About this Author
Speak Up NOW!
My fellow FanBoxers:
This month -- April 2013 -- the FanBox engineers will be launching some absolutely amazing new products...
... almost all of which have only one primary purpose:
More ways for you to earn
Mark my words:
When I announce these products shortly, at first...
... until you see it with your own two eyes...
... you will simply not believe how much easier it will become to earn on FanBox.
But before we launch those products, there's one very important thing that you and I MUST secure:
---> freedom
Without freedom, you have nothing
Even with all the new ways to earn that are about to become yours...
... none of it ultimately matters...
... if you can't guarantee that these things will even last.
Without control -- there is no freedom
Without freedom, there is no future that you can truly put your finger on...
... that you can completely count on.
Are there things about FanBox that you don't like?
Do you ever feel like you are not being heard?
If you are being heard, don't you want to ensure you will continue to be heard in the future?
How can a corporation promise that it will always listen to you...
... have you at the top of every employee's agenda...
... and get done what you want it to?
It may be able to promise that.
But it probably won't deliver it.
Unless it belongs to the people and is controlled by the people
Look:
In countries, when the people are not in control, the government is never responsive to the needs of the people.
So, when the government is unresponsive -- what do we do?
We throw out our government and take control.
Under what rules are we allowed to do that?
It is a Constitution that gives us that power.
In democracies, the Constitution grants the people's right to elections.
Elections are meant as a peaceful and bloodless way to throw out the government -- and take back control.
OK, got it: We gain freedom by having control, which is gained through elections, which is granted by the Constitution.
But who writes the Constitution?
The people do. That's YOU.
A couple of weeks ago we announced that we were starting the process of writing the Constitution.
Each country’s representative created a post in each of their respective Town Halls.
The objective is to get the ideas, desires and thoughts of how to create the first ever online community -- created for the people by the people.
To make sure everyone is included, there was also a forum created for those members (who at this time don’t yet have a country representative) to make sure their voices are also heard.
It's time to bring together all the discussion elements, and negotiate them all into one, cohesive document... creating our final Constitution.
So, here's your last chance to impact this important document that will guide us for a very, very long time.
Please use the comments below to add your own thoughts.
To help jump-start your brain cells, here are some thoughts from other FanBoxers -- extracted from your local Town Halls:
We have the freedom of speech as long as it does not contain hate towards others, is not racist, threatening to other members, it must not defame, abuse or slander another member of FanBox. It cannot be sexually harassing to other members.
Local government on FanBox is founded upon the basis of the principle of decentralization of power and is exercised according to the principle of local autonomy.
The organs of public power, in fulfillment of their duties, shall respect the fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as contribute to their realization
No one may be unjustly discriminated against for reasons such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, language, political, religious or philosophical beliefs, economic condition, education, social status, or ancestry.
I would like to see the basic human rights in the constitution. Freedom of speech is rather important here. And I think the representatives should be well balanced. So at least three success coaches. Why three? If an issue or a debate rises and you have an even number of people then the odds are 0% - 50% or 100% in favor. And that's unlikely to really represent our thoughts, ideas or whatever.. After all the democratic idea is behind this all. Then it should be democratic
Every country should have at least two SCs! People would have the right to choose who they want for their SCs. I can also think of right to be granted for everyone to be an SC too and not to be decided by one person who can be and who not. Of course people would have the right to choose just as it is now which SC to have for their own. And then the best SCs would become a Stateperson. An SC to have the right to decide which country wants to represent regardless of his/her place of staying...(also, users to have the right to choose the country they want to belong to)
At the moment I live in Romania because of financial reasons, but my native language is Hungarian and I also have a Hungarian citizenship.
If i may suggest that we first have a main that is governed under the laws of the Constitution that That Is in compliance with the foundations of Democracy Independent Executive Independent, Independent Legal,
Independent Elected Representatives at Nation level and Central Levels being appointed From national level to give a greater Diversity Guaranties
1) Freedom of Expression limited on the specific grounds as may be set out.
2) Equality as given Under UN Charter
3) Fair Trade facilitation
4) Income Generation and facilitation
And, what do we call the citizenship of the people who become members of this Organization?
Some guidelines to consider in writing the constitution: A. Adding a Bill of rights for the members.
I suggest that to avoid bias from the judges, 1-3 people from the community (from different countries) shall be selected to also sit as judges together with the regular judges.
There should committees on different works or jobs: ex. committee to police violations on posting sexually implicit images including links to it outside, and other jobs that need the help of the community.
How about that all people are created equal...that all shall be guaranteed the same opportunities and tools to work with.
I am Romanian and I live in Spain. I wish I could participate in the Romanian Forum, but do not live in Romania, I cannot access the Romanian community! I wish I could come up with propositions speaking Romanian, in the Romanian community of which it is part, technically I can't because I live in another country! And there are many people like me!
