Please consider www.votifi.com where we are building the hand held contact point for the politically oriented citizen. Our mission is to improve the level and nature of political discourse, harness the power of the popular voice and monetize a segment of the political/economic market. Votifi will poll our members to deliver “real time” statistical information and streamline the delivery of curated content that informs and challenges based on those profiles. We will use our non-partisan politically focused social network to drive and retain engagement through partisan debate, self-discovery, gr
Please consider www.votifi.com where we are building the hand held contact point for the politically oriented citizen. Our mission is to improve the level and nature of political discourse, harness the power of the popular voice and monetize a segment of the political/economic market. Votifi will poll our members to deliver “real time” statistical information and streamline the delivery of curated content that informs and challenges based on those profiles. We will use our non-partisan politically focused social network to drive and retain engagement through partisan debate, self-discovery, grass roots connectivity and crowd based exploration amongst its members. Our algorithm links people based on idealogical connectivity to either discuss (like minded) or debate (opposing). We will disrupt the political process by giving voters the opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas freely and, in turn, share their voices where that opportunity has been previously removed.
Where do I start?
I’m a huge financial nerd, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to people about their money habits.
Here are the biggest mistakes people are making and how to fix them:
Not having a separate high interest savings account
Having a separate account allows you to see the results of all your hard work and keep your money separate so you're less tempted to spend it.
Plus with rates above 5.00%, the interest you can earn compared to most banks really adds up.
Here is a list of the top savings accounts available today. Deposit $5 before moving on because this is one of th
Where do I start?
I’m a huge financial nerd, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time talking to people about their money habits.
Here are the biggest mistakes people are making and how to fix them:
Not having a separate high interest savings account
Having a separate account allows you to see the results of all your hard work and keep your money separate so you're less tempted to spend it.
Plus with rates above 5.00%, the interest you can earn compared to most banks really adds up.
Here is a list of the top savings accounts available today. Deposit $5 before moving on because this is one of the biggest mistakes and easiest ones to fix.
Overpaying on car insurance
You’ve heard it a million times before, but the average American family still overspends by $417/year on car insurance.
If you’ve been with the same insurer for years, chances are you are one of them.
Pull up Coverage.com, a free site that will compare prices for you, answer the questions on the page, and it will show you how much you could be saving.
That’s it. You’ll likely be saving a bunch of money. Here’s a link to give it a try.
Consistently being in debt
If you’ve got $10K+ in debt (credit cards…medical bills…anything really) you could use a debt relief program and potentially reduce by over 20%.
Here’s how to see if you qualify:
Head over to this Debt Relief comparison website here, then simply answer the questions to see if you qualify.
It’s as simple as that. You’ll likely end up paying less than you owed before and you could be debt free in as little as 2 years.
Missing out on free money to invest
It’s no secret that millionaires love investing, but for the rest of us, it can seem out of reach.
Times have changed. There are a number of investing platforms that will give you a bonus to open an account and get started. All you have to do is open the account and invest at least $25, and you could get up to $1000 in bonus.
Pretty sweet deal right? Here is a link to some of the best options.
Having bad credit
A low credit score can come back to bite you in so many ways in the future.
From that next rental application to getting approved for any type of loan or credit card, if you have a bad history with credit, the good news is you can fix it.
Head over to BankRate.com and answer a few questions to see if you qualify. It only takes a few minutes and could save you from a major upset down the line.
How to get started
Hope this helps! Here are the links to get started:
Have a separate savings account
Stop overpaying for car insurance
Finally get out of debt
Start investing with a free bonus
Fix your credit
POPVOX (http://POPVOX.com).
Our tagline is: "The Voice of the People. The Language of Congress."
We are a former Congressional staffer, a former lobbyist, and an open government champion/"civic hacker" who came together to solve the problems we saw with the ever-skewed signal-to-noise ratio of citizen input to Capitol Hill, blogged here: http://www.popvox.com/blog/2010/08/23/welcome-to-popvox/
Together, we are building an open, transparent, nonpartisan platform for civic engagement.
POPVOX is designed to work within the norms and needs of the legacy system and to disrupt it. With tailored expe
POPVOX (http://POPVOX.com).
Our tagline is: "The Voice of the People. The Language of Congress."
We are a former Congressional staffer, a former lobbyist, and an open government champion/"civic hacker" who came together to solve the problems we saw with the ever-skewed signal-to-noise ratio of citizen input to Capitol Hill, blogged here: http://www.popvox.com/blog/2010/08/23/welcome-to-popvox/
Together, we are building an open, transparent, nonpartisan platform for civic engagement.
