Chapter 9b
Interactive Communications and Function


The heart of this entire proposal is that the Local Citizens Groups will conduct the bulk of their business through interactive Internet communications. We suggest that for each group at least two internet based ‘list-serve’ type groups be established, one (or possibly more) for general discussion, and a much more formal one, whose proceedings will be perpetually ‘called to order’, and conducted ‘in session’, to conduct the group’s formal business.

Current list-serve software, whether from commercial providers like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft, or from non-commercial providers like RiseUp, is inadequate for this purpose. Certain among the tools provided by these currently available software technologies are useful, but many additional tools will be required to facilitate democratic functioning. Development of the proper software technology is a crucial aspect of this project, and will be a major, (and possibly very expensive), undertaking.

We hope and presume that in the course of the Local Citizens Groups’ ongoing business, many occasions will be found for face-to-face contact between members in the activities that are undertaken, but we believe that the crucial key to the ongoing success of this concept lies in fully exploiting the enormous potential of interactive digital communications.

We believe that it is crucial to the very concept of the organization we imagine that Governing Members will be able to fully participate in the group’s business and decision-making in spite of the many other demands on their time. Interactive communications technology will provide them the opportunity to fully participate at their convenience, at times when the other imperative demands on their schedules allow.

People will be able to fully participate without being required to drop other activities in order to attend periodic meetings in relatively distant locations. In the course of busy lives, attending a meeting, even just ‘across town’, once a week, or even once a month, is such a time consuming hardship, and such an imposition on the busy work and family schedules that people must struggle to maintain, that groups that depend on regular meeting attendance seldom grow beyond a small size, and every meeting tends to be an ad hoc gathering, with very limited continuity of public membership, (other than that of a small core group of activists), between one meeting and the next.

We believe that providing people with the ability to fully participate in decision making from the convenience of their own homes, through the development of interactive communications technology, will be the key to their ongoing participation, and therefore to the success and growth of the group. Participation will still (obviously) take time, but people will have the flexibility to work this required time into their busy schedules, making it a more manageable chore, and thus people will be more likely to maintain their enthusiasm for ongoing involvement.


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