[liberationtech] Self-determined publics

[Douglas Lucas]

Michael and Libtech,

Not sure I can be much help other than this - you might find relevant
Heather Marsh's writings on "Concentric Groups, Knowledge Bridges and
Epistemic Communities":
https://georgiebc.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/concentric-groups-knowledge-bridges-and-epistemic-communities-2/

:-Douglas

On 07/29/2013 11:45 PM, Michael Allan wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> Below I define what I call "self-determined publics".  Has anything
> similar been attempted before?
> 
>    A self-determined public is an open, topical community that
>    proclaims the definitive bounds of its own communications.  The
>    proclamation takes the form of a timely sequence of references
>    (e.g. web links) each pointing to a communication of the public,
>    such that all references together define the total of that public's
>    communications in time and space.  For example:
> 
>        Ago     Place      Title              (click to visit thread)
>       -------  ---------  ------------------------------------------
>       17 min   r/Foo      How do we attach the doohickey?
>        5 hr    Foo-L      The problem with so and so's proposal.
>        1 day   FuBarz     Who are these Foos, anyway?
>        1 day   r/Foo      This, that, and the next thing.
>        2 days  FooStack   What's the best thingamy for such and such?
>               . . . and so on
> 
>    The boundary proclamation is similar in form to a conventional news
>    feed.  It concerns a specific topic or category.  Differences are
>    in a) the exclusion of mass communications, b) the claim to
>    totality, and c) the self-determination that redeems that claim.
>    (a) A principle criterion for inclusion is that one may immediately
>    join any of the referenced communications as a peer.  One-way, mass
>    communications are excluded.
> 
>    (b) The boundary proclamation claims to cover the entire public
>    discussion of the topic across all communication media and sites.
>    It claims to be the most complete, accurate and timely overview of
>    the extended discussion that is available anywhere.
> 
>    (c) This claim is redeemed by the public members themselves who
>    submit the references, self-organize the necessary labour, and
>    self-constitute the necessary government.  No aspect of this
>    redeeming self-determination is controlled by an external
>    authority.
> 
> 
> I'm looking for brief pointers, please.  I don't know of any actual
> implementations of this, or projects that are working on it.  I'll
> share what's found.
>