5 Essential Skills For Community Organising In An Online World
“What’s MailChimp?” my friend asked. Good question. And there were others, “what’s a CSV?”
We are living through a technological revolution where the tools to community organise are freely available and are ‘force mulitpliers’ for all.
If you have the new skills to access the goodies.
Everybody’s favourite community organiser, Barack Obama, won elections with some pretty powerful tools, used well, but you don’t need Blue State Digital in your corner to campaign and win.
Has Bitcoin Decoupled The Sovereign From The Fiat?
Bitcoin may be redefining the Fiat. No, not the car, but the thing in your wallet: money.
Before I get to Bitcoin being a Fiat, let’s talk about the Sovereign Fiat first.
The filthy lucre in your wallet or purse is actually a lot more complex than you realise. The Gold Standard may be dead, but countries still back the money they print. Just not with anything as directly tangible as Gold. Governments are the new gold.
Labor Leaders: Don’t Let Them Define You
Leaders like to define things, and they really like to define their organisations. This is fine when we are talking Steve Jobs and Apple, but not when we are talking about the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
The ALP is not a corporation that sells the Jesus Phone, it is a living organism made up of tens-of-thousands of people across Australia. It is a movement.
Switching Your Online Identity Is A Pain. And It Shouldn’t Be.
I live a lot of my life in the Google Eco-system and I recently switched to Google Apps, and some very high-technology companies aren’t ok with it. Including Google.
I had a Google+, Flickr, Xbox and YouTube account all linked to my old email address. Seems fine right? Nope.
Google+ will let you migrate your account. But only your circles. NOT your posts, +1’s or comments. Say Wha? Yeah all that stuff you shared on your account - Gone.
E-Voting Needs To Be More Transparent
Many forms of e-voting are not transparent. Not by a long shot. And they should be.
In our rush for all things shiny and new in this technological revolution we are living through, we are abandoning our voting values.
Private companies are very keen on the business of e-voting (including online), as you can literally set your clock to an election. Factor in state, local, union and so on, and the need for shiny new technology is high.
Read this great article from Ars Technica about some of the different forms e-voting is taking on around the world.
I have written previously about how digital money needs to have the same values as offline money. And voting is no different.
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