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I would like to create a public group meeting to discuss in a civil manner rewriting of our nations laws. The text of my proposal is below. I am struck that the citizens of our country can have open discussions to hammer out what could be a new legal code to be proposed to legislators as a simpler, more honest and representative set of laws.
Where is the best place to host such a discussion? Yahoo? Google? O'Reilly?
What are best practices for such a discussion?
Are there any systems available to easily verify personal information? (I want full disclosure on all commenters)
I recognize this may sound terribly naive, but I believe a group like this could trigger a positive change.
***************PROPOSAL********************
A public group meeting to discuss in a civil manner rewriting of our nations laws.
Over the years a number of elements have contributed to create a situation in our country where our laws no longer make sense or are needed. Some of those conditions are the following: laws written in legal jargon and phraseology instead of simple english, outdated laws not being reviewed and removed, laws written only to benefit certain portions of our society, massive changes in society in the last 2 centuries and the process has been overwhelmingly corrupted by the politicians.
I submit that an open source model to discuss, propose and debate a new legal structure needs to be held to do the work that our political leaders can't or won't do. This meeting is not one for anecdotes, hyperbole or attacks.
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Need help: Create Net Discussion on creating New Legal Code1 Reply
Hi David,
This is certainly an interesting idea. I'm assuming you are talking about laws written in Congress? A few people in the transparency community have been brainstorming about doing something like this: a public-facing, real-time, open source, tracked, with the ability to diff versions, collaborative structure. You'll likely find quite a bit of reluctance inside Congress--most of these negotiations happen face-to-face and in committee meetings (it takes months to actually write a bill with many people involved), not necessarily over email or with track changes on a Word document. Actually if you look on GovTrack, you'll see that a bill was introduced in Congress: H.R. 946: Plain Writing Act of 2010, http://www.govtrack....d?bill=h111-946, and has passed the House. The Sunlight Foundation is leading the charge for transparency and government, for example, they are making amazing progress on earmark transparency: http://blog.sunlight...k-transparency/ Another useful resource is law.gov. This initiative is being run by Carl Malamud, who is one of the pioneers of making public records available online. As far as a forum to start this conversation, I think you could start by gathering a number of friends and colleagues who are interested in this cause. Or perhaps host an unconference or go to an event like Transparency Camp (http://transparencycamp.org/). Good luck! Laurel |
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