Direct Democracy, Socially Responsible Web
Shouldn’t the web help us to better execute our role as citizens? It barely does… don’t get me wrong, I love all the reactive twitts to what’s wrong and right. We all love to complain and debate, twitt and blog.
But what tools are there to actually get things decided and done in your community, city or country? Last time I got involved into something it was using the now-mostly-disregarded online petitions.
It’s amazing how egocentric we all get (and rightly so), expecting that for every opinion we shout, somebody else will listen and act upon it. This will never happen, so at least we should be able to make a point by getting together with like-minded people. The more you are on the same side, the bigger the chance to make a difference.
We understood that the web is not just about reading, but more about sharing information. Now, what about deciding, organizing and actually doing things we all should be doing as citizens? I currently can’t see the web offering enough tools (or maybe it’s users don’t offer enough will?) to go this way.
Notes
- This post being just another one about the thoughts that lead me to thinking about ways to build a collaborative decision-making platform, where, based on direct democracy and proxy voting, you get to actually make a difference as a citizen.
- Thanks “asd@asd.com” for your comment on my previous post on this row. You are right about the concerns of power abuse - I think the solution is to be absolutely transparent, as in “all votes are public no matter what”. Or at least close to that. Because corruption != transparency
