The IDCSA website would include all the basic functionalities one would expect to find on both a Social Network website, and a Crowdfunding website. What follows is what I envision as requirements novel to the marriage of these two entities – with special attention to the matrix formed using a geometric progression of groups of 8.
Definitions:
Platform – The Platform is the software necessary (as below) to allow IDCSA (Interactive Database for Cooperative Social Action) to operate as a moderating organization allowing individuals to rally around various causes with the end of making their proposed Goals a reality.
Goal – A broad statement of a desired change in Society.
Member – Someone who signs up at www.GoIDCSA.com by selecting a Username and Password.
Goal Group – The Members who choose to rally around a specific Goal.
Chat Group – The Members who are discussing a Goal outside of an 8-PAC.
8-PAC – 8 People in Active Communication using the 8’s Matrix as described at www.MLGov.org.
Core 8-PAC – The initial grouping of 8 Members in a Goal Group. It is also the 1st Level 8-PAC.
Peer – Any of the 7 other Members of someone’s 8-PAC.
Message Box – Where Members go to retrieve messages from the Platform and other Members.
Level – One of the geometrically increasing levels of the 8’s Matrix: 8, 64, 512, 4,096, 32,768, etc. An 11th Level would contain the population of the Earth.
Questionnaire – The primary tool used by Goal Groups to define themselves, and to help form coherent Core 8-PAC’s, leading to unified voices to discuss and arrive at Solutions to realize their Goal.
Delegate – The Member of an 8-PAC chosen by his or her associates to speak for them at the next Level.
The Platform must provide for or allow:
1) Sign in – User Name and Password is required to become a Member.
2) A list of the currently listed Goals is offered the new Member.
3) A Member can choose a Goal from the list, or
4) Add a new Goal to the list.
5) Each Goal shows how many Members are in that Goal Group.
6) A Member is invited to go a general Chat Room (basic Social Network), or to the Chat Room of the Goal Group chosen. That Chat Group is made up of all the Members interested in a specific Goal who have not yet chosen to form Core 8-PAC’s. No Member is barred from any Chat Group.
7) A Member can send a message to another Member, or request to be infoed regarding the statistics of any Goal Group. Since the Platform does not have an email address or other contact information for any Member, the requested data is held for the Member in a Message Box under the Member’s User Name. The Member must go check, and retrieve the message via his or her Password.
8) A Member can request to be assigned to a Core 8-PAC. This is the 1st Level 8-PAC for that Member.
9) By vote the current Members of a forming Core 8-PAC can accept or reject a prospective Member.
10) Once accepted, the new Member is given the Usernames of the other 1 to 7 in his or her Core 8-PAC.
11) All are then invited to meet in a private Chat Room. (The Platform doesn’t know the real identity of any Member – only the User Name and Password.)
12) The first member of a Goal Group gives what he or she thinks is vital data about their objectives as relates to realizing the Goal. This list becomes a Questionnaire for the next Member to arrive. The Questionnaire grows as more Members give up more info about their ideas of realizing the Goal. The Questionnaire shows the percentage of Members answering each question, the degree of agreement, and relative importance of each item (or any sorting of the data the Goal Group requests).
13) Since they are anonymous to each other, Members can communicate only through the website of the Platform – either chatting via text, or by telephony on the Platform.
14) Video conferencing is possible accommodating the 8 participants.
15) Members from lower levels are privy to all the meetings of higher level Groups. But the higher Groups cannot access any data via the Platform regarding lower levels. (Of course anyone in a lower level could publish higher level meetings, but the Platform itself would hold them secure from higher level inspection.)
16) At any time a member can choose to leave his or her Core 8-PAC, or the Goal Group entirely. The platform would keep track of any collapsed Group, and invite new Members to join it – making a new Core 8-PAC. Plus it would reorder higher level 8-PAC’s as needed.
17) At any time the Members of any Goal Group can create and individually fill out a new Questionnaire. At the discretion of the Members of that Goal Group the Platform can then reassign 8-PAC’s, starting with Core 8-PAC’s based on areas of agreement as determined by the Questionnaire and directed by the Members. (The intention is to concentrate areas of harmony at all Levels.)
18) The Platform tracks the Delegate chosen from an 8-PAC, starting from Core 8-PAC’s to the highest level 8-PAC’s created.
19) The platform then groups all Delegates from the 1st Level, or Core 8-PAC’s, forming 2nd Level 8-PAC’s. This process continues until there are no more new Members to form higher Levels.
20) The Platform keeps in its memory any minutes or other documents from any 8-PAC. Any lower 8-PAC can also access those minutes or documents.
21) Goal Groups can choose to make public, or keep private any data regarding their activities.
22) An important aspect of the Platform is that it can seamlessly merge with other Platforms in other locations, forming one worldwide Goal Group from the individual Goal Groups of all Platforms.
23) 8-PAC’s, including Core 8-PAC’s, can be formed across Platforms.
24) Members of a Goal Group can choose to focus on one or more sub-Goals for action before tackling the senior Goal.
25) Any Pledge from any Member is recorded and a total is shown for that Goal Group.
26) Any Donation from any Member is recorded and a total shown for that Goal Group.
27) Each Platform is credited with the moneys donated from its Members.
28) Each Platform sets the percentage of moneys donated to be retained or recovered as its operating expenses.
29) No Platform provides an Escrow Account itself, but it must be able to monitor moneys sent from each Member to any Escrow Account. Perhaps moneys could be sent via Paypal or some other vehicle from the Platform such that the Platform’s percentage is automatically deposited in the Platform’s account.
30) Once a Goal is realized to the satisfaction of the Members of the Goal Group, that Group disappears. As far as the Platform is concerned, it records that a Goal Group of a certain number of Members began and grew until it disbanded – either through failing interest, or successful accomplishment of the Goal. It does not have the identity of any Member.