POPVOX is designed to work within the norms and needs of the legacy system and to disrupt it. With tailored experiences for the three major players: legislators, organizations, and citizens, POPVOX gives each a little something to make the process easier and injects transparency and accountability into the existing system.
Hi Semil, thanks for the mention, and hi quoralites. I can tell you a
little more about DemDash -- the idea is to be a multiplatform, social
channel for democracy. We're focused on disrupting the $5B+ US political
communications marketplace by replacing those piles of mail and TV ads
with beautifully designed, clearly presented and socially curated
political knowledge. We've got a California-focused web alpha up at
demdash.us that you can poke around with, and lots more coming soon.
Give us a try and I'm happy to answer any other questions.
Hi Semil, thanks for the mention, and hi quoralites. I can tell you a
little more about DemDash -- the idea is to be a multiplatform, social
channel for democracy. We're focused on disrupting the $5B+ US political
communications marketplace by replacing those piles of mail and TV ads
with beautifully designed, clearly presented and socially curated
political knowledge. We've got a California-focused web alpha up at
demdash.us that you can poke around with, and lots more coming soon.
Give us a try and I'm happy to answer any other questions.
I'll list contributions I've received through Twitter and keep updating:
- DemDash.com
- POPVOX.com
- SoCause.com
- HeyCrowd.com
- GovTogether.com
- PolicyPitch.com
- Democrator.ru (Russia)
- 10Questions.com
- AskAmerica.Yahoo.com
- Election Arena
- VisibleVote.us
- www.localocracy.com (Massachusetts)
- MyDemocracy.com
- VoteIQ.com
- http://www.capitolnewsconnection.org/
- http://midwestdemocracyproject.org/
- GradethePresident.com
- http://urtak.com/about
- http://nationbuilder.com/
- http://www.opencongress.org
- Act.ly
- CREDOaction.com
- Change.org
- www.jolitics.com (Ireland)
- www.votizen.com
- Politicomarkets.com
- http://www.locitechnologies.com
- www.campuscaucus.co
I'll list contributions I've received through Twitter and keep updating:
- DemDash.com
- POPVOX.com
- SoCause.com
- HeyCrowd.com
- GovTogether.com
- PolicyPitch.com
- Democrator.ru (Russia)
- 10Questions.com
- AskAmerica.Yahoo.com
- Election Arena
- VisibleVote.us
- www.localocracy.com (Massachusetts)
- MyDemocracy.com
- VoteIQ.com
- http://www.capitolnewsconnection.org/
- http://midwestdemocracyproject.org/
- GradethePresident.com
- http://urtak.com/about
- http://nationbuilder.com/
- http://www.opencongress.org
- Act.ly
- CREDOaction.com
- Change.org
- www.jolitics.com (Ireland)
- www.votizen.com
- Politicomarkets.com
- http://www.locitechnologies.com
- www.campuscaucus.com
- http://empireavenue.com
- http://www.questioncollector.com
- PurpleBridge.net
- www.civillage.com
- http://govbe.com
- www.whistle.co.uk
- ASocialGovernment.com
- www.whyshouldicare.ca
The best freelance digital marketers can be found on Fiverr. Their talented freelancers can provide full web creation, or anything Shopify on your budget and deadline. If you’re looking for someone who can do Magento, Fiverr has the freelancers qualified to do so. If you want to do Dropshipping, PHP, or, GTmetrix, Fiverr can help with that too. Any digital marketing help you need Fiverr has freelancers qualified to take the reins. What are you waiting for? Start today.
The 2018 election is a crucial one, and there are new tools available to make sure that it’s an election unlike any before in history.
A critical fight for the Senate will take place in the upcoming election, and the outcomes of the state-level races will determine how district lines will be drawn in 2020. 2018 will either cement a filibuster-proof Republican majority in the Senate (Republicans are 8 seats away), or a slight Democratic majority (Democrats are 3 seats away)1. There are 34 Senate seats up for election in 2018, including 23 Democratic seats and 9 Republican seats. Because the majo
The 2018 election is a crucial one, and there are new tools available to make sure that it’s an election unlike any before in history.
