Space Layout Sketches

Spaces

Space A (refer to sketches)

• vHouse Chamber - Virtually connected to chambers around the country as well as the world wide web.
• Space for public debate and voting (ideas, policies, etc).
• Citizens can hold parliamentary style debates in which everyone can vote on the outcome, including other chambers. People connecting from outside the chambers can also vote and post comments that contribute to the debate using their computers or mobile devices.
• Space for virtual "town hall" style meetings/public questions.
• Politicians/public representatives can address the chambers/world wide web simultaneously and answer the most popular questions from vHouse.

• Chamber Offices - For centre management/security and chamber speaker.
• Chamber speaker.
• Maintains a constructive atmosphere during debates/meetings and has the power to evict disruptive personnel from the chamber. 
  

• Local Rep Office/s - Members of Parliament have offices at their local divisions vHouse Access Centre, allowing them to play a key roles in the public political participation process. 
   
  
• IT Core - For IT management/maintainance and servers.

Space B

• Gallery - Virtually connected to chambers around the country as well as the world wide web.
• A multimedia space where citizens can access recent records of both vHouse and parliamentary proceedings.

vHouse Access Centre

Form Sketch

Parliament House Plan Geometry

 Perspective

Section/Plan Layout

Massing Model

Park over building concept

 View of entrance

 Top view

Virtual Systems

Ideas for virtual voting and parliament systems under current use or development.

Agora - A virtual parliament

Link

• Internet voting system that is cryptographically secure, supports vote delegation, and scales well to massive elections.
• PDI (policy-agnostic political party that does not have a political ideology) elected representatives will vote in congress according to what the people have previously voted through the internet using Agora.
• Anyone can mathematically verify that the election result is correct (known as Universal Verifiability).
• DNIe based voter authentication, A digital signature that allows voter authentication that both ensures that voters are eligible as well as avoids the possibility of duplicate votes. 

Virtual Parliament

Link 

• Internet forum format
• Public can vote on and suggest their policies 

President Obama - Virtual Town Hall

Article 

Video:

• Online town hall meeting conducted by Obama creating a broader avenue for information about his administration. 
• Event allowed him to speak directly to Americans through the Web, bypassing the filter of the news media. 
• Allowed the president to be more personal than newsworthy.

Infrastructure

A New Structure of Government

How the new hypothetical Australian capital will fit in with the national government infrastructure.

Local Layer:

• Regional governments around the country with democratically elected district representatives.
• Direct responsibility in serving the needs unique to the local population and environment,
• Providing utilities and services to the local population,
• Acquiring extra funds and resources from the national government for infrastructure where needed.

National Layer - New Hypothetical Capital

•  Parliament House, Canberra

• House of Reps upgraded to integrate with the new vHouse.
• Senate representation shifted. Equal representation between the new regional governments instead of the states (which no longer exist).

•  vHouse, Everywhere

• Access via the world wide web and special access centres established around the country.
• Participants can introduce, discuss, and vote on new policies (based on the principles of guidance) which are then put forward to the House of Reps.
• Participants can observe the House of Reps while in process and take part during question time.
• The vHouse can not take part in the voting of new bills and legislation in the House of Reps, however it can:
• Put pressure on politicians to follow the mandate by which they were elected
• Introduce strong publicly backed policies into the House of Reps that reverse unpopular decisions made by the government.

The Distributed Capital: Guidance of Public Participation

Australia at the dawn of the 21st Century is facing the following severe issues:

• Unacceptably high levels of poverty for an OECD country
• Over 2 million people living below the poverty line (12% of the total population);
• 70% poverty risk to sole parents;
• 50% poverty rate for single pensioners over the age of 65 (NHRAP, 2011)
• Poor environmental management
• Water;
• ageing infrastructure,
• over extraction and irrigation of major river systems,
• drought.
• Climate Change;
• over 250,000 homes at risk from rising sea levels,
• lack of security and economic adaptability.
• Energy;
• high reliance on fossil fuels,
• unutilised high capacity in solar, wind, marine, and geothermal energies,
• need for long term thinking in government
• 20 conventional coal fired power plants,
• worlds largest coal exporter,
• no development of renewable energy solutions on a large scale.
• Biodiversity;
• 1500 land based species threatened,
• highly urbanised society,
• no economic value placed on services (with the exception of food and timber) provided by the ecosystem.
• Oceans;
• Great Barrier Reef under threat,
• lack of regulation in the harvesting and production of seafood.
• Population;
• 35 million people by 2049,
• lack of studies/knowledge on the nations carrying capacity.
• Cities and Development;
• greater water and energy usage per person than almost every other country,
• need for more sustainable infrastructure,
• Transport;
• lack of investment in public transport,
• heavy reliance on car and road transportation (Environment, 2009).

