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jethomas5 edited this page Aug 17, 2016 · 2 revisions

Welcome to the Democracy wiki!

Here is the idea -- say you want to create a document that must be just right. Various people have their own concerns about what it should say. You can sit down in a room together and argue about it, and circulate xeroxes, etc.

OR you can use the same tools that software developers use when they write computer programs. They have to have it exactly right, and they have built tools to help them do that.

GitHub is one of those tools. It lets a crowd of people each make his own suggestions, and keeps track of who said what and when they said it. Anybody can accept suggestions from anybody else. We each have our own copy that's written the way we want it. We can each look at any of the others, and at any of their previous versions.

If we have dozens of people and they each have their own version, which one is the official copy? We don't have an official copy unless we choose one. Until we reach an agreement by voting or consensus etc, everybody's latest version is as good as anybody else's latest version.

One of the tools is a "diff". It lets you compare two versions and easily see exactly how they are different.

Another is an "issues reporter". People can report things they think are wrong, and get a "ticket" and their objections will be officially recognized.

There are a variety of automated tools to help track what's going on.

It is easier to stay on top of multiple subtle issues by using software that was designed for coders.

Surely this would be useful for proposed laws, proposed Constitutions, or any documents that must be written carefully with input from multiple people.

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