At a workshop sponsored by May First/People Link about 40 activists got together for an exercise in what we called "collaborative democracy". Here's a description of the process written by Co-Director Jamie McClelland and myself.

The workshop centered around a collaborative and democratic process of writing a Declaration of Rights for Internet participants.

We broke into seven groups, with each group speaking with one voice via a "scribe" who was tasked with entering the thoughts and ideas of the group into the web-based system. Like the philosophy of free software on the Internet, there was no ownership of ideas. Once a group submitted an idea, any other group could edit that idea. All revisions were kept, however, only the most recent edit is presented.

Each group also had the option of endorsing the idea as it stood. Once an idea was edited, all endorsements disappeared (except for the group submitting the edit). Then each group had to re-endorse the new version. The rights with the most endorsers floated to the top, while the rights with the least endorses sunk to the bottom of the list.

And finally, the catch: the system only allowed 10 rights to be created. Once we reached 10, each group had to modify an existing right, thereby engaging the other groups in a dialogue.

The workshop used software we created (and with is Free and Open Source) and, while the software "forced" certain "rules" (like the "10 maximum" rule and the endorsement system), we offered no other guidelines or rules to the workshop. People had to make up their own rules as they went along.

The process was truly exciting. Groups, forced to edit a right, began seeking out the group that had done the current edit to discuss phrasing, intent and perspective.

It was also exciting because it produced the following "document" which was presented, by MF/PL Co-Director Josue Guillen to the People's Assembly (the USSF's last participatory event). It received overwhelming support.

We want people to circulate, discuss, change, work with and organize around This Declaration of Internet Rights and that's why we're posting it. This version has the number of endorsing groups attached with one caveat. Right #10, which was being endorsed by virtually every group, was amended right before the workshop ended and lost its endorsements. We think it probably would have been re-endorsed by most groups had we not run out of time.

Here it is:

1. The public has the right to deploy, maintain, and own its own communications networks utilizing any and all technologies. Endorsers: 7 of 7 groups

2. All users should have the right to see and modify the source code of all software that they use. Endorsers: 5 of 7 groups

3. Users have the right to filter or block unwanted communications to themselves. Endorsers: 5 of 7 groups

4. Internet users should be free to access content without censorship and discrimination from the government, internet providers or other 3rd parties. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

5. All people should have free high-speed access to the internet and the tools to access it in their own language with adequate technical support. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

6. Government processes and information should be transparent and easy to access on the Internet. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

7. All content and data should be equally accessible without discrimination. Endorsers: 3 of 7 groups

8. Webmasters have the right to monitor traffic on their own site. Endorsers: 2 of 7 groups

9. All internet users have the right to view, host, and publish content anonymously, without fear of persecution, and to secure private data. Endorsers: 2 of 7 groups

10. All internet users have the right to know what information is collected about them and by who; and to protect their privacy and personal data, and to share and transport their own information. Endorsers: 1 of 7 groups