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DemocracyOS

democracyos.org

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Re: DemocracyOS

#61

Post by piamancini »

dataker wrote: post #56

As a Brazilian, I find this initiative to be extremely important. However, I've recently seen 'democratic' videos urging for a military dictatorship. Millions of Facebook users shared the message and ~1M people protested last sunday, while trying to kick out our president. So I wonder if, contradictorily, some might exploit DemocracyOS to install anti-democratic regimes. Is there a way to ensure such thing won't happ…

It's crazy what's happening in Brazil these days, as a close neighbour(Argentinean) it pains me to see such upheaval. To your point, we could set up a protocol that the SaaS version of DemocracyOS can only be used inside the limits of a constitution, but we have no control over the Open Source version. It's like twitter it's a platform for expressing oneself and it's content moderation is v. limited. It's all our responsibility to make the best possible use of the tools we create.

Re: DemocracyOS

#62

Post by santisiri »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #59

The idea of "open source governance" is hardly new. I'd imagine such a system in the form of a web app would be swamped with irrelevant queries. Assuming an idealistic direct democracy where citizens draft new laws or modify existing ones, the feedback loop of constantly changing legal information to its application would be overwhelming. On the flip side, too much unaddressed issues and slow or wasteful processes wo…

I agree, we did a lot of research on a decent markup formar for law making (LML!). There are some efforts out there like (search for Akomantoso)

But the real challenge is getting TRACTION on a technology like this. It's not just the protocol (which I think it should be based on the Blockchain).. but also the product that makes citizens engaged with political participation.

Re: DemocracyOS

#63

Post by dataker »

piamancini wrote: post #61
dataker wrote: post #56

As a Brazilian, I find this initiative to be extremely important. However, I've recently seen 'democratic' videos urging for a military dictatorship. Millions of Facebook users shared the message and ~1M people protested last sunday, while trying to kick out our president. So I wonder if, contradictorily, some might exploit DemocracyOS to install anti-democratic regimes. Is there a way to ensure such thing won't happ…

It's crazy what's happening in Brazil these days, as a close neighbour(Argentinean) it pains me to see such upheaval. To your point, we could set up a protocol that the SaaS version of DemocracyOS can only be used inside the limits of a constitution, but we have no control over the Open Source version. It's like twitter it's a platform for expressing oneself and it's content moderation is v. limited. It's all our res…

Spot on. I still believe the beauty of the project is that it's open-sourced, so our community of developers would be able to make wiser choices for the country.

Infinitely better than corrupted politicians.

Re: DemocracyOS

#64

Post by rbf_ »

piamancini wrote: post #53
rbf_ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what we really need is ConstitutionalRepublicOS which would be a bit more complicated. But by defining strong constitutional invariants with regard to individual rights perhaps we could pre-strikedown unconstitutional laws before they are enacted. That would require a more precise legal language that let's you run some kind of static analysis against against the laws however.

maybe we could think about a two-tier system were we delegate only decisions that should be taken our of the hands of majority and to the citizens the huge number of decisions that we can make that affect our every-day lives. I think the only way for citizens to be responsible for the decisions we make is by start making them. We've outsourced decision-making for a far too long time.

I do think some of the divisive issues that are taken up often end up cloaking other matters that should be focused upon. Perhaps with strong enough invariants and a pre enactment filter it would much harder to use divisive social issues politically. Maybe we could replace polls with votes on some things and have better recall mechanics too. I think a lot of the dysfunction is due to the fact we can and have passed radically unconstitutional laws in the past to great detriment to the entire population.

Re: DemocracyOS

#65

Post by piamancini »

dataker wrote: post #63
piamancini wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's crazy what's happening in Brazil these days, as a close neighbour(Argentinean) it pains me to see such upheaval. To your point, we could set up a protocol that the SaaS version of DemocracyOS can only be used inside the limits of a constitution, but we have no control over the Open Source version. It's like twitter it's a platform for expressing oneself and it's content moderation is v. limited. It's all our res…

Spot on. I still believe the beauty of the project is that it's open-sourced, so our community of developers would be able to make wiser choices for the country. Infinitely better than corrupted politicians.

For sure! Being Open Source it's fundamental to the spirit and vision of DemocracyOS.

Re: DemocracyOS

#66

Post by dj-wonk »

santisiri wrote: post #43
jlgosse wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, why not just choose "Democracy"?

I actually know who owns democracy.com but still, democracy reminisces a 2000 year old system.. we need to update that.

"democracy reminisces a 2000 year old system" ... you have something better in mind?

In my opinion, democracy is probably the best we've got. The challenges have to do largely with engaging people in the realities of the process.

Re: DemocracyOS

#67

Post by jonnybgood »

So, this platform allows policy to be decided by a "technorati"[1] class?

Are there individuals with low-income, little to no internet access, don't know what a blockchain or open source is, have hectic work schedules with the addition of raising a family participating on your platform?

From what I can tell this platform is giving more power to those who already have some sense of power. This platform does not alleviate the problem of those in society who do not have any power or say in political processes. It may even be argued this platform may contribute to the problem.

[1] Those who have the privilege, time, and monetary means of internet access, acquiring/have knowledge of internet technologies, and being a participant.

Re: DemocracyOS

#68

Post by na85 »

santisiri wrote: post #23

Hi guys, I'm one of the founders. Glad to answer all your questions.

Why did you choose to implement Yet Another Blockchain Solution?

Assuming 3-letter agencies haven't already broken it, they will sooner or later, and now all your users will be susceptible to having their votes manipulated at the whim of US intelligence.

Re: DemocracyOS

#70

Post by santisiri »

jonnybgood wrote: post #67

So, this platform allows policy to be decided by a "technorati"[1] class? Are there individuals with low-income, little to no internet access, don't know what a blockchain or open source is, have hectic work schedules with the addition of raising a family participating on your platform? From what I can tell this platform is giving more power to those who already have some sense of power. This platform does not allevi…

The only people that believe that internet access is only for the rich, is rich people.

We come from Argentina, a latinamerican country and we are very aware of the social challenges we face.

But it's not just a technological solution, we ALSO created a Political party that does a lot of offline activism helping society understand the power they have using digital technology.

The Net Party ran for elections in 2013 and got 1.2% of the votes in Buenos Aires, it was an incredible first election for a small party and that led to DemocracyOS being implemented officially by the Congress.

Thanks to that, a lot of bills got attention. For example: Nureses now have better working conditions thanks to the action taken on DemocracyOS for the Congress of Buenos Aires.

Read more about it here: http://democracyos.org/about-us

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