Full Circle Associates

Jon Lebkowsky and Mitch Ratcliffe have published their thinking in their new book, Extreme Democracy. It is chock full of Jon and Mitch's work, but also chapters from Clay Shirkey, Joi Ito, Steven Johnson, Howard Rheingold, Valdis Krebs, Ross Mayfield, Phil Windley, Adam Greefield, Ethan Zuckerman, Adina Levin, Aldon Hynes, David Weinberger, Britt Balser and Jay Rosen. Talk about a nice dinner party guest list!

Not only can you buy the book, but you can read it on the site and comment on the text. Each chapter is available in PDF, then there is a blog page to comment on that chapter. Pretty cool. Talk about walking the walk... Congrats, guys! And here is a tantalizing snippet:

"Extreme democracy" is a political philosophy of the information era that puts people in charge of the entire political process. It suggests a deliberative process that places total confidence in the people, opening the policy-making process to many centers of power through deeply networked coalitions that can be organized around local, national and international issues. The choice of the word "extreme" reflects the lessons of the extreme programming movement in technology that has allowed small teams to make rapid progress on complex projects through concentrated projects that yield results far greater than previous labor-intensive programming practices. Extreme democracy emphasizes the importance of tools designed to break down barriers to collaboration and access to power, acknowledging that political realities can be altered by building on rapidly advancing generations of technology and that human organizations are transformed by new political expectations and practices made possible by technology."

Extreme_Democracy, Lebkowsky, Ratcliff, activism