Unity08. A people's movement to take our country back.

Where can one go now to be constructive in the Unity 08 effort?

The "shoutbox" has clearly outlived it's usefulness and becoming more trivialized everyday. I doubt that a newcomer would see moderation, centerist, or bipartisanship as the focus of discussion. Certainly very little gravitation to such on any given issue.

Having a poliferation of links, blogs,and 'wiki' may enhance separation where (unlike a political party) there is no define means of reconvening.

The call for a concise and consensus 'American Agenda' to drive the movement forward has been put forward. The Founder should consider a select committee of delegate shoutout contributors to formalize such an agenda as quickly as possible.

Bill"for what we are together"

When is the next "livechat" and have sent any mail (snail or e ) to delegates lately????

http://journals.aol.com/kweinschen/Veritas/

What makes you think the Unity08 founders AREN't reading this?

Based on the quality of most of the posts I've read, they are probably reconsidering the whole thing.

http://journals.aol.com/kweinschen/Veritas/

Is it too early for you to post a list of say the top ten items most often mentioned by those discussing the issues? I realize this would take some time and you are understaffed, but it seems like the wind has left the sails here. Seems like we just keep rehashing the same items over and over. And I do agree with Trombone Erik we are seeing some good minds drop out. Sincerely, a humble opinion.

A Mo South Independent

Founders/Web Team:

My understanding is that the site would be upgraded in a major way in "early 2024" - and we just flipped the calendar over to February. February could still be considered "early." March... maybe not so much. Definitely not April. I'm concerned that we're losing momentum as well as some very thoughtful contriubtors.

PLEASE give us an update on the home page - above the fold!

The more specific you can get with tools and dates the better.
(I am particularly interested in post-by-post voting as well as tools for forming the American Agenda).

Thanks in Advance

Mark & Trombone Erik:

GOOD POINTS I HOPE THEY ARE LISTENING1

Okay, Founders,

Since I've been pretty tough on you in this and other forums, I wanted to let you know that your efforts on the main page have not gone unnoticed. You're starting to build back your credibility.

Unity Members, if you haven't been to the main page in a while (I've been in the habit of entering via the "blog" section), check it out.

Also check out:

http://unity08.com/about/whatsnext_main

and

http://unity08.com/about/whatsnext_newweb

Here's an excerpt:

A more robust web experience

After the first of the New Year, we will launch an entirely new website that will be best-in-breed and the necessary focal point for a peoples’ movement with aspirations as lofty as winning the White House. It will be everything that is required to build a movement of countless millions of Americans.

***

I'll be honest - I'm still a bit skeptical (I've seen the phrase "We'll have x or y soon" too many times), but I'm hanging tough here. I would continue to press for getting cyber representation on the steering committee. You've got a pretty smart audience here. They know the difference between the appearance of participation and actual participation.

I'll also be getting involved in the Clean Campaign Financing effort in my state. If I got nothing else from this site, it was the opportunity for an interactive edumacation on how - and what form of - public campaign financing can get us out of this mess.

Still routin' for ya.

Sorry 'bout that - interupted by a client call, came back and hit "post," duh?...

At least the traditional fear-mongers have a plan or program they're trying to get funded. Here? I don't see it. Seems the Founders think we've accomplished enough in this little screamfest going here to be treated like a Major Party. And we're not trying to be a Party at all? Huh?

Mark Greene
Texas Democrat in the Middle

At least the traditional fear-mongers have a plan or program they're trying to get funded. Here? I don't see it. Seems the Founders think we've accomplished enough in this

I don't keep up - aren't Nikes passe' by now? LOL

Mark Greene
Texas Democrat in the Middle

Amen, Sketch

I got the same email.

Does the Unity Communication Team think we collectively just fell off the turnip truck?

It was discouraging to receive a Unity 08 'emergency' fundraising message today about the evil FEC's ruling, which upon reading "more" (very little more) apparently limited contributions to $5000, a limit U08 had alreadt imposed upon itself.

