October 2010, Issue #32 of The WorldVoter

[The WorldVoter]

Hello from Vote World Parliament.

To view this month's newsletter as a .pdf file (nicer, easier to read
formatting with hotlinks), please click on one of the links below, or
copy/paste it in your browser...

http://www.rescueplanforplanetearth.com/worldvoternewsletter32.pdf or
http://www.voteworldparliament.org/about/newsletter/

Thank you for your interest in a democratic world parliament.

Ted Stalets
Co-President
Vote World Parliament

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The WorldVoter
the newsletter of
Vote World Parliament
— democratic world parliament through a global referendum —

www.VoteWorldParliament.org
Vote World Parliament Co-Presidents are Ted Stalets and Bob French
www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com
This site, above, is for the VWP companion book, Rescue Plan for
Planet Earth

Issue #32, October, 2010
(This issue and all previous issues are posted at
http://voteworldparliament.org/about/newsletter/)

THE SCORE

As of October 15, 2010, 21,495 people have voted. So far, the votes
are 95.5% in favor of creating a democratic world parliament.

Quotes of the month

There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. Marshall
McLuhan

SPECIAL EDITION

Introducing the portable ballot for the global referendum
by
Ted Stalets, Co-President of Vote World Parliament
In the August, 2010 issue of The WorldVoter, I wrote: “Wouldn’t it be
great if we could take the ballot on the official website of the
referendum and allow other non-governmental organizations—or any
interested person with a website for that matter—to put the ballot on
their websites as well?”

Well, with this October 2010 issue of The WorldVoter, we are now
announcing the above capability to the world – in 53 different
languages. There are millions of non-governmental organizations whose
philosophical mindsets mesh well with the goal of a directly-elected,
representative and democratic world parliament that is authorized to
legislate on global issues. By allowing these organizations and
millions of others to host their own referendum “voting booths,” the
number of votes cast is expected to start advancing geometrically or
exponentially rather than the arithmetic advances that have been the
case since 2004.

For a sample of this new technology, go to www.LifeProfilesBooks.com
and click on the global referendum graphic link on the upper right of
the website. What happens next is a new technology that allows the
ballot to appear on the page, front and center. This is a live ballot
with direct linkage to the main database of votes at
VoteWorldParliament.org.

Accessing and installing the portable ballot.

Once you call up the ballot on the above website, you will notice at
the bottom of the ballot there is a link for “Click Here to put this
ballot on your website.” This link goes to http://voteworldparliament.org/shadowbox/getballot.html
which provides the simple code for your webmaster to insert the
portable ballot into your website. For best visibility of the graphic
link with your website visitors, please place the code towards the top
of your website’s home page. The ballot has been tested to work on the
top four Internet browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and
Safari. Once a person votes, the count advances for the local website
as well as the total count at Vote World Parliament. The ballot box
can then be closed by clicking the “X” on the top right. You will
notice 4 icons on the bottom of the ballot for Facebook, Twitter,
Linked-in and Blogger. The portable ballot installs in these
applications automatically.

Please note: If your webmaster has any problems installing the
portable ballot, they can email Ted Stalets at tsta...@bellsouth.net
(please allow 24 hours for response).

Internet evolution

We are now just passing through an Internet phase known as Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 has been all about freedom – you can pretty much say anything
you want and share it with whoever you want – think Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube. This social web we are in right now is in transition as
well – moving to Web 3.0. Just a brief overview of the evolution of
the Internet.

Web 1.0 – 1990 to 2000 – Websites were static – like online brochures
Web 2.0 – 2000 to 2010 – Websites were social – the users generated
the web’s content
Web 3.0 – 2010 to 2020 – Websites go mobile, go video, allow instant
collaboration, as the Internet becomes quite ubiquitous. (Here’s a
good overview of the evolution of the Internet from mid 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDYCf4ONh5M&feature=related.)

The ancient Chinese saying “may you live in interesting times” is upon
us. Starting now and throughout the second decade of this century, we
are in the midst of a new Web 3.0 revolution fueled by advancements in
both the Internet and technology. Today’s Internet contains an
unimaginable amount of information, and the size of social interaction
on the web has reached a colossal scale.