That was just a random snapshot of some of the comments coming in...
It's now time for YOU to speak up. Or forever wish you had.
You've got 3 days.
After that, I will ask the Statespersons to summarize your thoughts, argue, negotiate, and draft the final document...
... which your local Statespersons will then post for your viewing pleasure.
Last chance. THINK BIG:
What big ideas do you have for our Constitution?
UPDATE:
This post is NOT asking for your product ideas. LOVE your ideas - but this is not the place.
Did you leave a comment below, and now its gone?
That's because you didn't read the instructions, and left a comment that didn't belong here.
The Constitution is not a document to list product ideas or complaints. It's a place for the big ideas and rules that will guide a community.
I will delete all irrelevant comments.
Town Hall Product Launch & Drafting our Constitution
My fellow FanBoxers,
If you’ve joined FanBox recently, you may not be aware that FanBoxers (users, Success Coaches and employees) have been working towards becoming the first technology platform that is owned and controlled by its users.
That means that profits go to the users; and we’re becoming a democracy.
Learn about our objectives and approach
6 weeks ago, we announced our first Statespersons (Senators and Congresspersons).
Now, a new section has been launched – called Town Hall -- to make it easier for you to meet with your fellow citizens, your Senators and Congresspersons; and stay on top of the latest news from them.
Every country has been given its own Town Hall. To visit your Town Hall, visit your DashBoard, and under your Start tab, you’ll notice the new “We the People” button:
Clicking the "We the People" button will reveal the Town Hall for your country: 
Your statespersons can open discussions that everyone can participate in.
For our Town Halls to be effective, there needs to be some rules or guidelines, similar to rules that exist for a town hall that might exist in your country or city.
Here are my suggestions for rules or how we might all want to behave for best results:
1. Please be polite and respectful to others.
2. Please ensure your comments are applicable to the topic of the discussion.
3. Work towards constructive solutions for the community – not just for yourself or a small group of people.
4. And for heaven’s sake, please refrain from whining.
No one likes whiners, or complainers.
But everyone appreciates constructive dialog that can lead to improvements.
OK, enough rules. Let’s get move to our first order of business.
To be a democracy, we need a Constitution.
A few weeks ago, we started a discussion about our Constitution to get everyone's brains warmed up.
Well, now it's time to actually draft the Constitution. This is a very important document, because it will the primary guide for our democracy.
What’s a Constitution? Get that question answered here.
What's the process and steps for getting everyone's thoughts, and working them into one final document?
Please use your new Town Hall to let your country’s statespersons know your thoughts and desires for the Constitution.
Many of your statespersons have already created a discussion, and are ready for your comments:
Egypt
Germany
Norway
Romania
Malaysia
Vietnam: In Vietnamese and in English
Philippines
India
Don’t see your country above?
Visit your country’s Town Hall to see if a statesperson from your country has created a discussion. If they have not, ask them to.
In the meantime, if your country does not have an active discussion yet, President's Cabinet member Cindy has created a forum for you here. You can visit that link and let's get the dialog going.
Let's make this happen without further delay. The clock is ticking.
Make sure your voice is heard
Now is your time to speak up and ensure your voice is heard. Your thoughts and desires will live on through this Constitution.
What kind of community do you want to be part of?
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts, through your country's Town Hall, or via Cindy's post if your country doesn't have a Town Hall discussion.
MOVING FORWARD: Part 19 - The first Statespersons
===================== UPDATE =============================
Before we continue, let's answer these two questions many are asking:
Question: How can I be a leader (Senator or Congressperson)?
Answer: You first need to be a Success Coach.
Question: How do I become a Success Coach?
Answer: Speak with Zoe. She is ready to assist you.
==========================================================
Thank you for staying with me in this conversation...
... as we moved from a very high level reminder of why the world needs fanbox to a more specific dialog about the mission, approach, money and capitalism -- all intended to encourage you to start thinking about the community's biggest challenge and potential solutions.
We then introduced the power user -- but immediately dove head-first into a plan for your financial success -- knowing darn well that if we didn't, we'd risk losing those of you with attention deficit disorder when we declared our liberty and debated what's wrong with democracies and how we might avoid that here.
Heartened that everyone stayed tuned in, we then discussed our constitution before meeting our founding mothers and chatting about the initial democratic process and code of official conduct for politicians.
Which leads us to today's announcement.