A critical fight for the Senate will take place in the upcoming election, and the outcomes of the state-level races will determine how district lines will be drawn in 2020. 2018 will either cement a filibuster-proof Republican majority in the Senate (Republicans are 8 seats away), or a slight Democratic majority (Democrats are 3 seats away)1. There are 34 Senate seats up for election in 2018, including 23 Democratic seats and 9 Republican seats. Because the majority of those seats are Democratic, it’s feasible that the Republicans could flip 8 of them for the important majority that would let them bulldoze any filibuster attempts. Moreover, the state legislatures elected next year will choose how district lines are drawn after the 2020 census is taken. The redistricting process is a notably politicized one that runs rampant with gerrymandering, so the party line gains and losses in the state lawmaker offices are incredibly important.
This election is important for another reason: this is possibly the first election where politics has entered the smartphone age. These politico apps, like PurplePatriot, 5calls, and VoterPal, will make a difference. The old ways of politics are fading in this new digital world -- canvassing and phonebanking are no longer effective tools to reach millennials2. Ask any millennial what they fear more than an unknown number calling, and the answer will almost always be the doorbell ringing unexpectedly. Political apps are the wave of the future.
PurplePatriot
You can follow bills and politicians, and contact your representatives right in the app, and you can find gatherings near you to voice support for a candidate or cause with other politically-minded people. The information available on this app, including your representative’s voting record and stance on the issues will be key in the upcoming election because with the russian interference in the 2016 election, people will need to be fully informed for 2018.
As we approach the 2018 elections, PurplePatriot will be poised to give you additional features designed specifically for the election. Overlayed onto federal politics will be state and local elections, and each incumbent and candidate will receive a scorecard graded by different associations. There will be a comparison chart between the different candidates. Users will be able to engage in mock elections ahead of the real date, which could allow campaigns to know which areas to focus more of their efforts. But perhaps the most transformative tool will be the one that shows not which candidates are present, but which are absent -- people will be able to visualize which seats are uncontested, which might motivate more constituents to become candidates.
5Calls
5calls makes it easier to call your representatives because calling is the most effective way to influence them. You select issues you care about, and then you’re given phone numbers and scripts so that calling is quick and easy.
5calls’ impact on the 2018 election will be more abstract but just as far-reaching -- by giving people an easier way to call their representatives (and 1.7million calls have been made!), constituents will be more aware of their representatives’ positions and will have an easier time paying attention to whether or not they listen to their constituents. If the incumbent doesn’t listen, the challenger will surely look more attractive.
VoterPal
With a simple scan of your ID, you can register to vote right in this app (if you live in Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, or California). By lowering the barrier to entry in politics from long and sometimes confusing forms, VoterPal’s aim is to increase the number of registered voters in these states and to get out the vote come election time.
And because VoterPal is targeted primarily at Latinos (VoterPal was launched by VotoLatino, a Latinx political advocacy association), VoterPal’s influence on the election could be more profound -- the Hispanic vote was down in 20163, although the Hispanic population is increasing to pivotal levels in key states like Nevada, Arizona, and Texas4. In 2016, only about 12.5 million Latinos voted out of an eligible 27.3 million5, and pundits speculate that it will be hard to turn out the key Hispanic demographic in crucial places like Las Vegas6.
VoterPal could potentially single-handedly change the demographics of the upcoming race.
These new political tools will transform the passive and superficial ‘selfie election’ of 2016 into the active and participatory ‘smartphone election’ of 2018.
Our startup, Loci Technologies, (http://www.locitechnologies.com) is focused on providing real-time voter targeting services to political campaigns. We successfully deployed on a congressional race in 2010, increasing postiive voter contacts by 25% while at the same time drastically reducing overhead required by the field operations team.
Our goal is to make targeting voters seamless and efficient, while also reducing the need to waste resources spamming constituents who don't care about your message.
Our startup, Loci Technologies, (http://www.locitechnologies.com) is focused on providing real-time voter targeting services to political campaigns. We successfully deployed on a congressional race in 2010, increasing postiive voter contacts by 25% while at the same time drastically reducing overhead required by the field operations team.
Our goal is to make targeting voters seamless and efficient, while also reducing the need to waste resources spamming constituents who don't care about your message.
I once met a man who drove a modest Toyota Corolla, wore beat-up sneakers, and looked like he’d lived the same way for decades. But what really caught my attention was when he casually mentioned he was retired at 45 with more money than he could ever spend. I couldn’t help but ask, “How did you do it?”
He smiled and said, “The secret to saving money is knowing where to look for the waste—and car insurance is one of the easiest places to start.”
