Latest on Open Source Party?

[Luke]

What's the latest on the Open Source Party? Where do things stand and
what can we do?

[Saddah Aziz]

Hi everyone,

I would also like to know. I am so desperate for the reset button to be pressed so we can enjoy a fresh start that encourages more accountability in all aspects of our lives.

Merry Christmas & happy New Year to everyone.

Saddah Aziz.

[Ben Goertzel]

Hi guys,

Open Source Party seems to have been stillborn, due to the obvious
cause of nobody emerging to take the lead and pay attention to it...

There is an opportunity, perhaps, to tie the thinking/feeling
underlying the Open Source Party with the Occupy movement. After all,
the Occupy movement actually followed quasi open source principles in
maintaining its defining articles, plans, etc.

However, without someone wanting to devote at least, say, 10 hours per
week of their time to the cause, the Open Source Party just ain't
gonna happen...

I support the cause but I'm way too busy with other stuff that I also
value, to put that kind of time into it...

Also I would reiterate my previous suggestion that "Open Party" or
something less geeky would help in terms of reaching out to others
like those involved in the Occupy movement. I'm not suggesting to
abandon "Open Source" as a guiding principle, just making a point
about marketing...

-- Ben Goertzel

--
Ben Goertzel, PhD
http://goertzel.org

"My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche

[Seth Itzkan]

I just made the following post to the FB page.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/opensourceparty/271746662880953/

I think it would be good to have a multi-year plan that start just with gathering and distilling of ideas. I could see this becoming book, document, that becomes a reference point.

Seems like there are separate conversations going on. I like the idea of this group getting and growing an identity of it's own, even as it does the obviously important work of aligning with Occupy.  I think Occupy has a certain purity of remaining "non-aligned", which I support, even thought its clear that an Open Source party is consistent with Occupy goals for transparency and fairness.

- Seth

-------------------------------
Seth....@gmail.com

[Trevor Tomesh]

With all due respects, Ben, political movements are not built over night. Recently, we've actually seen a spike in membership of the facebook group, and things are really starting to get moving.

[Ben Goertzel]

Ah, great news!

Since I don't use Facebook frequently, I'm not aware of developments
happening in the Facebook group ...

If things are happening via the Facebook group, and it's just this
list that is dead, then indeed my apologies for an erroneous missive
;)

I personally am unlikely to be heavily involved in any organization
that's Facebook-centered, but that's my own peculiarity.... Hopefully
once a little more momentum is gained the activity will move off
Facebook..!

ben

[Seth Itzkan]

I'm not a FB fan either, but that's where I saw the action. If you're on FB, you can have it send the posting announcements to you for that particular group. For all practical purposes, it's just another list.

- Seth

-------------------------------
Seth....@gmail.com

[Ben Goertzel]

Heh...

Well, due to some bug or design flaw in Facebook, I have been unable
to get that forwarding feature to work as desired...

I tried to get this to work a few times, but the only settings I got
to work were

1) Forward posts from NO groups to my email

2) Forward posts from ALL groups I belong to, to my email

Of course, this problem may be solvable via me studying Facebook's
advanced control panels more carefully, but I haven't taken the
time...

But anyway, although I think Facebook sucks, I'm happy there's
activity regarding the Open Source Party occurring *somewhere* ;-)

ben

[Luke Mulks]

Hey Guys,

It's really great to see the activity back on this group. I have to honestly admit that the last time we all went back and forth, it seemed like things hit a snag and the time wasn't quite right for the ideas. The funny thing is that when we were corresponding the last time, we pretty much said the same thing about the previous time too. I feel that's progress, which is cool. Personally, there's been so much synchronicity in my reality tunnel as of late that finding this email in my inbox seems pretty natural at this moment (which I really love - we were talking about this far in advance of occupy, so I definitely feel that we're on some kind of same page, and that we're all really seeing the possibilities of what the future can hold).

I keep thinking about this group, especially as I'm active w/the Occupy movement (believe it or not, I actually landed my current job from meeting people at the Occupy SF protests). I feel that the tricky part of all of this is to somehow put together a vision for how we could create a citizen/user based transparent system for governing where people not only have a voice and input, but can also contribute to the action in a realistic way. The real and literally pressing challenge that demands action and awareness are the efforts that are underway to lock down the internet (or enable the quick-spigot-offing of it). 

