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Outline
The Need
 Not Prepared to Give Final Result
 Much Work Done
Building Prototypes
 What Prototypes Are Not
 What Prototypes Are
 Current Subcommittees
 Create More
Methodology
 Techniques
 Output
 Call for Volunteers
Glossary
 

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The Free Nation Foundation needs to be prepared, when approached by potential users of our research, to give them a representation of what we will eventually recommend and some of the alternatives being explored. We are not yet prepared (and given the variety of opinions in the libertarian movement, we may never be) to give the final answer to the questions facing us. For example, if we are asked about military defense, a minarchist member will give a distinctly different answer than an anarchist.

We may improve our internal workings if we put a series of proposals on the table. There are probably potential contributors to our work who would be more comfortable making improvements to a concrete proposal rather than being part of a theoretical discussion.

 
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Not Prepared to Give Final Result

The Foundation is not prepared to come to a final conclusion in any large area of our work. We do not have one constitution to recommend as the best choice for a free country. We have not concluded what would be the best possible legal system. So, in a sense, we are not yet prepared to offer output from our research.

 
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Much Work Done

The Foundation has made some progress and has produced some alternatives. Even if we are unable to choose between three alternatives, having developed those alternatives will be of use to people facing the problem of implementing a new country. Providing the results achieved so far in an easy-to-use form would be a positive service to potential users.

 
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One solution to this situation is to begin constructing prototypes. Then we can have some results to show and yet not be creating a stumbling block where we later have to retract and repudiate a prior position. We need to begin working toward our eventual output. By starting now, we can begin to prepare all the elements of our eventual output. As our vision jells, each element will have been previously developed.

 
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What Prototypes Are Not

Prototypes will not be expected to be our final answer. Any particular prototype may not be supported by a majority of the members of the Foundation. Especially when it is first under development, a prototype may not be complete. Prototypes are not comprehensive plans for the entire new country but may be restricted to a small scope of subject matter. Prototypes are not exclusive. Several may cover the same subject and some may include others. For example, a constitution might include a legal system yet there could be separate subcommittees working on each.

 
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What Prototypes Are

Prototypes are serious attempts to delineate the methods to be used in a free society. Prototypes are in enough detail to let the reader understand how the proposal would work. Prototypes are restricted to the subject matter of their subcommittee charter (which the subcommittee defined).

 
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Current Subcommittees

Among the currently existing subcommittees are:

• Constitution—based on U.S.
• Constitution—non-written
• Short stories and novels

Create More

Would you like to work on a subject not mentioned? Please let us know. We can start a new subcommittee or match you with an existing subcommittee.
 

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Many members of the Foundation are users of the Internet, so we will use it for our work. We are trying to think of a method to use for people who do not have ready access to the Internet. This work is just beginning, so we welcome innovations to our proposed work plan. Prior experience with similar efforts would be valuable.

 
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Techniques

The initial method being used is to send email messages to the subcommittee members with documents attached. The documents are currently just plain ASCII. The next level will be to put the documents into SGML. After that is working well, probably we will establish newsgroups and move the discussion to the newsgroups. After the documents are well developed, we may move them to our website (FREENATION.ORG).

 
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Output

Each subcommittee will define its own charter. The ultimate output is envisioned as a hypertext document that will include the basic document, a separate explanation of the reason for each provision, and a log of the email discussion of each provision.

 
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Call For Volunteers

Additional contributors are needed for each of the current subcommittees, and additional subcommittees are needed. If you have questions or would like to join a subcommittee, please contact the author at:

 
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ASCII (simplistic) The normal way computers code words—no special format codes.

GML Generalized Markup Language—a method of putting format codes in a document.

HTML Hypertext Markup Language—the way documents are coded for the WWW. Based on and a superset of SGML.

Hypertext The concept of including in a document a way of going to the definition of a term or an article about a phrase.

Newsgroups (should really be called discussion groups) A facility on the Internet to which a user subscribes and then messages sent to that group will be sent to the user. Often used by people working on a project or interested in a specific subject.

SGML Standardized Generalized Markup Language—based on and an improper set of GML.

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