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Ron Paul still in fight for higher delegate count.

• April 22nd, 2008

.....a stunning GRASSROOTS REVOLT!..... a chance to return to the traditional core values and principles that made our country great: (details)

• April 17, 2008

  US & CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS RENAMING "NORTH AMERICAN UNION" TO FOOL CITIZENS: (details)

This is a brilliant idea! Read synopsis in the left column. (Ron Cadby)

---------- Forwarded message --------------------------------
From: Matt Whitlock
Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 7:09 PM
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Subject: A new tool to carry the Ron Paul R3volution forward

I recognize that much scrambling is going on in the movement to build something to replace the costly Meetup system.  My take on this, from what I have been able to gather, is unconventional.  All of the potential solutions out there that I have seen, and most that I have heard about, continue with the concept of groups.

Groups form a hierarchical structure.  They establish divisions, or boundaries, between subsets of the population. When attempting to organize atop an existing bureaucracy, such as the Republican Party, groups divided by state and county make sense.  However, when attempting to organize an organic, grassroots movement, the group divisions are essentially arbitrary.  I therefore think we should consider alternatives to perpetuating the artificial boundaries that the group structure imposes.

* The alternative that I envision is a communications network based not on groups but rather on locations and distances.* Unless I'm writing on an issue pertaining specifically to my county, I don't really want to talk to everyone in my county, but rather only to those people who are within a particular distance of myself, which could very well include people in other counties!  *For some topics I want to reach only people very nearby, and for other topics I want to reach a larger area.*  On the receiving end, I don't always care about events going on clear on the other side of my county (counties in Florida are large), so I would prefer to "dial down" the messages I receive to include only those originating closer to myself.

Such a system wouldn't replace the group-centric system of Meetup or Google Groups, but would instead be a parallel system serving a different purpose.  Many discussions need to take place on a county or state level, and those discussions should be held via the group system, whichever one or ones we wind up choosing.  However, many discussions would be better focused around individual locations with no regard for arbitrary political boundaries.

As a software engineer, I naturally had to implement this idea I've had.  The active and fully-functional system can now be found at www.freedomfortress.net.

In the coming weeks, I will be working on adding an event system to Freedom Fortress.  This will allow users to place a pin on the map, choose a date, and enter a description of their event.  Then members within a given distance of that event will receive notification of the event via email.  Members will additionally be able to select a range of dates from a calendar widget and see the corresponding events on the map.  Clicking one of the pins on the map will pop up a bubble showing the description of the event.

Another idea, which Nathan Estey, organizer of the National Ron Paul Organizers Meetup, came up with and related to me, is a member directory.  Members could optionally choose to be published in the directory and could enter some keywords related to their profession and skills.  Then other members could search the map by keyword to locate members with a particular skill.

And all of this operates without the need for segregating the member population into groups.

I think there is great value in having one of our own build the tools we will use to organize and communicate.  Literally anything is possible, and we won't have company XYZ telling us, "deal with it," when we mention a shortcoming or request a new feature.

I would enjoy your feedback and thoughts about the concept.

In liberty,

Matt Whitlock
Software Engineer
Gainesville Ron Paul Meetup Group Coordinator
University of Florida Ron Paul Meetup Group Coordinator

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