This kind of "mad at Washington" is little better than the establishment parties' fear mongering and appeals to baser human emotions including hatred of the outsider (anyone who is not "us"). And it leaves the impression that money is needed to "fight" Washington that only makes me think at least some of it would go to someone in Washington (a lawyer, a lobbyist?) to reprsent "us". Or "boots on the ground" somewhere. Which sounds faintly military to me. I cannot tell from this appeal if the money is for a lobbyist or a new pair of Nike's for somebody's kid. Why not be straight with us?

I suggest that those appealing for money try a rational appeal and present a web page presenting a plan, and how money would be spent in this plan, rather than proclaiming an 'emergency' to 'fight Washington'.

Respectfully Submitted,

Sketch

I encourage all of you to read the update provided by U08 Founder, Doug Bailey. You can find it in the U08 blog.

The posting provides an update on U08 activities that are currently in progress, so it doesn't address the question of including web community members on the U08 Steering Committee. However, this idea has been brought to the attention of U08 leadership and is under consideration.

If you have any follow-up questions to Doug's post (I'd be disappointed if you didn't!), please comment directly to the blog or post them here.

U08Moderator1, thank you for your response.

I am heartened to know there is some recognition that the technical side of the site needs a lot of improvement. Bravo.

I would also like the Founder's Blog / Response to include the recognition that the Cyber Members of this site are a valuable resource and MUST be represented in a concrete way.

Which is why I'm still signing all my posts:

No Donation without Representation!
Vote to put 3 Cyber Members on the Steering Committee

Thanks for your feedback. At least now we know that there's someone on the other end. If your resources are limited you should put a call out to some of us whose opinions are consistent with the U8 goal. We'd like to help move this forward and will donate time.

Jack Lohman
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

Just a quick message to let you know that your concerns, ideas and questions are not going unheard. A U08 Founder will respond in short order. On the technical side, we are in complete agreement that the shoutbox and other areas of the site need to be improved/expanded to allow for better interactivity. To make sure we allocate limited resources wisely (this is a grassroots organization), we'll probably open it up to the web community to help us identify and prioritize the improvements needed. Stay tuned on both fronts. Thank you for your continued patience and involvement!

... and my Unity contact emailed me to let me know what went wrong. Their spam-blocker thought my posting title was some kind of sales pitch!

To prove to her that no good deed goes unpunished, I emailed back and asked her to PUH-LEASE have the Founders post SOMEWHERE in this forum!

In case you haven't checked out the Squidoo Vote , lately: - we're at:

9 - In Favor
0 - Opposed

I'm also emailing a real person on the web team about my "unable to post" glitch on another Forum. I'll post here if I hear anything...

No Donation without Representation!
VOTE to put 3 Cyber Members on the Steering Committee

Well guys, I sent an email asking U8 leaders where they are and why they are not responding to the participants. Zero response, I guess that tells us a lot about their motives. I'll not send another penny until I see action.

Jack Lohman
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

As well, I'd like to see an accounting of the money I send them:

Are the founders volunteers or paid?

Where are they spending the money?

Jack Lohman
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

The only interaction I have seen is the founders' steady requests for support money. Having already contributed and speading the U8 site around in my newsletters (getting to about 1000 people), I'm about ready to pull the plug. If their only interest is collecting money, I'm gone.

Jack Lohman
www.ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

Throughout this site I see various expressions of pure exasperation that this movement... well, isn't moving!

1)Where are we going?
2)What do we stand for?
3)How do we get the Founders to respond?
4)HEY! Is this thing &@#$!-ing thing on?!!

The following is my latest attempt to channel that energy and frustration into something productive:

A poll:

Do you want to elect 3 cyber members to the steering committee?

Yes or No.

Here's the link: http://www.squidoo.com/UnityCyberReps/

If you want to recruit more members to the cause, put this link in your postings throughout the site:

http://unity08.com/node/435

***

This is not about my ego - or anybody else's. Nobody is "running for office" here. This is about energizing and growing the movement.