I'm really not trying to get into a political debate here, because I believe this work transcends politics as-is. The SOPA, NDAA and the newly crafted (yet unreported) PRECISE act (if you're not familiar with each of these, for the love of deity please read up on them) are seriously going to stand in the way/slow down the creation of this or any other legitimate opposition to the system as-is. It's really hard for me to envision us having success with this if these laws get into place, but it definitely won't stop me from continuing work despite that possible outcome. The PRECISE act in particular is basically going to create a Federal Reserve for the Internet. It's troubling to think that this is all happening, and that the dinosaurs in this 'representative' government are allowing lobbyists to craft such dangerous legislation, but at this point I'm not surprised anymore. 

I apologize for the rant, and let me also say that I do feel as if I'm extremely lucky to be surrounded by genius by just being included in this group. By default, I'm from more of a mainstream/suburban perspective, and in full disclosure I don't own a machine that runs Linux. What we do share is the hope and vision, and where I specialize in is anything multimedia production, design, front-end coding (HTML/CSS/Javascript). My current job is in ad ops trafficking. I also have a marketing and writing background, and am a real history buff when it comes to US legislation and politics. I'm down to help here, and I feel that this is the defining moment. 

I've been drafting a new manifesto that addresses where I feel the next steps can take place in a realistic way. This is really difficult, especially where things are at right now, and with the fact alone that the occupy movement is resistant to the typical structuring of movements (for good reason, because if it had been structured like the Tea Party, it would not have lasted this long without being hijacked by the political parties). I know there are a lot of good ones out there, and I realize this might be a waste of time, but there's an inner voice that I can't shut up that keeps demanding that I do it. I just see so many fronts in the current landscape where the benefits of developing technologies can be used in harmful ways if not addressed, and am trying to compile them in a clear and concise way that people can get on board with. 

So, I don't know where this leaves everything, other than now you all know that I'm on your radar once again (and you're all on mine). I know how busy we all are, but I really feel that the only way that we'll see true change is if we can piece together a believable picture for the mainstream to understand. I know how difficult that is, especially when talking tech and the possibilities of tech, and helping to present our overall vision in a way that the everyday Joes can understand and align with is where I feel I can be a lot of help. 

If you made it this far, I really appreciate your attention. I'm just trying to be a part of this effort, and hopefully create a realistic future where we can fund NASA more than the DoD. Pipe dream at this point, but if you look back in history any movement that matters usually was started in a circle by smart folks who cared (and passed to the left). 

I hope you all are well. 

Luke Mulks

--
Luke Mulks

Pure Productions

www.pureproductions.us

707-373-4350

[Seth Itzkan]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for your thoughts.

Has there ever been a conference on this topic?

I think the / a next step is to have a university hosted conference, the proceedings of which become a reference point for future work.  It would be good to get this into academic dialogue (Harvard School of Gov, etc.). Are there university champions out there? I think that would be a good avenue.

- s

- Seth

-------------------------------
Seth....@gmail.com

[Luke Mulks]

I think Seth's nailed it on the head w/the academic dialogue idea. Anyone have any connections w/Stanford out here on the west coast? I think that everyone's seen the occupy movement, and a lot are aligned with the need for change in our system. There's a real opportunity now to put some constructive options out there if we can get enough folks with academic credentials behind this, and get some publicity. I'll do whatever you guys need me to do to help put this together. 

-Luke 

[Seth Itzkan]

I can work the East Cost, Boston angle, Tufts, Harvard, etc. Any other East coast academic affiliates?

- Seth

-------------------------------
Seth....@gmail.com

[Mike Lewinski]

I'm also happy to see activity on this list. I'm living near D.C. and
have a contact at Georgetown who I think is sympathetic and may have
suggestions for a summit.

Here's a mess o' related links.

The TED 2012 global theme is radical openness:
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2012/program/

State codes, for humans:
http://www.statedecoded.com

Is anyone watching Americans Elect?
http://www.americanselect.org/

There's a group called The 99% Declaration with plans for a
constitutional convention in Philly on July 4th. They have a draft
agenda and plans to form a third party. One of their current points is
Internet related:
http://www.the99declaration.org/22-no-censorship-of-the-internet/
(note I don't agree with everything on that agenda, but I've kicked in
$25 for the convention space and am registering as a delegate)

United Citizens of the World has a platform related to copyright and
is organizing political parties in UK, Australia, Canada and Norway:
http://www.unitedcitizensoftheworld.org/policy
(I don't agree with everything on their agenda either, being
especially squeamish about declaring things like health care and
education as 'rights')

I ran into these today:
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2011/02/the-coming-transparency-war/
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2011/03/the-laws-of-transparency/

Fun:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html

Misc:
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/buy-congress-back6-11.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/crisis-bigness-leopold-kohr

[Luke Burns]

TED would be a fantastic resource, as Mike said.