He then walked me through a few strategies that I’d never thought of before. Here’s what I learned:
1. Make insurance companies fight for your business
Mos
I once met a man who drove a modest Toyota Corolla, wore beat-up sneakers, and looked like he’d lived the same way for decades. But what really caught my attention was when he casually mentioned he was retired at 45 with more money than he could ever spend. I couldn’t help but ask, “How did you do it?”
He smiled and said, “The secret to saving money is knowing where to look for the waste—and car insurance is one of the easiest places to start.”
He then walked me through a few strategies that I’d never thought of before. Here’s what I learned:
1. Make insurance companies fight for your business
Most people just stick with the same insurer year after year, but that’s what the companies are counting on. This guy used tools like Coverage.com to compare rates every time his policy came up for renewal. It only took him a few minutes, and he said he’d saved hundreds each year by letting insurers compete for his business.
Click here to try Coverage.com and see how much you could save today.
2. Take advantage of safe driver programs
He mentioned that some companies reward good drivers with significant discounts. By signing up for a program that tracked his driving habits for just a month, he qualified for a lower rate. “It’s like a test where you already know the answers,” he joked.
You can find a list of insurance companies offering safe driver discounts here and start saving on your next policy.
3. Bundle your policies
He bundled his auto insurance with his home insurance and saved big. “Most companies will give you a discount if you combine your policies with them. It’s easy money,” he explained. If you haven’t bundled yet, ask your insurer what discounts they offer—or look for new ones that do.
4. Drop coverage you don’t need
He also emphasized reassessing coverage every year. If your car isn’t worth much anymore, it might be time to drop collision or comprehensive coverage. “You shouldn’t be paying more to insure the car than it’s worth,” he said.
5. Look for hidden fees or overpriced add-ons
One of his final tips was to avoid extras like roadside assistance, which can often be purchased elsewhere for less. “It’s those little fees you don’t think about that add up,” he warned.
The Secret? Stop Overpaying
The real “secret” isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about being proactive. Car insurance companies are counting on you to stay complacent, but with tools like Coverage.com and a little effort, you can make sure you’re only paying for what you need—and saving hundreds in the process.
If you’re ready to start saving, take a moment to:
- Compare rates now on Coverage.com
- Check if you qualify for safe driver discounts
- Reevaluate your coverage today
Saving money on auto insurance doesn’t have to be complicated—you just have to know where to look. If you'd like to support my work, feel free to use the links in this post—they help me continue creating valuable content.
This is is not actually a Start-up but an organization founded by 12 Professors of IIM - Ahmedabad - Association for Democratic Reforms.
They are working for Clean elections in the country and de-criminalization of Politics, and they have analyzed the affidavits of every candidate who has contested for MP/MLA/MLC since 2004.
Every news article that you might have read regarding criminals in parliament or politics, or regarding their growth in assets, has ADR as it's source.
The Recent judgement by CIC to bring the 6 national parties under RTI was given on a petition by ADR only.
They also conduct
This is is not actually a Start-up but an organization founded by 12 Professors of IIM - Ahmedabad - Association for Democratic Reforms.
They are working for Clean elections in the country and de-criminalization of Politics, and they have analyzed the affidavits of every candidate who has contested for MP/MLA/MLC since 2004.
Every news article that you might have read regarding criminals in parliament or politics, or regarding their growth in assets, has ADR as it's source.
The Recent judgement by CIC to bring the 6 national parties under RTI was given on a petition by ADR only.
They also conduct National Election Watch/State Election Watch before every Parliamentary/Assembly elections.
You can find more about this organization on their website - Association for Democratic Reforms.
PurpleBridge.net is in a very early beta phase and we are seeking early adopters and investors. Our concept is right in the sweet spot of leveraging social media to affect political change and will maintain a strctly non-partisan approach. Check us out, sign up and start participating. Anyone interested in knowing more about our business plan is welcome to contact me: admin@purplebridge.net
ASocialGovernment.com, they are a news aggregation site but what is neat about them is that they aggregate news by political affiliations and they cover all spectrum. So if you are a Dem, if you want you can read only news from Left sources, but at the same time you can also see what news is going on the Right. I think their idea is that if people read news that matches their political views, then they will be more inclined to click on social ads for social causes that are related to the news they are reading. It seems like a pretty neat idea, I came across it on Stumbleupon, and it is now my
ASocialGovernment.com, they are a news aggregation site but what is neat about them is that they aggregate news by political affiliations and they cover all spectrum. So if you are a Dem, if you want you can read only news from Left sources, but at the same time you can also see what news is going on the Right. I think their idea is that if people read news that matches their political views, then they will be more inclined to click on social ads for social causes that are related to the news they are reading. It seems like a pretty neat idea, I came across it on Stumbleupon, and it is now my de facto news site.
