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| Firstly an introduction MUSINGS OTHER PEOPLE'S ESSAYS |
19jan1999
OpenSourcing the Third Way
We need to have a collaborative effort to develop a new philosophy and a new way to run our lives. There _are_ enough intelligent people out there, and by working together we could make sensible rational decisions on the issues of the day. This would be like the UseNet groups, only more powerful.
The first thing that needs to be done is a good discussion group. The discussion board should not be elitist, should not place limits - but it should be easy to find information out of it and evolve solutions. Think about a combination between
http://discuss.scripting.com http://www.slashdot.org http://www.number-10.gov.uk
but we need to evolve a better system. (oh, think about mozilla.org too.)
This is how I see it going: I put out a document saying we need to find a better way of running the country. Over a discussion we gradually break this down into discussable points (like Welfare, Second Chamber, Morality, or whatever). We can then do similar exercises for each of these points. At some point we need a definition of the Third Way so we ask people to chip in what they know, and ask someone else to put everything together. The article is posted, and people look at it again to annotate it. A revised version can again be put up. This process never stops, but eventually articles aren't annotated as much as they used to be.
I suppose what I'm saying is an RFC ( = Request For Comments) system like the way the internet is (was?) governed, coupled with a Discussion Group system that isn't just a linear discussion but evolves towards an idea over time.
Hmm, this isn't easy. What we need is a Linus Torvalds character to take over. Open sourcing life-philosophy? Perhaps it can be done.