Strides Toward E-Goverment

Politico highlights Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's site that encourage grassroots identification of issues and Prime Minister Blair's site that facilitates online petititions. Good for them, for pioneering these exciting efforts! (BTW, A look at the most popular petitions suggests that Brits want to boogie).

The article mentions Politicopia. We learned quite a bit running Politicopia during the legislative session. It has been nice to take some time after the session to focus on our experience, and to think through the limitations and possibilities of what we're trying to accomplish. At the Personal Democracy Forum on May 18th, we will introduce Politicopia's next step toward helping the public more meaningfully participate in their government. Thanks to Britt Blaser and his dedicated (and tired) ORGware team for their masterful work.

To give you an idea of what we're trying to accomplish with Politicopia, take a look at Gov. Patrick and PM Blair's sites. These are good starts. Now, imagine if participants on those sites were able to set up their own pages on those sites, to more fully explain their positions (with links, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc) and, then, were able to interact directly with the other participants, again directly on the site. This could convert suggestions and petitions to actual movements. While it is cool that (1) people can see who agrees with their thinking on issues and (2) that goverment, if it chooses to look, can see what people are thinking about an issue, this is not directly empowering for the participants. Think what might happen, though, if participants were enabled through the sites to network directly with the other participants and to, there, plan strategies to get the policymakers to act on their issues. At that point, the sites aren't just beneficial to policymakers who chose to look; rather, they are beneficial to the people, in that the actions the sites facilitate would force policymakers to pay attention. It is only with that type of functionality and organizational capabilities that the Internet will deliver on its potential to return political power to the people.