Hi, those of you who follow me on steemit or twitter already know me, but my name is Dr Samuel Douglas (though most people just call me Sam), and this is my public announcement that I am putting myself forward as a Super Partner candidate for the ONO network.
For anyone not familiar with it, ONO is set to be a social media DApp that runs on EOS, and there will be 51 ‘Super Partners’ who will be responsible for collapsing (hiding) harmful or malicious content from view on the blockchain, as well as facilitating ONO member referendums to democratically decide contentious cases. Future Super Partners will be democratically elected by the ONO users every October and could be replaced at any time via user referendums, but the 'first generation' are hand-picked by the founding team.
What is ONO looking for in a Super Partner? According to ONO's article on Medium, 'How Can I Get Involved With ONO?':
Super Partners not only embody the core philosophy of ONO, they lead large groups of people, educate Community Partners, solve problems in their group (they will create an ONO group on some social platform), and are very influential. They don’t solve interpersonal problems through violent means or coercion. Super Partners are transparent, and they are also capable of guiding others in a compassionate manner. But Super Partners are also firm, able to make decisions quickly and are not afraid of confronting people who have bad intentions for the ONO ecosystem.
They solve problems quickly and efficiently, clearly stating why they took certain actions. They are trustworthy, and people rely on them for this exact reason. When Super Partners make a mistake, they own up immediately. For this reason, the ONO social network is vastly different from the existing networks, because ONO reflects the social fabric of the real world, instead of just having a bunch of strangers all lumped together, confused and without help from others.
I have been really impressed by the values that are laid out in the ONO white paper Common Program, and have decided that I would like to play a role in upholding them. I think I would be a good candidate for one of those 51 positions, and here’s why:
About me
I grew up on a farm in a small community, before going to high school in the city and moving away for university. I was (and still am) a total nerd, despite not really being suited to an authoritarian rote-learning educational environment. While my hobbies over the years have included everything from medieval combat reenactment to Wing Chun, obstacle racing and bodyboarding (though not all at the same time), my enduring pastimes are reading science fiction books, gaming, and gardening. I’m also inordinately fond of hanging out with my wife and our cat.
I’m a relative newcomer to all things cryptocurrency and blockchain, having only been on Steemit since a friend suggested in January 2018 that it might be a good place to publish my writing. I think I’ve clambered up that steep learning curve fairly well though - being involved with communities here on has helped a great deal, and has taught me a lot about the value of wokring together in an unfamiliar environment.
Community Contributions
I have helped edit parts of the English translation of the ONO white paper, assisted with greeting and answering questions in some of the ONO telegram groups, including the ONO English telegram group, where I’m an admin. I’ve participated in testing for the user experience designers, written about the ethics of ONO on both steemit and elsewhere on the web, and generally tried to work behind the scenes to get good people I know interested in ONO.
On Steemit I’ve been involved in a lot of community projects and groups (probably too many). I started off with the the @teamaustralia branch of Peace Abundance Liberty the Minnow Support Project, the Deadpost Initiative, #steemitzombies, #nobidbot, #newbieresteemday, just to name a few. I’ve also contributed to the work of @steemcleaners, and have been an admin for the @steemflagrewards discord channel. Most recently, I’ve been involved with the @comedyopenmic project as a guest judge, acted a point of contact for new guest judges, and generally trying to support the project through trying to engage with new entrants to our competition.
Outside of Steemit, and apart from my paid work (which I'll get to soon enough), I have a broad range of community-building and governance-related experience. I'm currently part of a network of philosophy academics based in Melbourne, PEiPL - Philosophical Engagement in Public Life, which is working to raise public profile of philosophy outside of a university context by engaging with the broader community. Our initiatives include philosophy for school children (both in the classroom and during holidays), and exploring the ways in which philosophical activity and knowledge can constructively infuse the lives of individuals with limited exposure to philosophy due to their social marginalisation.
I’ve also held the elected volunteer position of National /Division Councillor (General Staff) for my university's branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) representing my professional colleagues in democratic decision-making processes of that organisation at the national and state level.
Education, Work & Writing
Professionally, my background is in academic philosophy, education, and student administration - all roles I undertook while completing my doctorate. You can read my almost completely up-to-date curriculum vitae if you like, but here’s a summary:
- Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Newcastle (Australia).
- Over 10 years experience as a university tutor and lecturer - mostly in applied and professional ethics, but also critical thinking and philosophy of language.
- Over 10 years experience in student administration - wide range of duties including assessing graduation requirements, degree information advice and related publication QA, as well as university policy advice (for both students and staff).
- Lots of publications applying ethics and philosophy to current events in (hopefully) an accessible way.
- Recent research interest: Ethical dilemmas in education.
Super Partners and Ethics
I think the Super Partner position is an important one, and I suspect it is going to be tough. It is likely to involve decisions that may be unpopular and involve conflicting moral obligations. Done well, this position has the potential to not just protect people, but to help them learn better ways to interact - and, if necessary, better ways to disagree. Done poorly, the outcomes could range from allowing ONO members to harm each other due to the proliferation of scams and vilification, to the network harming its users through excessive and repressive censorship. So, I hope it’s clear that I appreciate the gravity with which this position should be treated.
I take the view that actions, and the liberties that underpin them, should be free from interference so long as the exercise of that liberty does not impact upon the freedoms of other people. This means I do not want to impact upon the ability of people so say something just because I, or anyone else, disagrees with it. (It also means I often disagree with my own government on what actions are allowable for an individual to take.) People do not have the right to live in a world where everyone agrees with them, though they should be able to exist without experiencing discrimination and harm simply for being different. I should note that lack of interference doesn't capture everything important about freedom; the freedom to eat whatever you like has neither use nor moral import to a starving person.
I also think that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to ethics and ethical dilemmas. If you just stick with a strict set of rules, or a strict ideology, you will either get stuck or make decisions that seem morally problematic. For example, dishonesty is bad, but refusing to lie when doing so could save lives makes little sense. Similarly, the ‘greater good’ is important, but sacrificing a single innocent life for the good of the group stikes most people as morally reprehensible, and rightly so. I sincerely hope to not be making those particular decisions as a Super Partner, but real-life ethical issues do not have easy answers; this has certainly been my experience in looking at the difficult decisions that school teachers make in their professional lives. If I had to sum up what drives my approach to complex ethical problems, it would be to cite an idea from Haynes (1998), that my colleague, Dr Daniella Forster, pointed me towards: Consistency, Consequences, and Care. If you fail to take any one of them into account, the other two fall away as well.
Summary:
I have a massive amount of experience judging large volumes of material against complex criteria and then saying why I decided as I did. My teaching experience has also given me a solid familiarity with the sort of ethical problems that can arise in social research, business and engineering contexts. I can articulate my reasoning to a very high standard, and am generally a good writer (@curie’d three times, @comedyopenmic jester once). I have helped edit the English translation of the ONO white paper, assisted in the ONO English telegram group, and have started working behind the scenes to help get the communities I’m most involved with prepared for what could be a new era of inter-blockchain collaboration and interaction.
I value my integrity more than my bank balance - if I didn’t I’d have more money. Seriously though, when I say that I hold myself to a high moral standard, and that I’d rather be poor than profit from something deeply unethical, I really mean it.
Super Partner Declaration
I promise to act with care, consistency, and to be mindful of the consequences of my choices.
I hope all of this makes me a good candidate for Super Partner. If anyone has any questions for me, please leave them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them in a timely manner. Thanks for reading.