Extreme Democracy


Via JoiIto, a blogsite for discussion (and evolution) of the Extreme Democracy book by Jon Lebkowsky and Mitch Ratcliffe - "about the online activism of the past 18 months and what it means for politics generally."

"Extreme democracy" is a political philosophy of the information era that puts people in charge of the entire political process. It suggests a deliberative process that places total confidence in the people, opening the policy-making process to many centers of power through deeply networked coalitions that can be organized around local, national and international issues. The choice of the word "extreme" reflects the lessons of the extreme programming movement in technology that has allowed small teams to make rapid progress on complex projects through concentrated projects that yield results far greater than previous labor-intensive programming practices. Extreme democracy emphasizes the importance of tools designed to break down barriers to collaboration and access to power, acknowledging that political realities can be altered by building on rapidly advancing generations of technology and that human organizations are transformed by new political expectations and practices made possible by technology.

The PDF format book contains essays by Howard Rheingold, Steven Johnson, Joi Ito, Jim Moore and others. I haven't had a chance to read much of it as yet, but what I have is fascinating.

Posted by Paul in Democracy Politics at August 11, 2004 05:13 AM | 0 Comments