I am a TEDx organizer outside Philly and have access to the worldwide TEDx community.

Liberal Arts colleges tend to be very supportive of student initiatives, so I think introducing the ideas to these students, who are usually very politically active, would be a fantastic way of getting this moving. Just a thought.

I'm a co-founder of starter.org, a non-profit taking the principles of open-source to communities to catalyze collaborative action, which I think is relevant. We're just starting up and are on track to receive funding.

Also, this entire SOPA (learning from the GoDaddy situation), PIPA, NDAA, and PRESENCE (which I haven't heard about) is an opportunity to gather pissed off people and push this idea.

I'm new here, but I want to see this take off.

Luke Burns

Sent from my iPhone

[Ben Goertzel]

About

***

I think the / a next step is to have a university hosted conference,
the proceedings of which become a reference point for future work.

***

I have edited many academic books and conference proceedings, so I
could easily help with that part... including finding a publisher,
dealing with authors of papers based on their conference
presentations, etc...

I've also organized a host of conferences, including academic ones
(the Artificial General Intelligence series and others) and
non-technical ones (e.g. the Humanity+ future tech/philosophy
conferences)...

So while I wouldn't have time to chair an Open Source Party conference
on my own, I'd be happy to serve on the organizing committee of such a
conference and help out a bit...

Conferences and publications are things I have a lot more experience
with than political parties ;) ...

-- Ben Goertzel

ben

--

[Trevor Tomesh]

As someone who's fate is sealed in academia for all eternity, this all sounds great. However, I'm currently in the UK for three years, and then taking permanent residency here or in Canada.

[Ben Goertzel]

I'm living in Hong Kong 2/3 of the time and in DC 1/3 of the time...

I don't think HK is quite ready for the Open Source Party yet...
however, it would be interesting to spread the meme there, just in
case it becomes relevant in some future incarnation of the Chinese
political system...

I'm peripherally involved in organizing TedX Hong Kong (which is each
year in Nov or Dec), so maybe we can have a speaker on the Open Source
Party at TedX HK next year...

ben

[Luke Mulks]

This all sounds awesome. Thanks everybody for sending the links. 

It seems like barely anyone has noticed the PrECISE Act (mainly due to zero TV and little web coverage), so I wanted to share the link and some info here.

This blog has some info, and a pdf of the legislation in case anyone feels down to swim in the legalese.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/79456&wsi=0f3af046c07a52be&ei=KEr7TpL5J6GAkwL70sUN&wsc=pb&ct=pg1&whp=30

Here is an excerpt:
Homeland Security has proposed a new cybersecurity bill called, 'Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness' (PrECISE Act) that "would establish a quasi-governmental entity to oversee information-sharing with the private sector," reported The Hill . This cybersecurity legislation would create
"the National Information Sharing Organization (NISO), a semi-government entity, "would be staged as a clearinghouse for exchanging relevant information regarding cyber threats and vulnerabilities." Yet the New American noted , "Many civil liberties groups have expressed concern over cybersecurity legislation such as the PrECISE Act, as these policies could lead to severe privacy rights' violations. Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology , said in congressional testimony, "Approaches to cybersecurity that would eliminate pseudonymous and anonymous speech online would put privacy at risk, chill free expression and erode the Internet's essential openness.As the founders of our country recognized, anonymity and pseudonymity play essential roles in allowing political views to be aired." 

Not trying to play captain doom and gloom here, but it's hard for me to believe that the dinosaurs that make up our representatives have any solid grasp of internet issues, especially when they're caught tweeting about other things during hearings or speeches on the house floor. It has me leaning more toward this being drafted by DHS-industry lobbyists and pushed quietly through the legislature during the Holiday ether. That's what Congress has done throughout history...passing what should be controversial legislation quietly when people are off for the holidays. It doesn't help when the mainstream media has been so quiet (especially on TV) about the SOPA and NDAA legislation, and how they've been grandstanding over payroll tax cuts with their airtime. 

I'm figuring that if I do my part to inform everyone on this PrECISE business, that we can see how it folds in with what we're trying to do here. This legislation has a definite impact on how things are going to be perceived and handled with the internet, and paired with the other legislation moving through, and the timing of public/civil unrest/popular support for change, etc. that we all need to be informed on what's getting snuck through by congress right now. I'm not trying to go for conspiracy or political debate with this stuff, I'm just trying to inform. 

