The Emergence of the Networked Information Economy
The most advanced economies in the world today have made two parallel shifts that, paradoxically, make possible a significant attenuation (loss of strength) of the limitations that market-based production places on the pursuit of the political values central to liberal societies.
The first move, in the making for more than a century, is to an economy centered on information (financial services, accounting, software, science) and cultural (films, music) production, and the manipulation of symbols (from making sneakers to branding them and manufacturing the cultural significance of the Swoosh).
The first shift means that these new patterns of production – nonmarket and radically decentralized – will emerge, if permitted, at the core, rather than the periphery of the most advanced economies.
The second is the move to a communications environment built on cheap processors with high computation capabilities,interconnected in a pervasive network – the phenomenon we associate with the Internet.
It is this second shift that allows for an increasing role for nonmarket production in the information and cultural production sector, organized in a radically more decentralised pattern than was true of this sector in the twentieth century.
It promises to enable social production and exchange to play a much larger role, alongside property-and market-based production, than they ever have in modern democracies.
Transparent and verifiable elections">Transparent and verifiable elections
I’ve just watched David Bismark’s presentation on Ted and wonder which African country is going to use this method first?
It solves a number of vital issues. By blending a sophisticated ballot paper, digital scanners, 2D bar-codes and computers a process is created that enables transparent and verifiable elections.
1) Voter intimidation
If you’re standing in a voting booth in Zimbabwe or the Sudan thinking about who to vote for you can rest assured that you’ll be concerned that the heavy in the corner is going to check your vote and see if you voted ‘right’. Davids process includes a ballot paper with a perforation down the middle that allows the candidate list to be separated from your selection and encrypted value making it impossible to see who you voted for.
2) Vote accuracy and verification
By scanning the encrypted bar-code and counting your encrypted vote computers do the heavy lifting of counting and publishing the results securely. Voters are able to take the slip home as a receipt for verification over the web at a later date.