Our Freedom to Connect is impaired by a divide and conquer market and policy regime. We're here to change that and to transform the communications/media policy sphere.

Without data and a constituency, your cause is toast. Let the pain of your constituency be your data, and get your geographically relevant data before every public and elected official you can. Our constituency has been unnaturally divided even for each individual according to each product/service they are using and by being set apart as individual consumers rather than as having a common interest.

Communications and Media issues are important for policy makers at every layer of government/governance, in every office, elected and appointed. None of them have any real data, and none of them perceive an organized constituency. Their unit of government probably doesn't have the resources or apparent will to collect the data any more.

Our tool aggregates across all connectivity issues for every person/household and creates a public constituency data resource for advocacy at every layer of governance. We aggregate consumer pain and create community and community voice on connectivity issues dealt with under distinctly separate policy regimes: cellular service, telephony, Internet connectivity of all flavors, other broadcast or media distribution services.

We enable citizen advocates to address these issues in a comprehensive way, with locally relevant data on local communications complaints and experiences. Drop the hard data of all the complaints in a particular district or ward on the desk of any politician and ask them: What are they doing about these issues? Their priorties will suddenly be re-ordered. Ask them why they don't have data on these policy issues if they are proposing economic development as a benefit of their pet legislaton.

Do this with policymakers and public officials at every layer of government, and we'll see some big changes.

The only thing missing is the tool that aggregates this from the wider frame and provides a means for citizen advocates to connect with each other and organize their voice.

WHAT WE NEED:

Volunteer or paid development time: database and web development. (Drupal, PHP, Ruby on Rails)

Robust hosting

Media Outreach/Publicity for tool - this needs to be publicized beyond Internet/web means for greatest impact.

Network of geographic-political data sources (later stage)

Means of connecting non-Internet input sources (telephony tone or voice messages)

Volunteers to translate to other languages.

Location