Democratic Evolution

Tags: behaviour change, communication, Controversy, Society, politics

Aims:
To enable a true representation on the Communities real point of view, and enable a transparent system of viewing the community’s point of view on an issue.
To centralise the systems of Government and allow communities to show their points of view in one place on an issue, whether it be Local, State, Federal or International (only Australian Registered voters will be able to register for this system)
To enable individual issues to be discussed by the broader community, and for information providers (News/Internet etc) to direct the community to an issue to allow their opinion to be heard.
To ensure each and every member of the community has access to the system to ensure a broad section of the community can have its say.

Solution:
An objectively controlled Online based system that allows Voters to register.
(Could be considered a Social Network ordained by the Government)
Each registered voter can register onto the system (one vote, one registration)

The system will have a list of all current issues in discussion by the parliament (Bills/Issues etc)
A list of the committees/ MPs that are overseeing the discussion, who raised it, who supports it etc
A forum for discussion on each individual issue.
A UML type map of how this issue fits into the bigger picture. A visible display of what other options this issue would effect.
For example increasing spending on more beds for the aged, means less beds for the younger generations.
Ability to vote on each individual issue
Ability to Create an Issue, and get support for the issue to be raised in Parliament, and create a parliamentary issue from this interest.

Accessibility:
Majority of Registered Voters must be able to Access the system.
A requirement that Issues are published in all newspapers (Supplement published weekly) and spoken on a regular basis in all Licensed Media – Major Newspapers, Local Newspapers, News, etc. (Could be legislated into the Licensing agreement)
Web based Media can provide links to individual issues. For example The Age online could provide a link to the current issue in its opinion section.
ISPs, Web access points would be required to allow access to this website at no cost.
Libraries, Government buildings and other community centres could have “pods” to allow access.
People can then write in via Letter or Fax, and have their views published (less their identity) Faxes/Letters would be scanned, and votes input by objective third party organisation. (All identities can be completely controlled, however you can only ever vote once on an issue during each debate period)
Audit Trail – Random verification of correctness of voting position on issues based on letters/ faxes. All letters archived and linked to votes with Voter Registration Details, date/ time issue number etc.

Types of Issues:
Parliamentary Issues would be open for discussion for 1 month. After this term, the issue is then closed for Parliamentary discussion, and reopened for 1 month to allow for comments on amendments by Politicians.
Community Created Issues would have 1 month to gain support from the community and then it would be up to politicians to decide on popular issues.

Benefits
This system would allow politicians the ability to release policies for public consultation, and gauge support for each individual issue. This would therefore allow them to actually measure the communities support or opposition for each individual issue, policy or bill that is currently being debated in parliament.
Also allowing the community to show support for issues that are not being debated in parliament, and raising awareness for these issues (or showing them to be opposed by the broader community)
Actually see statistics from a broad section of the community on any individual issue.
Recognise when an issue has a community interest.

Potential Problems with System
People over a certain age are not technically knowledgably
- Allow for Letters/ Faxes with Voter Registration details
- Fill in a form and send it in (OCR Technology used to save labour cost)
- Personalised voting forms could be acquired from all Government Buildings free of charge, or printed out for you by your technical adept family member
Not everyone has access the internet
- Issues are published, with Issue Number/ Identifier regularly in local publications at all levels of community
Politicians would be out of a job
- Someone would still have to create the issues, show support for them, lead, represent, make decisions in tough times, etc. (Maybe just a few less egotistical popular pollies, and a few more truly “for the people” pollies)

I think I am a Sociapitalist - or Social-Capitalist

Tags: politics, Society, sustainability, Environment, behaviour change

So I was riding my bike along last night, flying past all the cars "parked" on their way home to be across town in just a few minutes and found myself thinking about the ideals of society and the "nanny" type state that we are moving into in Australia.  Also the Democratic movement that is happening in the Middle East is close to my minds eye at the moment.

