RE: >H Transhumanities Scholarship [NetFunds]

[Kris Ganjam <krisgan@microsoft.com>]

Transhuman Mailing List

After misinterpreting this thread's original title... 

It might be interesting to set up an essay contest/scholarship for all the
budding transhumanists out there.  A $500 prize or so could do a lot to get
transhuman ideas into the classrooms and minds of the next gen.  

Perhaps someone could set up a website that handles the logistics of such a
fund.  The weight of a judge's vote might be based on how much that judge
contributed to the pot.  To keep the administrators honest, all
contributions (made via credit card, etc) would be displayed on the website
and only a predetermined % would go to administrative costs.  After judging,
all entries could be put on public display and visitors could rank and
comment on the essays themselves.

Actually, the model of internet based "public funding" is something I've
been considering for a while.  Instead of paying general society membership
fees (taxes), which often get misdirected, people could contribute to areas
that they personally feel are in need of more money.  Funds might get
chartered with very specific purposes, such as "new bridge for highway 101"
or with broader purposes like "national defense fund" or even personal pleas
like "I really need a new mountain bike fund (I promise to post cool
pictures if you donate...)."  Instead of paying today's ~35% general tax,
one would have the option to distribute that money to any public
"tax-deductable" funds such as charities or community projects.  This is
potentially very tied to internet-based voting on public issues as well (He
who contributes more, gets the bigger vote).  Does anyone have any
references on these subjects (especially related to lightweight internet
trust fund/money pool management)?

-Kris

Some related sites and search phrases I've found: 

http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/~lorracks/sensus/hotlist.html
http://www.fund-online.com/
"internet fund raising"
"digital democracy"
"direct democracy"
"electronic democracy"
"digital coupons"
"digital gift certificates"
http://cybersource.com
http://www.moneysearch.co.uk/
http://www.campaigncontribution.com/default.htm
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_2/mjohnson/index.html
http://people.delphi.com/mickjyoung/funding.html

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