-Luke Mulks

On Dec 27, 2011 8:45 PM, "Ben Goertzel" <b...@goertzel.org> wrote:

I'm living in Hong Kong 2/3 of the time and in DC 1/3 of the time...

I don't think HK is quite ready for the Open Source Party yet...
however, it would be interesting to spread the meme there, just in
case it becomes relevant in some future incarnation of the Chinese
political system...

I'm peripherally involved in organizing TedX Hong Kong (which is each
year in Nov or Dec), so maybe we can have a speaker on the Open Source
Party at TedX HK next year...

ben

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Trevor Tomesh <trevor...@gmail.com> wrote:

> As someone who's...

[Ben Towne]

Hi all,

I agree with the vague connection between the Open Source Party and Occupy movement, and think they are complementary.
Occupy points out that "there is a serious problem here; the system is broken; and we the people care about it."  Occupy does not have the solutions, but they're saying that more of the same from Congress and Wall Street isn't going to cut it.   Nobody has the solutions right now, because the problems are so ridiculously complex. 

They're "wicked problems" (if you haven't read that paper, now's a good time to do so).
If anyone, whether individual or group, came forward with an apparently viable solution for any of the major problems facing society, that would be exciting and probably gain traction in the existing system.  Candidates, current office-holders, bureaucrats, and Occupiers etc. are looking for those solutions themselves and would love to latch on to good work if it were available.
It's clear that the candidates can't really offer good alternatives and plans that stand up to rigorous policy analysis (Cain's 9-9-9 plan is a case in point, as are SOPA and others).  Luke's comments also point out that we might also want to discuss developing technologies (and not just policies) to explore the potential benefits and harms in that field, where the latter are not often discussed. 

So...how do we come up with good solutions to these issues?  How do we come up with policy proposals and have informed discussions about them?
As Luke noted, "this work transcends politics as-is."

I think that we (a very broad 'we') have all the knowledge and resources we need to solve these problems, but we don't yet have a good way of putting all that together in a coherent way to reliably make great policy choices.  

We don't need the current political process in order to build technology, combine our knowledge, and come up with good policy proposals.  If we believe that the current system for doing that has failed, we can simply build a new system that makes the old one obsolete  (-Buckminster Fuller).  [SOPA could throw a wrench in that statement, but this isn't the right thread for discussing SOPA.]

In my personal view, the number one priority of this movement (or at least my subsection of it) is developing a tool and set of practices around it that enables large, diverse, distributed groups of people to work together effectively and solve complex problems. Therefore I've made it my focus to [help] develop the technology that can let us do that.   You can check out my TEDx talk here, and after that maybe my forthcoming journal paper in a journal's special issue about online deliberation. 
I'm now looking for a thesis proposal that is both tractable within a year or two of work and would really help in this area.  Please let me know if you have any ideas.
Luke, I might request your help if the work involves much front-end interface coding- I can do that, and I enjoy the design phases, but not so much on the implementation (esp. cross-browser compatibility).

There have been conferences on this topic, with the idea to have the next one summer 2012.
I recommend Jared Duval's book Next Generation Democracy as a very readable introduction to the field.
I'm in academia and would be happy to do what I can to raise the dialogue on these topics.   However, note that there are a lot of restrictions at the intersection of academia and politics, e. g. universities and their people might not be able to officially support the work of any particular political party or political activity.  We can do work that transcends politics as-is, such as figuring out design principles and technology questions that help meet the priority I've identified above.  So...that's my goal!

Happy new year!

Ben Towne

The PhD Program in Computation, Organizations, & Society

Carnegie Mellon University
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions described above are my own and do not necessarily represent those of any organization to which I belong.)

[Luke Mulks]

Thanks so much Ben. I'm definitely down to help and collaborate with everything you mentioned, and whatever anyone else needs help with. Let's make this work this time around! (while we still are fully able...Deity knows I'm probably already on about 5 DHS/DoD watchlists by now...)

You guys would know better than me because of the scope of your own work, but is there any new legislation/regulation or oversight on a lot of the new developing technologies....in particular nano-tech and advanced stem cell research? How hands on is the government with these efforts (if they're hands on at all)? I know it's vague/generally put, but I'm trying to get an idea of what we're looking at in the big picture here, and if the gov is already pivoting to swoop in on these types of tech.

