StrypeyJul 20, 2023

"If you're only prepared to make popular decisions as a leader though, then what is the point of leadership? It's not really leadership is it. It's just focus-grouping. It's just polling. Instead of laying out a platform, debating its merits, and pursuing a really distinct vision, you might as well just have a smartphone app or a website, on which everyone votes for every little policy."

#JakeTame, 2023

Quoted in Midweek #MediaWatch on #RNZ:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018898749/midweek-mediawatch-too-much-information-too-soon

#NZPolitics #leadership

Midweek Mediawatch - too much information too soon?

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about intense coverage of a mother accused of killing her children - and the media finally covering the crimes of Sir James Wallace. Also: Tova O’Brien returning to the media as some senior news editors depart; the media response to the PM ruling out wealth taxes - and the tabloid scoop giving the BBC a big headache.

RNZ
Show threadStrypeyJul 20, 2023

> a smartphone app or a website, on which everyone votes for every little policy

Sounds good to me. We could eliminate an expensive layer of besuited spokesmodels and PR spindoctors, who provide no real value to anyone but themselves. Instead, public servants could carry out whatever policies get a supermajority in a weekly of monthly batch of digital referenda.

#LiquidFeedback anyone?

Show threadSteven Ensslen Jul 20, 2023

@strypey
The preconditions for people voting via the internet include:

1) eliminating the digital divide

2) making the internet secure, so that people's aged devices can be proved to be casting the intended votes

3) providing physical security to every person while they vote so that they are not intimidated by those with power in their environment.

We closer to having a perfect voting system now than we are to being able to have a functional internet voting system.

Show threadpollo
A great paper on this from Andrew J. Appel, "Ceci n'est pas une Urne" (Available in english and french):
https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/urne.html
Italian translation:
https://noblogo.org/rresoli/questa-non-e-unurna
Ceci n'est pas une urne

Jul 22, 2023 at 5:45amWeb
Show threadStrypeyJul 23, 2023

@pollo
> A great paper on this from Andrew J. Appel

Appel's conclusion depends on a few assumptions, eg the voting software being proprietary, rather than independently-auditable Free Code. Also, see:

"With the web environment integrity API, websites will be able to request a token that attests key facts about the environment their client code is running in. For example, this API will show that a user is operating a web client on a secure Android device."

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md

@ensslen

Web-Environment-Integrity/explainer.md at main · RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity

Contribute to RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadpolloJul 23, 2023
@strypey
@ensslen

> Appel's conclusion depends on a  few assumptions, eg the voting software being proprietary, rather than independently-auditable Free Code.

Not at all. The key point is that "Ceci n'est pas une urne". The Urne has to be transparent.

Voting procedure have to be verifiable and understandable by *everyone*, not in the hands of a few technolgy experts.