Then I got to thinking about the Democratic process and how really the big powerful people really do still have the power in society - I mean look at the Mining companies in Australia last year.  With a mere 0.1% of PROFIT they strong armed the government into not taxing them any more than we currently do.

Now let me just tangent off for a moment and put that into perspective for you: a small group of mining companies and associations got together and spent about $20M AUD last year to throw a massive advertising campaign against the government.  One (yes only one) of these companies just announced a PROFIT, after expenses like this of $10.5B AUD for the 6 months - That is the cost of this campaign was 0.2% of ONE companies half yearly PROFIT.  It is just disgusting to think they could do this really.

Anyway this is life isn't it.  Being ruled by some Dictator with lots of power and money.  In the western Democratic world we have this perception of Freedom and choice which most people think is "good enough" but I take the unrest and freedom fights of the middle east and consider that maybe it is time we fought for a better Democracy - for a system of Sociapitalism - that is a system where the top gets the chop and the bottom gets some more support from Society.  Not a dog eat Dog world - but a Dog help Dog world.  I was musing over a term for Socialism and Capitalism put together and apparently it is Social-Capitalism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capitalism but I prefer Sociapitalist or maybe Capitocialsim depending on which way you swing.

I was explaining to a much learned friend on the weekend about an idea I have for a future that doesn't solely rely on money to distribute "wealth".  Wealth of course not being money, but more importantly it is and should be defined as Knowledge, luxury items and respect.

The idea:
If you have used Ebay you might understand this theory.  It is based on the users rating users system.
The best way to describe this is to use an example and this is a great place to first implement this idea:
State and National Park Camping
When you camp in a Park, you are utilising public space for a nominal fee - everyone has equal right to use these places and everyone can and does.
The current concept is that when you camp in a park you should leave the place in at least as good as you found it, if not better.
Through some simple technology we could implement an Ebay style user rating system for the parks.  When you camp you could rate the state you found the space in.  Ie. Dirty 1 Clean 5 or anywhere in between.
This rating would be recorded against the Previous user of the space to indicate their respect for the park and the next user.
Motivation would be to keep you rating high as then you would be "allowed" in to more beautiful spots - ie. with the knowledge that you have respect for your surroundings, and will maintain them.

Simple really - completely anonymous and easy to implement in this world of GPS and smart phones.

What do you think of this first step towards a society less dependant on Money and more dependant on repsect for others?

Dog S#!t! How much is a DNA test these days?

So I was just walking around a lovely park, in the lovely sunshine, enjoying the fact that summer is coming, and is just around the corner, when I luckily noticed, and avoided a pile of dog s#!t, which is never a fun site to see.

Now, if I was in the bush, and it was possum poo, it really wouldn't bother me, but the domestic pet mess is just not so acceptable.

Basically people should really understand that there are "other" people around them... yes you are not the centre of the world... so if your dog does its business while on a walk, or exercise, it is your responsibility to clean up after it.  As someone else, especially in our every expanding world where higher density living is becoming the norm, will no doubt be wanting to use that particular space in the not to distant future, and you have ruined it by not cleaning up after your pet.

This got me to thinking, the best way to stop people essentially being lazy, is to charge them for it, and of course a fine should be a % of income, or net worth, not an arbitrary amount set by the council (this of course ensures the fine "hurts" everyone)
Then there comes to the problem of finding the perpetrator, of which of course can be difficult, as we don't and don't want to live in a 1984 world of CCTV and big brother.
However this lead me to the thought that it would be simple enough to identify the said dog via a DNA test on the said doo-do, of which could be linked back to the DNA test performed on the pet when it is registered.

Seems like a good idea? What do you think? How much is a DNA test these days anyway?