Our very first Senators and Congresspersons
Without further delay, here they are:
Congresspersons:
Egypt Nourein Mohssei
Germany alchimist :)
India barkha neeelam
Indonesia ArchyLen Farizt
Israel Mari Juana (MJ)
Jordan Anmar Alshatarat
Malaysia Nasa Jaafar
Nepal November Rain
Netherlands May Ram
Norway Katherine
Pakistan Shehreyer
Pakistan Asif Mughal
Philippines Aliah Reynales
Philippines Gloria Calzita
Philippines Nap Bayasen
Romania Pop Mircea
Russia lana ferra
Slovenia Secko Rama
Trinidad & Tobago Judith Young
Uganda Edrisa African
United States Chrystal A
United States Catherine Herdt
United States Cindy Woods
United States PaulaAndreaPyle
United States Marie Frabutt
United States wendy williams
United States Melanie Jarman
United States Meliha Colic
Vietnam LE THANH KONG
Senators:
India Sudha
India Arun Kumar Sriv
Italy Crazy Dog Terry
Italy Georgiana Yoana
Jordan Anna P
Jordan Koko S
Pakistan Muhammad Khalid Jalil
Pakistan * Shahzad *
Philippines Cool Ayz
Philippines Dave A
Romania Manuela Alexuc
Romania manu enah
United Kingdom D Poet Rhumour
United Kingdom Vicky SC
United States Brian Woosley
United States Ryan Page
Their opportunity is about serving the people of the world
As volunteering Success Coaches, they are already serving people.
As statespersons, they will be serving a much larger group of people: All current and future FanBoxers.
Even though they will now be Senators and Congresspersons from, say, India, the U.S., Germany or Pakistan...
... along with representing the needs of the people from their country...
... their more important responsibility is to fairly serve and represent the people of the world.
Congratulations to them on this outstanding achievement!
The Founding Mothers discussed and researched long and hard -- and selected them from a much larger group.
Of course this is a big moment and achievement for the community - as it took many twists and turns to arrive at this moment.
We have waited years to take this action -- because we needed to ensure we had the right people involved.
We didn't want to do this with just anyone.
We needed to make sure the community had candidates of this caliber before making the move.
Along with what this means for our community, this is also a very big achievement for them personally...
... because it demonstrates the trust and loyalty that they have successfully built in the community...
... armed with nothing but their passion & motivation, selflessness & intelligence -- and a willingness to serve.
It's the next step for their influence and power to make a real difference in the world.
I'm not just talking about the ability to create the next big technology company...
... or influence the next big product features or technologies...
... but I’m speaking about the power to actually create opportunities for millions and eventually billions of people...
... life-changing opportunities that might actually change the direction of life on this planet.
(If you think I am exaggerating, I'd remind you to think of those 600M jobs that need to magically appear in the next 8 years -- without which we will have poverty and famine on a scale that our world has never known).
All great things start with one small step... and move forward one step at a time.
This is our next step together.
If your name is listed below:
Congratulations!
And thank you for taking on this extra responsibility for the good of the community.
And if your name is NOT listed below (but you wish it were):
Don't worry, you can be a statesperson too.
I'll explain:
This is the first time -- and the last time -- that candidates will be hand-chosen.
After this, they will be selected by performance.
IE: FanBox is becoming a merit-based democracy.
In other words, the Success Coaches with the highest performance at the end of this quarter (March 31)…
... will automatically become eligible to be a Senator or Congressperson for the 2nd quarter of 2013.
And from there, they can become members of the President’s Cabinet…
... and from there, the President of FanBox…
... as we discussed last week.
So if you're interested in becoming a statesperson and making a difference...
... speak with Zoe. She is ready to assist you.
So, please help me congratulate our very first class of Statespersons...
... and wish them the very best of luck!
They will need your love, energy and support... no doubt about it!
In the coming days, they will receive their special powers, so they can get to work on behalf of the community.
Any questions? I'm here for you.
MOVING FORWARD: Part 18 - Code of Official Conduct
In preparation for our announcement of the community's first Senators and Congresspersons...
... I've asked our Founding Mothers to draft a "Code of Official Conduct" document for Senators and Congresspersons.
Upon nomination, all Senators and Congresspersons will be asked to click an "I accept" button at the bottom of the "Code of Official Conduct" document...
... only if they agree to these terms...
... at which point they system will instantly enable their account with their special powers, capabilities and designations (badges).
Before we do that, however, I wanted to give you a chance to modify the Code of Official Conduct document -- shown below.
Would you change anything -- or is anything missing?
Code of Official Conduct
for FanBox Senators & Congresspersons
1. A FanBox Statesperson shall behave at all times in a manner that shall raise and reflect the creditably and spirit of the Community.
2. A FanBox Statesperson shall adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the Success Coach Program and FanBox.
3. A FanBox Statesperson may not receive compensation or gifts from the Community with the intent of improperly exerting influence.
