Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2658 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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yoda with light saber — Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Ethical this is. Intelligent this is. Next this is.

The Liquid Democracy Association is a non-profit and non-partisan organisation that works on innovative ideas and projects for democratic participation. Our goal is to establish a transparent democratic principle in both the political and social domain based on strengthening the citizens’ participation. We are working on ideas and projects that will make our modern democracy more transparent and flexible. The work of the Liquid Democracy Association encompasses both the theoretical conception and the practical implementation of software projects.

Modern media allow new forms of communication and interaction which can be used to strengthen democratic and discourse-oriented participation. Our goal is to develop concepts and tools that allow the influx of deliberative participation opportunities in -ideally- all sectors of society.

Liquid Democracy

Liquid Democracy consists of a variety of different concepts, which include the principle of delegated voting. Theories differ mainly in the degree of emphasis they put on discourse function and voting procedures. For Liquid Democracy, discourse is the key element and voting is subordinated. Hence, it is less about forcing ‘bargain compromises’ with the help of election procedures but much more about the open and fair exchange of ideas. More

Delegated Voting

Delegated Voting describes the possibility of a participant delegating her or his vote to another participant or group of participants, who then are able to vote on her or his behalf. The delegation may be temporarily confined to a specific policy area or ballot. More

Continue reading “Yoda: Liquid Democracy – How Pirates Do It….”

2012/10/25

Michel Bauwens: Collaborative Economy Destroying Jobs [and Tax Base] – What’s Next?

03 Economy

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220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

Yes, the collaborative economy is destroying jobs. So what’s next?

OuShare, 16 October 2012

by Stanislas Jourdan

Let’s not be blind: yes, the collaborative economy is destroying a massive number of jobs. Is that a disaster though? It is, if we don’t redefine what ‘job’ and ‘work’ means, and how they relate to income. However, if we seriously consider the radical alternatives, this could be a great step for society.

. . . . . . . .

The major point of the Collaborative Economy is that value creation is being scattered among society. This makes it difficult to be measured. For instance, consumers are now involved in the co-production of the products they buy. The problem is not only that they do not get paid for their contribution, but a large number of companies would not even exist if they could not use open-source tools created by communities of developers , long before these businesses were even created, for free. In other words, a large amount of the market economy’s profits is built on a large free lunch – the one of the non-market economy.

. . . . . . .

A simple solution to this would be to give everyone a basic income grant, without conditions and not means-tested. Philosophically, this would be a compensation for what the French economist Yann Moulier Boutang calls the “retribution for pollinisation”, or a reward for all non-marketable values we create by accident, like bees that fertilize flowers by carrying pollen.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Collaborative Economy Destroying Jobs [and Tax Base] – What's Next?”

2012/10/252012/10/25

Sepp Hasslberger: Deep Geothermal $1B = 100 Nuclear Plants But Clean and Safe

05 Energy

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Deep Geothermal: The Untapped Energy Source

Until now, geothermal technology has only been used on a small scale to produce power. But with major new projects now underway, deep geothermal systems may soon begin making a significant contribution to the world’s energy needs.

Ultimately, thanks to unusually hot rock close to the surface and existing infrastructure from oil-and-gas production, the Cooper River basin alone could produce about 10,000 megawatts of electricity — enough to replace 20 large coal-fired power plants, says geologist Doone Wyborn, Geodynamic's chief scientist. That’s just a taste of the potential that this technology, known as enhanced geothermal systems, holds for Australia and the world, according to Wyborn.

In the US, researchers estimate that for just $1 billion invested over 40 years — the cost of one large coal-fired power plant and a fraction of the cost of a nuclear power plant — 100 gigawatts of clean, dependable geothermal power could be developed in the United States alone. That’s the energy equivalent of more than 200 coal-fired power plants or 100 new nuclear power plants.

Read full article.

2012/10/252012/10/25

Howard Rheingold: Myth of Internet-Based Overload – and a Lesson for for All Organizations

Advanced Cyber/IO

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Study Explodes the Myth of Internet-Based Information Overload

The key differentiator between those who feel overwhelmened by the volume of information available today and those who feel empowered and enthusiastic appears to be….know-how. –Howard

From socialmediatoday.com – September 18, 12:41 PM

“But now, there’s proof that all this worry about information overload, message meltdown and attention crash is overinflated hyperventilating. A study out of Northwestern University finds that “very few Americans feel bogged down or overwhelmed by the volume of news and information at their fingertips and on their screens.”

