The following is a discussion of how WeMatter.com will operate
for the benefit of its users as "Issue of Importance",
IoI, are identified and processed. During this discussion it
is assumed that the site is fully operational with sufficient visitors,
staff to maintain the site, utilities to manage the site, money
to support its operation, as well as sufficient recognition so that
it can get the cooperation of the special interest groups when an
issue that they are interested in is identified and it can be influential
when its members have developed their positions.
The issue chosen to be discussed is International Intellectual
Property because I am discussing it with a friend and so
hope to get some assistance in its development.
Identification-- The first stage is to identify that
International Intellectual Property is important to our members.
As they visit the site, to read the news about the current issues and
to discuss them, they, and the staff, will start agreeing that it seems
important to learn about and develop a policy on the treatment of Intellectual
Property between nations. This agreement will come from E-mail and discussion
from our members, and other visitors and from the
perusing of the news by our staff.
Construction -- Once the issue is defined as an IoI, a staff
member, or perhaps a volunteer, will be assigned to "build"
an area of the site to host this issue. This area will consist of:
A description of the issue, e.g. "There is a
growing question as to how to control and price Intellectual Property,
IP, such as Drugs and Software which is developed mainly in the
Developed countries and may be used and further developed in the
non developed countries. There is a conflict between the natural
requirement that the Creator and Distributor of the IP get sufficient
profit and control so that they will satisfy their requirements
to their stockholders and have sufficient resources to do future
development, and the need to have the users and countries to be
able to get sufficient access and control so that they can profit
from the IP product, even though their income is too low to pay
"Full Price" and so that their development is not crippled
by depending on the natural semi-monopoly of the original owners."
-- This description will be written by the staff to, as reasonably
as possible, to represent the issue unbiasedly
Primary Positions will be identified, and special interest
groups and sites, will be contacted. Once the issue is identified
the most influential groups who have an interest with respect to
the issue will be contacted. They will contribute short descriptions
of their positions on the issue, links to their sites for more detail,
etc. In this case, I might expect that the primary sites might be
the World Trade Organization, A Drug company association,
The software publishers association, The Chinese Internet and Society
Center {TBD}, etc.
Secondary Links will be identified, e.g. any "secondary"
groups that are interested in the issue will be identified and linked
to as well a some articles and news on the issues.
A Discussion group, Blog,will be setup to help
the visitors learn about the issue, to start to develop a consensus
set of positions, etc.
Member notification will then be done based on the profile
of each member. As part of the member registration,
a member will identify their interest in issues, by giving a set
of "search" words that they want to be notified about,
and whether they want to be notified on new IoI's as they are identified.
The members whose interest pattern matches either New Issues,
or, say "IP" or "International",
etc. will get E-mail immediately, or as they have specified when
the issue area is build.
Operation -- Once an issue is identified and an area is build
for it, then it will be operated for the benefit of the site's members.
The discussion group will be moderated. The initial postings
will be put in the thread that the author wants them in, but then
the issue staff person will review the posting, and as needed discuss
it with the author, to:
Note: The moderator will be responsible for identifying
topics, e.g. "Non developed countries's population,
income, etc.", "Effects of more or less
IP control on non developed countries", "Effects
of more or less IP Control on developed countries and their
IP Creators", "Concessions Positions",
"Other", and summarizing the discussions,
pointing to the messages that clarify the topics, and stating
the developing consensus positions.
Determine if the posting is in the right thread and has a descriptive
title, See above.
Check that the posting is a contribution to the topic or a flame,
and try to ensure that the language is appropriate and that there
is no Copyright or other legal problem.
Note: We will only make such alterations as approved
by the author, but reserve the right to add a staff comment
as well as, if legally required, remove a posting.
Decide if there is an emerging set of Positions that can be
attached to the discussion group so that it can be voted upon,
and if so set up a Poll on these positions. In this case the positions
might be Non developed country citizens should pay: Only
for the production costs of the IP media, For IP
in proportion to their median income, The same as
developed countries as may be required by WTO treaties,
More to reflect the additional support required.
The links will be added to as more sites want to be identified
with the issue and have information that they want to communicate
with the visitors. If a site is to be linked in, then they will
have to provide a sentence description of their position, an E-mail
contect, etc. so that our visitors can determine if they want to
go to the site and get questions answered, etc.
Presenters will be scheduled to talk on the issue, either
via streaming video, Chat, or other interactive technique. The members
will be able to discuss the issue and a record of this will be linked
in to the issue after it is complete. Some presenters might be:
A Chinese Government IP official, an Expert
on Chinese IP practice, a WTO lawyer, an Economics professor , a Drug Company spokesman,
etc.
Note: Our members will be notified, as they desire,
by E-mail, when an issue that they are concerned with has new
information, as they are notified when such an issue is identified.
Influence -- As soon as the issue is reasonably defined and
positions set, the members preferences will be communicated to the Influential
leaders. In this case the leaders who might be interested are: The Party
managers, the elected and appointed representatives of
the people, the managers of the companies who have IP,
the Global leaders who set IP policy, etc.
History -- The site will maintain a record of the sponsors
of bills that relate to the issue, the way the the representatives amended
the bills and plan to vote or have voted on them, and any positions
and commitments that candidates and other groups such as political parties
expressed relative to the issues.
Our visitors will be be able write to their representative, other
representatives, parties, etc. based on their positions on the issues
that they are concerned with.
Our visitors will be able to contribute money to the people and
organizations who support their positions.
Our visitors will be able to "get out in the streets"
to support or oppose people and organizations based on their positions.
Thus the benefit of the site is that it will provide a central "Virtual
Town Hall", a political hub site, to allow the people to identify,
learn about, and influence their representatives. It is not meant to be
a replacement for the News sources, the Special Interest groups, etc.,
but just to allow people to gather together so that they can be an effective
influence on their government despise the problems in the current system.
Terms:
Members: Some of the people who visit the site
will have registered, e.g. provided socioeconomic information,
and contributed to the operation of he site. These members will be able
to influence which issues the site is concerned with as well as being
able to register their opinions effectively as their opinions will be
able to be adjusted to reflect the demographics of the voting population.
Registration: Part of the membership is that
a member may register his personal information and his interests, as well
as his E-mail and WEB address, as desired. These will be used to adjust
the members votes so that the representatives can be informed as to the
position of the general population on issues, not just those who voted
at the site. Other member information will be used to inform the member
when something that they are interested in has occurred, e.g. A new Issue
of Importance, a News item, a Potential Government actions..., as well
as allowing a member to publish information to the world or be anonymous,
The information will be private to the site and will be destroyed, unless
otherwise Opted-In, if the site's status changes.
Visitors: More people will visit the site than
are registered and paid members.
The site will, I hope be interesting to them, but in some sense they will
be parasites as they are anonymous and can not direct the site or have
their votes be properly adjusted as do the site members.
