[p2p-research] 10 days to go...

Thu Nov 18 17:30:45 CET 2010

I started with this on p2p foundation blog (a combo of what I posted
to my facebook wall, plus Smari's text

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/11763/2010/11/18

We can edit or refine it if necessary

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Smari, I started by inviting facebook friends to like your page ...
>
> Chris, I hope you have some time for this, i.e. to publish the text below,
> with the bio info of smari at http://p2pfoundation.net/Sm%C3%A1ri_McCarthy,
> and an intro paragraph, first on Ning,
>
> With this short intro text,
>
> At the P2P Foundation, we want to fully support Smári McCarthy 's candidate
> for the Icelandic Constitutional Assembly. I consider him, after the more
> single issue oriented Pirate Party (whose efforts we also appreciate), to be
> the first 'full P2P-free cultural candidate", so this is a historic
> occasion.
>
> Suggested title: Smari McCarthy, P2P Candidate for Icelandic Constitutional
> Assembly.
>
> (smari, now is a good time to change anything on your bio page).
>
> Smari, please also write, for future use, something on your policy approach,
> and why people should support it, in english,
>
> Once we have something more 'together', we can use the regular blog, which
> has a much larger audience,
>
> Smari, use our list to ask for support from other people, please DO NOT
> HESITATE,
>
> Michel
>
> 2010/11/17 Smári McCarthy <smari at immi.is>
>>
>> Hi Michel, Simona,
>>
>>  In reference to our conversation in Barcelona about my candidacy for
>> the Icelandic Constitutional Assembly, I'm thinking that it's about time
>> to invoke the P2P culture and try and rally some external awareness and
>> support.
>>
>>  What I'd suggest is if we can draft some kind of letter of endorsement
>> from the P2P community and get a bunch of signatures, then I could wave
>> that around here.
>>
>>  A slightly more involved but potentially useful thing would be some
>> kind of video clip, just a talking heads thing, with somebody speaking
>> about the importance of understanding of networked societies and that
>> this understanding be incorporated into modern state structure.
>>
>>  And then of course there's the easiest thing to do, which is to click
>> the "like" button on my Facebook page. 97% of Icelandic adults use
>> Facebook and various sites are using Facebook ranking as a measure of
>> popularity, despite it being an incredibly skewed estimate.
>>
>> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smari-McCarthy-a-stjornlagabing/161452417212255?ref=ts
>>
>>  Michel, could I request that you take initiative on this on the list?
>> I can provide you with background information but I do feel very awkward
>> about asking people to support me. :P
>>
>>  Here's some initial background [sharable]:
>>
>> ----------------------
>>
>>  In 1874 Iceland received its first constitution from the Danish king
>> as a result of popular demand for increased home-rule. In 1918 the
>> country became sovereign under the Danish crown, and in 1920 a new
>> constitution to this effect was enacted.
>>
>>  In 1944, after being disconnected with Denmark for over a year,
>> Iceland proclaimed independence. A temporary constitution, mostly based
>> on the constitution of 1920, was accepted, with an article stating that
>> it should be renewed within the year.
>>
>>  Now 66 years have passed without the constitution being reevaluated.
>>
>>  After the financial crash of 2008 the Icelandic people, understanding
>> the need for democratic reform as well as economic reform, started to
>> make demands for a constitutional assembly. After the government
>> collapsed in early 2009 the new government coalition of the Social
>> Democrat Party and the Left-Green Party agreed to organize a
>> constitutional assembly, although for many months this idea looked like
>> it would be buried.
>>
>>  In late October 2009 a national assembly was held in Iceland, where
>> 1500 people were randomly selected from the census to work over the
>> course of a day to create a new set of guiding principles for Iceland.
>> In the aftermath it was decided in parliament that the popular demand
>> for a constitutional assembly was so great that the issue could no
>> longer be ignored.
>>
>>  On June 25th 2010 law 90/2010 was enacted creating a mandate for
>> general elections for a constitutional assembly consisting of 25-31
>> nonpartisan individuals, based on single transferable vote in addition
>> to a gender quota rule. The elections for this assembly are to be held
>> on November 27th 2010, 10 days from now.
>>
>>  The electorate is the roughly 228000 voters in Iceland, and there are
>> 523 individual candidates running in the election, all as individuals
>> although some have known connections with special interest groups,
>> political parties, and such. These relationships have been mapped by
>> various websites. Various other websites provide filtering mechanisms of
>> various sorts in order to help people weed out the best 25 candidates to
>> vote for.
>>
>>  After the elections the assembly will convene in February 2011 and
>> operate for 2-4 months during that year to draft a new constitution and
>> propose it to parliament, along with suggested adoption mechanisms and
>> protocols. If parliament accepts the new constitution it will be put to
>> a referendum.
>>
>>  There has been an alarming amount of P2P activity in relation to this
>> election. Campaigns are primarily being operated through social
>> networking sites, with a lot of pressure on candidates not to advertise
>> in traditional media. A lot of individuals and organizations have been
>> in direct contact with the various candidates in order to provide their
>> own arbitrary filters, and in general there is a lot of buzz, but also a
>> lot of uncertainty, as the number of candidates and the equidistribution
>> of the attention is the source of great confusion.
>>
>>  To reduce this confusion somewhat and to promote the elections as an
>> important step towards more direct democracy, a broad coalition of
>> candidates from various political leanings has joined forces to raise
>> awareness about the forthcoming elections, operating on amicable
>> grounds, and further, there are discussions about creating a "shadow
>> assembly" using the Shadow Parliament Project's software and
>> organizational mechanisms, in order to facilitate broad discussions
>> amongst the general public during the operation time of the assembly.
>>
>>  In short, it looks like the opportunity for Iceland is great, but
>> there are still a number of hurdles. It will be interesting to see the
>> results, and hopefully this will lead to a great democratic upheaval,
>> promoting and protecting networked societies in the future.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>>  Hope you can use some of that in some meaningful way.
>>
>>     - Smári
>>
>>
>
>
>
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