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Romanian Political Science Review Vol. XXI, No. 1 2021
Romanian Political Science Review vol. XXI, no. 1 2021 The end of the Cold War, and the extinction of communism both as an ideology and a practice of government, not only have made possible an unparalleled experiment in building a democratic order in Central and Eastern Europe, but have opened up a most extraordinary intellectual opportunity: to understand, compare and eventually appraise what had previously been neither understandable nor comparable. Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review was established in the realization that the problems and concerns of both new and old democracies are beginning to converge. The journal fosters the work of the first generations of Romanian political scientists permeated by a sense of critical engagement with European and American intellectual and political traditions that inspired and explained the modern notions of democracy, pluralism, political liberty, individual freedom, and civil rights. Believing that ideas do matter, the Editors share a common commitment as intellectuals and scholars to try to shed light on the major political problems facing Romania, a country that has recently undergone unprecedented political and social changes. They think of Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review as a challenge and a mandate to be involved in scholarly issues of fundamental importance, related not only to the democratization of Romanian polity and politics, to the “great transformation” that is taking place in Central and Eastern Europe, but also to the make-over of the assumptions and prospects of their discipline. They hope to be joined in by those scholars in other countries who feel that the demise of communism calls for a new political science able to reassess the very foundations of democratic ideals and procedures. -
The Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Democracy
The Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Democracy Paul Gölz Anson Kahng Simon Mackenzie Ariel D. Procaccia Abstract Liquid democracy is the principle of making collective decisions by letting agents transitively delegate their votes. Despite its significant appeal, it has become apparent that a weakness of liquid democracy is that a small subset of agents may gain massive influence. To address this, we propose to change the current practice by allowing agents to specify multiple delegation options instead of just one. Much like in nature, where — fluid mechanics teaches us — liquid maintains an equal level in connected vessels, so do we seek to control the flow of votes in a way that balances influence as much as possible. Specifically, we analyze the problem of choosing delegations to approximately minimize the maximum number of votes entrusted to any agent, by drawing connections to the literature on confluent flow. We also introduce a random graph model for liquid democracy, and use it to demonstrate the benefits of our approach both theoretically and empirically. 1 Introduction Liquid democracy is a potentially disruptive approach to democratic decision making. As in direct democracy, agents can vote on every issue by themselves. Alternatively, however, agents may delegate their vote, i.e., entrust it to any other agent who then votes on their behalf. Delegations are transitive; for example, if agents 2 and 3 delegate their votes to 1, and agent 4 delegates her vote to 3, then agent 1 would vote with the weight of all four agents, including herself. Just like representative democracy, this system allows for separation of labor, but provides for stronger accountability: Each delegator is connected to her transitive delegate by a path of personal trust relationships, and each delegator on this path can withdraw her delegation at any time if she disagrees with her delegate’s choices. -
Interactive Democracy Blue Sky Ideas Track
Session 29: Blue Sky AAMAS 2018, July 10-15, 2018, Stockholm, Sweden Interactive Democracy Blue Sky Ideas Track Markus Brill TU Berlin Berlin, Germany [email protected] ABSTRACT approached this question by developing an app, DemocracyOS [48], Interactive Democracy is an umbrella term that encompasses a va- that allows users to propose, debate, and vote on issues. Democ- riety of approaches to make collective decision making processes racyOS is only one example of a quickly growing number of ap- more engaging and responsive. A common goal of these approaches proaches that aim to reconcile established democratic processes is to utilize modern information technology—in particular, the with the desire of citizens to participate in political decision mak- 1 Internet—in order to enable more interactive decision making pro- ing. Another example is the software LiquidFeedback [6], which is 2 cesses. An integral part of many interactive democracy proposals developed by the Association for Interactive Democracy. Currently, are online decision platforms that provide much more flexibility these tools are mainly used for decision making within progressive and interaction possibilities than traditional democratic systems. political parties [9, p. 162] or in the context of community engage- This is achieved by embracing the novel paradigm of delegative ment platforms such as WeGovNow [10]. A common goal of these voting, often referred to as liquid democracy, which aims to recon- approaches, often summarized under the umbrella term Interac- 3 cile the idealistic appeal of direct democracy with the practicality tive Democracy (henceforth ID), is to utilize modern information of representative democracy. The successful design of interactive technology—in particular, the Internet—in order to enable more democracy systems presents a multidisciplinary research challenge; interactive decision making processes. -
