Do you have a good idea for President-Elect Barack Obama, a concrete policy proposal? All week long, Obama’s transition site Change.gov has been soliciting policy proposals from people across the country through an app called the Citizen’s Briefing Book. Friday is the last day it will be accepting ideas, so submit yours now.
The Citizen’s Briefing Book is very similar to the Open Questions app the site was running before the New Year, which solicited questions from the populace and let visitors to the site vote up the best ones. Open Questions was based on Google Moderator. The Citizen’s Briefing Book is powered by Salesforce.com’s CRM Ideas product, which runs on Salesforce.com and is used by Starbucks and Dell to solicit ideas from customers.
Instead of asking questions, the Citizen’s Briefing Book is soliciting the best answers to what ails the country. Once you log in, you can vote up or down the ideas that have already been submitted (only one vote per idea). Or you can submit your own. Vote for my idea to End the Bailouts. The Obama transition team will collect the best ideas and present them to the President-Elect in a briefing book.
Some of the ideas are inane (”Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker”) but some are worth considering (”Vote and debate all bills online,” “National WiFi”). One of the most popular proposals, not surprisingly, is to legalize marijuana. What is surprising is that it is the top-voted proposal to fix the economy. Hey, it’s what the people want.
It’s refreshing to see government using the same tools that make private businesses more productive. So far, I’ve been impressed with the Obama campaign / transition’s use of technology.
Here’s to hoping that the new administration continues to realize the power of technology over the next four years.
As for voting on all bills online, that would probably require the National WiFi piece first, and one computer per citizen to implement. Nevermind that direct democracy isn’t what this country is all about. It was founded as a republic and remains a republic. See what direct democracy did for California? They repealed gay marriage.
Not saying these aren’t nice ideas but I think they’re not exactly within the realm of serious consideration.
http://kisalt.net/d2
I got an email asking if your response was from me. For the record, the Susan above is not me, but I totally agree:)
Use of technologies can’t replace a society built on a solid foundation of liberty. In fact, I fear technology could be the biggest threats to our (society generally) liberties.
Making everything up for democratic vote creates a majority rule atmosphere that may compromise civil rights, privileges and benefits afforded to those across all protected classes. On some issue everyone will be on the wrong side of the vote and not for logical or equality reasons. Prop 8 is an excellent example where virtually all groups concerned about civil liberties filed a brief in support of overturning it. And this is from a legal perspective not emotional/religious prejudice.
The new administration using web 2.0 techniques to keep their finger on the national pulse is a great sign though. I hope the progression continues in all areas of government. It’s about time.
Susan,
This is a spammer that:
1) takes a comment made lower in the comment string
2) copies it
3) replies to the first comment
4) pastes comment from step 1
5) uses the ‘kisalt url shortener’ to obscure link to some crappy gaming site
Definitely been waiting for this… I would like to see how implementation and continued transparent communications play out as well. Nice work.
How in the hell is legalizing online poker “inane”?
EVERY other country has no issue with it, and the fact that it was outlawed as a rider on a TOTALLY unrelated bill makes it much worse.
Also YouTube Channel already became a Political Venue for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
I would like to make a suggestion as to how to sitmiluate the economy.
WHY NOT LET EVERYONE THAT HAS AN IRA THAT HAS BEEN LAID OFF… LET THEM WITHDRAWAL FROM THEIR IRA EARLY WITHOUT A PENALTY. THE GOVERNMENT CHARGES 20% and the bank charges 10%. PLEASE WAIVE THE PENALTYS SO SOME CAN PAY THEIR MORTGAGE AND BILLS. THERE ARE SO MANY THAT HAVE BEEN LAID OFF BUT THEY DON’T WANT TO MAKE A WITHDRAWAL BECUASE OF THE PENALTY’S. PLEASE HELP BY WAIVING THE 20% GOVERNMENT AND 10% BANK PENALTYS.
THANKS
Really refreshing. However, I would like to see how Obama address the issues of hypocrisy.
