One of the big challenges still facing campaigns and civic engagement organizations is delivering basic information to voters. Television commercials and direct mail do a poor job of this: personalized contact is the future. The Democracy Dashboard will help facilitate that personal contact. The Dashboard is a personalized, trusted and reliable first-stop for American voters to get basic information about elections, their current elected representation and government, and groups, parties and activists that are active in their area. The Dashboard system would also serve as a tool for activists, groups and campaigns to reach out to and connect with new potential supporters.

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.

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.