The Syntheist Movement and Creating God in the Internet Age
1 I Sing the Body Electric: The Syntheist Movement and Creating God in the Internet Age Melodi H. Dincer Senior Thesis Brown University Department of Religious Studies Adviser: Paul Nahme Second Reader: Daniel Vaca Providence, Rhode Island April 15, 20 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments. 3 Introduction: Making the Internet Holy. .4 Chapter (1) A Technophilic Genealogy: Piracy and Syntheism as Cybernetic Offspring. .12 Chapter (2) The Atheist Theology of Syntheism . 49 Chapter (3) Enacted Syntheisms: An Ethics of Active Virtuality and Virtual Activity. 96 (In)Conclusions. 138 Works Cited. 144 3 Acknowledgments I would briefly like to thank anyone who has had a hand—actually, even the slightest brush of a finger in making this project materialize outside of the confines of my own brain matter. I would first like to thank Kerri Heffernan and my Royce Fellowship cohort for supporting my initial research on the Church of Kopimism. My time in Berlin and Stockholm on behalf of the Royce made an indelible mark on my entire academic career thus far, without which this thesis would definitely not be as out-of-the-box as it is proud to be. I would also like to thank a few professors in the Religious Studies department who, whether they were aware of it or not, encouraged my confidence in this area of study and shaped how I approached the religious communities this project concerns. Specifically, thank you to Prof. Denzey-Lewis, who taught my first religious studies course at Brown and graciously sponsored my Royce research amidst her own travels. Also, infinite thanks and blessings to Fannie Bialek, who so deftly modeled all that is good in this discipline, and all that is most noble in the often confusing, frustrating, and stressful task of teaching “hard” topics. -
Experimenting Liquidfeedback for Online Deliberation in Civic Contexts
Experimenting LiquidFeedback for Online Deliberation in Civic Contexts Fiorella De Cindio and Stefano Stortone Department of Computer Science, University of Milano Via Comelico 39/41, 20135 Milano {fiorella.decindio,stefano.stortone}@unimi.it Abstract. The growing distrust in political institutions is accompanied by new opportunities for civic involvement through online technological platforms. LiquidFeedback is one of the most interesting, as it embeds innovative features to support online deliberative processes. This software has been designed as an intranet tool for closed and homogeneous groups but it has also recently been used in large civic context, involving generic citizens. Aim of the paper is discussing the potential of LiquidFeedback for these purposes, by presenting the preliminary analysis of the “ProposteAmbrosoli2013” initiative carried on, in occasion of the recent elections in the Lombardy region (Italy). Keywords: LiquidFeedback, online deliberation, democracy, civic participation. 1 Introduction The “endless” crisis of the western models of economy and democracy imposes a renewed effort to imagine and develop new forms of civic engagement (see for instance [13]). The persistent demands coming from the civil society organizations as well as from international organizations [4, 2] find more and more the concrete support of the ICTs. New software tools have been developed to facilitate knowledge sharing and the organization of new practices of crowdsourcing and collaboration. These tools are already being used by public bodies for opening government (see, e.g., [11]) and by the emerging grassroots organizations [3], to build up consultative and deliberative processes. One of the most popular software tools for idea gathering is Ideascale (ideascale.com), already adopted in 2008 to support President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, and afterward widely used worldwide. -
The Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Democracy
The Fluid Mechanics of Liquid Democracy Paul Gölz Anson Kahng Simon Mackenzie Ariel D. Procaccia Abstract Liquid democracy is the principle of making collective decisions by letting agents transitively delegate their votes. Despite its significant appeal, it has become apparent that a weakness of liquid democracy is that a small subset of agents may gain massive influence. To address this, we propose to change the current practice by allowing agents to specify multiple delegation options instead of just one. Much like in nature, where — fluid mechanics teaches us — liquid maintains an equal level in connected vessels, so do we seek to control the flow of votes in a way that balances influence as much as possible. Specifically, we analyze the problem of choosing delegations to approximately minimize the maximum number of votes entrusted to any agent, by drawing connections to the literature on confluent flow. We also introduce a random graph model for liquid democracy, and use it to demonstrate the benefits of our approach both theoretically and empirically. 1 Introduction Liquid democracy is a potentially disruptive approach to democratic decision making. As in direct democracy, agents can vote on every issue by themselves. Alternatively, however, agents may delegate their vote, i.e., entrust it to any other agent who then votes on their behalf. Delegations are transitive; for example, if agents 2 and 3 delegate their votes to 1, and agent 4 delegates her vote to 3, then agent 1 would vote with the weight of all four agents, including herself. Just like representative democracy, this system allows for separation of labor, but provides for stronger accountability: Each delegator is connected to her transitive delegate by a path of personal trust relationships, and each delegator on this path can withdraw her delegation at any time if she disagrees with her delegate’s choices. -
