CulturalEngineer

[culturalengineer]

Bailout Ballet: <i>New York Times</i> Reports on Hank Paulson/Pimco's Bill Gross Pas de Deux

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE IN THE ELECTRIC CITY? Are there characteristics of the public square that were present when representative governments first developed that have been lost? Do we need those characteristics? And how can the internet help? While the internet is making great leaps in opening up the system¦ there"s still a considerable ways to go¦ Re the questions above: YES, there are such characteristics and YES, we need them back in some form! The HOW is via technical compensations by enabling political MicroDonation and what might be called Electoral/Geographic Networking Facilitation (essentially through systems of scaled anonymity similar to dating sites) enhanced with various user-feedback systems. For theoretical background see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La0A2ueaYtg

[culturalengineer]

Fishing in Troubled Waters

CONSIDER THIS! From USA TODAY Editorial Sept 19, 2008: "Forget for a moment sophisticated financial explanations of what went wrong and look at the campaign score card: Among the nation's 100 top political donors since 1989 are 10 of the nation's biggest banks and investment firms. Their employees showered lawmakers, political parties and presidential candidates with $170 million... While the money flowed, financial institutions generally got what they wanted in Washington..." $170 Million dollars! A lot of money! And given over almost two decades... Citizens can't possibly compete with that! REALLY? WAKE UP AND THINK!!!! There's a POWER in SMALL money, LARGE numbers & Immediate Feedback that may not have occurred to you... POLITICAL MICRODONATION! http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com Proof of Concept: Chagora.com

[culturalengineer]

Let's All Take a Deep Breath

ON BACTERIA & POLITICS ¢ A colony of bacteria within a bound ecological system will inevitably exhaust the system supporting it without other balancing forces within that system. ¢ If such a bacterial colony actually had the intellect it could re-design itself to maintain a balance and so not succumb to the same natural drives which were so beneficial during one phase of development but at some point INEVITABLY become contra-survival forces. ¢ While it seems unlikely that bacteria will be thinking about these things, let alone take some action, it remains to be seen whether human groups will do any better. ¢ But human groups DO have an advantage¦ they have INDIVIDUALS who think! Groups do NOT think. ¢ Political and Financial systems are decision mechanisms for human groups. ¦ to be continued But the urge to comment here is to give a nod to the problem of channelling natural human drives through new systems of motivation so as to provide a more satisfactory solution for the eternal tension between the individual and the commons. It can be done... it just take some new paradigms.

[culturalengineer]

Call for Warren Buffet

A PERSPECTIVE ON FINANCIAL MARKET FEEDBACK LOOPS! Put simply.... All profits are not equal and this has not been sufficiently attended to. For instance, There is ZERO SUM Profit: If we each have $5 and we wager that on the flip of a coin. The result! One ends up with $10.... (a $5 profit) and the other has NOTHING. And there is PRODUCTIVE Profit: One person has $5... She takes it, buys some clay and tools, makes a clay pot and sells it to someone for $10. The result! One ends up with $10 (a five dollar profit) and the other has a CLAY POT! It is from the second type of profit that successful civilizations are built. What has happened on a world scale, and encouraged by either stupid or corrupt financial and political systems, is a failure to recognize the difference and to construct incentives to favor Productive Profit! This is an oversimplification and there is legitimate functionality for zero sum transactions in financial markets but that's for a longer discussion. I THINK Warren Buffet understands that... but I'd sure need to make sure... to his credit he's always looked at FUNDAMENTALS and HE DID WARN about the dangers of the unregulated, and soon to be found fraudulent DERIVATIVES MARKET.

[culturalengineer]

Brief HyTech Testimonial for their Great Work

[culturalengineer]

Chagora - Some talk on the basics and background

[culturalengineer]

A citizen's responsibility in an area is directly proportional to his ability to have an effect. Without improvement in mechanisms of meaningful involvement, we will see a continued growth in apathy, frustration and ultimately a resort to less healthy forms of expression.

Tom Crowl

[culturalengineer]

Building CHAGORA: A field of dreams? If we build it will they come?

 Whether a charity, candidate or cause Donor OR Recipient… Why would you choose CHAGORA? The answer for both of course is because… it’s a better way.

 There are certain constituencies which do well when brought together on the internet; eBay united the guys wanting to hold a garage sale with those wanting to go to one. And it created features like PayPal to facilitate that unification.

What will bring donors and recipients to Chagora?

For Donors:

· One-time sign-up for persisting account with multiple uses whether funded or not

· The MicroDonation capability especially when operating within a Live event and/or with others in group action

· Employer Connection – option through your employer to contribute something each month to Chagora Account

· Employer ability to match your charitable contributions per any agreement

· Unified accounting providing a single statement for all your charitable and political contributions both taxable and non-taxable

· Localization capabilities providing additional opportunities to locate and support LOCAL entities now disempowered

· The attraction of associated corporate coupons, sales, offers etc. available

For Recipients:

· There are approximately 30,000 non-profits created in the U.S. every year. Many of them are temporary (e.g. a candidate or fund for a memorial) and/or Local. Much like the little guy holding a garage sale (eBay) they will be greatly attracted by a central place to conduct their business.

