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Rotisserie Question
This question is posed jointly by the Berkman Center and the Howard Dean campaign, specifically: Jim Moore, Senior Fellow, Berkman Center http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/jim_moore Kelly Nuxoll, Howard Dean Campaign http://www.deanforamerica.com/ In 2004 you run a winning United States presidential campaign propelled almost entirely by grassroots support. Social software has made it possible for Americans to organize local campaign events, discuss political ideas and share their stories with one another. Gatherings in homes and restaurants encourage strangers to meet regularly and develop political communities. The night before the election, a Zogby poll indicates that 42% of Americans describe themselves as "re-engaged in politics"; a full 65% say they have developed some sort of new relationship with another person as a result of the campaign. When accepting the victory, you seize the hands of two young programmers and deliver the sentence that has served as the message of your entire campaign: "The president doesn't have the power in this country. You have the power." Electrified, your supporters celebrate their win on blogs, listservs, messages boards, and in small groups gathered in living rooms and kitchens. Now you are President of the United States, a position perceived by many as responsible for the health, safety, financial security and well-being of two-hundred sixty million people, plus the peace and prosperity of the entire world. You are also responsible to the mandate of your campaign -- to change the role of the president of the United States, shifting power from the White House and to the American people. The night after you are elected, you receive 2 million email messages from supporters. Not surprisingly, each supporter seems to believe that he or she has been elected co-president and stands ready to guide your domestic and foreign policy. How do you, elected on a platform of citizen empowerment, govern? What opportunities and challenges are made possible by the personal relationships and communities that your campaign has established? How will your government be shaped by social software and political engagement? What is your personal role as president? |
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Ultimately, we elect a leader, not a follower. However, with the voluntary and easy input of the American people, a President can put ideas out there for input to create More...
I would be troubled to see a President use an internet-empowered electorate as a means to go over the heads of the Congress. The point, in my view, is not More...
Your first job has to be to prove that your words about citizen empowerment were not empty. If you foul it up, you could cause more harm than someone who More...
Some very good points, I think. I really like the idea, today, that I can send my elected representatives a message about what I think. . . . . Or, More...
[with apologies for the length]
__How do you, elected on a platform of citizen empowerment, govern?
Some kinds of community building are easy, but to truly govern this fractious nation More...
Having framed the debate and elicited a massive outpouring of opinions and viewpoints, how would one then form consensus? As you pointed out, simplistic answers that pander to fear are More...
For years, regulatory agencies have had processes for soliciting comments and comments on comments. Starting under Clinton, a number of agencies have started allowing comments to be solicited via teh More...
Steve lays out excellent points. There may be small advances in the way that government agencies and representatives collect opinions, but the software is still poor and unscaleable.
And I More...
Hello: A public that participates in the government of our country represents the Democracy we learned about in school. I envision a most efficient process growing out of the government's More...
Our country is currently run mostly as an oligarchic republic. We elect leaders to make decisions for us, and they make those decision based mostly on the financial interests of More...
I agree that the governance as described will need to be an extension of the campaign:
"creating fora where those people can talk to one another and make some reasonable More...
In formulating my original post ("Citizen policy advisors"), I concentrated on the "social software" aspect of creating and sustaining political involvement in a (virtual) world where everybody wants to be More...
The window of opportunity for effecting mandated change from the election will be small. Demand quick and simple action from Congress for key campaign platform issues and amend or improve More...
My central reason for supporting the Dean candidacy is its potential for igniting a rebirth of civil society, of neighborhood-level politics. That this is happening via the medium of social More...
If Dean is a leader, then he should not succumb to the dictates of his grassroots supporters. Ideally, if they support him, they will continue to support him as long More...
However one looks at it, the position of President is ultimately one of leadership. The type of leadership needed, however, would depend on the political structure as a whole. Since More...
We'll do Mr. President. The software will enable us to make decisions easy , fast and timely, however we need to prioritize the policy prescriptions in order to start-up the More...
You touch on an interesting point when you suggest more leaders in other regions and other countries. In a complex adaptive self organizing insurgency (which is another way of looking More...
I propose to take this initiative further together with the participating colleagues at H20.
I would love to know what Mr.Jim Moore thinks about my proposition as well.
Please let More...
I propose to take this initiative further together with the participating colleagues at H20.
I would love to know what Mr.Jim Moore thinks about my proposition as well.
Please let More...
Rule of law, Transparency, Accountability, Ethics and Participatory
Democracy are key values of our government. We will govern the MAP Multi-Access-Portal: television+telephone+internet for our citizens choice on our government's initiatives More...
Blogging may have catalyzed Deans groundswell of grassroots support, but don't confuse the instrumentality for the territory. We cannot "Govern" the multi access portal, we can only learn from it. More...
the MAP will be governed by the citizens and their choices. what needs to be done is to form political decision making clusters in all the states and sub regions. More...
ASSUMPTION: U.S. electronic voting systems which eliminate voters' Right To Vote are miraculously replaced by electronic voting systems now in use in Australia which protect the voters' Right To Vote. More...
As President, you have the opportunity to encourage broad citizen engagement in government problem-solving and policymaking. Your challenge, from both a practical and a philosophical standpoint, is to avoid substituting More...
I'm not sure how far a cyber-constituency can be expanded by these means, even if they are each noble goals. There will always be less-than-engaged citizens, no matter how convenient More...
I think these kinds of measures could vastly increase levels of participations, with the key point being that the policy making agencies have to demonstrate that citizen participants' contributions are More...
Cyber-citizenship has already been used to expand public participation. I agree that active cyber-participants should be included on advisory boards and commissions, but only if they meet the necessary qualifications. More...
Throughout the evolution of computing and the Internet, there has been a small but highly creative thread of research loosely called Peopleware. The focus of peopleware has been not on More...
I would have my programmers develop a series of knowledge bases which would interpret the views and comments each individual want to make. By being able to have a computer More...
At this point, if you were elected under the mandate described there is no need for real leadership. You are attempting direct democracy. In that case, you have to hope More...