Liquidfeedback in Large-Scale Civic Contexts: Framing Multiple Styles of Online Participation
Journal of LiquidFeedback in Large- scale Civic Contexts: Framing Social Multiple Styles of Online Media for Participation Giulia Bertone, Fiorella De Cindio, Organizations Stefano Stortone Volume 2, Number 1 Published by the MITRE Corporation Journal of Social Media for Organizations ____________________________________________________________________________________________ LiquidFeedback in Large-scale Civic Contexts: Framing Multiple Styles of Online Participation Giulia Bertone, [email protected] Fiorella De Cindio, [email protected] Stefano Stortone, [email protected] ABSTRACT Growing distrust in government is accompanied by new opportunities for civic involvement through online technological platforms. LiquidFeedback is one of the most interesting, as it embeds innovative features to support online deliberative processes. Designed as an intranet tool for closed, homogeneous groups, the software has also been used in large civic contexts involving citizens at large. This paper presents and analyses two large-scale deliberation projects where thousands of Italian citizens used the LiquidFeedback platform. The analysis aims to understand how well this software serves as a platform for people to gather ideas, draft proposals collaboratively, and then rate them by degree of consensus. We consider the political context for these field cases and their socio-technical design choices, look at how LiquidFeedback enables citizen participation, discuss politicians’ accountability in terms of online activity, and report participants’ assessment of the two projects. Our analysis adapts existing frameworks that match different participation styles to profiles of activity in online communities. KEYWORDS LiquidFeedback, large-scale ideation and deliberation, online deliberation, democracy, civic participation. INTRODUCTION Manuel Castells, the well-known sociologist and author of The Rise of the Network Society (Castells, 1996), recently studied protest movements worldwide that arose in the wake of dramatic economic crisis. -
Revisiting the Purpose of the Copyright Monopoly: Science and the Useful Arts
Revisiting The Purpose Of The Copyright Monopoly: Science And The Useful Arts Rick Falkvinge December 2, 2012 If there’s one thing that needs constant reminding, it’s the explicit purpose of the copyright monopoly. Its purpose is to promote the progress of human knowledge. Nothing less. Nothing more. While the copyright monopoly has many different origins that have come together under this umbrella of hodgepodge different monopolies, few copyright monopoly laws are as clear on its purpose as the one in the United States of America. In its Constitution, we read the following: [Congress has the power] to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. This passage is notable for a number of different things. We begin by noting it says that Congress has the power, and not the obligation, to create this monopoly. Thus, the US Congress could abolish the monopoly tomorrow if there was political will. Those who claim that the copyright monopoly is “constitutionally guaranteed” are simply wrong. One hundred percent, 180 degrees wrong. Second, we should make careful note of its language. This passage enables the US Congress to make two kinds of monopolies: copyright monopolies and patent monopolies, respectively. Science and the useful arts. The “science” part refers to the copyright monopoly, and the “useful arts” has nothing to do with creative works – it is “arts” in the same sense as “artisan”, that is, craftsmanship. So let’s start looking at what is not in this passage. -
World Policy Journal
World Policy Journal http://wpj.sagepub.com/ The Big Question: What should governments keep secret? George O. Liber, Dieter Dettke, Frank Vogl, Maximilian C. Forte, Rick Falkvinge, Nada Alwadi, Chong Ja Ian and Adil Najam World Policy Journal 2013 30: 3 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506373 The online version of this article can be found at: http://wpj.sagepub.com/content/30/3/3 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: World Policy Institute Additional services and information for World Policy Journal can be found at: Email Alerts: http://wpj.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://wpj.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> Version of Record - Sep 23, 2013 What is This? Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 THE BIG QUESTION THE BIG QUESTION Secrecy WHAT SHOULD GOVERNMENTS KEEP SECRET? FEATURING ith secrecy a daily preoccu- GEORGE O. LIBER pation of governments who DIETER DETTKE Wroutinely weigh security FRANK VOGL concerns over disclosure of covert opera- MAXIMILIAN C. FORTE tions, the balance of these two priorities RICK FALKVINGE becomes an ever more pressing national NADA ALWADI debate. We asked our panel of global ex- CHONG JA IAN perts what, if anything, they believe gov- ADIL NAJAM ernments should or must keep secret. LOTUS CARROLL FALL 2013 3 Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 THE BIG QUESTION LIVING IN A SECRET WORLD more public information on terrorists and GEORGE O. LIBER terrorist organizations might be useful in All governments engage in furtive behavior the battle for the hearts and minds. -