We are not a startup focused on politics or elections. In fact we are a bot creation platform(allowing anyone to build a conversational bot) and we recently discovered that bots are an engaging way for politicians to engage with their supporters.
Rather than having a talk show on which only a few supporters could get their questions through, imagine a future in which everyone has complete access to their leaders through a bot.
And it doesn’t flow just one way. Every citizen gets complete access to their leaders through a bot and hold them more accountable. Imagine if you could scream at your loc
We are not a startup focused on politics or elections. In fact we are a bot creation platform(allowing anyone to build a conversational bot) and we recently discovered that bots are an engaging way for politicians to engage with their supporters.
Rather than having a talk show on which only a few supporters could get their questions through, imagine a future in which everyone has complete access to their leaders through a bot.
And it doesn’t flow just one way. Every citizen gets complete access to their leaders through a bot and hold them more accountable. Imagine if you could scream at your local politician every time you saw a pothole or a garbage dump appear near your house. Political accountability would increase significantly.
With this thought process, I created a scripted bot that turned Arvind Kejriwal’s(Indian politician) platform into a bot.
Shared my thoughts in detail here - How Chatbots will disrupt governance and elections
Check it out here :
English version of Chat to AK Bot : chattoak.com
Hindi version of Chat to AK Bot : chattoak.com/hindi
Would love to know what you think in the comment section below.
I'd add InstantIMPACT (http://www.instant-impact.org/wp/), a Founder Institute company that was a finalist at the 5th Founder Showcase (Q4 '10).
About:
"InstantIMPACT enables people to be engaged in the political decisions locally and nationally by providing a simple web application that allows users to track initiatives, voice their opinion, and connect to related advocacy groups. Advocacy groups spend $25B a year fund-raising, InstantIMPACT gives these advocacy groups a better way to connect to individuals that share their beliefs than email spam. Competitors focus on advocacy groups providi
I'd add InstantIMPACT (http://www.instant-impact.org/wp/), a Founder Institute company that was a finalist at the 5th Founder Showcase (Q4 '10).
About:
"InstantIMPACT enables people to be engaged in the political decisions locally and nationally by providing a simple web application that allows users to track initiatives, voice their opinion, and connect to related advocacy groups. Advocacy groups spend $25B a year fund-raising, InstantIMPACT gives these advocacy groups a better way to connect to individuals that share their beliefs than email spam. Competitors focus on advocacy groups providing email marketing and CRM solutions to the organization; in contrast, InstantIMPACT focuses on individual citizens providing a simple way to engage with multiple levels of government and advocacy groups."
GovTogether ( http://govtogether.com/ ) is about giving the people the power to vote directly on legislation. Elected legislators who pledge to abide by this system will legislate on issues in direct accordance with the majority vote of the people in the elected official's district. By 2012 we aim to have at least one newly elected U.S. Congressman utilizing this system.
Simply put, we are working on implementing a truer democracy through the current representative system. Representatives who believe in this system will pledge to legislate in direct accordance with how their constituents vot
GovTogether ( http://govtogether.com/ ) is about giving the people the power to vote directly on legislation. Elected legislators who pledge to abide by this system will legislate on issues in direct accordance with the majority vote of the people in the elected official's district. By 2012 we aim to have at least one newly elected U.S. Congressman utilizing this system.
Simply put, we are working on implementing a truer democracy through the current representative system. Representatives who believe in this system will pledge to legislate in direct accordance with how their constituents vote through the GovTogether system.
Our first step is to see if people want such a system (where they can legislate
directly through their current representative). We are taking this first step
by asking people to vote on whether they want such a system to come to fruition. We are asking people to go to govtogether.com now and vote on whether they want to see this concept move forward.
VoteSimple.org . We created a simple sms app to help people get registed, vote early and find their polling place in Wisconsin. Just finished today.
The most visible new site I've seen to date has to be American's Elect: http://www.americanselect.org. Surprised it hasn't been referenced here yet. They're working to orchestrate the first "nonpartisan nomination." They've got a solid team backing the project, great UI, and some nice game mechanics to
incentivize the survey and polling process. Making a splash at SXSW right now,
too.
