Charter/Terms
From Anarchopedia
We are here met for a political object, and discussion involves political terms, many of which may be unfamiliar to those with predominantly technical backgrounds.
Politics is a complex subject and an old one, and much has been written about its practice and the establishment of political communities. Perhaps some good general sources should be listed here.
The topic of emergent politics and large group dynamics within online communities is a new one; it is only recently that any online community grew big enough, long enough, to display these dynamics.
Glossary
Here's a quick glossary of political terms. Anyone with the willingness might work to link these to Wiktionary or other good sources.
- politics
- "the art of the possible"; how humans organize their communities
- convention
- assembly of individuals who meet to establish a charter or other foundation issues; tends to be very large
- party
- group within a convention who are agreed on a platform and work together to advance it; usually a large fraction of convention members
- caucus
- group within a convention who seek to find a common ground on some issues; often quite small
- platform
- political agenda or plan of action
- plank
- element, section, or clause of a platform
- charter
- foundation document which controls all other documents, rules, and procedures governing a community; sometimes constitution
