?As proposals on Jolitics come closer to being an acted item, it becomes powerful and could enable structured political debate.
?Software that allows Government in a crowd-sourced manner, so MPs can act, there has to come a day when that happens,? said Mr Birch, pointing to the use of Facebook and Twitter in debating and organising the uprisings in north Africa and the Middle East. ?I have 100pc no doubt someone will create a great site and hopefully it?s us.?
He added: ?Politicians are not going to listen to 10 people have a discussion online but if you have that tipping point when that voice starts to get noticed, perhaps first by the media, then it will get taken seriously by the politicians.?
The website is modelled on Parliament, with the various stages of Bill proposal, debate and voting. Initially Jolitics will allow only national policy proposals but if the user base reaches a certain level a local politics function will be turned on.
Mr Birch, who sold Bebo for $850m to AOL in 2008, said: ?Any member of the community can make a proposal. You can agree or disagree with it. Then it goes to the debate stage, where anyone can change the wording, editing the arguments for and against. If it achieves more than 50pc approval it enters the final stages of the Bill and you can send it to your MP.
?It will say this was debated on Jolitics and X voted on it and we would like you to consider it.?
To help MPs manage the flow of proposals, Mr Birch?s team at his San Francisco-based firm Monkey Inferno, have created software that takes proposals and sorts them.
To encourage early adopters, Jolitics will allow users to lend their votes to friends with a similar political alignment, sending regular updates on how their votes have been used and the ability to overrule the vote if they disagree on a particular issue.
?You can have a pyramid of power,? said Mr Birch.
Jolitics launches first in the UK, after a trial in Ireland, and will be rolled out to other countries.
The number 10 website allows campaigners to submit online policy petitions. If petitions collect more than 500 signatories they receive a formal response from Government.
The Coalition announced in December that petitions that secure more than 100,000 signatories will be debated formally in Parliament.
Than Shwe Aung San Suu Kyi Yulia Tymoshenko Elizabeth Windsor Queen Elizabeth II
No comments:
Post a Comment