Another mention is Politify: http://www.politify.us. They've set up a nice tool to
assess the financial impact of your political preferences.
we also launched a social commentary network called http://myvoternation.com
a place to vote on current issues and match to people who feel the same way.
At CampusCaucus (www.campuscaucus.com) we're building a platform to crowdsource the best public-policy ideas and interface these ideas with elected officials and candidates for public office.
Seeclickfix.com tackles the community engagement piece as it pertains to the democracy that is accountable for the public space.
One that is getting a lot of buzz is http://votifi.com/. There was just an interesting article on tech cocktail http://techcocktail.com/lou-aronson-votifi-2012-03#.T3Y0r2JWobI. They did really well at SXSW and are getting a lot of attention from the mainstream media. Votifi does political social media and polling. With so many people moving away from landlines it's critical that political polling evolves. Also the Votifi app is free so give that a download.
Also check out Voters Act:
https://votersact.com
We provide a grassroots fundraising and advocacy platform for local politicians and their supporters.
There are some more apps in the Government 2.0 space at Apps for Democracy which is a contest out of Washington DC:
http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/
You should vote because the expected (social) benefits of doing so are large relative to the expected costs if the election is important and you believe one candidate is sufficiently better than the rest of the field.
To compute the expected social benefit, you need to multiply your probability of being the pivotal voter by the benefits conditional on being pivotal. In a large election, your probability of being pivotal is proportional to 1/N where N is the number of voters (this probability varies with the closeness of the election but this has theoretically and empirically proven to be a v
You should vote because the expected (social) benefits of doing so are large relative to the expected costs if the election is important and you believe one candidate is sufficiently better than the rest of the field.
To compute the expected social benefit, you need to multiply your probability of being the pivotal voter by the benefits conditional on being pivotal. In a large election, your probability of being pivotal is proportional to 1/N where N is the number of voters (this probability varies with the closeness of the election but this has theoretically and empirically proven to be a very good approximation in most cases). The expected social benefits conditional on being pivotal will vary as well, but in many cases they can be quite large. In a presidential election, it is not implausible that one candidate would be $1 trillion better than another. To get a sense of the scale of presidential decisions, estimates of the total cost of the Iraq War range from $3-$5 trillion. If you think candidate A will generate $1 trillion in social welfare more than candidate B, then in expectation, you will generate $1 trillion * (1/10^8) = $10,000 by voting (the electoral college impacts the probability of being pivotal, so it is much more important to vote in presidential elections if you live in a state other than Utah, and more important still if you live in a swing state). In local elections, the magnitude of the benefits will be smaller, but the probability of being pivotal will be larger: in general, both are proportional to the size of the voting population.
The calculation suggests that voting is like incurring a small personal cost (such as driving to the polls) to realize a large social benefit (such as giving $10,000 to charity). Voting is not individually rational in the sense of picking up free money lying on the ground, but conditional on caring at all about other people's well-being, voting has a clear instrumental justification which becomes stronger when there are large differences between the candidates and when elections are close.
See: http://bit.ly/gjBE1R for a more thorough version of this argument as well as references to support the 1/N claim.
I'm an Iranian entrepreneur in Silicone Valley and after Iran's election, I totally changed the direction of my company. In a couple of months, I'm releasing a new product at www.civillage.com.
In this light networking product, instead of stories we generate numbers that could be used as a reference for social and political studies.
www.whistle.co.uk - launched just under 6 months ago in the UK and has over 100 MP's using the service to build online communities within constituencies.
As yet not released but Jolitics has potential: http://www.jolitics.com/
Michael Birch the man behind Bebo plans to roll Jolitics out in Ireland first. This article is a useful intro: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8046270/Jolitics-the-political-network-that-plans-to-empower-voters.html
I have been working on something for a while now called Govbe http://govbe.com You can see what is there although I haven't run the update recently you can get the idea. I kind of got discouraged but if people see value I would love to keep going on it.
politics and elections country's have different duration election office terms say el Salvador has only one term in office compared with normal 2 terms in office , country's such as japan have unlimited terms in office with India also a country that have unlimited terms in office ,
the average 2 terms is common with 4 5 6 years common , Armenia is a country's with only 1 term in office of 7 years in total
politics and elections country's have different duration election office terms say el Salvador has only one term in office compared with normal 2 terms in office , country's such as japan have unlimited terms in office with India also a country that have unlimited terms in office ,
the average 2 terms is common with 4 5 6 years common , Armenia is a country's with only 1 term in office of 7 years in total
UpRise is an SPC startup that just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
www.uprise.org
UpRise will free candidates from their dependency on big donors.
