[p2p-research] 10 days to go... SUPPORTING Smari McCarthy's P2P Electoral Candidacy for the Icelandic Constitutional Assembly

Thu Nov 18 17:43:22 CET 2010

I have edited since sending this too...

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 11:35 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:
> Again, what I have posted is at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/11763/2010/11/18
>
> On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I did it. And if everyone likes what they see, I will post the same
>> thing to smartmobs.com
>>
>> Plus, we'll let the following people know about it:
>>
>> boingboing.net
>>
>> Bruce Sterling (for his wired blog)
>>
>> John Robb on global guerillas
>>
>> The Espians
>>
>> perhaps some of those folks would be willing to talk about it or link
>> to this on their blog
>>
>> Smari, do you have a website for your campaign?
>>
>> Please link to this in twitter, on facebook
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Michel Bauwens
>> <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> THANKS simona,
>>>
>>> smari: we're doing what we can with the material available, but I suggest an
>>> english text on your motivation and policy proposals,
>>>
>>> Sam: would you consider writing something for our regular blog, based on
>>> your remark in facebook, which was well formulated I think,
>>>
>>> sorry, for the moment, still on the road and conferencing!
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 1:58 AM, Simona Levi <info at conservas.tk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'll do my best but i don't have much influence in Icelandic electors.
>>>> We will move it in the social network.
>>>> I'll also publish it the 25 in Catlan main news agency...
>>>>
>>>> El 17/11/10 14:48, Michel Bauwens escribió:
>>>>
>>>> Dear Smari,
>>>>
>>>> of course, I want to fully support you on this, but I have a serious issue
>>>> of timing, I just arrived in buenos aires, somewhat in a crisis mode as
>>>> something went wrong with the coordination, no pick up and no reservation at
>>>> the stated hotel, I need to solve this today, somewhat stressed you'll
>>>> understand, then, tomorrow, there is the keynote and 2 days of conferencing,
>>>> it's hard to say how much time I have.
>>>>
>>>> Most quickly, what I can do is just re-use what you write now, first at
>>>> Ning, wait for someone to re-write it with some info about YOU, I can then
>>>> always add a paragraph about why this is a truly historical occasion (a true
>>>> p2p candidate, broader than single-issue oriented Pirate Party) then we
>>>> publish it on the blog, and once it is there, we can repeat a few rounds of
>>>> facebooking/twittering around the link,
>>>>
>>>> If you want us to do more, feel free to ask, we'll try our best
>>>>
>>>> As I said, for me, it's just bad timing when I'm on the road like this,
>>>>
>>>> I copied the list, in the hope and confidence that others on the list
>>>> agree to support you even more, but I guess best is if you can provide
>>>> material we can work around by adding a supportive paragraph,
>>>>
>>>> Don't hesitate to ask for anything, the worse that can happen is that
>>>> people say no thanks <g>
>>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>>
>>>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
>>>> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>>>>
>>>> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
>>>> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>>>>
>>>> Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>
>>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
>>> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>>>
>>> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
>>> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>>>
>>> Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Sam Rose
>> Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
>> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
>> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
>> skype: samuelrose
>> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
>> http://forwardfound.org
>> http://futureforwardinstitute.org
>> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
>> http://localfoodsystems.org
>> http://p2pfoundation.net
>>
>> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
>> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Sam Rose
> Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
> skype: samuelrose
> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
> http://forwardfound.org
> http://futureforwardinstitute.org
> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
> http://localfoodsystems.org
> http://p2pfoundation.net
>
> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>

-- 
--
Sam Rose
Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
skype: samuelrose
email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
http://forwardfound.org
http://futureforwardinstitute.org
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
http://localfoodsystems.org
http://p2pfoundation.net

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." - Carl Sagan