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My Fellow Internet Engineers,<br>
<br>
<b>WTF do we do now, as Donald Trump's America looms, threatening
Democracy as we know it at home & abroad?</b><br>
<br>
In 1992, the Internet opened to the public, which immediately
started calling for <i>Electronic Democracy</i>, <i>Electronic
Town Meetings</i>, and <i>Electronic Town Halls.</i> <br>
<br>
Dave Clark told us what that might look like, proclaiming: <br>
<i><b>We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in:
rough consensus and running code.</b></i> <br>
<br>
And, I launched the <i>Center for Civic Networking</i> to bring
electronic town meeting to the world.<br>
<br>
Since then, I've been building community networks, and organizing
civic forums, focused mostly on planning & developing
municipal infrastructure: growth planning, master planning,
managing rights-of-way, launching municipal broadband
infrastructure. More recently, I've focused on redeveloping aging
condominium complexes - motivated by serving on a board &
long-range planning committee of the oldest condo complex in
Massachusetts, worrying about how to avoid the fate of Miami's
Champlain Towers, crumbling into the Atlantic while its board
rearranged deckchairs by the pool, its owners ignoring the
situation until way too late... a challenge we share with many
condominium complexes built in the post-WWII era.<br>
<br>
And now, as the 250th Birthday of America approaches, I find
myself living in Acton MA, birthplace of the first Minuteman
Company to cross the Old North Bridge in Concord, the first to die
turning back the British, convening a Town Meeting on <b>How Do
We Redevelop Our Aging Neighborhoods & How Do We PAY For
It? </b>Three days later, I attended the 250th Anniversary
reenactment of the <i>Massachusetts Provincial Congress, </i>at
First Parish Church & Wright Tavern in Concord - the assembly
that became the de facto government of Massachusetts, subsequently
sending delegates to the <i>Continental Congress</i> in
Philadelphia, that went on to declare independence, raise an army,
write a constitution, and declare <i>E Pluribus Unum.</i><br>
<br>
I did not expect to find myself, a month later, contemplating the
demise of American Democracy as we know it, and perhaps the fall
of Western Civilization. But here I am, 70 years old, 63 years
after attending JFK's inauguration, contemplating his words: <br>
<br>
<b><i>Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the
survival and the success of liberty,</i></b> <br>
<br>
and his challenge: <b><i>And so, My Fellow Americans: Ask not
what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your
country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what
America will do for you, but what together we can do for the
freedom of man.<br>
<br>
</i></b>My Fellow Internet Engineers, it's 55 years since the
first packets traversed the ARPANET. We've Networked the Planet,
linked 6 of the 8 billion people on Planet Earth into a Network of
Minds. Each of us, and all of us carry in our pockets the power
to be anywhere, and everywhere, all at once. We've learned to
organize ourselves in large numbers - to go the moon, to wage
global war, to build global supply chains, to exchange cat
pictures & shout political vitriol at great volume. <b>Now
it's time to use this network we've built, to </b><b><i>Call
Town Meeting to Order</i></b><b>,</b><b><i> </i></b><b>to
address the Clear and Present Danger that confronts all of us.</b><br>
<br>
Yesterday, on Election Day, I posted a think piece, on <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://milesfidelman.substack.com/p/rebuilding-democracy-town-meeting"><i>Rebuilding
Democracy: Town Meeting Government for the Internet Age</i></a></b><br>
Inviting people to join me in pulling together a <i>Civic
Engineering Task Force </i>... to launch a <i>Campaign to
Redevelop Suburbia</i>, Develop a Platform, Form Working Groups,
and Solicit Presentations Exhibitors & Sponsors for an initial
Plenary Meeting.<br>
<br>
<b>This morning, I awake to a far greater threat, a far more
pressing need to organize ourselves</b>, <br>
and so I ask you, My Fellow Internet Engineers, to <br>
<b>Join me at </b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="civic.net"><i>Civic.Net</i>
</a></b><b>to</b> <b>Help Integrate a Civic Internet, organize
Working Groups, and convene Town Meetings in your communities -
so that </b><i><b>government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth.</b> </i><br>
<br>
Right now, we're a blog & a chat group on Substack - a step up
from Licklider's paper <i>MEMORANDUM FOR: Members and Affiliates
of the Intergalactic Computer Network </i>listing <i>Topics
for Discussion at the Forthcoming Meeting</i> - but I hope to
clone the IETF<i> Meetecho & Datatracker</i> environment to
support serious electronic town meeting - and could use some
serious help from folks experienced with both the technology, and
the process that has brought us our global nervous system, and
perhaps our <i>last best hope of earth. <br>
<br>
</i><b>Join me at </b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="civic.net"><i>Civic.Net</i>,</a></b><b> </b>subscribe,
pipe up<i>, </i>pitch in, contribute a few bucks to the cause -
it's <i>Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor</i> time, I'm all in,
and this is not a one-person job.<br>
<br>
Miles Fidelman<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown</pre>
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