Cloud Communities
Definition
A cloud community is "a platform in which individuals can create political communities, organize certain functions of their life (e.g., law, governance, welfare services), participate in decision-making (alongside states), and have a political voice that is otherwise not effectively given to them in the nation-state structure."
(http://global-citizenship.eui.eu/research/global-citizenship-technology/cloud-communities/)
Discussion
==The concept of an International Legal Persona will enable individuals to establish “Cloud Communities”
Liav Orgad:
"In international law, a “state” possesses four qualities: a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and a capacity to enter into relations with other states (Article 1, Montevideo Convention, 1933). International law does not recognise the concept of a “virtual state,” yet existing virtual communities, such as Bitnation—a decentralised borderless virtual nation that functions as a government service platform (Bitnation, 2017) — challenge the definition of a “state,” and raise the question of why some of the institutional functions of the state, for which it was first established, cannot be effectively served also by a virtual political community? Can we interpret a “defined territory” to include cyberspace, or instead talk of “state-like” non-territorial polities?
The concept of an international legal persona will enable individuals to establish “Cloud Communities” of different kinds. Conceptually, cloud communities have traditional characteristics of political communities, but not necessarily a physical territory. The communal bond can be global in nature—such as a shared concern about climate change, ageing, veganism and animal rights (i.e., a universal community, open to everyone)—or ascriptive, such as a Jewish / Bahá’í faith / Diasporic Cloud Nations, a form of “transnational nationalism” (i.e., a selective community, open only to certain members). It can be thematic or geographic—region, country, state, city, village—based on a shared interest or territorial identity, even if not or legally recognised communities. Membership is based on consent; a person can be a member of several communities or none. The goal varies, but my focus is political communities. Cloud communities are not social networks, but political communities whose aim is political decision-making and in which individuals take part in a process of governance and the creation of law. The legal source for it can be Article 25(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), according to which “every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity … to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives.” Such a community may function in four areas: law (constitution, membership acquisition, registry), governance (political institutions, diplomacy, international agreements, taxes), welfare services (education, healthcare, social security), and economy (trade, corporate activities, fees). It can provide an ID registry, a dispute resolution system, collaborative decision making, a virtual bank, and a voting system. In a sense, religions are a form of “cloud communities”: virtual and borderless, but not voluntary and decentralised.
Procedurally, cloud communities can be established in two ways. A top-down community can be set up by an international organisation, such as UN organs, as an advisory body to an existing UN organ (WHO, FAO, UNESCO), or in policy areas of global importance (the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals is a good start). A bottom-up community can be set up by any number of international legal personas on a topic of common interest; as time passes by and the community reaches a certain numerical threshold, it can apply for a “Consultative Status” at the UN (Article 71, UN Charter). As in other mechanisms of advisory decision-making (e.g., advisory referendum), the outcome may become politically, even if not legally, binding.
Cloud communities are not a replacement for the state, but they offer global citizens sharing a common goal, interest, or identity new ways of interacting and collaborating with each other; they are “state-like” entities."
(https://globalcit.eu/cloud-communities-the-dawn-of-global-citizenship/)