Can Politics Be Collaborative?

2016 has been a year of uncertainty and discontent in world politics. Many people dear to us are sad, angry or scared. Almost no one seems satisfied with their politics and their leaders. That goes both for the losing camp and the winning one. We consider this contrast and wonder. As a culture, we are getting better at working together in diversity. Why does this not translate into more constructive politics? As we looked into this, we realised that our default frame for politics is combat. There are opponents and allies. Its protagonists focus on winning. This is understandable but useless, except maybe as a spectator sport.

The instinctive response in a democracy is to get together, talk about it and then decide what to do. However, large deliberative processes require a lot of your time. And while you are in the assembly, 90% of your time is spent listening to others as opposed to getting things done. Also they reward people who are good at rhetoric. Exactly the wrong kind of leader to get into power.

Another problem is that they are very hackable. Deliberative processes are essentially an assembly in the Agora. The Agora is the centre. If you capture the centre you capture everything. Putin’s supposed meddling in US elections...let’s say it wouldn’t be the first time. This gem is an excerpt from a declassified 1944 CIA manual on how to sabotage productivity in group processes:

The post- truth scenario changes everything. Whom do you trust when every http packet is potentially the carrier of a lie?

What does it take for an idea to spread from one to many? For a minority opinion to become the majority belief? According to a new study by scientists at the  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the answer is 10%. Once 10% of a population is committed to an idea, it’s inevitable that it will eventually become the prevailing opinion of the entire group.  -Minority Rules: Why 10 Percent is All You Need

Could there be another space to get down to building? A terrain so hyperlocal and fragmented as to be too expensive for narcissistic strongmen and Machiavellian schemers to enter? A move so lateral that it will not even exist in the same space as post-truth politics? Over the past five years, Edgeryders have been working towards what we believe to be a credible plan, by prototyping and testing its different components. We feel it’s time to “come out” and open what we are doing for anyone and everyone who wishes to explore these paths into the future with us...

We propose a new kind of connective layer as an enabler of social and political renewal. One that is distributed, hyper-local and transnational at the same time. We draw our inspiration from the coral reefs. Reefs are a connective layer that consists of physical structures in different places built by small entities embedded in water. These “rainforests of the sea” are some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. They flourish in ocean waters that provide few nutrients. What makes coral reefs especially interesting as a model are two attributes:

• They are held together by a simple physical structure that can be produced by colonies of tiny animals.
• Even though they only occupy 0.1 % of the world’s ocean surface they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species

Using these beautiful and fragile structures as a model, Edgeryders is building a network of appropriate physical infrastructure in different locations, embedded in an online conversation equipped with collective sensemaking tools. Over the next year we want to:

• Inventory Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and North America for promising bottom-up solutions running below the radar.
• Prototype a “reef", a collaborative distributed thriving landscape of inter-operable projects and processes.
• Equip local communities to build sustainable practices to satisfy material, social and directional needs of their members.
• Support participants to translate the experience-based insights about what works into constructive political demands backed by new constituencies.
• Develop an appropriate governance model and fair social contract.
• Raise funds to support/invest in the development of the Reef.

Our first Reef initiative, OpenCare, is focused on supporting people and initiatives contributing towards making health- and social care accessible for all, open source, privacy-friendly and participatory.

We are currently evaluating different revenue and sustainability models with partner organisations, community members and supporters. If you would like to know more, write to nadia@edgeryders.eu .