Emergence, Emergent Democracy & the Emerging Second Super Power

Date: July 9 2007
Time: 7:00p.m. to 8:00 CDT
Where: Texas Forums Virtual Room
Cost: Free
Topic: Emergence, Emergent Democracy & the Emerging Second Super Power

Discussion of the following essays:

Two Ways to Emerge, and How to Tell the Difference Between Them, by
Steven Johnson

The Dead Hand of Modern Democracy: Lessons for Emergent Post-Modern
Democrats, by Ken White

Emergent Democracy, by Joichi Ito

The Second Superpower Rears Its Beautiful Head, by James Moore

This is the third of twelve part discussion series on Extreme Democracy co-sponsored by the Central Texas World Future Society and Texas Forums, an initiative of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.

The purpose of these discussions is to explore the principles and technologies of Extreme Democracies, and to explore how these concepts and technologies are affecting our own social change efforts, our democracy, and the upcoming election. These discussions will take place online synchronously in the Texas Forums Virtual Room on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. Participants are encouraged to also participate in an asynchronous dialogue about the readings for the week on the Extreme Democracy Blog.

You do not have to commit to every session in order to participate. Those who are unavailable for the Monday evening session are encouraged to read the essays, listen to an archive of the discussion, and add their commentary to the blog. The links to each essay and the comment location are provided in the reading list. Most people will prefer to purchase the book. These discussions are free and open to everyone.

Your guides for this journey are:

• Paul Schumann, Founder Central Texas World Future Society
• Taylor Willingham, Founder Texas Forums
• Jon Lebkowsky, Editor Extreme Democracy

For more information about this series including a schedule of events and hardware/software requirements for participation in the series, visit the Texas Forum blog. Read the syllabus here. It includes a description of how to use the virtual meeting room.

Overview & History of Development of Extreme Democracy

Date: June 25, 2007
Time: 7:00p.m. to 8:00 CDT
Where: Texas Forums Virtual Room
Cost: Free
Topic: Overview and History of Development of Extreme Democracy

Interview and discussion with Jon Lebkowsky, co-editor of Extreme Democracy.

This is the second of twelve part discussion series on Extreme Democracy co-sponsored by the Central Texas World Future Society and Texas Forums, an initiative of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.

The purpose of these discussions is to explore the principles and technologies of Extreme Democracies, and to explore how these concepts and technologies are affecting our own social change efforts, our democracy, and the upcoming election. These discussions will take place online synchronously in the Texas Forums Virtual Room on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. Participants are encouraged to also participate in an asynchronous dialogue about the readings for the week on the Extreme Democracy Blog. You do not have to commit to every session in order to participate. Those who are unavailable for the Monday evening session are encouraged to read the essays, listen to an archive of the discussion, and add their commentary to the blog. The links to each essay and the comment location are provided in the reading list. Most people will prefer to purchase the book. These discussions are free and open to everyone.

Your guides for this journey are:
• Paul Schumann, Founder Central Texas World Future Society
• Taylor Willingham, Founder Texas Forums
• Jon Lebkowsky, Editor Extreme Democracy

For more information about this series including a schedule of events and hardware/software requirements for participation in the series, visit the Texas Forum blog. Read the syllabus here. It includes a description of how to use the virtual meeting room.

Paul Schumann
President
E-Mail
512.302.1935
Join the Sessions Here

Extreme Democracy Discussion Series Survey

To participate in a survey on the future of America’s democracy, click on the link below. The information from this survey will be used to foster discussion in the last program of the extreme democracy discussion series on September 17, 2007.

You may take this survey at any time during this period. You can return to the survey at any time before the survey is closed to change or add to your comments.

Click Here to take survey

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For more information about SWOT analysis click here.

A Framework for Extreme Democracy

Date: June 18, 2007
Time: 7:00p.m. CDT
Where: Texas Forums Virtual Room
Cost: Free
Topic: Framework for Extreme

DemocracyDiscussion by Paul Schumann and attendees of three books: First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea, Paul Woodruff, Oxford University Press, 2005, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Michael Novak, Madison Books, 1982, and Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, Signet Books, 1984. Book reviews of the three books are on the Extreme Democracy blog.

This is the first of twelve part discussion series on Extreme Democracy co-sponsored by the Central Texas World Future Society and Texas Forums, an initiative of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.The purpose of these discussions is to explore the principles and technologies of Extreme Democracies, and to explore how these concepts and technologies are affecting our own social change efforts, our democracy, and the upcoming election. These discussions will take place online synchronously in the Texas Forums Virtual Room on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. Central Time beginning June 18, 2007. Participants are encouraged to also participate in an asynchronous dialogue about the readings for the week on the Extreme Democracy Blog. You do not have to commit to every session in order to participate. Those who are unavailable for the Monday evening session are encouraged to read the essays, listen to an archive of the discussion, and add their commentary to the blog. The links to each essay and the comment location are provided in the reading list. Most people will prefer to purchase the book. These discussions are free and open to everyone.

Your guides for this journey are:

• Paul Schumann, Founder Central Texas World Future Society
• Taylor Willingham, Founder Texas Forums
• Jon Lebkowsky, Editor Extreme Democracy

For more information about this series including a schedule of events and hardware/software requirements for participation in the series, visit the Texas Forum blog.

Flickering Man

I haven't read Andrew Keen's new book - The Cult of the Amateur. But I will. I've been following his blog for about a month - not because I agree with what he's saying, but because I believe we need to be intentionally diverse in our information habits. We have an unprecedented ability to filter ideas...the diverse perspectives of a newspaper can now be recreated in mono-voice blog reading habits. We can comfortably surround ourselves with ideas we already agree with. Britannica Blog is critically exploring the challenge of web 2.0, collectivism, "flight from expertise", and fading of intellectual rigor. Nicholas Carr states we are changing: "Contemplative Man, the fellow who came to understand the world sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, is a goner. He’s being succeeded by Flickering Man, the fellow who darts from link to link, conjuring the world out of continually refreshed arrays of isolate pixels, shadows of shadows." I fully agree, we are changing how we relate to others and how we relate to information. Geetha Narayaran offers a vision of slow and wholeness in learning - an important concept, but one that increasingly is trampled under our feet in our mad rush to stay current and cope with information. While Keen and others may be intentionally provocative in order to sell books and attract publicity, their voices are nodes in a diverse network of understanding. We do need to think about how read/write tools are changing society. How the collective activity of many (Wikipedia) relate to Britannica. I personally don't see them in conflict - when researching, I rely increasingly on journals...when I want information on Zeno's paradoxes (came up in a recent listserv discussion), I go to wikipedia. Different information needs, different approaches. Both camps in this discussion would benefit from a bit of color in existing mono-chromatic views.

From George Siemen, www.elearnspace.org

He has a great newsletter well worth subscribing to.

Extreme Democracy Discussion Series

Texas Forums and the Central Texas World Future Society are hosting a series of twelve discussions on the essays compiled in the book, Extreme Democracy beginning June 18. The purpose of these discussions is to explore the principles and technologies of Extreme Democracies, and to explore how these concepts and technologies are affecting our own social change efforts, our democracy, and the upcoming election.

For more information and schedule, visit the Texas Forums Blog at http://texasforums.wordpress.com/