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Taiwan is Crowdsourcing an Everybody-Wins Democracy

posted by martyb on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:39PM   
from the Crowdsourced-Government dept.

hendrikboom writes:

Taiwan has found a way to use a carefully designed social network constructively.
As stated in the Tyee,

Taiwan Is Crowdsourcing an Everybody-Wins Democracy

They had to do something. In 2014,

Opponents to the bill felt not just defeated, but invisible. The government had promised to listen to their concerns, but simply hadn't done so, rushing the bill onto the parliament floor. They had the votes; they could get it through. So that evening, protesters scaled the fence, kicked the door open and streamed onto the floor of Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan.

Sound familiar from recent history?

Well, the government found a way to listen.

They set up vTaiwan, a social network where prominence is given to posts that further concord instead of discord. And they're using it to craft proposals for legislation. Anyone can contribute.

The article doesn't state how the social network determines which posts promote consensus. I'd like to know.

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Original Submission

• Re:Polis (Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:11PM

  by looorg (578) on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:11PM (#1098905)

  I wonder if this doesn't risk creating little (or large) bubbles, everyone want all the things they want and now and I don't want the stuff I don't want -- even tho it might be in the best of the interest in general or to the general public. Still that wouldn't be that much different towards how it is when you don't have a system like that.

  According to a 2016 Civicist article, the four-stage process, blending online and offline engagement opportunities, operates as follows:

          First, an artificial-intelligence facilitated conversation tool called pol.is is distributed through Facebook ads and stakeholder networks

          Then a public meeting is broadcast where scholars and officials respond to issues that emerged in the conversation;

          This is followed by an in-person stakeholder meeting co-facilitated by civil society and the government, and broadcast to remote participants;

          Finally, the Government agrees to bind its action to points that reached consensus, or provides a point-by-point explanation of why those consensus points are not (yet) feasible.

  http://www.participatedb.com/projects/344 [participatedb.com]
  https://civichall.org/civicist/vtaiwan-democracy-frontier/ [civichall.org]

  Oh goodie you have to be on Facebook to get invited to take part ...

  Parent

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