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- Here is an idea for a Socratic Agora, supported
by this very medium and its technologies, a Cyber-Agora managed and maintained
with the use of immediate democracy.
For the Agora, the only necessity is to secure common space where knowledge is constructed and culture is generated through enjoyable collaboration. And we have that space, plenty of it as it is... the whole world online.
The Agora can not be governed. Rules and regulations
are not imposed from above but formed from within, in a process inherent
to its single, albeit complex function: the creation and dissemination
of goods through social interactivity. People meet other people in a pleasant
and friendly common space, where recognition and fulfilment of needs takes
place through
exchanging-collaborating-creating - a circle
in itself that never ends.
Problems related to organization, management and administration requiring decision making are dealt with whenever the occasion arises - either by immediate consensual agreement, or by having those more interested and readily available form a smaller circle (i'm sure we have all experienced occasions when such circles are formed in informal community gatherings), where the issue in hand is discussed and, finally, recommendations aiming at consensus are made for the whole agora to decide upon. No such bodies are allowed to make decisions on behalf of the rest - they only recommend and they cease to exist as soon as the matter is resolved.
In contrast, workshops and creative bodies are thriving as long as creativity lasts and, hence, the agora serves its purpose. The absence of creative bodies marks the end of the agora and the disintegration of its community.
Any ideas for a working model in context?