Overview of
Webcast article
★ ★ ThresholdWare project is here!
★
A
Call for Action
(Dale Allen Pfeiffer) has now published
a piece by Harel B.
★Harel B with PCI as a
Post Carbon Institute Fellow (2004-2007)
The three distinct (though overlapping) EconomicDemocracy.org Strategic Vision Projects are:
As suggested in the quote by Robert McChesney on the main page, media activism needs to be at least a part of every other activist movement. Democratic media is essential for meaningful democracy, and a genuine form of democratic is a prerequisite for freedom in a meaningful sense. Transforming the landscape means building the alternative media system with a "mass" sized audience; we will not get very far if we restrict ourselves to trying to 'reform' the corporate-based media system (see Reclaim the Media!)
On Media, EconomicDemocracy.org's article The Revolution will be Webcast is an article; a call-to-action; a feasibility study showing a democratized mass-media landscape is now within reach; and Strategic Vision and meta-project proposal. Readers are strongly encouraged to first read:
Overview of
Webcast article
Transforming the Media Landscape:
The Revolution Will be Webcast
Synopsis
of Webcast Project
Although main the Webcast article itself is not especially short (it is worth printing out) it's smooth reading, includes inspiring quotes, pop-up footnotes, and real vision for future activism -- a very accessible piece, with an optimistic tone. After reading the article, post your thoughts at the Forums section. See also the related media follow-up pieces below.
Also note: a full 9 years before the 2009 push for "publicradioplayer.org", the Webcast article's proposals included back in 2000 pursuing and developing exactly that type of simplified interface, for the likes of DemocracyNow (and spoke with a producer there, with initial interest, on their part, but it got lost in the shuffle)
The followup article to "Webcast" is a very concrete and specific 10-Point Implementation Plan:
CounterSpinner (Working
Draft) This article demonstrates how the ambitious and very broad strategic vision of the Webcast article can be turned into very concrete, specific step-by-step strategies and tactics.
Note: This article was 'ahead of its time' (and thus now technologically 'not up to date') back around 2001 when originally written as a followup to the The Revolution Will Be Webcast vision. While the tech-details of CounterSpinner are not up to date, the specific 10-point action plan still offers an outline of how to pursue the Webcast vision today.Also note: a full 9 years before the 2009 push for "publicradioplayer.org", the Webcast article's proposals included back in 2000 pursuing and developing exactly that type of simplified interface, for the likes of DemocracyNow (and spoke with a producer there, with initial interest, on their part, but it got lost in the shuffle)
★ ★ New: What on Earth do Draft Resistance and Fundraising have in common? Ground-breaking vision article:
|
|
| Earlier, 2-part version of
"Thresholdware"
with the full activist strategic vision essay "On Funding" is summarized/overviewed in two quick, short pieces by Dan Shaw:  )
|
This is the other companion to "Webcast" article. As the title suggests, this article relates to the second of the three main projects listed at the top of this page. However, there are significant potential synergies with the Webcast article and particularly with "CounterSpinner", the 10-point plan -- notably, it lists very specific actions and tools to help democratic media support themselves, as well as strategies for more general applications of these ideas to fund-raising for other grassroots projects.
The article On Funding is also a companion article to EconomicDemocracy.org's third, and most ambitious "leg" namely article-projects-visions on transforming and democratizing the economic system (see below) Your reactions to this article too, and your own ideas on how to further refine, expand, and improve the vision, strategy, tactics, and action plan, is invited; see the link to Forums. As always, although I can't guarantee an immediate reply, feel free for speedier response to send me a short note at m-a-i-l-m-a-i-l[at-sign]EconomicDemocracy.org (WITHOUT the dashes) mentioning you have made a post at the Forums.
The following are not strategic vision articles but posts from Znet, on emerging technologies of interest and which are related to progressive and democratizing potentials:
The final, most ambitious (but pragmatic and realizable) EconomicDemocracy.org section is on the Dismantling Corporate Power -- by building, nurturing, and being able to successfully transition to an alternative economy.
By creating the lifelines allowing each of us to meet our basic needs (food, housing, healthcare, etc) and extras (culture, arts, music) so that though people won't have to quit their "day-jobs", for the first time ever they will have an honest choice, and the freedom to chose to do so if they so desire (the common phrase "Thank God It's Friday" in the mainstream economy suggests how most may vote with their feet, when we finally make a viable alternative available to them).
The full outline of this piece, "A Workable Program for Dismantling Corporate Power," is at the bottom of:
A Workable
Transition to Democratic Retirement Systems which is itself a (significant) sub-article of the "A Workable Program." It covers how to create a non-corporate means of retirement support, and, critically, how to transition to it, however it is in many ways a microcosm of the main article, though lacking additional details on related support systems which can be created (those will be detailed in the fuller piece).
See Summary/Overview of EconomicDemocracy.org projects and related articles at EconomicDemocracy.org, lists this item "G-1" and how it relates to other projects, e.g.
Ithaca Hours styled community Annuities For important background before you read this piece please first learn about Ithaca Hours and at least look over (it's dense reading but important!) the WHOLE ITHACA STOCK EXCHANGE (WISE):, two projects of Paul Glover and lastly see G-1 for the broader framwork of "A Workable Transition to Democratic Retirement Systems" into which the Ithaca Hours Style Community Annuities (or "Ithaca Hour Annuities" in this case) proposal fits. (G-1 in turn fits into G-0) See Summary/Overview of EconomicDemocracy.org projects and related articles for more details.
The above pieces --Webcast, CounterSpinner, On Funding, and on transition to a democratic economy -- are "non-reformist"; they seek and suggest ideas (sometimes starting very modest as in On Funding) whose ultimate realization will fundamentally alter power relations in society in, e.g., media or financing, and fundamentally change institutions and "the system" But reformist ideas, which "merely" make things better within the existing paradigm, are not without merit, and may inspire other ideas in us. Here are some: Three Ideas emailed to a BBC net writer.