Imagine an alternative internet as a dual-power democratic compass.

Imagine an alternative internet as a dual power democratic compass –a re-imagining of social networking, journalism, democracy, and connectivity itself, amongst other things.

Imagine an alternative internet designed around allowing anyone to create a portal or page for whatever issue they are concerned about. Attached to each issue portal there could be polls, forums, journalism, and archives of all the statistics and writings which get gathered through this process.

Imagine an alternative internet as non-governmental democracy infrastructure based around open access to information. Statistics on how many people support or oppose any and all issues would be open to everyone. Polling statistics would be gathered from all open sources as well as through re-imagined social networking aspects of this alternative internet. Imagine non-governmental democracy as involving interconnected open-access archives.

Imagine networks of solidarity separate from all government and business interests with check-and-balance powers in relation to governments and corporations. The facts of who is fore or opposed to every issue could be contrasted with what governments do in those cases. This network would serve the purpose of giving people a place to go to have their voices heard, archived, and retrievable on any issue.

Imagine something which can be continuously developed and changed by participants, so it could serve different functions as time progresses and it could be different things to different people. It could be primarily an activism-oriented social network; it could be primarily a new framework for journalism –with stories linked to specific issues which would have discussions and polls ongoing, archived, and accessible for analysis by anyone; it could be primarily about discussions concerning specific issues; it could be primarily about polling; it could be primarily about freedom of information –having the facts of what specific numbers of people think about a vast array of specific issues.  These facts could then be used to petition governments or corporations to change their ways, but just as important would be the use of transparent and freely accessible information as a cornerstone for building new societies.

Swarj –no submission and no exploitation.

What does it mean to work together as equals? It involves a shared commitment to resisting the systems of oppression which exist in subtle interactions and glaring power dynamics. It involves resisting the perks of being in a privileged position over others. It also involves refusing to be oppressed by others. In the words of Vinoba Bhave –who carried Gandhi’s torch,

If I am under some other person’s command, where is my own self-government? Self-government means ruling over your own self. It is one mark of swaraj not to allow any outside power in the world to exercise control over oneself. And the second mark of swaraj is not to exercise power over any other. These two things together make swaraj –no submission and no exploitation.    [Domestic values. Quoted in Anarchism Today. The MacMIllian Press. 1971. Edited by B.E Apter and James Joll.]