Published in the journal The Information Society, the findings were based on seven focus groups with 77 participants from around the country. According to study author Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies, “We found that the high volume of information available these days seems to make most people feel empowered and enthusiastic. People are able to get their news and information from a diverse set of sources and they seem to like having those options.””

Read full article.

Continue reading “Howard Rheingold: Myth of Internet-Based Overload – and a Lesson for for All Organizations”

2012/10/242012/10/25

David Isenberg: BusinessWeek on Morality of Drones

07 Other Atrocities, Drones & UAVs

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Drones: The Morality of War From the Sky

By Jeffrey Goldberg

Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 11, 2012

President Obama, who is putatively a civil libertarian—or, at the very least, the preferred candidate of most civil libertarians—has achieved something remarkable over the course of his term. He has led an expansive war against America’s enemies using lethal flying robots that not infrequently incinerate innocent civilians, and he’s been rewarded for it. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted earlier this year, 83 percent of Americans support Obama’s drone policy.

This is especially noteworthy because those who support the policy don’t actually know what it is. It’s discussed by the administration in only the most cursory and circumspect manner. Obama has provided the public with very little information about its revolutionary consequences.

. . . . . . . . .

One reason the people of North Waziristan—the innocent as well as the guilty—find drones so frightening is the matter of “signature strikes,” or “atmospheric strikes.” The U.S. national security infrastructure allows the targeting in certain benighted places of clusters of young men whose identities are not known but whose behavior is deemed suspicious. This policy is as remarkable as the president’s decision to use drones to assassinate American citizens on foreign soil, as he did with the al-Qaeda strategist Anwar al-Awlaki, based in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was a despicable figure, but isn’t it just a bit strange that the federal government can’t eavesdrop on a U.S. citizen’s phone conversation without a court order but can assassinate him without one?

Read full article.

2012/10/24

Eagle: Iceland Leads the Way – Jails the Bankers, Fires the Unethical Politicians, and Crowd-Sources their Constitition

Crowd-Sourcing, Culture, Politics

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Icelanders approve their crowd-sourced constitution

Iceland’s citizens were given a chance to help forge a new constitution for their country through Facebook and Twitter, so it’s not surprising that they backed the resulting draft. Now it’s over to the politicians.

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Phi Beta Iota: Iceland was agile and ethical. No other country in distress has matched their intelligence and integrity in action.

See Also:

Graphic: Epoch B Swarm Leadership

Graphic: Ethical Evidence-Based Decisions

2013 Public Governance in the 21st Century: New Rules, Hybrid Forms, One Constant – The Public

2013 Robert Steele: Reflections on Inspectors General

2012/10/242012/10/24

SmartPlanet: CISCO in Lake Nona, Flordia – Brilliant Today, Flooded Tomorrow

Advanced Cyber/IO, SmartPlanet

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A Florida aerotropolis bets on intelligent infrastructure

By Andrew Nusca | October 23, 2012

Ever heard of Lake Nona? If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a 7,000-acre, 25,000-person planned community in Orlando, Florida with urban ambitions the size of Tokyo.

In just 15 years, the community wants to become ”a global model and standard for sustainable urban development” — quite the opposite from what’s typically found in sprawling central Florida. To do so, it wants to tightly and deliberately link educational facilities, recreational facilities, a “medical city,” workplaces, retail centers, entertainment and residential development using digital infrastructure.

The community announced this morning that it plans to partner with Cisco, the American networking technology company, to design and deploy networking infrastructure to connect its healthcare, real estate, retail, education and community services.

What’s that mean, exactly? Things like “smart work centers,” “intelligent buildings” and unified healthcare and education services. Also, digital signage, unified communications (data, voice, wireless), fiber to the home, energy management, smarter transportation and IP-based video surveillance. (If it can be digitized, it appears that Cisco is willing do it.)

Because of the deep level of integration between the two entities, Cisco has declared Lake Nona an “Iconic Smart+Connected city” — the first in the U.S., and one of eight in the world.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: It merits reflection that CISCO and IBM and other great companies are not coming together on this, their lack of commitment to Open Source Everything being one reason. It also merits reflection that in 100 years Lake Nona will be under sea water. No one in the USA outside of Earth Intelligence Network seems to be thinking 100 years out, which is going to make the cost to future generations much greater.