From the above figures, it is quite apparent that there is a great room for improvement in the field of resource management and social inclusion. Clearly there has been an unacceptable level of failure at a government level to address these issues.

Risks of Greater Public Political Participation

I have thought it necessary to come up with a strategy designed to guide public participation in the political decision making process. The question is how do we include greater public participation without running the risk of extremely vocal interest groups potentially hijacking the political system? It is reasonable to assume that such groups would seek to achieve self-serving goals that could possibly alienate other members of the community. Furthermore, how would the system be protected from being led astray by large numbers of people who lack an adequate understanding of the issues involved? A system that simply disregards the opinions of some while accepting those of others would run the risk of becoming elitist.

The best answer would be to guide the participation process in a way that strives to tackle the nations most serious issues. The purpose of introducing a more direct democracy should be to assist in building an ideal Australia that is both prosperous while simultaneously being free from corruption and interference by powerful self-serving interests.

Basic Principles of Guidance

Using the outlined issues listed above, I have begun to think about some basic principles that could serve in the development of an ideal Australia. These principles are based on subjects which have all too often been ignored or ineffectively addressed by politicians in the past. If backed by a mandate as powerful as one caused by the direct contribution and collaboration of the voting public, politicians would find these principles very hard to ignore.

1. All members of the population should have access to;
• the basic necessities of life (i.e. food and shelter),
• a high quality education, and
• an efficient and reliable health system.
2. Government decisions and actions should be transparent and reflective of the needs of the general public, with members held accountable for their actions.
3. There should be no political, cultural, or religious bias involved with any decisions made in government with regard to the future direction of the nation.
4. Knowledge, understanding, and respect for the Australian environment and its natural processes should be of the highest level possible, leading to;
• the maintenance of the natural equilibrium,
• the protection of biodiversity,
• the safety of human and environmental health, and
• prevention of exhaustive use of resources.
5. There should be a strong drive in technological development, pushing for the best possible solutions in supporting the population through the best known methods, including;
• renewable energy sources,
• high efficiency and longevity of goods and services,
• efficient and reliable public transport, and
• the reduction of wastage through the recycling of materials and efficiency in production and construction practices.

References
 
Environment. (2009). "Our Top 10 Environmental Problems". ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved October 16, 2011 from http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2009/12/07/2764044.htm

National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP). (2011). "Poverty". Human Rights Law Centre. Retrieved October 16, 2011 from http://www.equalitylaw.org.au/nhrap/focus-area/poverty

The Distributed Capital - Virtual Political Sphere

Virtual Political Sphere

I am considering the proposition of a virtual political sphere, which would become a new focus of Australian politics that would;

• provide the general public with a greater influence on decisions made in parliament;
• reduce the influence of powerful corporate and vocal self-serving interest groups;
• provide an easy-access source of information that is not dictated by levels of 'newsworthiness' or ratings and is free of political/cultural/religious bias; and
• encourages individual choice that is free of any form of misleading or manipulation by external interests.

As technology progresses, a virtual inter-connection is growing more prominent in society. For this reason, Australians should no longer be forced to rely on a select few individuals running the nation in a central location that is geographically separated from most of the country. Likewise, independent profit-based media corporations and bias groups/individuals/sources should not be the general publics only source of political information.

A Step Towards Direct Democracy

A virtual political sphere will enable greater participation in politics by the public, through the implementation of virtual strategies similar to those developed in the first project. This is to help ensure a safeguarding of the political process from any form of corruption, and help to increase accountability on elected representatives.

Other Possibilities of a more Distributed Political System

• State and Territory governments and councils abolished, saving the nation up to $50 billion a year (Abolish State Government, 2011);
• States and councils replaced by "closer to the people" regional governments, offering a better representation of local issues unique to certain areas;
• Virtual political sphere access centres strategically placed around the country, based on the regional government areas, with the function of expanding the political process over a wider area;
• Parliament House building in Canberra still the heart and soul of legislative power, however far more open to the public without the need of commercial media.

References

Abolish State Government. (2011). "Home". Abolish State Government. Retrieved October 15, 2011 from http://abolishstategovernment.org.au/