4. A FanBox Statesperson may not discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions because of the race, color, religion, sex (including marital or parental status), disability, age, or national origin of such individual.
5. A FanBox Statesperson is expected to participate regularly in Congressional and Senate Forums.
6. Before a FanBox Statesperson may have access to classified information, the following oath (or affirmation) shall be executed:
"I do solemnly affirm that I will not disclose any classified information received in the course of my service as a FanBox Statesperson, except as authorized by FanBox."
7. A FanBox Statesperson shall agree to not utilize statesperson mass distribution capabilities for personal gain or promotion.
8. A FanBox Statesperson understands that the role of FanBox Statesperson may be redefined with additional duties given or rescinded.
9. A FanBox Statesperson understands that the role of FanBox Statesperson may run less than the originally appointed tenure.
MOVING FORWARD: Part 17 - initial democratic (Legislative & Judicial) process
We are now only days away from becoming the world’s first full-fledged democratic social network.
By now, you have read the Declaration of Liberty, which states that the community is to be free and in charge of itself.
To be in charge of itself, the community needs rules and laws. Together, we have started to discuss the contents of our Constitution.
The challenge, of course, is that to finalize our Constitution, we need leaders.
But we need a Constitution, to determine who our leaders are.
So we find ourselves in a “Which came first -- the chicken or the egg?” scenario.
To break this scenario, I asked our Founding Mothers to select the first Senators and Congresspersons, based on performance, from the Success Coach team.
The Founding Mothers have spent much time over the last couple of months, looking at all the performance data for the Success Coaches.
They looked at their student Grad Rates, student Ratings, average response times, QC audit rates, student earnings, and another dozen or so quantifiable factors.
The final list – our very first Senators and Congresspersons – is almost complete.
As soon as the list is complete – and the new product features mentioned below are launched -- it will be announced.
The Initial Process
Here’s my suggested process for how things will work -- until such time that any process is changed by the Senators and Congresspersons:
(To gain a full understanding of the thinking behind these decisions,
please review the earlier parts of this multi-post blog).
SENATORS:
• Top two (2) Success Coaches from each nation
• Selection automatic based on merit (performance)
• Senators can create new rules and policies – to be ratified by two-thirds of Congress
• Together, all Senators from around the world get an exclusive forum – to enable them to discuss issues & ideas
• Senators will have mass distribution powers: the ability to communicate with everyone in their country - so that they can best represent the interests of the people
• Senators will be clearly designated via badges next to their name and profiles
• Initial term will be one calendar quarter – likely increased after a few terms
• Senators can serve for an unlimited number of terms
CONGRESSPERSONS:
• Top fifty (50) Success Coaches from the whole world
• Selection automatic based on performance
• Congresspersons can create new rules and policies – to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate
• Together, all Congresspersons from around the world get an exclusive forum – to enable them to discuss issues & ideas
• Congresspersons will have mass distribution powers: the ability to communicate with everyone in their country - so that they can best represent the interests of the people
• Congresspersons will be clearly designated via badges next to their name and profiles
• Initial term will be one calendar quarter – likely increased after a few terms
• Congresspersons can serve for an unlimited number of terms
JUDGES:
• Randomly selected from all Statespersons (Senators and Congresspersons) from all over the world
• Each Statesperson serves as judge for one or two days each calendar quarter
• Each day, there are two (2) Statespersons on duty as judges
• The Executive (President) branch’s ability to delete accounts will now require “due process”:
• Executive branch will place into limbo an account, notifying the accused FanBoxer and Court Administrator of the charge
• Court Administrator will schedule a trial – handled via FanBox email – and based on that date, two (2) judges are assigned and copied on charges
• If judges do not agree on the verdict, Court Administrator will bring in a third judge to act as final arbitrator.
PRESIDENT’S CABINET:
• Selected by the President
• They comprise the FanBox President’s think tank -- working closely with the FanBox President on issues, tools, rules, product features and functionality -- and voting on the selection of expert delegations that are nominated by the FanBox President
FANBOX PRESIDENT:
• Elected by popular vote by the FanBox community
• Lives in San Diego for the duration of term – expenses covered
• Runs the FanBox Corporation and responsible for all employees and activity within the Corporation
• Candidates are the top 10 politicians, with the most successful coaching organizations (coaching blocks)
• The President can veto laws and policies brought forward from the Senate and Congress
• No re-election: Presidents serve for only one term
• Initial term one calendar quarter – likely increased after a few terms
Again, the very first Senators and Congresspersons will be announced in the coming days...
... as soon as the list is finalized and FanBox engineering launches the above-mentioned political tools.
Of course those folks will have the ability to kill, update or add to the above suggested policies and rules.
Questions? Ideas? Feedback? Pushback? Please share!
