We recently started a discussion about how we can better communicate our positions and goals. David Hardwick suggested that we be the party of open, namely:
- Open Government – increased government transparency and accountability
- Open Culture – limited copyrights & more sharing
- Open Innovation – no patents
Unfortunately, issues such as increased personal privacy and reining in the power of corporations do not lend themselves well to being lumped under Open. Open privacy seems to be an oxymoron. Open Corporations as an idea, while useful from a consumer, worker and even investor perspective, is not what we are trying to communicate.
Erik Zoltan noted that “open” is one of the critical ideas but not the only one. He suggested that we are also the party of the human being, which explains our ideas on personal privacy and reining in corporations. As ideas, being anti-monopoly and pro-person are two other angles that complement “open”.
After our discussion, we decided to open things up and gather other perspectives. Whether we can summarize our positions down to one overarching idea or whether we need several is very much an open question. We welcome your thoughts and comments. Thanks!
I have no idea why I’m butting in here. I like David’s idea, but I agree that it is difficult to ‘brand’ the four main ideas with one word. Since this is me, of the graphic design persuasion, I’m gonna say Presentation, clear, jump-off-the-page presentation. Whew, what a job putting in all those dashes. Or…a slogan that could go under the party name:
THE PIRATE PARTY OF MASSACHUSETTS
The Best Little Party You Ever Did Meet! (not really that but…)
While I’m here, I think there could be two kinds of people–oh no, it’s that two kinds of people thing again– who take a look at our stuff. There’s the Me kind of person who loved the name of the party. I saw Pirate Party listed as a sponsor of some event in Utah–Holy Crap! That’s why I investigated until I found you guys. I mean I cared what it stood for and all that, but Pirates! The Best! Then there are the serious, the techies, the more binary types if you will. It’s people like me, the visual, antic and mischievious types who need you other folks so much. If InDesign is the best WYSIWYG piece of software out there, it was created by the techies, people who salivate at the idea of writing code. I cry at the idea of ever having to write code. And Pirates we all can be.
I’m going on about this because first and foremost, we need to know our audience. We need to direct our stuff there. Great visuals with serious, good, core information. And funny is always good, loved Michael Anderson’s talk title: Fighting Ridiculous with Ridiculous–a real grabber, memorable.
Now that I’ve blabbed on and on, I’ll allow as how people actually involved in the work of the party would have a much better idea than I do of who is attracted to us.
Ho Ho Ho, where’s that bottle of rum?
Jeanne
Great article. One small clarification.
My idea is that “the Party of Open” is a good single handle, but at the next level of detail we’d be the party of three things: openness, anti-monopoly and pro-human. Privacy would be under the heading of pro-human, as would ending corporate personhood. Anti-monopoly would cover patents, copyright and the like.
Please take a look at the map I’ve made that describes a healthy governing system, particularly using the mature human brain as a model. This is based on nearly a decade of research, and it’s something that I believe will help organize the Pirate Party most effectively. Here are two versions of the map…
Government Prime Directive: http://turil.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/government-prime-directive/
Web 4.0: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102658870951498682540/posts/gerXsTLSvYV#102658870951498682540/posts/gerXsTLSvYV
Both of which are based on the idea of collecting and sharing the most valuable, unique data (what specific things individuals are asking for and what they want to offer), as the starting point of all healthy organization. This is the most open you can get!
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