You can call me Bobby, I run a little site called Thinksquad. I have an associates degree in industrial design from the Art Institute of Seattle. A bachelors of arts from the University of Washington, and graduated with a double major in philosophy and political science from Rutgers University. I also spent 10 years in the Air Force from 1994-2004, having spent five tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. I am now a strong advocate of the non-aggression principles, voluntaryism and peaceful parenting.
I believe in anarchism without adjectives, because no one really knows what will work best until we have the chance to try. Local communities should be free to try any non-coercive system, and residents should be able to move somewhere else if they don’t like the way things are going. Through solidarity, competition, and sharing of information eventually a system of social organization would evolve that will be superior to anything that we could imagine today. And even if we were right, we’d only be guessing without going through that process.
STORE / Personal Facebook / Twitter / Personal Tumblr / Facebook / Thinksquad's Blog / Bobby and Family / Ask Thinksquad
-
Icelanders Approve Crowdsourced Constitution
Social media has proven successful in giving Iceland’s citizens a key to the government: For the past year, the country has used Twitter, Facebook and other sites to crowdsource provisions to its new constitution, and Icelanders seem happy with the final result.
Saturday, Iceland held a referendum asking voters if they agreed to using the crowdsourced document as the frame for the new constitution — 66% voted yes. Half of Iceland’s 235,000 eligible voters took part in the referendum, according to reports.
After the 2008 financial crisis put an end to Iceland’s banking system and previous government, the country’s original constitution — created in 1944 — was deemed antiquated. The country named 25 citizens as a Constitutional Council and were asked to help create the new governing document.
The council took to the Internet to raise ideas and provisions from the public. A first draft was made available online in April 2011 and citizens could comment through a Facebook page. The council also remained open about decision-making posting status updates to Twitter and videos on YouTube.
The document still must pass through the parliament where it will seek official sanctioning (to be finalized by the spring 2013). Nonetheless, the social media efforts of the public injected a strong dose of transparency to the constitutional process.
Do you think crowdsourcing government policies is a process every country should adapt?