Remember “Joe the plumber” tax issues. The media beat on him for not paying couple of dollars in back taxes.
Now we just found out the the proposed Treasury secretary failed to pay his taxes too. But Obama said this is just a mistake.
I think all citizens should be treated equal justice.
Sarah,
BloggersReport.com
This is great hopefully the move to technology will get same of those lame old men out of Washington and we can have reel change.
I suscribed to the change.gov website so I received the mail announcing this new feature today and I already posted my first idea regarding the “foreign policy”. I invite everyone to do the same in the category they want.
I love Obama and the way he reaches out to the people.
That said, I’m fairly skeptical. How do we know this isn’t just a little placation playpen?
To make policy decisions, Obama has to back up why he is making them. “My online forum users think this is important” does not seem like a string of words we’re going to hear anytime soon. But maybe I’m wrong?
Yeah I’m skeptical too, but on the other hand, when 50 000+ people take the time to vote for an idea, the new administration should seriously consider it. Some idea are realy good.
Can someone explain to me how Obama has used technology successfully? He is getting a lot of credit for setting up a web 2.0 looking website, couldn’t manage to check the button in the admin interface to validate credit card addresses, failed on his txt message effort and scrubbed the language on his website on several occasions to avoid promises he made. Now I know he uses a blackberry but come on. Other than the fund raising amount (which we still don’t know where all of the money came from) what has he done so special?
The Obama campaigns huge success was creating a proprietary social network that allowed users to conduct field activities (making calls, etc.) automatically without direct involvement from the campaign. Every campaign prior had done phone banking via setting up thousands of physical offices staffed with full time field staff with college students or elderly people coming in to the office and physically making calls. The Obama system allowed the campaign to make almost 5x the calls traditional campaigns could in a given 24 hour period. Meanwhile, all those field offices were focused on actual outreach rather than facilitating phone banks.
Curious are you serious? Obama didn’t do the web programing himself or write any code or review the code that was written. He said I’m sure ” I need a website that can do xyz” The web guys built it and with all sites there were mistakes.
Money that couldn’t be connected with an actual person was returned to the credit card used. You can check the facts on that. All the money came from regular people like you and me and anyone else that wanted to be a part of this campaign.
Your statement insinuates wrong doing of some sort on the money side and no achievement on the tech side. The CEO of a company gets the credit for giving direction and there’s no difference here. He’s getting credit for having the vision to use the technology and being the first to make it matter in the political arena.
Take a look at all the H1b proposal, it gives a pretty good idea of what American think about us foreign workers in the bay…
I have a doubt, a bit unrelated. Does anyone have numbers of how many people who start with marijuana consume other ( harmful and very addictive) drugs? I think i can’t have an accurate opinion without that number but haven’t found statistics yet.
About the post, I think its good to use such tools, but maybe is just for marketing. Not every sector in America have internet access, lets see how this work, meanwhile Im a bit skeptical
You mean like alcohol and nicotine?
We don’t need a nanny state, the drug war was lost, and our prisons are crowded.
You know what they say about statistics?
I mean like heroine or cocaine, I dont like the current strategy but we need more than freedom ( like education and control)
Im the original commenter what happened to facebook connect?
I don’t smoke marijuana, but in my opinion, they should legalize it. It’s just a damn plant after all. Like coldbrew said, the drug war was lost and it’s a waste of time and money.
“but some are worth considering (”Vote and debate all bills online,” “National WiFi”).”
National WiFi? May be a geeks dream but some areas of the country still don’t have reliable cell phone service.
As for voting on all bills online, that would probably require the National WiFi piece first, and one computer per citizen to implement. Nevermind that direct democracy isn’t what this country is all about. It was founded as a republic and remains a republic. See what direct democracy did for California? They repealed gay marriage.
Not saying these aren’t nice ideas but I think they’re not exactly within the realm of serious consideration.
Regarding ”Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker” – Dont shun it off as inane. This is a real issue and a legitimate call to overturn an absurd bill that was attached to an unrelated “Safe Port Act”. Legalizing online poker wont end world hunger but it makes sense and has implications on more people than you would think.
I posted my idea—how cool would this be???
http://tinyurl.com/77f8jg
Dont dismiss Legalizing Online Poker as inane.
A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that the internet gambling industry could generate up to $40 billion over a 10 year period.
Obama uses CRM technology from RIghtnow Technologies, the product does not have an “Ideas” objects.
It would be totally ignorant on their part to invest another CRM tool.
Alright Obama! I knew he be one of our most efficient Presidents to date. i hope everything works out great with their system. If they need any configuration done i would be glad to help.
I just posted my idea. Using technology to save upwards of $1b from the Federal Travel Budget:
http://tinyurl.com/7rvjos
How about the US adopt the metric system?:
Vote for metric system
“the ideas are insane (”Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker”
this isnt an insane idea actually. Online gaming is one of the biggest web industry and US forbidden it instead of tax it. We talk about milllion $ revenues for the government here…
If anything is inane it is the UIGEA. Regulating it would bring hundreds of millions of $ to the US
Sarah Pres. elect Obama can’t control what the media does and remember Senator McCain is what drummed up interest in Joe the Plumber to begin with.
Who knew he had back taxes? Who knew that he wasn’t licensed? It’s an understatement to say the media was overzealous investigating him and all the “bad” attention was sort of bad for him but he got a book deal out if it and seems to be doing fine now.
As for the new Treasury Secretary he shouldn’t get a pass. You do have to mention that he has already before he was picked for this position paid most of the money back. Still an issue but hopefully this will mean that he is more sensitive to how horrible the IRS can be to people and works to change some of that.
On policy decisions that Clayton mentioned no he doesn’t have to back up why he is making them. That’s never been something we have held other to in his position. Some policy decisions you don’t need to know about and some you do. Just my opinion on that one I could be wrong.
If this is a sign of things to come, then the next 4 years should be really interesting!
Check out my idea: http://citizens...;lsr=0#comments
May I know what screen annotation program you use? It looks great!!!
Thank you.
You probably wouldn’t consider legalizing online poker inane if you were one of the thousands of americans who make their living that way, or one of the millions who enjoy it as a pastime.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (which doesn’t actually make internet poker illegal, but prohibits banks from transacting with such businesses, effectively making it difficult for players to get money online), was added as a rider to the Safe Ports Act by Bill Frist and heavily lobbied for by the horse racing lobby.
By repealing the UIGEA or carving an exception for poker, the new administration can remove an onerous obligation on the banks, reap the tax benefits, and provide a safe and regulated environment for players.
President-Elect Barack Obama should appoint a White House Water Advisor. I eschew using the sexier term “water czar” because I am not talking about someone with absolute life-or-death authority. But I want someone who has the ear and confidence of the President and can speak for him on water issues. He/she would have an office in the West Wing and a staff as well. That person would attend Cabinet meetings, and be distinct from the Science Advisor. Water is too important to be rolled into “science” with a bunch of other things.
So what would this person do?
1) Advise the President on water and related issues, both domestic and foreign
2) Be the administration’s water “point man/woman”
3) Make policy recommendations
4) Liaise with Capitol Hill and the states
5) Coordinate Federal water agencies and policies (I know, dream on!)
Read more at: http://aquadoc....er-advisor.html
Thank you.
TechCrunch is inane imo
I am disappointed with your characterization of online poker as “inane”.
Poker is an game enjoyed by millions of Americans. You might want to check out the Poker Players Alliance. http://pokerpla...rsalliance.org/
Heed the words of Barney Frank, “In a free society a large degree of human activity is none of the government’s business. We should make criminal what’s going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices.”
What a great use of technology to collaborate! http://www.ling...echnologies.com.
Voting on and debating bills online sounds interesting. Here’s another blog post I found on the Citizen’s Briefing Book: http://lunchpai...-2008-campaign/
Opening access to elected officials is nice, but why not just get rid of the elected officials?
http://www.meta.../wiki/Main_Page