
O'Reilly donating ebook "Open Government" as a tribute to Aaron Swartz - code_chimp
https://github.com/oreillymedia/open_government
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thangalin
I'd like to see more than an Open Government. I'd like to see a web site
developed where people read about issues of interest, learn about the benefits
and drawbacks to upcoming policies at a centralized location, see how those
policies affect budgets (federal, provincial, or municipal), and provide a
simple voting mechanism to get a general sense of how agreeable people find
the policy. More than that, it would be amazing if people could contribute to
the discussion in a moderated fashion (with moderators selected at random, for
random intervals of time, to avoid herd-mentality).

Something like this:

1\. [https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Interests%...](https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Interests%20Page)

2\. [https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Policy%20P...](https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Policy%20Page)

3\. [https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Debate%20P...](https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Debate%20Page)

4\. [https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Supporting...](https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-
politics/wiki/Supporting%20Page)

For anyone curious about the project, check out:

<https://bitbucket.org/djarvis/world-politics/>

~~~
Tichy
I'm torn on the issue. In my view a politician is actually a service provider
doing the mundane tasks I can't be bothered to do. It would be a huge waste of
time if a majority of people had to keep up to date on all political issues.

Most of the current "internet voting" systems provide a way to delegate votes,
but often those are delegated indefinitely and lead to power concentrations on
a few active people.

~~~
petercooper
I'm not dumb and I even have the time, but I'd still give proxy to someone who
I thought serious understood the issue at hand (so, say, an economist for
economic issues). Unfortunately, we currently get the worst of all worlds,
representative democracy where the decision makers are career politicians and
rarely experts in anything. A representative technocracy would suit me.

~~~
Tichy
I don't see a way around it (doesn't mean there isn't one), because how would
you identify the economics expert? Seems to me it would still boil down to
marketing, the "expert" who advertises himself the best would win. Obviously
that advertising could not happen in terms of presenting economics knowledge,
because few people would understand it. So the advertising would be in things
people understand, like looks, presentation skills, charme... So basically
just what already happens.

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ouroboros
for a split second there I read this as Papa Bear O'Reilly donating the book.
During that split second my brain was almost fried trying to make sense of how
he could have written a book titled "Open Government"

~~~
orionblastar
There are two O'Reillys, one good, another one evil.

Papabear O'Reilly does not give out free ebooks.

Tim O'Reilly gives out free ebooks and even gives out free ebooks if you own
the old paper book and enter the ISBN number on his site. Also OReilly ebooks
are DRM free as well.

~~~
sajes
I'm not seeing where to enter the ISBN. Could you point me in the right
direction please?

EDIT: I've found where you register print books, but it claims you have to pay
$5 to "upgrade" to the ebook version.

~~~
orionblastar
It used to be free. I guess they added the $5 fee?

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juddlyon
That's a nice gesture by O'Reilly. Salute.

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wamatt
Kudos for a thoughtful gesture from O'Reilly.

It does make one wonder, has openness in Government increased under the
current administration or not?

While the reality might remain elusive, my sense is, at a minimum, the
_perception_ of openness, has strengthened with the public.

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egeozcan
This is such a nice gesture! However I have a (maybe small) concern: They use
creative commons no derivative license. Doesn't that make forking pointless,
if not a breach of terms?

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LuisD
Is it on ResearchGate? <http://www.researchgate.net>

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grogenaut
They mean Bill not Tim.

