How the White House Petition Site is Becoming a Digital Public Square
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, January 23 2013
Most of the time, there is a huge disconnect between government and public. For years governments in the United States and Europe have been throwing money (away) at so-called e-government initiatives aimed at engaging the public, with the primary result of fattening lots of consultants' and designers' wallets. Most "e-government" platforms are relative ghost-towns. Meanwhile, as the Pew Center on the Internet & Public Life keeps reporting, the level of public discussion of politics online keeps rising--just not in places where it connects in any meaningful way with actual decision-makers. The "We the People" site is an important and growing exception to that rule. Read More
How "We The People," the White House e-Petition Site, Could Help Form a More Perfect Union
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, November 20 2012
With nearly one million people signing petitions on the White House's "We the People" e-petition site calling for their state to secede from the Union, it's tempting to dismiss the platform as a lightning rod for the most disaffected Americans. But people petitioning the government could also be invited into a new kind of civic dialogue, one that might build on what "We the People" already promises: an official reply from the powers-that-be. Freed from the demands of another election and blessed with some of the smartest technologists in the country, the Obama Administration could use "We the People" to begin the work of constructing a real digital public square, not just another e-Potemkin village. Will they? Read More
A Dispatch From a Project to Build Wired Neighborhoods
BY Miranda Neubauer | Wednesday, May 9 2012
A new report documents the efforts of a group advocating for online spaces for civic life to build Internet forums for diverse, low-income communities online. Much of the report focuses on the challenges and the opportunities for growing the forums, and how both offline and online outreach played a key role. It also raises an interesting question: In tight-knit communities that have long held together offline, why ask members to go online at all? Read More
Using an Online Forum, One Woman Describes Coping With a Sexual Assault
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, November 30 2010
"I want to tell you that my children and I are doing quite well considering that we had a gun held to our chests only three days ago," the message read, in a simple sans-serif font. A person named Alexandra Ellison ... Read More
eDem10: A Look at Best Methods for Democratic (and Undemocratic) e-Participation
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, May 6 2010
I'm in Krems, Austria for the two-day eDemocracy2010 conference (hashtag #eDem10), where I'll be giving a keynote talk tomorrow on "The Promise and Contradictions of e-Democracy, Obama-Style." The conference brings ... Read More
Let Congress Tele-commute: A Radical, Common-Sense Proposal to Transform Representative Government
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, February 19 2010
If you haven't noticed already, I like "crazy" ideas. That is, notions that may appear like they come from outside the ballpark, but have a germ of possibility and suggest, "There might be a better way to do things than ... Read More
Today's Obama-YouTube Q&A: Moving the Ball Forward [UPDATED]
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, February 1 2010
Today's YouTube event at the White House, starring President Obama, CitizenTube director Steve Grove, and a bunch of user-generated questions from the public, has to be judged a success, in my view. Read More
MoveOn.org Doing Real-Time Mass Dial-Test of Obama SOTU
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, January 27 2010
MoveOn.org, the five-million member e-organization of progressive activists, is doing something really interesting with its members tonight: thousands of them are going to be participating in a live online dial-test of ... Read More
Use Your iPhone to Sign a Ballot Initiative: Test Case Launches in CA
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, January 5 2010
If you can sign an electronic pad at the supermarket to pay your credit card bill, why can't you sign the touch-screen of your iPhone to sign a political petition? That question is now being put to the test by the ... Read More
"Ask U.S.": State Department 2.0 on Sudan, Darfur and Public Engagement
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, November 9 2009
Tomorrow afternoon at 3:00pm EST, Special Envoy Scott Gration and Samantha Power, NSC Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs, are going to sit down at the White House with the leaders of the largest, most vocal ... Read More