A project in political innovation

Forums › IT Pro and developers › A project in political innovation – Volunteers sought

mcraenz

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#312076 14-Mar-2024 22:27

Kia ora Folks,

My name is Rhys Goodwin, I’m a solution architect and project manager with about 24 years of experience in IT. I’m also a student of politics, halfway through a degree in politics and international relations at Massey Uni. In 2017 I got involved with The Opportunities Party (TOP) and I led their IT team for a time. Having this exposure I soon came to see that the way we are doing politics in New Zealand is not fit for purpose. I came to realise that every single political party we have is focused on getting votes not on distributing political power to citizens. I.e. they are chiefly concerned with the agenda of the party’s inner circle, their image, and what they think will “capture” votes.

Over the last few years, I’ve been developing ideas for new concept political party which exists purely to bring people with different views together to find common ground and collectively build policy. For example, through digital participation, micro participation etc. I’m now building a volunteer team to get the idea off the ground.

This is a highly experimental and unbelievably difficult project. Getting involved carries a substantial risk of wasted effort if we fail. On the other hand, if we succeed, I believe the implications could be massive for the way we do politics in New Zealand.

We’re looking for someone with strong web design skills and experience to join our team. Building and presenting content is critical in this early phase. But as much as we’re looking for technical skill, we’re looking for someone who resonates with this concept to help us further develop these ideas.

Even if web design is not your gig, if this project piques your interest and you’d like to contribute or get involved in other ways, please reach out.

This is an opportunity to play an important role in a ground-breaking project which could transform the way we do politics in Aotearoa New Zealand.

More info and contact details can be found on the project website:

https://political.nz/

Kind Regards,
Rhys

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

pih

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#3206499 15-Mar-2024 07:39

For many years now I've wanted to be more involved in politics, but couldn't bear the thought of it. This sounds like a fantastic way to be more involved and more engaged without the politics of traditional politics. Following with interest.

mcraenz

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#3206516 15-Mar-2024 08:49

Thanks Pih. "Without the politics of traditional politics" - Love it!

One way to keep an eye on progress, and contribute, with almost zero effort is to join the TallyUp.

I appreciate the encouragement.

Cheers,
Rhys

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

freitasm

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#3206521 15-Mar-2024 09:11

I see you are using Cloudflare already. I was going to volunteer to help move to it and manage it if needed but this seems to be taken care of for now.

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freitasm

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#3206523 15-Mar-2024 09:14

Also, have you looked at Project Galileo | Cloudflare ?

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mcraenz

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#3206672 15-Mar-2024 13:35

Thanks Mauricio! No, I was not aware of Project Galileo, will definitely explore that. At this stage we're just using the free plan. With your experience running a publicly facing app, it would be great to chat, if you had some time at some stage.

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MichaelNZ

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#3215287 7-Apr-2024 14:24

This sounds interesting @mcraenz

I have been involved on and off in political circles for a long time. My last engagement was with a centrist political party which burst on the scene a few years ago and then folded shortly after the 2020 election, subsequent to some internal issues (which i had no involvement in)

Years ago the Greens were into grass roots participation but there has long been that friction between the red faction and the green faction and it seems the red side prevailed in may ways including scrapping the 50/50 male/female leadership rule.

I am also cautious of "tyranny of the masses". This has most recently been used by the conservative religious right to whip up prejudice against segments of the rainbow community, however, the left are also just as much into using the same strategies for their own ends.

We have seen in the past few years how the media can be bought off and used to push political narratives which are objectively biased or even false.

So I must admit to having mixed feelings about the quality of mass participation. Discourse is good when the participants have something useful to contribute as opposed to just pushing for something on account of pure ideology.

I have had a brief look at your website and not entirely clear what it is but happy to engage.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

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mcraenz

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#3215307 7-Apr-2024 15:58

Hi @MichaelNZ,

Yes, the tyranny of the masse is genuine concern. We're working currently on a set of guiding principles, one of which is shaping up something like this:

Good Faith. Listening. Truth Seeking.
We emphasise an ethos of good faith and listening. That is, we invite people to join the discussion with a genuine openness to hearing other points of view and expressing their own in an open way.

This does not preclude robust debate, but we want the debate to be focused on finding truths about how to best set up our country to flourish.

We don’t ask anyone to abandon their beliefs but rather, invite them to bring their beliefs to the mix in a constructive way. It seems abundantly clear that we need a good mix of left and right ideas.

We can’t dictate the attitude participants bring, but we can weave this theme through everything we do, and we have faith that there is a substantial number of people willing to adopt this ethos.

"...your website and not entirely clear what it is". Yep, this is very helpful feedback. This is our key challenge at the moment - articulating and presenting the ideas in a way that is easy to digest and understand.

In any case, I'll PM you and we can make a time for a chat.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

tweake

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#3215328 7-Apr-2024 17:44

mcraenz:

Good Faith. Listening. Truth Seeking.
We emphasise an ethos of good faith and listening. That is, we invite people to join the discussion with a genuine openness to hearing other points of view and expressing their own in an open way.

This does not preclude robust debate, but we want the debate to be focused on finding truths about how to best set up our country to flourish.

We don’t ask anyone to abandon their beliefs but rather, invite them to bring their beliefs to the mix in a constructive way. It seems abundantly clear that we need a good mix of left and right ideas.

We can’t dictate the attitude participants bring, but we can weave this theme through everything we do, and we have faith that there is a substantial number of people willing to adopt this ethos.

could you give an example of the how the system operates?

mcraenz

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#3215375 7-Apr-2024 22:21

Hi @tweake, discovering how the system should operate is exactly what the project is all about. At this stage we’re pulling the ideas together to see if we can get sufficient support to develop it further and ultimately build into a political party.

The infographic at the top of the website gives some indication of how it could work, but I’m not sure if it really gives a good clear overview. I’d be keen to hear some feedback on this, what we could do better, and what key questions are unanswered by the current website.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz