The GOP wants you to help it figure out its party platform. Today, the Republican Platform Committee launched a site to gather comments and policy suggestions directly from the party faithful (and anyone else willing to give up their e-mail address). They also launched a corresponding Facebook app. The idea ostensibly is to gather feedback and debate about policy issues such as national security, energy and gas prices, health care reform, judicial nominations, and that old crowd pleaser “Protecting American Values.” Where’s the technology plank? Here are a few resources for them to start thinking about what tech policies we need.
For each issue, there is a synopsis of some of the questions policy makers are grappling with, and registered members are able to respond via either text or video comments. The site will have polls and will be moderated to keep the flame wars down. There is no apparent way to create new topics of debate or suggest detailed policy proposals other than in comments. It kind of screams for a wiki approach to some of this. But that would mean giving up control of the policy discussions on the site. Imagine that.
The site itself has a stodgy charm to it. But at least the GOP is creating an online forum for citizens to engage with policy makers before they make policy. This could just be an empty effort whose real purposes is to collect e-mail addresses from party members to hit them up for donations. And if that’s the case, the site will soon die. But if the GOP can create an active community of people truly interested and informed about different policy options, and feed that into their platform, it could give them a real competitive advantage over the Democrats.
In fact, why aren’t the Democrats doing this as well? They may have something similar, but a quick search this morning didn’t turn up anything other than this Listening to America town hall tour of 50 states. If you want to listen to America, you can listen to a lot more people online than in 50 town halls.
It is important to about extend participation online beyond fund-raising, and soliciting direct policy proposals from voters is a step in the right direction.
Of course, this may go nowhere. But as with any online community, the content that it produces is so often defined by the early, most involved members of that community. In politics that is often members with the most extreme views. For this to work, the GOP needs to get the balance right in terms of who it encourages to participate early on. If serious policy wonks gravitate to the site, and communicate effectively to other members, it could turn out to be a great place to test the waters for new policy initiatives. Or even to generate new ones the GOP never considered.
The Democrats should do the same. They could launch a site like this in a couple weeks.
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I think they should copy Digg and make all the policies to be voted by the participants…
The Obama campaign is doing something similar…
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/listening/
The only time you’ll ever see anything from this site ever doing anything is when things line up with their predefined agenda. This is nothing more then an internet publicity stunt to pretend they care what anyone has to say.
The reason the Dems are not doing this is that their platform just absorbs whatever is currently popular.
As an Open Innovation Evangelist, I’ve been pushing and hoping for this kind of thing to happen. It should be taking place across the board, from the local gov’t level to the highest. We elect people to office, but why would anyone think a small subset of the populace - politicians - have all the answers? Ask us, and we’ll pitch in our ideas. Power to the People.
Why? As a lifelong democrat, because the democratic party is dumb. Not just dumb, but fantastically inept with egotistical fools running it.
omg puhlease…the GOP soliciting advice from the electorate? What a sham. These guys won’t care what the electorate thinks until the electorate marches down K Street with torches in hand.
Eric,
Please correct the link in your post. It doesn’t point to anything. The site is
http://www.gopplatform2008.com
The links don’t work.
GOP needs policy ideas because they don’t have a clue.
I’m shocked that the Democrats didn’t think of this first. There are two types of Internet Politics, industrialized and democratic. The later is about distribution of power, with a focus on citizenship and volunteerism. From the name itself you would assume the DNC would be on top of that.
Isn’t this just asking for trouble? I mean, how many of the suggested policies will they actually be able to adopt?
It would be completely impractical for them to adopt more than a small handful of the public’s suggestions which would leave most people feeling like their voice wasn’t being heard. If anything, this will fragment their supporters across millions of different policies rather than rallying them around a set of common goals.
The mere thought of Digg users defining government policy is frightening.
Narphorium: you beat me to it! totally concur.
@12 - I seriously doubt the Digg users could do much worse at running our country than Bush&Co and this corrupt congress. In case you hadn’t read the news recently, you are witnessing the fall of Rome!
Because the democrats are united. The Republicans are a collection of people, they have fiscal conservatives and social conservatives. And they have snubbed the fiscal conservatives for the last 8 years. I’ll be honest I voted for Bush twice, but I’m going to vote for Obama this year because its quiet obvious the Republicans need to get a clue that people don’t want their nutty social agenda.
I could care less if a woman gets an abortion. I could care less if kids get taught that if you are going to fuck, you need to wrap it up unless you want a kid. I could care less if gays get married. I could care less about people wanting automatic weapons.
I mean Republicans always talk about fiscal responsibility and I want that, but somehow in the last 8 years this country had more spending than under Clinton. Bush got into office bitching that $1 gas was too high, and now its at $4. Bush got into office bitching that clinton wasted a billion dollars invading Haiti, and now he spent 500 invading Iraq. I mean why should I vote for a Republican if they never keep their campaign promises? Both parts tax, Republicans tax you by devaluing the dollar, the Democrats tax you by raising taxes, so might we as well get a Democrat, at least I’ll get something in return for losing money.
Anyways back to the article, its just a desperation move, as a way to revitalize the brand by figuring out which popular bandwagon to jump on
oh and since it gets moderated, you can expect this to just be a way for them to control the talking points so people only talk about things they want. So it’ll be like conservopedia that tells people Intelligent Design is where its at, and that evolution is nothing but a liberal propaganda to get young teenage unwed mothers to perform abortions.
I agree, it’s a way for the Repubs to revitalize their brand because they know people are disgusted with what’s happened over the last 8 years.
Ha that cracks me up.
Does the GOP even know what the Internet is? I thought the GOP was just a bunch of close minded fat old white guys trying to screw everyone else while they hoard their money.
Seriously, why would those guys bother to solicit the opinion of the public?
I haven’t dugg into the platform yet, but the method I’d like to see used by Gov’t (local, state, national) is to simply ask for ideas … open the equivalent of a Suggestion/Innovation Box … use an Open Innovation platform to help solve local, state and national problems.
You could ask citizens for ideas on Energy, transportation, crime, healthcare and other areas. Innocentive is hosting an innovation contest right now by an outfit called ChangeNow4Health (http://www.changenow4health.com/), which is seeking solutions for our national health care system.
The possibilities are endless. This GOP site is just a first mover. More (and better) will come.
@18 Jeff,
We have those already - it’s called “initiatives” (state level) and “attending city council meetings” (municipality level.)
The Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaign are holding meetings in 50 states. Not 50 meetings.
As of now, there are 17 platform meetings scheduled just within 25 miles of where I live (Kirkland, WA). Within 25 miles of Standford University, there are 12 platform meetings
These are small gatherings held in private homes. Anyone can register to host a meeting or use the Obama web site to find a nearby meeting.
The Obama campaign’s real-world events will be much more effective than the GOP site, because attendees at the meetings will then be converted to committed volunteers and donors for the campaign, which translates into votes.
The GOP site is definitely a good step, but, like blogs, it’s really just a way for people to vent and opine. It also helps the RNC collect email addresses.
Campaigns are about winning, and novel uses of technology only matter if they help achieve that goal. The Obama campaign (and Democrats in general) know that.
the old fogies of the GOP can barely read email. why bother?
Because Obama already has a huge presence on Facebook, has one of the co-founders running his social media strategy, and has his own social networking site in the form of my.barackobama.com?
See: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/listening/
It won’t matter how many suggested policies they can adopt, but it will give them an idea of what the average joe is thinking. This will give them an opportunity to gauge the republican climate and go after what looks to be important to voters…..Can’t you just hear it?
Ok, should we hate just the homos this month? or should we hate homos and hippies next week, then focus on Hmmm…get some wafers out, the bible beaters are pissed….take down the hippies tomorrow and then let’s clobber the lezbos. Send some bourbon to the Klan after that.
link fixed, thanks.
The Obama/Democratic Listening campaign is a series of live meetings. That’s great. But they would get a lot more feedback if they extended the process online as well.
#20
The idea is to enable the capture of ideas 24/7, at all levels. Web 2.0 Open Innovation platforms do just that. Attending a local meeting is one thing, having the ability to enable, encourage, capture, manage and promote citizen generated ideas and solutions is taking things to the next natural level.
>In fact, why aren’t the Democrats doing this as well? They may have
>something similar, but a quick search this morning didn’t turn up anything
>other than this Listening to America town hall tour of 50 states. If you
>want to listen to America, you can listen to a lot more people online
>than in 50 town halls.
