[Campaignforrealdemocracy] direct democracy through the back door

[nigel ware]

Yes the promotion of the site would be the challenge definitely, even with a local MP on board, and maybe we should consider the local council as well, they may be able to find a budget to help with the publicity. 

I think though if the site was up and running, real life may help. In other words if/when something big happens like war, banks going down, etc then this would be the ideal time for promoting the site virally, making use of all the social networking sites and promoting the polling aspect of the site.  The local council could find money for leaflet distributions to all house holds promoting the site "having your say" "direct line to your MP"

Promoting the site on radio and local tv would be essential, but once again the site would have to been running for some time, first to iron out problems and general issues to finely tune it all.



The site itself needs to be easy to use with a clickable map guide to constituencies but also very important would be to make the posting of threads similar to the ebay format of selling in categories, so users would have to go through a  series of headers to define their post- law and order-nhs-education and then sub categories from those. This is important so as the site doesnt end up with many hundreds of threads basically about the same issue, also the email notifications of new threads would need to be selected by preference of category, polls etc.


My fear is that some more clued up MPs may see where such a site as this could lead in the very near future with a hung parliament especially, good news for us, and good news for them, but they just dont know it yet.

Either way after the election I am going to contact a few local MPs in my area to sound them out, I doubt they will reply, so this means I will have to attend one of their surgeries, being careful of course not to take my own scalpel.




On 28 Apr 2010, at 12:15, James Sadri wrote:

> metagovernment do lots of cool stuff http://www.metagovernment.org/wiki/Main_Page
> 
> my questions would be less about technology but about relevance to the community. you need to get a certain amount of critical mass engaged before it makes sense for everyone to put in so much effort to collaborate. so the human network side of things. how may ppl do you need, can you get them. the tech is the easy bit.
> 
> there's good direct democracy party in denmark that uses the internet a whole load, but i think our main hurdle at the moment is the lack of PR. the critical mass you need to get this idea up and viable are probably spread across consitutencies - mayb enot though
> 
> On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com> wrote:
> HI Everyone
>  
> Here's an idea just sent me from Nigel Ware. Assuming we could identify a suitable constituency does anyone know anyone who could help set this up ? James ?
>  
> Mark
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: nigel ware <nigelrware at me.com>
> Date: 27 April 2010 17:52
> Subject: Re: direct democracy through the back door
> To: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
> 
> 
> Basically I have an idea, which might already exist some where? To find some php script writers who can create a political forum website that we can offer the use of to local MPs.
> 
> The site would work as a forum and could be used for a local MP to gauge public support or to gauge their constituents gripes etc. Polls could also be run on the site, polls could be created by any user of the site. The site could run both locally and nationally for national debates on laws etc.
> 
> To make this site really work and become a powerful tool for direct democracy it needs to work best at the local level and would need to be advertised locally and obviously in time nationally. The main reason to get a local MP on board and enthusiastic is that they can get the money that would be needed to create and run and advertise it. I think that the term "direct democracy" may need to be avoided at first due to most if not all MPs as far as I know, being against direct democracy, so this site would have to be sold as a major tool for local MPs.
> 
> As the site becomes established and popular and for example in my constituency with the MP having a 10,000 majority at the last election, gets the numbers of users for my constituency up to 5,000 or so, then how could my MP ignore the popular demands made on the site.
> 
> I am sure it would not take long before various threads locally and nationally along with the polls on the site would start to demand voting on national budgets, going to war, and further down the line law. I think the polls on the site would be most popular, as the governments petition site is a bit of a joke with its 12 month maximum duration time limit.
> 
> As I said this is all just an idea buzzing around my head so feel free to shoot it down in flames or play with it as you see fit.
> 
> On 25 Apr 2010, at 15:38, Mark Barrett wrote:
> 
> > Hi Nigel. Thanks for your message which was forwarded to me. Please
> > send info and I will link you in to lots of others who might be able
> > to help. Cheers, Mark
> >
> > On 25/04/2010, nigel ware <nigelrware at me.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Can you tell me who I can contact with some ideas I have for introducing
> >> direct democracy to our awful political system we have at the moment? Please
> >> send me email addresses as I want to run some ideas about and see if they
> >> can be finely homed by more clever doods than myself.
>  
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> +447771636390
> http://giveyourvote.org
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> http://twitter.com/giveyourvote

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