[P2P-F] Crowd-funded research project: Mathematics of Direct Democracy

Sat Nov 5 22:16:30 CET 2011

That's great!  Thank you, Michel.

Chris: a blog post might look like this, depending on the length you 
want.  This is text copied from the rockethub page, with html links.  I 
can resend it in a different format if you prefer.

--
Mathematics of Direct Democracy

An experiment in crowd-funded research

http://rockethub.com/projects/3773-mathematics-of-direct-democracy

<embed the youtube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpBWZLCrtj8>

The social movements that have sprung up across the United States this 
fall, starting with the occupation of Wall Street, are clearly about 
occupying public space and articulating the concerns of "the 99%". But 
they're also fundamentally about making a new kind of democracy 
possible. From Spain's
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Spanish_protests" 
title="wikipedia:2011_Spanish_protests" class="extiw">Real Democracy 
movement</a>, and Greece's
<a 
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/15/greece-europe-outraged-protests" 
title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/15/greece-europe-outraged-protests" 
class="external text">
<em>dimokratia</em> movement</a>, to this fall's general assemblies on 
Wall Street, in Oakland, and around the world, thousands of people are 
using consensus-based democratic process to make decisions and solve 
day-to-day problems together in a way that ensures that everyone's voice 
counts.

As one organizer of the Wall Street demonstrations
<a 
href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/david-graeber-on-playing-by-the-rules-%E2%80%93-the-strange-success-of-occupy-wall-street.html" 
title="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/david-graeber-on-playing-by-the-rules-%E2%80%93-the-strange-success-of-occupy-wall-street.html" 
class="external text">documents</a>, the Wall Street occupation is 
directly inspired by the Spanish and Greek movements' emphasis on 
democratic practice. Commentator Douglas Rushkoff
<a 
href="http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/10/26/cnn-occupy-wall-street-is-not-a-protest-but-a-prototype.html" 
title="http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/10/26/cnn-occupy-wall-street-is-not-a-protest-but-a-prototype.html" 
class="external text">makes the same point</a>: the purpose of the 
occupations is to work on new, better ways to live together, and 
democratic consensus process - the process in use in the Occupy 
movement, as in many movements before it - may be its "killer app".

In the optimistic, exploratory spirit of this moment of possibility, I 
am working to develop quantitative models and simulations of consensus 
decision-making process. The purpose of this project is not to explain, 
capture, or predict the endless surprises and delights of human 
creativity and communication - that would be a fool's errand, and an 
insult to humans. Rather, it is to try to capture particular aspects of 
the process that seem important, and see what there is to learn from 
looking at them under the microscope of a self-contained model. Ideally, 
this exploration will lead to testable ideas about how to work together 
to make decisions in real life. As an aside, the models I am using are 
about people working together to find a solution to a shared problem, 
and so they are relevant to any number of situations, including 
workspaces and the scientific process.

The early phase of the project has already
<a 
href="http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/worden/index.php/Consensus_Project_Results" 
title="http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/worden/index.php/Consensus_Project_Results">produced 
some sensible predictions</a>, though they are somewhat obvious - for 
instance, it's harder to come to agreement in a larger group, because 
it's more likely there will be someone who disagrees; and it's easier to 
come to agreement when people have more in common. These results are 
like turning on the machine and making sure it runs - yes, it seems to 
be talking about the same process we are. Now it's time to fire it up 
and see what it can do! What can you do when there are really a lot of 
people, and just talking an idea over can take hours? When is it best to 
break into small groups and then rejoin? If there are really different 
opinions in the group, should similar people be in small groups together 
or should each group have the widest range possible? Should people speak 
in a particular order? What are the best strategies for finding a 
proposal that wins full approval? For doing it quickly?

This funding, if raised, will allow me to work on this problem full time 
for at least a month, including all research expenses. My current 
funding will be ending, so if the money is raised I will be free to 
focus on this project.

I am publishing all my work on this project on my publicly visible
<a href="http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/worden" 
title="http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/worden" class="external 
text">research wiki</a>
as it happens, including all data, software, and statistical analysis. I 
will continue to maintain this standard, so that all results will be 
immediately shared with the world. I welcome collaboration as well as 
contributions.

Here is a
<a 
href="http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/worden/index.php/Consensus_Proposal/Generic-3pp">more 
detailed research proposal</a>, for those who are interested.

Please consider <a 
href="http://rockethub.com/projects/3773-mathematics-of-direct-democracy">contributing 
a small or large amount</a> to this project, and pass on the link to 
others who may be interested.
--

Lee W

On 11/05/2011 10:21 AM, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> Dear Lee:
>
> I already added and tweeted:
>
> http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/profiles/blogs/crowdfunding-project-mathematics-of-direct-democracy
>
> if you want more, you can send a publishable text to Chris, in cc, who
> can publish it on our regular blog as well,
>
> good luck!!
>
> On Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Lee Worden <worden.lee at gmail.com
> <mailto:worden.lee at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Michel - great to meet you last month in Palo Alto!
>
>     My new project (below) might be suitable for your P2P blog - you saw
>     an earlier iteration on Google+ a few days back, but this is the
>     real thing.  The crowdfunding appeal is running from Nov 1 until Dec
>     15 or so.  I'm happy to help in any way I can.
>
>     Cheers!
>     Lee Worden
>
>
>     -------- Original Message --------
>     Subject: Crowd-funded research project: Mathematics of Direct Democracy
>     Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:01:30 -0700
>
>     Hello friends!
>
>     My current research project is now part of a forward-looking experiment
>     in public research funding.
>
>       Mathematics of Direct Democracy
>       Using mathematical models to study the possibilities of democratic
>       consensus decision making processes.
>
>     Consider contributing, offering suggestions, or becoming a collaborator:
>     http://rockethub.com/projects/__3773-mathematics-of-direct-__democracy
>     <http://rockethub.com/projects/3773-mathematics-of-direct-democracy>
>
>     Please pass on this email to anyone you know who may be interested.
>
>     Thanks!
>
>
>     Lee Worden
>
>     UC Berkeley
>     McMaster University
>     http://leeworden.net
>
>
>
>
> --
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>
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