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The Unity-and-Diversity World Council (UDC) has been working towards the Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly since Peace Sunday celebration on December 10, 2006.  We will be using the new online Group Dialog process, also known as the Eaton Model of Collective Communication.  Our intent is nothing less than the creation of a global force that will remake the world for the better using the power of nonviolence. 

To participate, sign up at our Global Assembly Homepage. 

The Group Dialog process is designed for the exchanging of messages between groups online.  This idea of exchanging messages between groups is something new.  It is not a regular dialog, because the focus is on the group level message exchange, not on the exchange of messages between individuals. 

In a Group Dialog, when it is a group's turn in the dialogue to send a message, the group goes through a simple two step process:

1. members of the group write "candidate" messages 
2. the members rate the candidates for both interest and approval, and the highest rated message wins that "round" and is delivered to the other group(s) as an expression of the authoring group - this is what is meant by "group level" message exchange.

The dialog will alternate between unity rounds, where everyone will together select a single message, and diversity rounds, where each participating group will elect its own message.  This alternation between "together" and "apart" rounds is the basis of the Eaton model and promises real progress on the difficult problem of making the unity and diversity approach actually work.  As of March, 2008, we have six groups lined up with a total email list of 1000 addresses.  If you have a group or network that might want to participate, please contact me at rogereaton@earthlink.net.  When we grow by groups and networks, we can take off quickly. 

However as of March 2009, the dialog is on hold.  A nuclear disarmament dialog is testing the new forum capability.  At some point we hope to restart the Global Assembly Dialog.

For a more detailed explanation of the workings of the dialog, first be sure to see the Eaton model, and then our Global Assembly Technology page.

The theme of the Dialog is how to build "a world that works for everyone."  Humanity, we believe, is composed largely of intelligent and generous human beings who already agree it is past time to get on with the job. The missing ingredient is the common awareness that we, the people of the world, are already united. Consciousness of that unity is what the Dialog will provide. 

Electing a message is a unifying activity. Elected messages become doubly important, first because, by the nature of the rating system, they are highly approved and interesting but also, because we realize that everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone has read these messages. In other words, the messages have reached collective consciousness. They are shared messages, and as such leap ahead of the other, un-elected, messages in everyone's imagination. Through this mechanism, we get everyone on the same page in a very literal way.

Moreover, the elected messages will consistently express love and wit, because these core attributes are what all the world appreciates. As we see generous, intelligent and good-humored messages being selected round after round, we will expand our sense that our fellows are trustworthy, and our feelings for the "other" in general will be uplifted. This effect will take hold within our developing movement and raise our spirits so we will have the energy to go global. 

Being online opens up possibilities for growth. For one thing, every email and online page will have a link at the bottom for participants to invite their friends and colleagues, so we can expand in numbers quickly. For another, when we get large enough, we can break into sub-committees. These sub-committees will naturally be of three kinds, organizational, interest and topical. Organizational examples might be Funding, Outreach, Conventions, PR. Interest sub-committee examples might be Environment, Interfaith, the Arts, and so forth. Topical breakout will be for adhoc topics such as the looming confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, or global warming. Finally, the source code is available as open source and we have two programmers working on it, so suggestions for tailoring it to help us grow will definitely be in order. The world is huge, and though we can start with a simple system on a single "web server" computer, we will need to implement a peer-to-peer network to really carry the day, so having the source code to work with as we want is really a must. 

To bring the estimated one to two million positive, forward looking organizations in the world together is a huge task. Each organization has its own agenda and must concentrate on that, having little to spare for getting involved with a larger movement. Also, organizations tend to be jealous of their independence. The solution we are proposing is to create a center from the bottom up with such vitality and force of expression that the many far-flung participating groups will, of their own desire, align themselves with the strategies and priorities developed by the committee of the whole. 

The role of the Unity-and-Diversity World Council will be to facilitate the emergence of the Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly and its Nonviolent Service Task Force. That movement will generate its own governance bodies.  We are looking forward to a first global in-person meeting of Global Assembly Dialog participants sometime in 2009.  That first meeting will be a topic of discussion in the Dialog. 

The UDC vision statement guides our actions in this endeavor: "To establish and sustain a local-to-global cooperating body of individuals, groups, and networks for the pursuit of peace, justice, and an environmentally sustainable civilization for all races, cultures, and religions based on universal ethical and spiritual principles."

For more information see the article, voice of humanity: Organizing a Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly from the Bottom Up.  Rev Stewart, founder of UDC has a good overview in his In Support of Local-to-Global Cooperation article.

Also worth a look is the wonderful Jewish-Muslim Human Rights Dialog conducted online in 2005 using the Eaton Model.

UDC Global Assembly Coordinator - Roger Eaton
rogereaton@earthlink.net
 

Unity-and-Diversity Contact Information

Leland P. Stewart, B.S.E., B.T., 
       Founder/Central Coordinator
P.O. Box 661401
Los Angeles, CA USA 90066-9201
Phone: 310-391-5735
FAX: 310-827-9187 (contact UDC first)
Email: udcworld1@yahoo.com
Website: www.udcworld.org