Using the Internet to self-organize a better, and sustainable, society

In response to the Guardian leader, "Democracy goes digital"

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.

Potentially, the Internet is far more than just "a place where like-minded people [can ] gather to shape a political movement". It is where, once the necessary open-source software is available, people will be able to "self-organize" in thousands of different, dependent or independent, overlapping and interdigitating ways, to create a very different (far more democratic, just and humane, and above all "sustainable") socio-economic order to the one we have at the moment.

Politicians now want to use the Internet for their own narrow, party-political purposes, but we, "The People" (including more enlightened politicians), will use it to undermine and ultimately replace the existing political order, which is rooted, like the economy, in our "more animal than human" nature.

But because the Internet cannot handle flesh and blood, - just binary code - we have to create digital representations of ourselves, something that might be called a "Personal Identity File", over which the flesh-and-blood individual will need to have direct control and complete jurisdiction (vigorously protected by law), but which will need to be subject to some kind of verification. I need some confidence in knowing who the individuals I'm (thinking of) self-organizing with are.

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org

To: Comment at the Guardian Re: Using the Internet to self-organize a better, and sustainable, society Date: Wednesday 15 November 06

In response to the Guardian leader, "Democracy goes digital" Link to article and thread at The Guardian. Potentially, the Internet is far more than just "a place where like-minded people [can ] gather to shape a political movement". It is where, once the necessary open-source software is available, people will be able to "self-organize" in thousands of different, dependent or independent, overlapping and interdigitating ways, to create a very different (far more democratic, just and humane, and above all "sustainable") socio-economic order to the one we have at the moment. Politicians now want to use the Internet for their own narrow, party-political purposes, but we, "The People" (including more enlightened politicians), will use it to undermine and ultimately replace the existing political order, which is rooted, like the economy, in our "more animal than human" nature. But because the Internet cannot handle flesh and blood, - just binary code - we have to create digital representations of ourselves, something that might be called a "Personal Identity File", over which the flesh-and-blood individual will need to have direct control and complete jurisdiction (vigorously protected by law), but which will need to be subject to some kind of verification. I need some confidence in knowing who the individuals I'm (thinking of) self-organizing with are. My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org