The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) in The Hague [1], the NIMD South Caucasus Representation [2] and the Association for Interactive Democracy (IAD) in Berlin [3] held a LiquidFeedback [4] presentation and workshop for Georgian political parties in Tbilisi and Kvareli, Georgia from October 28 - 29 2014. The event was also attended by representatives of Dutch political parties and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm.
The opening remarks for the presentation day in Tbilisi were delivered by His Excellency Hans P.P.M. Horbach, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Georgia and Armenia, Kati Piri, Member of the European Parliament, and Levan Tsutskiridze, NIMD Representative in the South Caucasus.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) [1] [2] has invited Andreas Nitsche, Board Member of Interaktive Demokratie e. V. - Association for Interactive Democracy [3] to attend the conference “Technology & Strengthening Democracy” [4] to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan from October 14 - 16 2014. The conference will discuss the role of technology in strengthening democracy.
Nitsche will present LiquidFeedback [5] with a focus on political party development and on how technology can be applied to provide a fully self organized proposition development and decision-making process. He will elaborate on challenges and solutions for a fair democratic process: collective moderation, minority protection, dealing with noisy minorities, preferential voting and verifiability.
Last week, the Public Software Group received the extension “ldap4lqfb” as contribution for LiquidFeedback. This extension implements member authorization and authentication using an LDAP server as described in the feature proposal.
On 28 January 2014 the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy hosted the international launch of the book The Principles of LiquidFeedback, which deals extensively with the open-source software LiquidFeedback. Preceded by a Foreword by Dr Will Derks of NIMD, the book discusses in over 200 pages all the relevant aspects of such an innovative democratic tool; from state-of –the-art voting theory to possible areas for application.
The launch was attended by representatives of Dutch political parties, ministries and NIMD’s partner organizations, among others International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assisstance).