Category: Ethics

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Reference: Open Source Agency (OSA) III

About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics
Who, Me?

References to an Open Source Agency (OSA)

General Comment:  as presented to non-governmental groups including Amazon, Gnomedex Bloggers, Hackers on Planet Earth, etcetera, the Open Source Agency (OSA) would be the proponent for everything open beginning with the four central opens necessary for Open Government: Open Source Software, Open Spectrum, Open Data Access, and Open Source Intelligence.  Within the Department of State, an Office for Information-Sharing Treaties and Agreements would be central to the endeavor, and could reasonably also do outreach to all eight tribes across the USA (academic, civil society, commerce, government at all levels, law enforcement, media, military, and non-governments/non-profit).

2002 TIME Magazine The New Craft of Intelligence

12 July 2004 National Intelligence Reform Recommendations (Kevin Scheid, National Commission on the Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States)

28 Jul 2004  The magical idea of an OSA – Open Source Agency

28 Jul 2004  An Open Source Intelligence Agency?  Military.com

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Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Methods & Process, Military, Policies
Tom Atlee

Dear friends,

The 160-person British Columbian Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform took every other weekend for a year to research and reach consensus on the best method for their province's election process.

The fourteen citizens in a Danish Consensus Conference take several weekends over several months to learn about their assigned technical issue and come up with shared recommendations for Parliament and the public.

A 24-person Citizen Initiative Review of the kind now institutionalized in Oregon takes a week to figure out how to best advise voters on a given ballot initiative.

Similar Citizens Juries on all kinds of subjects also take about a week.

The dozen citizens selected for MACLEAN'S magazine's 1991 “People's Verdict” deliberations took just three days to come up with a lengthy vision for Canada's future direction.

A Wisdom Council often takes just two days to come up with a consensus statement sharing their concerns and dreams for their community.

Hundreds or thousands of people in a 21st Century Town Meeting take one day to make decisions on the issue that they have been assigned.

And now ABC News gave five citizens of diverse political beliefs one hour to solve the deficit crisis that Washington can't seem to resolve in months.  This small group's success is the special feature of this e-mailing, so check out ABC's very short video (2:43) about it

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Tom Atlee: Abundant Democracy Resources

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Reform
Tom Atlee

Dear friends,

In 2001 the Co-Intelligence Institute released a breakthrough compilation of more than 100 democratic innovations.  At that time there was no other comparable resource on the web.

This year we decided — and began — to update this list, to fix its broken links, to add new innovations and resources, and to make it into a wiki to allow other people to add democratic innovations they knew about.  You can see our initial progress online.

While preparing a grant proposal to expand the project, we researched the web for other lists of democratic and participatory practices and resources.  We were surprised to find quite a few.

We decided that to add the most value in the context of this great wealth of resources, our project should

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Venessa Miemis: Beyond Systems Thinking

Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Briefings (Core), Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Policies
Venessa Miemis

Excellent piece from Rethinking Complexity: Studying Systems for a Humane and Sustainable World.

From Systems Thinking to Systems Being

CONCLUSION

Systems being involves embodying a new consciousness, an expanded sense of self, a recognition that we cannot survive alone, that a future that works for humanity needs also to work for other species and the planet. It involves empathy and love for the greater human family and for all our relationships – plants and animals, earth and sky, ancestors and descendents, and the many peoples and beings that inhabit our Earth. This is the wisdom of many indigenous cultures around the world, this is part of the heritage that we have forgotten and we are in the process of recovering.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Systems being and systems living brings it all together: linking head, heart and hands. The expression of systems being is an integration of our full human capacities. It involves rationality with reverence to the mystery of life, listening beyond words, sensing with our whole being, and expressing our authentic self in every moment of our life. The journey from systems thinking to systems being is a transformative learning process of expansion of consciousness—from awareness to embodiment.

— Kathia Laszlo, Ph.D., directs Saybrook University's program in Leadership of Sustainable Systems

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Paul Fernhout: Democratic Debate & Decision-Making

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, TED Videos
Paul Fernhout

Michael Sandal's book, as reviewed here at Phi Beta Iota (see Review: Public Philosophy–Essays on Morality in Politics) prompted my putting forward some related links and thoughts. I highly recommend Michael Sandal's TED presentation The Lost Art of Democratic Debate

“Democracy thrives on civil debate, Michael Sandel says — but we're shamefully out of practice. He leads a fun refresher, with TEDsters sparring over a recent Supreme Court case (PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin) whose outcome reveals the critical ingredient in justice.”

Here is a related P2P Discussions on the Future of the Economy.

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John Steiner: Christopher Schaefer on Wealth

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government
John Steiner

Christopher Schaefer (PhD), gives us both a short essay below recommending two books, and at the link, a five-page essay, “Mind the Gap: Wealth Disparities, the Deficit, and our Economic Future.”

CREATING COMMON WEALTH

Christopher Schaefer

It is now clear that the present global economic crisis is also a political and moral crisis raising fundamental questions about the nature of market capitalism in the West, in particular in the United States and England. Old arguments from the Right and the Left about more government involvement in society or less are often deemed irrelevant as the system is perceived as being corrupt and manipulated by economic and political elites.  A recent Pew Research Poll found that over 92 percent of Americans viewed the economy as bad, over 70 percent say they have suffered job related or financial hardship as a result of the great recession, 25 percent say they have difficulty paying their mortgage and 24 percent in paying their medical bills. Meanwhile 65 percent see government in a negative light and large banks and large corporations as corrupt, ( 67 and 64 percent respectively ). Or as David Korten states in Agenda for a New Economy, (Berrett Koehler) “conservatives and liberals share a sense that the dominant culture and institutions of the contemporary world are morally and spiritually bankrupt, unresponsive to human needs and values , and destructive of the strong families and communities we crave and our children desperately need.(1)

Korten's book is an excellent beginning in rethinking how our economy should be organized and should function. He makes a strong case for a 12 point agenda in achieving independence from Wall Street and and in creating a more local and sustainable economic future. The 12 point Agenda includes:

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