From Barack Obama’s platform on the subject of technology:
We need to connect citizens with each other to engage them more fully and directly in solving the problems that face us. We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago.
The deliberation and decision-making processes in the United States are archaic. They were designed in an era when the fastest message traveled at the speed of a horse. Consider that the precedents for presidential and congressional term limits were also set during that era. Four years worth of decision-making in 1798 was probably orders of magnitude less power than four years worth in 2008. The globalized, digitally-connected world moves far swifter than the one our Founding Fathers lived in.
I hope that the idealistic position quoted from Obama’s site above can be reduced to concrete practice in the coming years. Instead of relying on lobbyists to travel to Washington DC and “represent” the public interest with sweet talk and bribery, let us use the Web to create a channel for direct public comment and polling on legislative and executive issues. It would be really quite simple. That’s what Change.gov should really be.
The internet gave us all a voice. President-elect Obama, please open up an ear to listen.
Yes. This is right on point. I feel that we should hold this president to a very high level of transparency and commitment to the things we elected him for. Let’s get petitions, like the very simple, but oft overlooked, ones that were given to ["Gee, Dubs"] in the past years, out to our [President for Change]. Based on how he’s reacted to the people who have helped him win through the very channels of communication that he should open up to let us do what is in our power to get things rolling in the way we want. Digital sit-in anyone?
We have a charity in the uk called mysociety, their aim is to promote democracy.
One of their sites http://www.theyworkforyou.com gives details of who your representatives are from local parish councillors, Members of Parliament to Euro MEPs, it also gives information as to how they have been voting on your behalf.
The also run a sister(brother?) site http://www.writetothem.com where you can contact your representative, they keep track of non-responders and publish how well/not our elected representatives are at keeping in touch with us.
Is there something similar in the US. ?