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InstaGov is a set of tools for instant self-governance via computer network. It is currently under development. It will be open-source and distributed/federated.

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Goals
In order to work towards these goals, it is necessary to better understand the mechanics of power.
 * to invent functional and productive techniques of stateless (non-hierarchical) democratic self-governance
 * to test and demonstrate these techniques starting on a small scale and working progressively upward
 * to watch for exploit holes and "gaming" of these implementations, and work out ways to defeat these while they are still small
 * to eventually make traditional government both unnecessary and irrelevant

Restrictions on the sampling of public opinion, and its conversion into binding decisions, are a thing which may once have been necessary but which is now basically preventing democracy from taking place. "restrictions on the sampling of public opinion" means: Proposed changes (there are some details to work out in each of these, but this is the basic idea):
 * 1) Elections only happen at set times, with long intervals in between
 * 2) What or who people can vote for is determined by those already in power
 * 3) The means of expression on votable issues is limited to favoring a single one, rather than expressing the degree to which one approves or disapproves of each(edited)
 * A. Any voter should be able to propose agenda items at any time
 * B. Any voter should be able to proxy their decisions in any given subject area to another voter of their choosing (subject-specific liquid democracy)
 * C. (this part is not logically required, but I think it will be important) There should be a system of rational debate available, to which issues of sufficient importance should be subjected before they can be enacted.


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External Pages
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 * Design documents
 * Philosophy
 * Project manager / bug tracker
 * Google+: page and community
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Modules

 * liquid agenda
 * debate mapper
 * P2P Accountability Enforcement
 * categorization
 * proxy voting
 * weighted
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Methodology

 * cooperatives
 * governance methods: alternatives
 * inquest
 * liquid democracy
 * liquid representation
 * rational debate
 * stages of change
 * voter enclaves
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Applications

 * democratic militia
 * federated retail
 * structured debate: a set of rules for rational debate
 * solutions to the taxation problem:
 * co-operatization of large companies
 * opt-in market socialism
 * socialized land ownership
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Presentation

 * Collaborative network
 * Circling the wagons
 * International Citizens' Union
 * Premises
 * Structural overview
 * Social business coalition
 * Solutions
 * US House of Commons
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Related Projects

 * CitizenOS: proprietary decisionmaking platform
 * DemocracyOS: liquid democracy implementation (via via author on Mastodon): code is on GitHub
 * Liquid Agenda and the Debate Mapper could probably benefit from having a UI like this, at least as an option. (author on Mastodon)
 * The Humanity Online Project
 * Loomio
 * software co-op
 * Liquid Feedback (a project of the Pirate Party)
 * Make Your Laws: main site .. wiki .. Google+

proprietary / centralized

 * Deliberator: very similar to Liquid Agenda, but more heavily moderated and produced
 * Kialo: similar to debate mapper
 * Loomio: "a user-friendly tool for group decision-making. Creating a world where it’s easy for anyone to participate in decisions that affect them." Subscription is pay-what-you-like; looks like interaction may be limited to "groups".
 * Participedia "open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners in the field of democratic innovation and public engagement."
 * PopVox (Google+): tell US Congress your opinion of bills
 * WikiVote "Russian non-governmental organization which goal is to develop effective means of citizens’ participation in lawmaking and strategic planning"
 * The Spark "Users post and vote on PROBLEMS that we face as a global community. The most popular problems are voted to the top. Users then post and vote on SOLUTIONS so that the community can take ACTION." - sounds similar to liquid agenda

techniques

 * Participatory politics: hierarchical representation carried out more thoroughly
 * Professional Politicians Beware! by Aaron Swartz (via)
 * Rational consensus: the method is not currently described in the article, but perhaps the article will be expanded soon. A user has described this system thusly: "ideas are based on known facts and good practices."

discussion

 * Quora

plans

 * Equality Incorporated (discussion)
 * Wolf PAC
 * 2013-07-31 How Democrats can reclaim North Carolina government