[pp.int.general] Democracy in PPI

[Yves Quemener]

Hello all,

As someone who tries to be active in a regional division of a national
pirate party (Rhone-Alpes region, in France) but who is far from the
capital city and the active national core, I wanted to add my two (euro)
cents to a specific issue :


Patrick Mächler wrote:
> 3a) You think the RL approach is not fitting
> ==================================
> What solution would you have proposed instead of a real life conference?
> I agree: It is an old fashioned approach, but it's an approach where
> almost no one has distrust in.
> I personally haven't seen a virtual solution, which e.g. fits my need
> upon to decide which candidate I should vote for as a board member.
> The usual problem of virtual approaches is that they can't transport
> all context humans are used to; there is a reason why flamewars are
> common on the net, but not so in real life.

I think that whoever gets elected will have to deal mostly through virtual
means with other co-pirates. It is not a candidate for a popular election
that gets designated. His/her public speaking skills is of less use than
his/her online written skills will ever be.

Why not use a good old IRC session ? There are plenty of rules that work
well to handle a meeting with people spread over several timezones. I agree
that secret anonymous ballot would be a difficulty over the distance but as
I guess you were planning to have a non-anonymous vote, cryptographic keys
can just be enough to have a trustworthy online election

I agree that a physical meeting has some advantages over a virtual one but
I am unsure it outweighs the issues :
- costs money (each member's travel + a room + accommodation)
- cost a lot of time
- has an unavoidable bias in favor of the persons close to the meeting place
- harder to log
- gives a 'the-decisions-are-taken-far-from-here' feeling to other members

Anyway I surely hope the april conference will be a success, but I would be
happy if the most important meetings happened online.