i tried this, followed tony's instructions to the letter. it's not easy. my computer has never really worked to 100% capacity. dual monitors is near-impossible (i bought the 'Sandy Bridge #4' build), for example.
- 3 points, further reading, and a thought on the Internet as a tool for DD -
1. Direct democracy has only been objected to on two grounds worth discussing - the impracticality argument and 'the crowd is stupid' argument. The former is no longer valid and the latter it is only proven true in specific circumstances.
2. People are not necessarily dumb. Yes, people in North America are dumb en masse. However, there is no systemic pressure to educate because it's not easier to get elected (manipulate the masses) if voters are well-informed and educated. There may not be any mass conspiracy to keep people stupid but there's no incentive to educate them.
3. Crowd-sourcing is the BEST solution for certain types of political-arena questions. Any decisions requiring predictions surrounding complex systems, for example, are best tackled through crowd-sourcing. E.g., Prediction Markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market)
Tetlock, P. (2005). Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
(link to above: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7959.html)
Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations (link to above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds)
Esser, J.K. & N.R. Ahlfinger. (2001). Testing the groupthink model: Effects of promotional leadership and conformity predisposition. Social Behaviour and Personality: An International Journal. Vol. 29: No. 1.
(link to slideshow discussing above: http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~hfairchi/courses/Spring2011/p103/ErinKomplin.pdf)
Fleeger, W. E., & M. L. Becker. (2008). Creating and sustaining community capacity for ecosystem-based management: Is local government they key Journal of Environmental Management. Vol. 88: pp. 1396-1405.
Final thought
In group decision making and consensus building, indirect processes are often used to alleviate some of the exogenous influence that social dynamics can have on the decisions reached. Information communication technologies (ICTs) have potential to mitigate effects of power stratification within communities by acting as a mediator of inter-personal relations, buffering the effect of power influence between community members. However, they are often viewed as second-rate communication options, with face-to-face being the ‘gold standard’. While ICTs certainly have weaknesses, they are currently under-utilized as participatory mechanisms and their potential in mitigating power effects in collective action and decision making has, to date, gone unacknowledged and under-explored.
There is evidence that ICT's can alleviate
-- Power Stratification
-- ‘Groupthink’
I like to watch tv online. In fact, I prefer it greatly over regular cable tv. That may be because I don't get cable, true, but why has it taken so long to move in this direction? The ability to have viewer-specific advertising during each show should be making networks salivate. There's all those people out there like me who surf around constantly to places like peekvid, alluc.org, cinecast.us, sidereel.com (results catalogues at http://www.mymindwanders.com/blog/?cat=13) etc etc. for their favorite shows... why not embrace it?
One of the features I like the most about Miro is the ability to search selected online TV and video websites like veoh, youtube, dailymotion. However, Miro lacks the ability to stream those videos - you must download them - which is a big turn-off. Also, has anyone noticed it takes up over 130k of system memory? Other than those two draw-backs, I am thoroughly impressed, however.
Slashdot Mirror
i tried this, followed tony's instructions to the letter. it's not easy. my computer has never really worked to 100% capacity. dual monitors is near-impossible (i bought the 'Sandy Bridge #4' build), for example.
- 3 points, further reading, and a thought on the Internet as a tool for DD -
1. Direct democracy has only been objected to on two grounds worth discussing - the impracticality argument and 'the crowd is stupid' argument. The former is no longer valid and the latter it is only proven true in specific circumstances.
2. People are not necessarily dumb. Yes, people in North America are dumb en masse. However, there is no systemic pressure to educate because it's not easier to get elected (manipulate the masses) if voters are well-informed and educated. There may not be any mass conspiracy to keep people stupid but there's no incentive to educate them.
3. Crowd-sourcing is the BEST solution for certain types of political-arena questions. Any decisions requiring predictions surrounding complex systems, for example, are best tackled through crowd-sourcing. E.g., Prediction Markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market)
Some reading/viewing:
O’Mahony, S. & F. Ferraro. (2007). The Emergence of Governance in an Open Source Community. Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 50, No. 5
(link to article about the above article: http://www.techforce.com.br/news/linux_blog/scientific_study_about_debian_governance_and_organization)
Tetlock, P. (2005). Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
(link to above: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7959.html)
Surowiecki, J. (2007). Power: 2012. Presented at the NewYorker Conference 2007: 2012: Stories from the Near Future , New York. Retrieved December 8, 2008,
(link to above from: http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/surowiecki)
Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations
(link to above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds)
Esser, J.K. & N.R. Ahlfinger. (2001). Testing the groupthink model: Effects of promotional leadership and conformity predisposition. Social Behaviour and Personality: An International Journal. Vol. 29: No. 1.
(link to slideshow discussing above: http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~hfairchi/courses/Spring2011/p103/ErinKomplin.pdf)
Fleeger, W. E., & M. L. Becker. (2008). Creating and sustaining community capacity for ecosystem-based management: Is local government they key Journal of Environmental Management. Vol. 88: pp. 1396-1405.
Final thought
In group decision making and consensus building, indirect processes are often used to alleviate some of the exogenous influence that social dynamics can have on the decisions reached. Information communication technologies (ICTs) have potential to mitigate effects of power stratification within communities by acting as a mediator of inter-personal relations, buffering the effect of power influence between community members. However, they are often viewed as second-rate communication options, with face-to-face being the ‘gold standard’. While ICTs certainly have weaknesses, they are currently under-utilized as participatory mechanisms and their potential in mitigating power effects in collective action and decision making has, to date, gone unacknowledged and under-explored.
There is evidence that ICT's can alleviate
-- Power Stratification
-- ‘Groupthink’
I like to watch tv online. In fact, I prefer it greatly over regular cable tv. That may be because I don't get cable, true, but why has it taken so long to move in this direction? The ability to have viewer-specific advertising during each show should be making networks salivate. There's all those people out there like me who surf around constantly to places like peekvid, alluc.org, cinecast.us, sidereel.com (results catalogues at http://www.mymindwanders.com/blog/?cat=13) etc etc. for their favorite shows... why not embrace it? One of the features I like the most about Miro is the ability to search selected online TV and video websites like veoh, youtube, dailymotion. However, Miro lacks the ability to stream those videos - you must download them - which is a big turn-off. Also, has anyone noticed it takes up over 130k of system memory? Other than those two draw-backs, I am thoroughly impressed, however.