No offense, Eric (& I mean that sincerely), but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
First off: Obama’s lead new-media guy is Chris Hughes, one of the original founders of Facebook.
um, I think they’ve got things covered as for as new-media/Facebook/social media comes to mind.
Not that Democrats have been perfect (the recent FISA capitulation is an easy example), but they — and especially Obama — have been ahead of the curve and beating the GOP on technology.
Anyone who thinks the Dems have been behind hasn’t been paying attention. It hasn’t even been close.
The GOP has been playing catch up — and what’s the easiest way to do it? Post a high-level, “customer feedback” data entry form that makes people feel like their party “listens to them.”
It’s a TOP-DOWN approach versus a grassroots, BOTTOM-UP movement.
If the Dems did this, they’d be just as hypocritical & empty — if this was all that they did.
Anyone in public policy knows that the only way to get meaningful change is not through some data entry form that’s really a data mining & marketing tool. It’s through local & human involvement.
So yes, 50 town halls is a much better way to get people’s response & to really engage people than one big online form.
I meant that respectfully, Eric, so I hope you’re not offended & yes, there’s always more that can be done — but this app will not give the people back the party — either party.
It will just let the marketing departments in (either) party know who to contact & what buttons they can press to get the most fundraising dollars out of them.
As for the comments bemoaning the Dems here, how typical. Bunch of whining Americans (hey, McCain’s advisor said it, not me).
Good initiative. Democrats have a sort a like thing.
Can’t find the link now…
Eric,
The Democrat’s own “Listening to America” outreach does fail to make it super easy to just type in a proposal and submit, but they do make it simple for anyone to host a “Listening to America” event or find one near them. There is certainly value in what the Republicans are doing, but I would venture to guess they won’t come close to experiencing the benefits that could be had with hundreds or thousands of localized meetups.
By making it easy for people to meet and organize directly in their communities, I think the Democrats will benefit in other ways from these meetings. They won’t just be receiving policy proposals, but they’ll also be bringing Democrats together directly in their neighborhood who will then work together in the coming months.
In the end it is more than being about getting feedback. Ideas are a dime a
dozen…. it’s being able to act and mobilize that will be the real difference.
Check it out: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/listening/
-Chris
Andrew loves to complain. Why don’t you propose solutions instead of just bitch? Obviously, you have not participated on this platform because you have nothing constructive or valuable to say.
Anything to keep Obama out of office… Last thing we need is more bullshit political correctness and a society that takes offense to everything, let alone the bullshit “redistribute the wealth” that punishes people for pursing the the ideals of this country.
I love this platform concept, an innovative way to listen to the voice of the people. It’d be interesting to see web 2.0 concepts utilized more in politics. It wasn’t until this election season we witnessed this. Imagine if the public could view, or contribute to online forum where legislatures, government officials, senate members, etc. debated about issues. Business idea… http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
The GOP are just very fast on the uptake… Obama actually pioneered this idea — at least polling supporters about policy issues — on his site. GOP opeeratives took note, and within days, they launched this idea.
I think this is a good move. Just like when Dell did it.
I of course mean Dell ideastorm.com
This is a good PR move by Republicans, but if they actually listened to the common person we would not be neck deep in crap as we are now. In fact, Bush’s (and Bush Republicans) inability to listen to others is exactly the cause of some many problems today. Are we now to believe that they are looking for suggestions? What a Joke…
A few suggestions for them:
Proposal #1.) Admit homosexuality to family and friends
Proposal #2.) Stop hating the poor and downtroddened
Proposal #3.) Stop war profiteering
Proposal #4.) Stop hurting America
I answered phones for Bill Clinton’s campaign back in the day, and to be honest– The People tend not to have many valuable suggestions for policies, or for much else. I mean, there are like three topics up and already on the diversity thread there are a bunch of trogs making the Republican name look bad (or, given current polls… even worse).
Here’s a proposal: NO MORE WARS! STOP TAKING IN LOBBYIST’S MONEY! STOP LISTENING TO AIPAC WARMONGERING!
How’s that for the start?!
The launch of this site by the GOP is a sure sign of things to come. I’m part of an open source project called DemocracyLab (www.democracylab.org) that has similar objectives, but is nonpartisan and bottom-up in orientation.
DemocracyLab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization building an interactive online think tank that uses participants’ posts and votes to build a dynamic map of political thought. The result will be an engaging public forum where the best thinking rises to the top, creating a community-driven alternative to traditional politics.