Melbourne's roads... wider = more cars = congestion = wider = more cars = congestion

Photo source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2007/06/28/1964151.htm
Tags: Politics, Controversy, Transport

Yet another study in Victoria to prove that building more roads does not solve congestion problems....http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/airport-road-wont-cope-with-demand-study-shows-20100228-pb7g.html... add to that the State Government still refuses to build a rail link to the Airport.  Do they know, or suspect that with Peak Oil people will have to stop flying, so why build the rail link to an Airport that has a limited lifespan..... who knows what they are thinking sometimes... which is a real point, but I will discuss that another time!

I recently decided to drive around Melbourne to visit a few potential clients.  I don't usually drive around, as I live and work, by choice, within a couple of kilometres.  So I was driving around all day from the inner city to the Outer Eastern Suburbs, and let me tell you, I have never come to understand more how bad the roads of Melbourne are.  Congestion is so bad in some places I saw people waiting in lines, to get through an intersection, up to 2 kms long.  I luckily was driving in the other direction.
Then you see the lovely East Link Tollway.... which I am sure everyone agrees is a great road for the East... it is wide, large and can handle huge amounts of traffic... however this road was almost empty when I went on it... why? Well people don't like "Paying" for a road directly, they much prefer to be lulled into a sense of security that they "don't pay" for the roads they drive on everyday.
No.... all the fuel levies and taxes you pay don't contribute to the Billions of dollars spent on the roads!! Not a cent.
I totally and completely advocate for a User Pays system like the Dutch are introducing using GPS - http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/dutch-plan-charge-car-drivers-kilometre/article-187394

Why shouldn't it be a user pay's system? It will encourage people to live and work more sustainably.... living in the outskirts of the city and running a car should be calculated into the cost of living, and decision making of moving out to the sticks!! Simple. Pay more rent, pay less Road tax.... have more time for yourself and family... why can't people see that.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/making-our-cities-better-by-design/?referrer=email
Well planned cities are just the beginning to this, and although Melbourne is a great city, it could easily become a terrible place to live if the future is not planned well, with Cars the LAST thing considered.

First Post

Introduction

Tags: Intro, politics, transportation, sustainability, alternative energy, electronics, tech, gadgets, projects, life

So I started writing my business blog last week, and thought it was time I got to writing some Raving's already.

The issue is I guess what on earth I should focus on out of the many interests I have from Politics itself to the things it focus on, Transportation, Sustainability, Climate Change, Environment, Alternative Energy, Electronics, Tech and Gadgets, Projects and well Life in general!

So I decided that I would not choose, but post the relevant Tags for each article, and make it easier to choose which posts you might like to read, rather than reading them all.

In fact I might post the Tags at the top of the Article as well.

I have to say I am writing my Business Blog in WordPress, and so far I am liking it much more, just an aside.

For those that don't know me, I am a highly opinionated, argumentative type that thinks everything could be done better, and is quite happy to tell people most of the time, in fact it is my job to do so, and it unfortunately carries across to my personal/ social life sometimes, even if I do try to keep it at bay.

Ok, so the idea for this Blog is to just write/ comment/ publish ideas of which I would like comments on, or just want someone to do, or I just want to write down my opinion at the time.

At no time shall this opinion be deemed my opinion other than at the time I wrote it, as per my mood and current knowledge at the time.

I am open to information, in fact suck it up like a vacuum, and can therefore change my opinion on different issues as more information comes to light.
For example I would happily take on board information from reputable sources on both sides of the Climate Debate, and regularly read the opponents opinions.
Mind the funniest thing is that the climate "denier" camp so often cite unworthy sources, or none at all it is hard to take them seriously at all, let alone the fact that they seemingly are happy to keep killing of millions of the world's poorest people by continuing on with business as usual... but let me leave that for a post on that particular topic.


So with the imminent release of Apples Content Delivery system, the Ipad, I choose to jump into the world of blogging on a personal level, and here it is.  Btw I am totally not an Apple person, but see some value in their products.... the usability factor I guess, maybe more people will jump on the gadget wagon... so all good Apple, just don't ruin it for us Geeks.


EnjoY!


Lambie
xx