Copyright Culture and Pirate Politics
Copyright Culture and Pirate Politics Martin Fredriksson Linköping University Post Print N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original article. This is an electronic version of an article published in: Martin Fredriksson, Copyright Culture and Pirate Politics, 2014, Cultural Studies, (28), 5-6, 1022-1047. Cultural Studies is available online at informaworldTM: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2014.886483 Copyright: Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles http://www.routledge.com/ Postprint available at: Linköping University Electronic Press http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-105269 Copyright Culture and Pirate Politics Martin Fredriksson Linköping University Sweden martin.fredriksson@liu +1 857 207 7112 / +46 732039092 Abstract This article approaches the recent debates about copyright and piracy from a cultural and historical perspective, discussing how of the problems surrounding intellectual property rights reflect cultural conflicts that are central to cultural studies. It sets out with a study of how international copyright norms developed in nineteenth-century Europe and were implemented in two different national contexts: Sweden and USA. This historical background shows how copyright has been embedded in the cultural history of Europe and intertwined with the idea of an evolving Western civilization. The examples from the past are thus used to highlight the underlying cultural implications that affect the contemporary discussions. Particular interest is paid to how the historical association between the spread of copyright and the development of civilization has affected the understanding of Asian piracy and Western file sharing today, and how a multitude of social movements both in the West and the third world simultaneously challenge the cultural legitimacy of the current system of intellectual property rights. -
A Contribution to the Critique of Liquid Democracy
Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-19) A Contribution to the Critique of Liquid Democracy Ioannis Caragiannis1 and Evi Micha2 1University of Patras, Greece 2University of Toronto, Canada [email protected], [email protected] Abstract zen has the right to vote for every given issue. However, there might be issues for which a citizen does not feel comfortable Liquid democracy, which combines features of di- to vote; here, liquid democracy exploits the main advantage rect and representative democracy has been pro- of representative democracy. A citizen may delegate her vote posed as a modern practice for collective decision to another citizen who is believed to be more informed about making. Its advocates support that by allowing vot- the given issue. A citizen may collect many delegations and ers to delegate their vote to more informed voters can either vote on their behalf or transfer all these delegations can result in better decisions. In an attempt to eval- together with her right to vote to another citizen, and so on. uate the validity of such claims, we study liquid A vote has a weight indicating the total number of voters it democracy as a means to discover an underlying represents. Even though the setting does not constrain the ground truth. We revisit a recent model by Kahng et kind of voting rules that can be used to decide the election [ ] al. 2018 and conclude with three negative results, outcome, weighted majority is the usual practice. criticizing an important assumption of their model- ing, as well as liquid democracy more generally. -
Concept-Driven Design for Democracy: Advancing Co-Creative Media to Support Citizen Participation and Democratic Engagement
JeDEM 10(1): 23-49, 2018 ISSN 2075-9517 http://www.jedem.org Concept-driven Design for Democracy: Advancing Co-creative Media to Support Citizen Participation and Democratic Engagement Montathar Faraon Department of Design, Kristianstad University, S-291 88, Kristianstad, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This article expounds on a concept of co-creative media that aims to support the democratic engagement of citizens by facilitating participatory and co-creative processes. The research is based on a concept-driven design approach to theoretically underpin and empirically inform the concept. This was accomplished by adopting theoretical resources from the frame- work of actor-network theory (ANT), identifying criteria from an analysis of existing socio- technical systems for democratic engagement, and building on the results of four research stud- ies. The main contribution of the article, namely the concept of co-creative media, could serve as a basis for further theoretical reflections and a point of departure for supporting future par- ticipatory design processes in which relevant stakeholders collectively contribute to the imple- mentation and evaluation of co-creative media. Co-creative media have the potential to broad- en citizens’ democratic engagement through creating virtual spaces in which new ideas, initia- tives, knowledge, and solutions could emerge. Keywords: co-creative media, democracy, actor-network theory, concept-driven design, socio- technical systems Acknowledgement: The author thanks Victor Villavicencio for his help with the illustrations. 1. Introduction Democracy has gone through a transition period of growth since the mid-1970s, with 30 percent of nations fulfilled the criteria of electoral democracy.