We’ll have a booth at the upcoming Open Source Convention (http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/content/home) in Portland July 21-25, and will have a working prototype up then.
How Machiavellian politicians become during election time? Politicians only care when they need the votes, the rest of the time it is all about which corporation gives them the most money.
This isn’t reserved for American Politics either. In Canada we always have these emergency meetings like the one for Dufar that do nothing but get some bobble head’s name in the paper.
Plus our population is aging and old people vote for whoever they voted for 20 years ago, thus us young folk are stuck with the prehistoric car salesmen they elect.
No wonder we simply do not care. You want to talk about how disechanted we are just look at the second Vietnam. We are so distracted with our video games, iphones and Facebooks, we stood still while a war was fought over oil. Even worse the very foundation, the reason for the War WMD was a complete and utter lie. Yet we did nothing except blindly believe the war war for human rights even though we have done nothing to stop the gencide in Dufar. No woodstock, no marches for peace..nothing.
We have become the indocrinated society presented in fahrenheit 451….that is our legacy.
They do have a section for Technology policy. It is listed under jobs & economic growth. If you register you can input your own suggestions
Keep in mind that the GOP hired Cyrus Khron to run their online strategy. He was the former head of elections coverage for Yahoo, and before that headed Slate magazine. The dude knows what he’s doing.
Civic Science is the company behind the polling applications on the RNC Platform Committee site. We are expressly non-partisan and work with both Republican and Democratic groups, candidates, and non-profit organizations.
The vision of our company is to utilize a network of distributed widgets, social media apps, and a member-based portal to develop an unprecedented, comprehensive picture of public opinion. Our applications are rooted in a simple notion: namely that the media has conditioned people to expect their political content in sound bytes…so why not enable them to participate in sound bytes as well? We administer very short polls, laden with brief questions. This approach not only encourages high response rates but allows us to engage the casual, latent voters who are otherwise ignored by the political process.
Our portal, meanwhile, is being designed as a tool for people to participate in democracy, at whatever level they deem comfortable, and then use sophisticated propensity scoring techniques and matching algorithms to map users relative to other users, to Members of Congress, to historical figures, and to their friends. Users will then be able to identify, connect, and mobilize with like-minded individuals, if they choose. We will do this with obsessive attention toward user privacy and anonymity.
I’m sure all of you will run to our site and tell us how dreadful and under-developed it is. Indeed, our portal is barely out of Alpha phase…so you won’t hurt our feelings by tearing it apart
But, rest assured, we are very confident and very excited about where it’s heading.
They are just trying to keep up with Obama. He has single handedly shown them what the power of an online community can do.
Let’s not forget that policy discussions are a key factor on Barack Obama’s Web site - the most popular group in recent days has been the group discussing FISA legislation. Also remember that Democracy for America, an outgrowth of Dean for America, is an active source of policy input.
That said, the Republican party’s brand is clearly tarnished so marketing research via social media can only help them. It’s also worth noting Republican Congressman John Culberson’s efforts to use Twitter and Qik to capture political events and to create a political conversation. In general this if good for America if we can have all politics become motivated by people’s voices. No guarantee that politicians will listen, but it’s a start.
Not a bad idea, but in practice it is a failure. I have twice tried to post and neither has been published. My suggestions are not hateful or vulgar, but I guess they has been deemed “inappropriate by the Platform Committee.”
Judge for yourself. I submitted:
The first thing the GOP needs to do in order to win me back is, admit that it lied to me ALL my life. It is not the party of fiscal responsibility.
The DEMS admit they are the “tax and spend” party.
The GOP needs to admit it is the “debt and spend” party.
Do NOT say “we will do better”, or TRY to cast blame.
Just say “the GOP is the debt and spend party”.
Can you say that. Everyone in my neighborhood can… and does!
Both sides come up with good ideas. It’s just whether or not we listen and keep an open mind. Even if they don’t implement these proposals, it’s a really good idea. Good for stats, good for energizing voters, good for democracy.
Start over. We need all new representatives in the Senate, which is systemically corrupt, and the house. Ask all Republicans in both houses to resign and promise to work for the election of new Republican members. Throw out the unconsitutional Senate Rules and let’s get back to basics.
Will that happen. Nope. Outlook, dim.