you say Ohhh we say BAMA - what a great celebration

this was the most emotional and uplifting democratic experience ever - and i wasn't even able to vote ;-) No but really, i have never experienced anything similar - masses of people celebrating, taking over the streets - a stereo and a DJ emerged from nowhere and smiling faces all over...WOW i am really proud of this new generation of americans, i am so happy this country which has so many great people and that has so much power is reigned again by someone who is really smart and whats even more important who spreads hope and the spirit of optimism around the world - let's go and make this planet a better place - Yes we can.

Larry Lessig for Congress

I just learned that Lawrence Lessig is considering to run for a seat in US congress and i call upon everybody to support his candidacy and help build the grassroots movement he proposes is necessary to CHANGE the way Washington works.

On the website http://lessig08.org/ there is a really good presentation about his stance & plans.

Exchange of arguments & reaching decisions online

I guess most of us agree that the online tool (mailing list) and practices we have to have a share information and opinion are rather good but they are producing information overload. However compared to traditional discourse's location and time constrains there is an improvement in inclusiveness.

Partially as a result of the information overload however, our tool is rather poor for the important practice to collectively take a decision and to have a controvesial exchange of arguments.

Allow me to point your attention to http://grass-arena.net = Group Report Authoring Support System

"The purpose of the GRASS project is to develop an arena for credible societal discourse. Its aim is to produce concise group reports that give their readers an uptodate and credible overview of the positions of various stakeholders on a particular issue. As such, these reports can play an important role in consensus assessment and catalyzing societal conflict resolution."

The system
- gives an index (overview) page including the current state of the decision in question via pro/contra/neutral positions
- structures the exchange of arguments which significantly improves clarity and density
- transparently shows the activities of users

I dont think this system is the short-term solution but it is an indication as to what we will hopefully have sometime down the road.


PS: GRASS seems to be discontinued - If anybody knows a similar system i would be very interested to learn about it!

Die kanzlerin besser als erwartet

Angela Merkel war nicht meine kandidatin der letzten wahl. Ja ich muss gestehen dass ich ihrgegenueber zunaechst recht negativ eingestellt war. Aber man muss sagen, sie ist bis jetzt noch fuer nichts was ich als eine skandaloese fehlentwicklung nennen wuerde verantwortlich. Im gegenteil ich stimme dem autor des spiegel artikels "Staunen dreimal" ,den ich hiermit empfehlen moechte, in grossen zuegen zu. Speziell aussenpolitisch bewegt sie sich geschickt und was er ueber die intelligente gestalltung der transatlantischen politik schreibt macht hoffnung.