Re: A Federated Social Web for Peace

My attendance is unconfirmed as yet, since I'm lacking funds for a plane
ticket, but here is my policy paper, which I hope will help deepen ideas
about what FSW can achieve. My original source of interest in
decentralised social software was the creation of a grassroots person to
person accreditation system (=internet gift economy), which seems to
have some connection with Markus' ideas on the empowerment of an
independent Global Civil Society. The creation of a scripting language
may seem like a long way round to such a goal - it has to me at times -
but I hope that you can see its potential.

Robin Upton
http://UnwelcomeGuests.net/551

On 11/05/11 16:45, Markus Sabadello wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> In my paper I'm arguing that the big vision of the Federated Social Web
> should be not just improved privacy and control, but the empowerment of an
> independent Global Civil Society that must control its own communication.
> I'm attaching the paper, in case you're interested.
>
> There's also an accompanying video: http://vimeo.com/23564585
>
> And here's the abstract:
> Closely linked to the ideal of peace, the concept of civil society has a
> long history as a
> third actor besides the state and the economy. It is a nonviolent “zone of
> civility” that
> can debate and address war and other problems. In today’s interconnected
> world we see
> the emergence of a “global civil society”, which transcends national borders
> and
> attempts to solve global challenges that established institutions fail to
> address. This
> global civil society is organized like a network, just like the global
> communication
> networks that produced it are also organized like a network. However, while
> popular
> social network services such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are often said
> to be
> powerful tools for peace and democracy, they are in fact highly centralized
> services
> operated by for-profit companies. For a global civil society to truly work,
> both the
> architectural structure and the governance mechanisms of its communication
> channels
> must be based on civil society principles itself. This paper argues that the
> main promise
> of the Federated Social Web – in addition to the obvious advantages of
> improved
> privacy, control and resistance to manipulation – will be a network
> structure that deep
> at its core resembles civil society and is therefore a powerful instrument
> for a more
> peaceful world.
>
> I also submitted another, shorter paper about Project Danube..
>
> Markus
>