Democracy For Nepal: The Cloud Model, Not The Pyramid Model

Thursday, December 08, 2005

The Cloud Model, Not The Pyramid Model

The Nepal Democracy Google group has seen a lot of productive action since December 2. Even before that I have been espousing something called a cloud model of group dynamics to coordinate the diaspora efforts for democracy in Nepal, the cloud model as opposed to the traditional pyramid model.

My Nepal 1000 page offers some more specifics. I also launched a much more private small group called Project Nepal Democracy. The latter is for clandestine work.

What is the cloud model?

It is internet based. In this particular case, the Nepal Democracy group is where most of the talking gets done.
There is no central authority. There is no one central leader.
The book keeping is transparent and online.
The discussions are transparent and online.
Participation is to be based on intitiative. Visibility will be performance based.
Six specific projects have been identified. They are listed at the Nepal 1000 page among other places.
Individuals and organizations need to take initiative to participate in one or more of the projects.
Some aspects of some projects are going to be clandestine, otherwise the rest of the work is going to be pretty much transparent.
As for credits, history is getting archived as it is being made.
Fundraising has many models. That also has a cloud model. Nepal 1000 offered an intial framework, still in place. But many other ideas have been suggested, and all of them look good. One would be for Project Managers for each project to raise money directly for their projects. Another would be for organizations like the Alliance, or the NAC, or the LDN to make it possible for people to donate on their respective websites. Another would be like got done for the DC and the NYC rallies. You set up one website expressly for the purpose of fundraising. As long as the book keeping is transparent and online, all methods are good. And some of the best ways of raising money are over the phone and in person, not online.

I wonder if a more accurate term would not be a galaxy model. Each person who participates in the six projects is a star. The glow of each star is directly proportional to its activity level. And each person decides his or her own activity level.

Another advantage of this group dynamics model is that the amount of time any one person has to give can change from day to day, week to week, but the work does not suffer even if the person does not inform the group when his or her time commitment might momentarily go down. Project teams are self regulating. And there are no hard and fast boundaries between projects. Some of the more active members move from project to project on a revolving basis. They can not do the work of the specialists, but then can fill in the gaps, and take care of the general work and, very importantly, keep the conversation going.

Welcome to the cutting edge cloud model of group dynamics.

Podcasts

December 6, 2005 (15 minutes) The movement for democracy itself has to be democratic. The disapora has to extend both moral and logistical support. Specific projects have been designed, five in all. The book keeping has to be kept transparent and online in near real time. My personal focus is on political work. This movement in Nepal is fast shaping my career. This regime should not see February. Have you contributed your $100 yet?

December 7, 2005 (15 minutes) There are more than 50,000 Nepalis in the US. More than 90% support democracy, about 20% might want to actively contribute. We should offer a more sophisticated organization than the Monarchists and the Maoists. Our underground FM radio station would be a litmus test for that. Less than 0.1% will be very actively involved. We have to identify and organize them. From my part there is going to be zero tolerance on the issue of Madhesi equality within the movement. As to why the seven parties are not more united, more clear, more functional, the dynamics within the Nepali diaspora help me understand. We want to prepare for the worst so it does not happen. But if it happens, we are prepared.

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