If this kind of thing is unregulated/privatized/confidential, I honestly feel that the idea of any kind of level playing field will be nothing more than a total fantasy...and I feel that given the track record of the powers at be of all stripes, we shouldn't give any of them the benefit of a doubt when it comes to legislating the fair-use and transparency around the advantages that these developing technologies could grant to whoever's able to afford or given access to them. (insert dark empire music here). If we're looking for areas to get some PhD/credential based consensus, developing tech might be a really good pillar to put out there...before the lobbyists have their way...and we know how that goes. 

[Luke Burns]

I'm working 

Sent from my iPhone

[Ben Goertzel]

Hi Luke,

Gov't regulation is currently pretty much restricted to medical
research, crypto research and some other special areas ... plus of
course anything with obvious direct military applicability. Stem
cell research didn't end up getting harmed that much by gov't
regulation, due to the replacement of Bush by Obama...

My gut feeling is that strong regulation of advanced tech is unlikely
to happen in the US --- because it if **were** to happen, it would
give obvious economic advantage to other nations, and the US
political/business/military establishment really doesn't want that...

My worry is more about advanced tech being developed in badly
ethically suboptimal directions, due to being driven largely by
short-term economic and political goals on the part of particular
corporate and other organizational actors, rather than by a quest for
the medium-term welfare of sentient life on Earth and in its
surrounds...

-- Ben G

--

[Paul Konkoly]

Well blast, how unfortunate that this was "stillborn"

I"m glad someone tried this approach.!

[Trevor Tomesh]

I wouldn't say "stillborn". Just slow. :-)

[Devin Balkind]

Two of my friends are running for State Senate on an Open Source platform.  Anyone know of any open source platforms out there?

--
Devin Balkind
@devinbalkind
vitamindwb.com

[Luke Mulks]

This is the kind of news that gets the heart beating. With everything going on across social platforms over the last several months, I admit to not putting proper focus on this effort.

Can you supply some info on the candidates? I will plug the hell out of them. This could build momentum.

Thanks,
Luke

[Paul Konkoly]

Have states purchase open source software - good for the budget because its free!  For inspiration, look at http://techpresident.com/news/21761/new-hampshire-legislature-passes-open-source-software-bill .

On Tuesday, July 10, 2012 6:23:03 PM UTC-5, Devin wrote:

Two of my friends are running for State Senate on an Open Source platform.  Anyone know of any open source platforms out there?

[Luke Mulks]

Yes!
I have been really putting a lot of thought and energy into developing a strategy that could implement a more direct democracy social participation platform where citizens could introduce policy and have it work like seeders to a torrent. The policy that has the most seeds working its way to passing.

I know it seems like a pipe dream, but I have this RevoJournoDesignerDeveloperOperator gene in my dna, have dedicated my life since September to putting all of myself out there with the momentum of activism that has built, and it's led me to landing a job I love and a network of unimaginably beautiful and amazing like-minds. The more active I become with this, the more I break the fear barrier into a million pieces and build solidarity with others doing the same, and the more our government continues pushing the status quo the more I honestly feel that we are way better off and capable when we govern ourselves. We don't need everyone on board that is stuck in the theatre. We don't need to convert people to the obvious. We just need 5-15% of the great active brains out there building a new OS for the way we approach governing.

I apologise for the rant. I feel honored to even share this thread space with so many brilliant minds and I feel that now that I have your attention it is my duty to express my desire to have each of us scale out our view of what governance could look like. I don't know the best way for us to break more ground, but this chain keeps picking up over and over again from long periods of inactivity and I feel that's happening because we all feel that this is possible to spark something good that actually can help so many people who feel lost, broke and powerless on their home turf.

I hope this didn't turn anyone off, as that's not my intention. I have nothing but love and infinite respect for each of you, and this thread keeps inspiring me each time I come across it.

That being said, lemme know who those candidates are. I want to plug the hell out of them and begin an seo/social whirlwind to get people talking about this.

Thanks again,
Luke

[Seth Itzkan]

David, who are they, and which state?

Sent from my iPhone

[Seth Itzkan]

Hey David, Can you give us more info about your friends who are running on an Open Source platform? Who are they and where?

btw - apologies for double posting. I thought I emailed this yesterday, but didn't see it on the list. -s 

--
Seth J. Itzkan
www.hutwithaview.com
www.planet-tech.com
www.charlesriverweb.com

[Seth Itzkan]

Good stuff Mike,

Sorry to only see it now. I dip into this list when I can. - s