INTEGRAL COLLABORATION ACROSS ALL SECTORS AND DIVISIONS

Network Nation is an exploratory collaborative project, emerging from a continung concern with social fragmentation and partisanship, and what appears to be chronic paralysis/gridlock in governance. The name for the project comes from a visionary 1978 book on computer communications that anticipated much of today's internet.

Network Nation is an ambitious and interdisciplinary vision, with many moving parts, combining insights from diverse sectors of human thinking and community.

Our proposed solution for gridlock and fragmentation is to suggest a new kind of container for the American conversation, taking a form that enables participation "by anyone, from anywhere, at any time," and governed by an informed and holistic vision of community, as well as by specialized expertise in the community.

We are combining everything known about group process and network science to help develop an enlightened people's movement supporting "Government of the People, by the People, for the People" -- as a way to help prevent this high ideal, in the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, from "perishing from the earth".

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/network-nation

These themes are topics of conversation. Each links to a polling/survey process where you can enter and edit the choices.

Click Respond to become involved.

		Building the Transpartisan Movement Please check off elements of the transpartisan movement that you feel are important or might wish to personally support. Please add any additional elements that do not yet appear on this list.
		Fundamentals of Alliance Development What is involved in developing an effective alliance in a context of high diversity?
		Grassroots Movement Building How can we use the internet to build a substantial people's movement, that can echo the original impact of the Occupy movement, and build on what was learned?
		Grassroots Movement Building Let's gather the fundamental principles of a new people's movement, and explore ways to form an agreement based on them. Let's put everything into the center of the room and comb through it over and over again until it is as simple as we can make it.
		Grassroots Movement Building Is there some primary or "best" or "most natural" or "simplest" way to convene the process of collective deliberation across multiple levels of scale? If so, what might its principles be?
		Great Transition Initiative Part 5. These points on the Great Transition have been excerpted from the email/web discussion. Which of these statements do you support? Please check off all points where you agree, and offer an edited version where you would agree if the wording were slightly amended.
		Great Transition Initiative How can we federate efforts towards a thriving world? How can agency be catalysed and leveraged wherever it may be found to accelerate the process and make sure it keeps on target?
		Living Room Conversations Speaking for yourself, please check off all statements on this list that you personally believe and feel you can affirm.
		Living Room Conversations Conversation guidelines: Please check off points where you feel you can agree. "In this conversation, I will..."
		Network Nation Design What fundamental design issues arise in the context of this project and how should they be approached?
		Network Nation Design What are the "bandwidth" characteristics of various kinds of collective human communications -- including one-on-one, face-to-face, small groups/circles, large groups, conference phone calls, several-day conferences, listserv email, web-boards, written communications, etc.? What are the pros and cos of the various media? What are their relative "channel capacities" -- and why is one medium appropriate in one context and another medium appropriate in a different context, and how can they be successfully interconnected?
		Network Nation Design What are (or should be) the fundamental premises of electronic democracy? How can "the voice of the people" correlated from electronic input be appropriately related to existing institutional structures, and what is its appropriate role? How can we empower collective intelligence -- as might be widely asked -- without risking "rule of the mob"?
		Pattern of the Whole How can we combine the sectors and departments of human thinking into a single wholeness that smoothly interconnects all facets of human experience and understanding?
		Pattern of the Whole How is mandala a symbol for the wholeness of cultural and community life? How does it symbolize wholeness in the individual and in the community, and how do these facets fit together? How can we work together to form and strengthen the "mandala of community"?
		Spirit of the Center Is it possible or even conceivable to convene or invoke the spirit-led guidance of a Quaker meeting in a context as widely distributed and apparently impersonal as the internet?
		Standing Women How can nurturing and sustaining values essential to life be defended and manifested by "Standing Women" - by women anywhere who are willing and able to "stand" for values essential to life and well-being?
		Universal Ethics A "universal code of ethics" is a system of ethics that can apply to every human being. How can we work together to overcome the Babel of cultural diversity and help society establish a widely shared basic ethics?
Home | Topics ONE INTERCONNECTED CONVERSATION In the context of the internet, it is not unreasonable to see this large interconnected process as invoking "one conversation" with many (thousands) of facets and aspects. Our vision of the circular "meeting house" is a symbol for an ideal way to come together. The "Living Room Conversations" project is an example of a national-scale conversation meeting at the local level (coffee house, cafe, living room), inspired by transpartisan values. MEDIATION AND NEGOTIATION There are hundreds or thousands of contentious and difficult issues presently facing the world that should be resolved collaboratively in an informed and enlightened way. We want to encourage a balanced and integral approach to their collective resolution in a context that recognizes interdependence and fluid connectivity between all issues and concerns. GUIDED BY WHOLENESS The guiding vision for the network emerges from the context of wholeness. As individuals, we are guided by wholeness, as we seek to collaborate with one another and work together to weave a world of wholeness. Through our Pattern of the Whole, "everything is connected to everything else". We are beginning to convene this process, and we are excited and appreciative that you have arrived. "Everything guided by wholeness, everything held together though the center, everything resolved through balanced mediation."