· Smaller parties, candidates and charities (whether local or not) will also be advantaged by being able to operate on a larger field at a lower cost.

· Opportunities for parties, candidates and charities in conjunction with Live MicroDonation Events.

· Corporate sponsorships and linkages with unique and varied options.·        Better opportunities for locally oriented non-profits whether charity or political.

· It’s where the Donors are!

· Because of convenience, the ability to contribute in smaller amounts and its reach to those donors previously neglected, CHAGORA also results in more contributions overall both in numbers of contributors and total dollars.

The Synergies (No discussion of what builds Chagora can be complete without some discussion of the synergies.) Here are a few things to remember:

· If a User opens an account to contribute for ANY reason, he will easily understand that it’s to his advantage to do his next from the same place. And then the next, and the next… for life!

· In all Live Events recipients and media provide free advertising for Chagora

· Smaller candidates, causes and charities will be the biggest initial supporters… and the larger will have no choice but to follow

· Media love scores, polls and feedback… The MicroDonation Live Debate is a huge media magnet during political seasons.

· Corporate sponsorships are free advertising for Chagora.

· While it's own developing and persisting User base quickly facilitates its Electoral/Geographic networking this is greatly enhanced by the adoption of Google's OpenSocial standards.

[culturalengineer]

[culturalengineer]

If we assume that representative government arose and operates best under certain social conditions?

* What are those conditions? * What is the relationship of social networking opportunities to lines of motivation/influence between citizens and leaders? * What is the relationship of "MoneySpeech" to these lines of motivation? * How do networking opportunities aligned with various electoral populations relate to optimal conditions for self-government? * How might candidate selection and advancement be related to electorally-based networking opportunities? * How might candidate selection and advancement be related to MicroDonation and MoneySpeech? * Have networking opportunities between citizens and leaders changed over time? * How might "MicroDonation" act as a "proximity substitute" between citizens and leaders? * Are there natural forces that will draw donors and recipients to centralize online? * If donors and recipients centralize what are the risks and opportunites offered?

[culturalengineer]

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. - Doug Larson

Google Quotes of the Day

[culturalengineer]

Why Chagora?

Money/speech and non-partisan geographic/electoral networking facilitation

 The “Online Public Square” solution, as is often the case, came about by stumbling across the right question, not the right answer. The answer was easy. In this case, finding a FIXABLE “why.”·       

The FIXABLE “why” is: Why won’t the politicians listen?·

The FIXABLE “because” is: Because lines of true power are lost, blocked and/or impeded.

  Examining both the conditions under which the Public Square originally arose and how those may be translated so as to now create a vital Online Public Square one comes to the conclusion that there are two requirements:

A. Viable "Money/Speech"

 When the Supreme Court struck down certain legislative limitations on Campaign Finance Reform based on the concept that there is some equivalence between money and speech they are correct as regrettable as that may seem. Speech is very broad. It’s everything from a question, to a contribution… to a kick in the pants. And you know that where groups are smaller we find easier lines of communication between followers and leaders.

  What I’m calling MicroDonation refers to viable Money/Speech. It’s the capability to securely and near effortlessly contribute to legal candidates, causes (taxable to giver) and charities (tax free to giver) in ANY legal amount. In a sense so you can throw a quarter at a candidate as easily and painlessly as you could run into him or her on the street and give ‘em a piece of your mind when we lived in smaller communities.

This is a partial compensation for the loss of proximity which was essential in the development and sustainabiltiy of effective representative government.

The MicroDonation capability is an essential Proximity Substitute.

B. Electoral/Geographic Networking Facilitators

 We’re all getting fairly familiar with the whole new world of social networking! It’s a great thing… whether you’re a skateboarder, a musician, a religious follower or a nudist… you can find your group.Facilitating attractive and secure ways for you to connect with neighbors within each of the multiplicity of electoral districts to which you belong is essential for a viable Online Public Square.

  It is also essential to provide tools to assist citizens, candidates and groups within local communities who can then sustain themselves with local support?

  The self-government ethic, like charity, really DOES begin at home. And the breakdown on this level permeates up through the system. Effective local systems of opinion, power and motivation are REQUIREMENTS for good system operation on broader levels.

 This is a compensation for the changes in scale which have limited effective citizen participation on the local level.

The Electoral/Geographic Social Networking Capability is an essential Localization Facilitator.

[culturalengineer]

Impossible! They'll never get along...

[culturalengineer]

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. - Paul Valery (Sadly that's what it sometime seems it's become)

[culturalengineer]

Know Any Angels?

[culturalengineer]

BLOG: http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com