an email to markfinnern at yahoo dot com, so that planning is easier regarding food.
Thursday 16th of September 6-9+pm SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map]
Bonus link: Devided we stand I once presented the graph that analyzed the "Customers who bought this book also bought" feature from Amazon regarding political books. Validis Krebs has updated the graph, added a lot of political books, unfortunately the picture doesn't change:
The division between left and right remains strong -- the political food fight continues. Network metrics, as well as the visuals, show two dense clusters with high preference for homogeneous choices. Echo chambers, on the right and left, remain amongst book readers in America.
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