My WordPress blog was hacked by a Romanian over a year ago. With so much going on, I was slow to get help. Finally, Doc’s impatience with me prevailed, and the amazing Christoph Berendes provided the secret sauce I lacked. Partially, Chris was motivated because he’s been displaying a quote and link from this blog since 2004,
Responding to 9/11
… we need to be warriors: take our losses, bury our dead, isolate our exposures, repair specific flaws in our systems and stick to our mission plan: … In America’s third century, [it] has not changed for 228 years: Our God-given purpose is to demonstrate that a varied populace from disparate origins can live peacefully under an open government that governs minimally but humanely.
Britt Blaser, 2004
Chris didn’t like his link telling people that my blog would harm our computers. That’s not my aim. I just wanna hurt our brains. Some friends know that my project, the Independence Year Foundation , has evolved away from the iYear branding to a two-part platform called iVote4U. That’s because it’s a better way to state what’s in the tin.
Here’s the current description, with enough links to screw up your weekend:
The iVote4UPolitician Management & Support System
Nutshell:
Politicians care mostly about money and votes. The iVote4U Politician management system equips voters to manage politicians like coaches manage players: withhold money and votes from uncooperative politicians and find and elect better ones.
In practice, iVote4U helps you manage your politicians as easily as you manage your iTunes:
Rate, Promote, Collect, Discard politicians & never attend a party meeting.
iVote4U: two parts that work together.
| Part 1: a set of spaces, one per US representative.
The spaces are for constituents to meet, talk, and influence their reps. |
Part 2: a Facebook app for voters to pledge action. |
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| David Weinberger, Ph.D.: “The trick is that the app is set up so the rep can be certain that the
citizen is in fact one of her/his constituents.” |
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iVote4U’s Facebook Application Services
- Voter home page, with politician action panels
- Candidates for each office you vote for.
- Dashboard: Politicians you’ve “touched” in any way.
- Vote and Money Pledge manager.
- Vote bombs: Vote challenges you’ve issued or supported.
- Causes: the Facebook Causes you’ve sent to politicians.
- Invite Friends to join iVote4U.
- Politician Action Panel elements:
- Become a certified constituent to make politicians listen.
- Say Yes-No as a snap indicator of support.
- Pledge your vote with a firm calendar commitment.
- OWN your politicians: pledge to vote in the Primary.
- Pledge money to your favorite politicians.
- Form a powerful voting bloc supporting a Facebook Cause.
- Send a smiley, a frown or other emotion to your politicians.
Documents and links
| DGSNA Social Networks | A paper written by Britt Blaser, David Weinberger and Joe Trippi, accepted by the Digital Government Society of North America for presentation at its annual conference, May 2009. Subtitle: How Citizens can Aggregate their Money and Votes to Define Digital Government |
| USA 3.0 | Returning to the Founders’ Vision by adding direct voter oversight of lawmakers in Virtual Political Districts |
| iVote4U Federation | How the Virtual Political Districts relate to the iVote4U Facebook app |
| DGSNA paper compared to the iVote4U Federation | Compares the recommendations in the DGSNA paper to the services provided by the
iVote4U communities andFacebook app |
| Power of Constituents | Why constituent communication is so much more effective than email or nonprofit
campaigns, based on research by John Hird, Georgetown Univ. |
| Activist Guide | How to harness constituents to manage legislation in committees |
| Virtual Leaders | How “Virtual Leaders” can be a powerful force in politics |
| Benefits handout | A single page overview, oriented to tech-savvy political activists |
| Misty Smith goes to Washington | How a newcomer can use iVote4U to challenge an entrenched incumbent |
| Zipped package | The above nine documents compressed into a single package (18 MB) |
| Super Voter Benefits | Why blocs of certified constituents matter so much.
Analysis based on Power, Knowledge and Politics, John Hird, 2005 |
| Dean Campaign papers | Britt Blaser’s papers and documents developed in 2003-4 |
Who’s behind the iVote4U system?
The design and vision is provided by the Independence Year Foundation, a Not-for-Profit corporation. The Facebook iVote4U apps leverage the community and connectivity of the world’s largest social network.
The 585+ virtual political jurisdictions are being designed, built, hosted, maintained and supported by the companies who built and support whitehouse.gov: Acquia Inc. and Phase2 Technology. (They can’t and won’t tell you that, but it’s public knowledge)
Escapable Logic 