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

Samuel Rose samuel.rose at gmail.com
Thu Nov 18 19:31:31 CET 2010 

Do you know where most recent iteration/git repo is by chance, Smari?

2010/11/18 Smári McCarthy <smari at immi.is>:
> Yes, it is, although I doubt that that's the most recent Git archive.
>
> I originally suggested the Shadow Parliament project in the summer of
> 2008 and in late 2008 it was implemented by Róbert Viðar Bjarnason and
> Gunnar Grímsson (Gunnar is also a candidate in the elections, and I
> support him fully). Since then they have merged the source tree somewhat
> with the Nationbuilder project and expanded both on theory and practice.
>
> This software is currently being used, amongst other things, to
> facilitate citizen participation in the governance of the city of Reykjavík.
>
>  - Smári
>
>
> On 11/18/2010 05:51 PM, Samuel Rose wrote:
>> Smari is it true that this is the Shadow Parliment software you refer
>> to in the quote in this email?:
>>
>> https://github.com/rbjarnason/open-direct-democracy
>>
>> 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

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