How? By empowering volunteers to self-organize and run powerful, affordable campaigns. We will create an online home for them and support tools for positive personal outreach in their daily lives.
UpRise is the only campaign management tool to use the volunteer as the starting point (not the campaign). We put the volunteers in the driver's seat so that they can become a well-oiled political machine that outlives the life of any single c
UpRise is an SPC startup that just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
www.uprise.org
UpRise will free candidates from their dependency on big donors.
How? By empowering volunteers to self-organize and run powerful, affordable campaigns. We will create an online home for them and support tools for positive personal outreach in their daily lives.
UpRise is the only campaign management tool to use the volunteer as the starting point (not the campaign). We put the volunteers in the driver's seat so that they can become a well-oiled political machine that outlives the life of any single campaign and offers candidates access to voters for much less money than traditional campaigns.
Happy to answer any further questions and glad to be a part of the greater effort to increase civic engagement and re-think the way we run election campaigns.
FiscalNote is a platform that allows businesses to track state legislation in real-time. FiscalNote also has an algorithm that can accurately predict the outcome of legislation as it's introduced with over 90% accuracy. One of the first tools to allow companies, on a quantitative level, to mitigate their political risk.
Civis Analytics is a brand new startup in Chicago.
VoterMind is an iPhone app, a fun way to share & compare political views with [Facebook] friends. You can download it for free here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/votermind/id503896191?mt=8
I'm late to this party, but I like http://www.ballotbook.com. Still a work in progress but we will be close with our next update.
disclaimer: I am a co-founder of BallotBook.
Did you know that discussion / debate is not always an unalloyed good? (Hung juries are good example; talk sometimes just solidifies polarization.) If the point is to maximize ad revenue then that doesn't really matter. If the aim is to empower bottom-up / bazaar style exchange, then it's key.
The aspect that caught my attention: before the workshop on social justice and international trade folk had all sorts of wacky ideas. After, participants had far more confident opinions, and stated them far more clearly. But a) the views were more homogeneous, and worse b) very few folk could actually ta
Did you know that discussion / debate is not always an unalloyed good? (Hung juries are good example; talk sometimes just solidifies polarization.) If the point is to maximize ad revenue then that doesn't really matter. If the aim is to empower bottom-up / bazaar style exchange, then it's key.
The aspect that caught my attention: before the workshop on social justice and international trade folk had all sorts of wacky ideas. After, participants had far more confident opinions, and stated them far more clearly. But a) the views were more homogeneous, and worse b) very few folk could actually talk about the opinions they had. Something vital had gotten dumbed down.
So my approach *stealth mode* is to apply the most systematic propositional analysis to filter against sophistry/specious logic and fiction to do two things: first to show that agreement on facts is difficult but possible, and second (they key factor) to make space for individual's expression of just why data matters to them (subjective narrative). The core notion is that key points act as though "strange attractors in gnöosphere phase space" (see Hesse's glasperlenspiel) : there's no single point. Even when we do agree on a fact, most folk most times have their own view, and their own reason for caring about it. Hence "participatory deliberation". And yes, it can be treated with formal ontologies and XML and all the other semantic sweetness.
The first books didn't come c/w ToC, index, and footnotes. The first books didn't even have page numbers. It's about praxis and techne.
It's about more than optimizing for SEO. It depends on caring, as individual human beings.
The big problem with government is the election of representatives with enormous power and the incentives to retain or gain power. After an election the voters are dismissed until the next election. This must change so that the voters are engaged in legislation. But legislation is such a big job that profession help is needed. That help is provided in Hired Representative Democracy. @A Government You Can Love
It depends on your definition of crowdsourcing, but here are a few:
99Designs
CrowdFlower + Mechanical Turk (amazon)
Threadless
Jigsaw (acquired)
BillGuard
Quora
Stack Exchange
SlideShare
DocStoc
KickStarter
ProFounder
Youtube (acquired)
Flickr (acquired)
Smartling + Facebook Translations
Quirky
For this to be a good analogy, you should compare the campaign as multiple start-ups competing to get their product to market with a same-day launch.
On the ground, you pull together a disparate group of people together to be advocates and brand ambassadors.
