The new Agore model

In the 6th century, the Agore was a place where citizens discussed, debated and made consensus based on popular vote. Population explosion, technology advancements and cultural issues have impacted how we create this Agore that existed in the past. A new agora has been developed that combines the power of human capital and social capital with cyberspace capital, to produce new ways to collaborate. However, this is only possible for those who become masters of the collaborative mode of human association, which is essential to optimum development in cyberspace (Schreibman and Christakis). Part of this new agore defines the "Erroneous Priorities Effect" (EPE), which suggests that "even with good intentions for participative democracy, people cannot collectively walk the talk unless we change the paradigm for languaging and voting."

As part of this new agore model, 6 laws have been outlined, which are:


1. Appreciation of the diversity of perspectives of observers is essential to embrace the many dimensions of a complex situation.
2. Disciplined dialogue is required so that observers are not subjected to information overloaded.
3. The relative importance of an observer's ideas can be understood only when they are compared with others in the group.
4. Meaning and wisdom of an observer's ideas are produced in a dialogue only when they begin to understand the relationships such as similarity, priority, influence, etc., of different people's ideas.
5. Every person matters, so it is necessary to protect the autonomy and authenticity of each observer in drawing distinctions.
6. Evolutionary learning occurs in a dialogue as the observers learn how their ideas relate to one another.

These 6 laws should also be considered when evaluating innovative technologies.

Two Forces:
Technological and Cultral - Technology advancements and cultural issues have impacted how we create this Agore that existed in the past. A new agora has been developed that combines the power of human capital and social capital with cyberspace capital, to produce new ways to collaborate.
 

Reference:
Vigdor Schreibman and Alexander N. Christakis, New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging And New Technology of Democracy: The Structured Design Dialogue Process.

Evan