The goal of MyPollingPlace is simple: to make it easier for people to exercise their civic rights by serving as a quick and easy source of information on where and how to vote.
Many people have good intentions to vote that can be hampered by small but significant obstacles: they can't easily figure out where they should go to vote, or how to get there. They don't know what type of identification they'll need to cast a ballot. Or they're intimidated by a lack of knowledge of the voting machines or ballot format they'll have to use at the polls.
Surprisingly, as of now there isn't a website out there that brings all this information together for voters.
The high turnout throughout this year's presidential primaries indicates that the fall elections may see very healthy turnout levels, including a sizable number of new voters heading to the polls. An informational site like MyPollingPlace.com could do much to help make the process as easy and painless as possible and thus encourage civic participation.
Mountain Media uses videophones to empower mountain communities to network across geographic distances and communication barriers and represent themselves in democratic processes and policy discussions on regional, national and global scales.
The only media currently reaching most remote mountain communities arrives via shortwave radios that offer no opportunity for community output. This media isolation is linked to a lack of political representation, transparency and accountability made worse by the fact that mountain people often do not speak the colonial languages of policymakers. Furthermore, illiteracy impedes communication even among regional communities. These barriers make political participation difficult at all levels of governance.
Given the strong traditions of oral knowledge transmission in mountain communities, video statements with translated subtitles and multilingual web capability are powerful and relevant tools in navigating the linguistic and geographic barriers these communities face to political representation on local, national and international levels. Videophones are practical, economic, and effective tools to record the content of these videos in remote areas. To these ends, Mountain Media will provide the training, equipment, and business strategies necessary to make videophone media production a self-sustaining tool in two indigenous communities in Peru: Pisac, a small town located in the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco; and the Communities of Q’eros, an extremely isolated mountain community in the high Andes.
To accomplish its goals in each community, Mountain Media will arrange tutorials between local film professionals and two members of each community to train them as community media experts. Once trained, the media experts will integrate weekly classes into the local school curriculum at local production studios powered with solar panels and connected via satellite Internet. Mountain Media will produce a clear protocol for replication in other mountain areas, hopefully one day leading to an exchange of self-expressed experiences and ideas among the global community of mountain peoples.
Citizen guardianship over public-interest information channels is essential to democratic debate and socially responsible media policy change. Independent, noncommercial and community media are struggling to survive while multi-billion dollar industries grow more powerful from the cables they run under the public roads and the licenses they use to broadcast on public airwaves, fighting off public obligations at every step. How can we create an environment where diverse media thrive? This is about how and what we communicate. Today's emerging information technologies have the potential to connect the world as never before. New media tools enable us to share solutions, strengthen cultures, and create new levels of accountability and transparency in governments and corporations, as well as, among social change organizations. THIS PROJECT could make local, regional national, and international media advocacy activities accessible to anyone interested in holding information gatekeepers in check. It would provide concerned citizens with 1) tools to feedback to broadcast, cable, satellite, radio and internet content decision-makers, 2) tools for messaging policy makers, and 3) motivation to transform individual viewers/receivers/"consumers" into participating media rights advocates by provide opportunities to get involved. THE PROJECT would also address a pressing need among media advocacy players in the U.S. Accessing information about partnerships, collaborations, new initiatives, etc. is klunky and time-consuming. Bridge-building between and among advocates across regions and issues is timely, if not urgent in today's media landscape. The widest gulf exists between grassroots and local media justice organizations and Washington D.C. Policy change efforts. The connection between scholarly research and community advocacy is developing, yet improving knowledge of and access to organizations would expedite productivity (and therefore, positive policy change). THIS PROJECT could minimally, be the gateway to more efficient networking, alliance and partnership initiatives and collaboration. Funders and/or investors would use the service to gain pertinent information about media issues or potential grantees. This mashup would help strengthen media movements, and ultimately be the e-support of efforts that preserve the free expression of diverse perspectives.
VoteRightNow is about changing the way our democracy works, right now! It's simple but elegant, really. Viral voting will sweep the land as the voters refuse to wait out time consuming and overpriced campaigns. THE PEOPLE will instead opt to instantly elect a candidate with a basic online or mobile phone button/code that asks them to answer one easy question: "Who do you want to be elected...candidate X,Y, or Z?" When political office holders are not coming through, instant recall buttons can similarly allow any and all voters to virtually throw the bum out with another press of the button and the instant tallying of local, regional, national, or international results. The more people that participate on VoteRightNow, the more powerful and accurate a tool it becomes. And the more powerful it becomes, the less usefull long, drawn out election campaign cycles and expensive formal voting become. VoteRightNow saves everyone time and money, and helps to foster greater democratic participation in the process.
If the project is successful, American voters will learn the impact that U.S. foreign policy decisions have on people around the world, on a general and personal level. They will also see how U.S. democracy is perceived in contentious countries like Iran and China.
The aim of this project is to expose American voters to the impact that their decisions, and their elected government’s decisions, have on people globally, using user generated video, news video, feeds and statistics. U.S. voters will also become aware of how the 2008 U.S. presidential election is being covered by television outlets in other countries. This knowledge will help make voters more aware of the importance of their decision and the empowerment they gain through participation in the democratic process. It will also bring them closer to individuals outside of the U.S. by allowing them to make a personal connection through video dialogue.
