Brain Parade Hi Tech Democracy
Jose Garcia, from Meme Therapy, Life From a Science Fiction Point of View, is kicking off a week of technology and politics oriented Brain Parades and interviews with this question:
Information technology seems to have dramatic potential to revolutionize democracy. Putting aside these visions for a moment what do you see as the current bleeding edge of progress, or potential progress, in this area?
Among his group of fascinating commentators is P2P Foundation’s own Michel Bauwens, whose comments (and likeness) follow:
Michel Bauwens:
I do not think there is one bleeding edge. Rather any technology which creates more distribution in resources, physical, informational, financial, is needed to strengthen peer production. Web 2.0 itself, as the creation of an architecture of participation, is pretty crucial and far from finished. I think we need systems that do not just rely on the wisdom of crowds, but allow for excellence and participation to flourish together, so that we do not get just lowest common denominator results. We need to insure that the new forms of social or algorhythmic selection (respectively a la Wikipedia and a la Google) do not create new entrenched elites, but remain flexible and changeable according to need. Finally, we need a lot of tools, technological and human (facilitation tools), to enhance transparent collaborative processes, and we need better institutional and legal tools. Conclusion: there is no magic wand, but continuous construction of the new participative world.
Michel Bauwens is a Belgian integral philosopher, Peer-to-Peer theorist and the driving force behind the P2P Foundation.