The internet is THE disruptive technology of this century that can get this country out of this ugly mess, where the laws of the land are simply sold to the highest bidder - the voters be damned. Unity'08 can lead that change, or end up in the dust-bin of missed opportunities.

No, Doug - I'm not suggesting you're a "Commie" :-)> or any of the rest of your colleagues. I just feel like there has been a barrier building between the "powers that be" and those of us "in cyberland." So, I support Jennifer's idea as penned (typed).

I would also add to it by asking the founders to have a locked topic "From the Founders" - to be posted on a DAILY (you heard me) basis in this Forum.

This would not be about politics "out there," but stuff going on right here in Unity '08. State of finances, membership, web site hits, number of posts, etc. And, of course, responses to stuff in this "Ask Unity '08 Founders" forum - and would be posted ONLY by the founders. This would give us a central place to go to find out what's going on.

What say you, sir?

It occured to me that another way to get intereractive would be to make Unity08 itself partially run by the users of this site. (Here is a link to the updated version of the plan about to be proposed, which will probably evolve before and if it gets buy from Unity08 insiders.)

A while back, the Governance of Unity08 page announced:

"The Steering Committee of Unity08 (technically the Board of Directors of the 527) currently consists of Bailey, Clayton, Rafshoon and Ullman. It soon will be expanded to seven members. The Unity08 president and CEO is Jim Jonas."

What I was thinking is that every two months the people on this site could elect someone into one of those three vacant spots on the Steering Committee for a six month term based mostly on how much we liked the person when they campaigned for the job *online* including on this site. There would always be four "safe insiders" to overrule the other three "rabble supported steering committee members" but if the four weren't unified then the rabble (that would be us) would actually have influence over Unity08 decisions :-) So it's safe... but it could be meaningful in like a straight power politics way.

Suppose the elections were held for two weeks, online, starting this November... the election schedule would look like: Nov06, Jan07, Mar07, May07*, Jul07, Sep07, Nov07, Jan08, Mar08, May08, Jul08, Sep08, Nov08.

The "*" shows that we could have people running for reelection as soon as May of 2024: Talk about a situation where representatives are "brutally accountable to the people" :-)

It's an open question to me whether this would be good in terms of governance of the Unity08. "We rabble" might honestly not be that good at electing competant decisionmakers to the Steering committee, but it would definitely be putting our money where out mouth was as far as "net politics" goes... and it would everyone else's online participation meaningful in a way that it isn't right now.

And speaking of money... if we wanted to really juice this movement up we might tie the voting to making a $20 donation ($120 a year to vote every two months) to Unity08 so that the organization has votes from "actual real people" who are really helping the movement grow (which is sorta what we need to do... exponentially fast... during all of 2024).

Obviously there's lots of details to fill with this plan. If you want to work on them by simply editing the plan itself (follow the link and click on the "edit" tab) then feel free :-) (it might be helpful to get a login for plan editing, or you can just do it anonymously).

-JenniferForUnity

To paraphrase my friend JenniferForUnity:

Good software is hard. It takes time and a lot of resources. You also need a "cultural bridge" (a management-tech person) between the political folks and the code writers if you want to get things done.

It was strongly hinted by the "Web Team" back on July 11th that post-by-post voting (one component of the functionality that is needed here) would be available "soon." I believe this statement was made in good faith, but they didn't fully appreciate the enormity of the task. (Well, was that it? Let us know...).

So, Sir & Madam Unity Founders, go out and find an existing forum software platform! Here are two:

IKONBOARD.com
phpBB.com

Let us know if you find something that scales to the 50 thousand hits per day mark, for now. We'll work on a million hits per day as we build momentum (we'll probably have more $ at that point...).

Neither one of these platforms has the post-by-post voting feature, yet, but I'm convinced they would add it if enough people lobby them.

So, Unity'08 members: Keep posting here (thanx a ton, Mark and smhiott!). I've also created a poll on the IKONBOARD Suggested Features section on adding a post-by-post voting feature to that platform.

If you have time, post a comment below the poll after you vote. Be sure to say that you’re from Unity08!

Cheers,
Erik