From: jalonz@openworld.com
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 07:21:12 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Digital Society Group
Message-ID: <85256584.007B1AC7.00@openworld.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Hi all,

Openworld, Inc. is a company which sets up free enterprise zones around the
world. The "free zones" are akin to Hong Kong and Singapore and are
self-governing, independent entities as recognized by the parent country.

Free zones usually have the ability to issue citizenship, business licenses
and incorporation status to entities as well as have their own police force
and arbitration structure. A lot of them are not nearly big enough to need
that kind of independence, but there are a few.

Free zones rarely have bureacracy, taxes, etc. because the idea is to
create an environment for the rapid creation and deployment of new
businesses. Land is leased for 50-100 years with a parent entity buy-back
at the end of the term.

Can anyone say corporate state? Basically, free zones are corporations (or
groups of) leasing land from a country in order to make it valuable enough
to sell back at a large profit in 100 years. Notice that the emphasis is on
very long-term results. The free zone only makes money if the residents are
happy, educated and making money. Environmental issues are addressed
immediately. There is no bureacracy to hold things back.

I'll be the first to agree that a corporate state is very easy to abuse
(soon the world could end up being a Microsoft corporate state <joke>). But
you have to start somewhere.

Most of these zones are created in third world countries and poorly
developed areas.  Free zones are exempt from telecommunications monopolies
so the bandwidth and connection fees are at regular US wholesale market
rates. When you consider that the economy is moving to be information and
bandwidth dependent, and the main thing holding a new country back is the
cost of a satellite feed, a free zone has enormous impact on the growth of
an area.

It is a bit mind-boggling to realize what the marriage of a free economic
zone and the Internet can accomplish.

Openworld, Inc. is developing drop-in modules for health, education,
business and governance functions for free zones as well as Internet
connectivity and infrastructures.

A division of Openworld, Inc., The Digital Society Group, has been formed
to apply technology to the infrastructure of the free zones and essentially
mirror them in cyberspace <argh, the cyber word again>.

Without getting into too much detail, The Digital Society Group is
constructing a pure-technology infrastructure to provide for the operation,
governance and existence of a complete digital society within a free
enterprise zone.

My priorities are:

1. encryption for all

2. anonymity for all

3. digital currency for all

4. the ability for the creation of ad-hoc micro-communities by citizens
more or less on-the-fly

5. the ability for any entity - hardware, software, etc. to be a citizen
and be entitled to certain rights such as property ownership,
incorporation,etc. (the legislation is being written right now)

6. do it very, very cheaply and give it to the end-user (the world) for
free.

Check out:

http://www.openworld.com/digitalsociety

Sorry about the sparse web pages and the crappy graphics, but there is no
money for a graphics designer.

Locations are planned for Africa, Southeast Asia, Russia, etc.

We are already coding...

:)
Jalon

---------------------------------------------------------------
Jalon Q. Zimmerman, Director
The Digital Society Group
A division of Openworld, Inc.

http://www.openworld.com/digitalsociety
jalonz@openworld.com
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The government is not your mommy.
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