Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
last update: November 17, 2002
Contents
- Who are we?
- What are our goals?
- The medium
- Voting and management
- Our members
- Who can join?
- How can I join?
- Current issues
- Credits
Who are we?
The Arbeitskreis Sozialdemokratinnen und Sozialdemokraten im Internet - so the formal name of the Virtueller Ortsverein der SPD (VOV) (virtual local branch) is an organization of net people within Germany's political party "SPD" (Social Democratic Party of Germany). The VOV also welcomes non-SPD-members who share its ideas and goals. It is officially considered a "Arbeitskreis "(working team) by the head of the party.
The VOV was founded with the ideas and the intense efforts of our SPD congressman Jörg Tauss.
But different from "real" local branches we do not define ourselves as a regional unit of the SPD. Conditioned by our medium, the global network of the Internet (and other linked networks), we define ourselves as an organization, that uses the medium as a new form for political activities. The people who join the VOV are:
- Party members who want to further develop this new means of political activity in addition to their regular political activities
- Party members from all over the world who want to take part in political activities of the SPD, but who are set off by conventional means of political activity
- Non-SPD-members who identify themselves with the goals of the SPD and the VOV
What are our goals?
Our special political attention focuses on the development of modern information and communication technologies, their social and economic consequences as well as their consequences on the political opinion within our party.
We would like to develop and test new forms of virtual organization and electronic means of communication.
Our medium
VOV members communicate by the means of mailing lists. Discussion on current political issues mainly take place in the de.org.politik.spd newsgroup, but also in de.soc.politik, de.soc.netzwesen, de.soc.recht.misc, de.soc.zensur, .... (All these newsgroups are in German language.)
Further information and VOV statements on relevant subjects (in german language only) can be found on the WWW at http://www.vov.de. General information on the SPD can be found at http://www.spd.de/.
Voting and management
According to democratic principles, VOV members submit their thoughts and ideas to the net for further discussion. If they would like to make a proposal, the draft of their proposal is marked with the acronym RfD (Request for Discussion). After the discussion the voting takes part -- an electronic voting, of course. The voting coordinator sends a call for votes (CfV), that quotes the text to decide upon, the options to vote for and the deadline. Now, each member can send his/her vote to a voting account. The result will be posted to the mailing list <antrag@vov.de> and normally posted to the newsgroups and published on the WWW.
The managing board consists of the chairman and members responsible for special tasks and is accompanied by several special task coordinators: board members
Our patroness is Herta Däubler-Gmelin.
Our members
The members of the VOV are people from all over the world. In addition to that, many members are also members of the SPD and work in some of the regional and national bodies of the SPD.
Currently we have more than 1000 members; unfortunately less than 9% of them are female (but on average more active ;-). Most of the VOV-members claim to be a member of the SPD.
Upon expressed request, members can be listed in our official list of members. Additionally a list of members with homepages of their own can be found on our webserver.
Who can join?
Anybody who has an internationally valid email address <name@domain> and who accepts the founding principles and basic values of the SPD.
How can I join?
If you would like to join the VOV, just use our online entry form . Afterwards you have to print the form, sign it and send it by snail-mail to the VOV.
If you don't have access to the WWW, write an email to <admin@vov.de>. You will receive an entry form that has to be filled out and sent back by email and by regular mail. (Yes, two copies.)
A short personal profile sent to <misc@vov.de> would be nice, but is not mandatory.
Current issues
(In historical order, not in order of importance.)
- How can "censorship" be prevented and freedom of information be saved in computer networks?
- Privacy and security in computer networks.
- Universal service, free access to networks.
- Public statements of SPD members on the "information society".
- The new German telecommunications deregulation act.
- The new German information and communication services act (IuKDG)
- Computers in public schools
- Middle East politics
- Discussion of recent election results
- Women in the VOV and on the internet
- Internet campaigns
- Many other political issues.
Credits
This FAQ was originally written by Christoph Wick with the kind help of Jens Hoffmann, Thomas Roessler, Andreas Kroepelin, Andreas Plaeschke, Ralf Parr, Michael Doerrschuck, Bernhard C. Witt, Axel Schudak, Heino Prinz, Michael Singer, Ulrich Kortenkamp, Arne Brand, Attila Radnai, Karl Peter Ohly, Alexander Stirn, Hartmut Hambach, Helmut Pohl und Boris Piwinger.