Big Ideas That Changed The World : Democracy-Tony Benn (2/5)

Posted by admin on Jan 31, 2010 in World Democracy Online | 21 comments

Tony Benn discusses the history of democracy, how it has been undermined and how it can be won again.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Blank State – The Future of World Democracy?

Posted by admin on Jan 25, 2010 in World Democracy Online | 0 comments

Blank State – The Future of World Democracy?

A new project that aims to create a global democracy from scratch has settled on its first goal: to gather at least one member from every country in the world. Blank State, as the group is known, has been founded on a single core principle: democracy. The members collectively decide the goals and structure of the group through discussion and voting. Membership is free and open to all world citizens.

According to the founder, Duncan Rickelton, a democratic structure to represent the people of the world is long overdue: “The people of the world currently do not have a voice. The massive forces at play in today’s global economy are touching more and more lives and determining the future of the planet and the human race. It’s time the race as a whole had more of a say in how this goes.”

Only with fairly recent developments in technology has something like Blank State become possible. Over 23 percent of the world’s population now have internet access, representing an increase of 350 percent since 2000. Also, the popularisation of web 2.0 applications such as embeddable voting widgets is now making it easier than ever to collectivise the decision-making process of large organizations. Blank State is based in a social network (http://blankstate.ning.com) built on the Ning.com platform, which was itself only founded in 2005.

There are already members from eight different countries, but Blank State wants to go much further. The group recently decided to make it their first goal to get at least one member from every country in the world. “This will be our first step towards fair representation,” says Rickelton. “Once we’ve achieved that we’ll see where everyone wants to take this.”

Despite the growth in internet use, engaging a member in every country could be quite a challenge. In Myanmar, for example, still only 0.1 percent of the population has access. But the members of Blank State are undeterred. A message has already been posted in a Myanmar forum – there is still an internet audience of 40,000 people to reach.

A notable inclusion in the list of 195 target countries is the Vatican City. There is as yet no word as to whether the Pope will be invited to join, but with such an inclusive membership policy there is little doubt that he would be welcome.

For additional information about Blank State visit http://blankstate.ning.com 

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