Wikiocracy
The Manifesto:
We live in an age of technology, that is becoming increasingly accessible, intuitive and exciting. People are excited by touch screen or no touch screen technologies, they want to interact and play with them.
People also, enjoy interacting with others and their community - look at the success of Facebook. More specifically, look at the popularity of polls and vote systems on Facebook.
We have a generation of people keen to vote on pirates vs ninja's yet un-willing to go to a polling station and vote on the future of our governance.
Voter apathy is large and only increasing, trust in politicians and civil servants has bottomed out due to lies, corruption, embezzlement and greed.
The dirty deals done behind closed doors anger the public enough, that a lack of recourse results in them turning their backs on the whole political farce.
Removing voter apathy and giving the public a sense of control again is key to a healthy country and governance.
Transparency is key.
Without it, this is just another cycle of the revolution, round and round the wheel spins.
I propose an entirely open source, majority rules, democracy.
Everything is voted on. By everybody (or whoever is interested) and the majority of votes cast win.
The success of wikipedia astounds me. The way the wiki works, is everybody can change anything. A new edit is highlighted in red. If enough moderators approve the change, it becomes permanent (until the next change) the moderators are people that believe so much in an open source compendium of information, that they spend hours of their un-paid time 'policing' Wikipedia and making sure it continues to thrive.
People believe in the idea they are in control of that information - that they can make a difference to the world.
I propose a system that links into all existing social media, that references Wikipedia and popular lectures, and talks such as T.E.D. When something needs to be decided, a question is available online and in shops, social clubs, libraries on touch screen tablets or smart phones, the question, as phrased by the submitter, and edited by anyone who thinks they can improve it, is then cast to the country to vote upon it - the question can reference unlimited pro arguments and con arguments, ranked in popularity order, to inform their decision. Whoever opts in to vote on the choice is calculated with the masses. And the majority win.
Democracy. The first ever seen.
Each decision needs a bedding in period of say two years (final period to be decided by everybody) to ensure they are not changed so rapidly as to never accurately judge the effect.
The site, the apps, and the interface is open source. Nothing is hidden from anybody and this is essential to gain the trust of everyone, transparency throughout every level of the system, coders can submit improvements to the system which are voted on by other interested parties to continually reduce security risks and to maintain a smooth operation.
User interfaces can be designed by anyone interested to do so, in the form of say CSS which the user can apply to their ui and experience the system in their most comfortable way.
All taxation goes to a central pot, the exact figure of which is known to everyone, and this figure is then Divided, by everyone, into the best operation (for everyone) of the country.
The metering out of the decisions and the spending of the money is either controlled electronically or through such bodies as a jury duty.
Removing permanent positions and corruption tempting ideas of power.
With all public institutions governed in the same way. The NHS, schooling, benefits - all tax paid operations are transparent to be scrutinised by everyone, the best accounting minds in the country can assess the expenditure of their taxes during their free time and bring a little private sense into a government "free money" mentality.
With everything open to scrutiny and improvement, integrity will become part of the system where corruption ruled before.
Anything damaging to the most people, will be acted against, and much quicker than any other system. Once the decision is made, it can go into effect immediately. Digital policy can change instantly and be adopted on the spot. With a vote by everyone as to a grace period for people to come up to speed with the change in legislation.
Personally, I don't trust people. However, I trust everybody to do what is best for the most people more than I trust one person to do what is best for us all.
This very article is one of the first examples of this system in operation. The article is available to all, online. The format is a Wiki, meaning anything can be changed and when done so, is highlighted in red for all to see and accept or decline. It is a constantly evolving and refining document much like future referendum would be, being refined by all who interact with it until it is optimum. Then, If the idea has enough supporters - it can be adopted. This is just the beginning.