In the upcoming ten years, technology will evolve (think smartphones)
to the point where the world’s knowledge will be accessible and
available to everyone, unless censored by national governments (see
http://listverse.com/2010/10/02/top-10-countries-that-censor-the-internet/).
Governmental censorships will be short-lived, in my opinion. Some have
called the Internet the most powerful democratizing force ever.

As well, with smartphones now outpacing stationary desktop computers
and the whole Internet going mobile, voting on mobile/cell phones will
be extremely important during 2010 to 2020. The portable ballot will
mesh in with this new technology quite easily.

Political gravity

Prior to the Internet, successful politicians spent their days
reaching out to their old friends, being introduced to new ones,
making cold calls, speaking in front of groups and organizations—
activities to help grow their political organization. The social
aspects of today’s Internet (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) are
perfect for asking opinions and moving interested parties into
political organization groupings.

Many commentators believe that without Obama’s use of these networking
sites and the Internet in general, he would not have won the 2008
American election. Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The
Huffington Post (2008), an online blog site dedicated to news and
commentary, said: “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would
not be President. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not
have been the nominee.”

Through the Internet and social networking sites in particular, voters
are now able to intervene in political debate directly. With this
increased freedom of communication, the ability of thousands or even
millions of websites to host portable ballots for the global
referendum on a democratic world parliament is “interesting times.”
With the portable ballot technology, we are at the right place at the
right time, with the right message, and for the right reasons. The
portable ballot brings geometric growth to a movement that started six
years ago. We are counting on the membership of our newsletter to be
the original source of political gravity for this noble initiative.

Please remember, the Internet global referendum isn’t meant to do the
complete job, but it should gather enough momentum to get noticed by
national governments and other power centers such as corporations and
religions. Ideally, once they see that the human race has acquired the
ability to speak with a single voice, and is doing so on its own on
the issue of creating a democratic world parliament (especially if the
global referendum is passing at a percentage of 67% or higher), most
national governments will yield to the inevitable and agree to a UN
resolution that requires all national governments to conduct national
referendums using our ballot wording, and do this in conjunction with
national elections to take advantage of voter fraud protection systems
and to reduce costs. Yes, this will take a while, and yes there will
be holdout governments, but we will just continue on with our eyes on
the prize.

Out of the starting gate, and how you can help

We have a plan to sort of “kickstart” the portable ballot, but the
true assistance in helping the global referendum go viral will depend
upon interested people across the globe who long for a safer, more
just world. Below are the first efforts we have undertaken.

WATUN – One of Vote World Parliament’s earliest partners was the World
Alliance to Transform the United Nations. These 36+ organizations have
all pledged to support the global referendum via their individual web
presences.

VWP Authors’ Campaign – We will also be asking the 120+ authors
comprising the Vote World Parliament authors’ campaign to add the
portable ballot to their websites.

WANGO – We recently became a member of the World Alliance for Non-
Governmental Organizations, and we will be soliciting this huge list
of organizations for their assistance in installing the portable
ballot on their websites.

And others – We will approach trade unions, all religions,
professional groups, famous musicians and actors, and so on, and we
will not relent until we have either a completed global mandate or
until the process has been turned over to the UN for completion (the
draft UN resolution is at http://voteworldparliament.org/allies-initiatives/draft-un-resolution
).

Now, how can you help?

Perhaps you could write an article about the global referendum in
process. You are welcome to use material from the www.VoteWorldParliament.org
website. The link you can direct people to in order gather the code to
put the ballot on their websites is
http://voteworldparliament.org/shadowbox/getballot.html.
You can also make a video and upload it to YouTube. Another way you
can help make the portable ballot go viral is with social networking.
Use your current Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. accounts to post
your support of the global referendum.

The top 16 social networking sites are found here:
www.voteworldparliament.org/pdf/top-16-most-popular-social-networking-sites.pdf.

Is it worth it?

The board of Vote World Parliament, the member organizations of the
World Alliance to Transform the United Nations and the impressive
Authors List Campaign all believe that it is. Do you? If you say “Yes”
to the ballot and “Yes” to the initiative, please help a little every
day for the rest of your life, or until the job is done. We will make
history, and the children of the world will thank you for that.