sj's Longest Now [v.1]

There’s an awkward tension between transparent campaign contributions (including address!) and hidden ballots. Someone should describe in detail the case for (not making contributions private) and for (not making votes public), in parallel fashion, to help hash this out. It reminds me of half-understood notions of “obvious” privacy and transparency rights that come up in publishing, personal data security, knowledge sharing, group communication, and public event/discussion rebroadcasting. Perhaps what is most awkward about this tension is that it is rarely presented as something up for debate. It is taken for granted that the Earth is at the center of the galaxy evolution is a fact, not a theory an election without hidden ballots isn’t “free”.

In my limited experience, I have seen every combination of {type of event, personal philosophy/politics of commentator, controlled-or-transparent, nuanced-or-obvious} presented as an argument. Of one thing I’m certain : none of the combinations that claim that combination is “obvious” or a “natural right” are correct, inasmuch as noone knows how to assess what is natural or what memes work well they become universal.

I had pause to think about this all tonight when I ran across the following brilliant combination of copious detailed contribution data with a good map visualization (including color combinations and paint effects!): FundRace (http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php)