The project may be a great first step toward a permanent and growing mashup of international news and reports on a variety of global issues beyond the election. Future iterations of What the World is Saying – Human Rights, Development Aid, the Environment?
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Writers have always written, not knowing about who or where their readers are. This mashup will show where the readers are coming from, who read a writer's article, or where the readers come from, who care about the same topics as any tag in the system.
We will use zip codes, which we have on record, for our members, or IP address, for non-registered visitors, to map where readers of a specific article come from. Since articles are also tagged, we can pull tag contact data for people as well, and map tags based on who's visited from where-- for any article.
When writers know more about where their readers come from, that could/will change the way they think about their readers and could change how they write.
This could have a powerful effect upon editorial decisions too. Since thousands of tags will be easily checked for how they "map", it will be possible to asses reach of the site and editorial policy in new ways.
Writing, news, Op-eds, the media-- they are essential elements of democracy. Understanding which aspects of the writing are reaching WHERE, for each article, or groups of articles, or by the author-- all of these should be easily pulled together using the system we've already built for managing content. Even on more local levels, if we can tap the power of google analytics to pull IP info and map it to local, county or state levels, this could be powerful, since we also tag our content by locale. For example, if a writer writing on water pollution discovers that the lower part of a county is seeing the articles, but not the upper level, and a river runs through the county, that could easily help the writer identify where further outreach is needed.
There's a link between money, speech and the ability to participate. Political MicroDonation (under $1) with Electoral/Geographic Networking is vital for scaling representation. Especially in grassroots issue or legislative lobbying and for new candidates and ideas.
It's the Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!
It's a fundamental of speech and association.
(Chagora is NOT Monetized via any addition to transaction costs!)
A Charity and Cause/Campaign Service Provider Characterized by Associated Individual Donor Accounts accessed via the Recipient’s and others’ Chagora widget or the Chagora website itself which is Attractive to Recipient charitable and issue/candidate oriented nonprofits because of its enablement of Exclusive Transaction & Feedback Capabilities of vital interest to Donors and the general public.*
Chagora Assumptions
The Power of Small Money, Large Numbers & Immediate Feedback!
Attempts to revitalize our political system have focused attention on the issue of money in politics. All are good tries, and all are from the wrong end. It’s not just too much big money… it’s too little SMALL money. Political MicroDonation under $1 is a proximity substitute for conditions under which Representative Governments first arose and operate best… and are essential for scaling better leader development and decision making.
When teamed with more effective information gathering and dispersal (e.g. Sunlight Foundation, etc.) as well as new technologies of association (OpenSocial Initiative, Causes, etc.) its capabilities will be quickly seen and hence its growth will be self-reinforcing...
Most people never give to a cause or campaign… They will! They don’t give now because they assume they can’t make a difference… It’s too much, too rare and too difficult!
They’re hungry for a voice; a mechanism to bring them IN. Chagora does it and does it profitably. The design as a for-profit structure with ultimate exit-strategy by ownership transfer to the Donor-base is a unique element intended as a check & balance mechanism empowering the commons in a reasoned way against imbalances concurrent with civilization scaling.
The Mechanism and the Fish
Political MicroDonation is a catalyst and needed an enabling mechanism. And the enabling mechanism itself is a Hook for a priceless fish. The Fish is a natural concentration of Donors gravitating to such a system... And an essential tool for empowering citizens in the commons!
How does it work
The Donor’s P.U.D Account (Pooled, User-Determined Account) with accounting and reporting makes previously non-viable and therefore non-existent transactions feasible and FUN.
Essentially the User participates in a Chagora Trust account with as little as $10 and relinquishes ownership of deposited money, but retains full discretion on its distribution (within defined limits relating to charitable or cause-based entities).
Further, the account, once established persists whether funded or not and has functions related to social networking for civic purposes which are expanded on elsewhere. Chagora takes no part of the transaction between the donor and recipient. CHAGORA’s Design Structure suggests that even those with NO interest in politics at all will eventually be drawn in as well!
Monetization
Recipient Subscription Fees, Charity and Cause/Campaign Services, Charity-Corporate Sponsorships, Accounting Services, FEC (and other) Reporting Services, Supplementary Web & Tech Services, Event Media Fees, etc.
(See my comment below and the link to a recent Washington Post article on problems with fundraising by the facebook application "Causes" and consider what effect Chagora's capability would add.)
*This user-controlled specialized account has additional potentials depending on a number of factors and its application in different countries and legal systems will vary... however its underlying fundamentals are universal.
Project is being developed 'Open Source'
Prototype & FAQ http://www.Chagora.com/faq.aspx
Blog http http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com
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In brief, the development I'm discussing arose from a very clear conclusion that civilization scaling issues make enablement of political micro-contribution (<$1) a vital part of political representation. This has more to do with facilitating frequency and breadth of contribution over quantity of contribution by any particular individual, and the general expansion of participation that results. Its mere existence, in addition, sets up some beneficial political/social feedback loops and counteracts others not so beneficial in ways both obvious and obscure. (And in the end will actually reduce the role of money in politics altogether but that's a longer case to make than would be appropriate here.)
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