There isn't a lot of internal structure, so things move fast, job titles are flexible, dress is casual, and things get done pragmatically.
You're essentially selling the same thing as the other guys, so it's all about branding and execution.
You have to show your VC's (big donors) promise in what you'll do once established.
On launch (electio
For this to be a good analogy, you should compare the campaign as multiple start-ups competing to get their product to market with a same-day launch.
On the ground, you pull together a disparate group of people together to be advocates and brand ambassadors.
There isn't a lot of internal structure, so things move fast, job titles are flexible, dress is casual, and things get done pragmatically.
You're essentially selling the same thing as the other guys, so it's all about branding and execution.
You have to show your VC's (big donors) promise in what you'll do once established.
On launch (election) day, you hope your messaging, research and legwork have been effective, or you'll soon be back in the unemployment line.
lots of social media postings mentioning the start up
The social search realm is one in motion. It includes companies such as Topsy, Wajam, and Greplin; and an array of others that have either folded or changed their company's direction -- Collecta, Crowdeye, and Sentimnt.
I've interviewed the Founders of Topsy, Wajam, and Greplin and gained a grasp on the state of the industry in doing so.
Topsy is the current leader, positioned as a real-time social search product. It currently serves half a billion queries per month, and is looking to increase its distribution and reach through social modules that stream its search results for various keywords -
The social search realm is one in motion. It includes companies such as Topsy, Wajam, and Greplin; and an array of others that have either folded or changed their company's direction -- Collecta, Crowdeye, and Sentimnt.
I've interviewed the Founders of Topsy, Wajam, and Greplin and gained a grasp on the state of the industry in doing so.
Topsy is the current leader, positioned as a real-time social search product. It currently serves half a billion queries per month, and is looking to increase its distribution and reach through social modules that stream its search results for various keywords -- http://corp.topsy.com/2011/01/13/topsy-announces-social-modules/ .
Wajam is a Canadian company in beta, that is positioning itself as a plugin to enhance existing search. You merely install it, give it permission to index your social networks, and it returns results at the top of your Bing and Google. Its engagement will be in question as it will be hard to track whether people are using its search results of the search engines its plugged into. *Update* However, its results have been extremely useful for various recommendation based searches.*
Greplin is a personal search engine that indexes your social networks as well as your messaging system to give you one search experience for all your search needs. It's operating on a freemium model providing users with 200MB of free indexing space and charging a minimal amount beyond that. It just opened its doors for a full beta release, and received $4 million in funding from Sequoia, therefore I see it making huge steps really soon. Greplin also really impressed me in that it only has 6 employees who built its infrastructure from the ground up.
Go you centric. If you want others to gain interest, then attract and engage with them. Ask them questions they want to answer, talk about topics that add value to their lives and that they want to respond to. If you need more followers, combine hashtags with relevant information with posting not only on your profile, but also on others to pull them to your site.
Aside from it being your civic duty, you should do it for selfish reasons:
Elected officials look at who votes and it influences their decisions.
Prime Example: Seniors
Why Seniors? They are known as an extremely active and reliable voting group, so their concerns are taken very seriously. This is why social security is sometimes called "the Third rail of politics."
If you want candidates for powerful offices to care about you (and people like you), you have to show them you're engaged and will hold them responsible if they ignore you. Individually, it's hard to do this, but in aggregate, it
Aside from it being your civic duty, you should do it for selfish reasons:
Elected officials look at who votes and it influences their decisions.
Prime Example: Seniors
Why Seniors? They are known as an extremely active and reliable voting group, so their concerns are taken very seriously. This is why social security is sometimes called "the Third rail of politics."
If you want candidates for powerful offices to care about you (and people like you), you have to show them you're engaged and will hold them responsible if they ignore you. Individually, it's hard to do this, but in aggregate, it makes a difference.
If 10% fewer women voted, women's issues wouldn't have been as prominent in the campaign as they were.
If fewer young people voted, they/we would be ignored even more. We get a little more attention than we used to because we got more involved and we voted last time (2008). Student Loan reform might've been a lower priority and not gotten through. In decades prior, people under 30 were by far the least sought after vote because they were the least engaged and least likely to turn out at the polls.
Basically, if you don't show up to vote, as far as the politicians are concerned, you don't exist.
EDIT:
One more thing I forget to mention: the 2010 election had lower voter turnout and so the people that did show up and exercise their right to vote got outsized power. The 2010 electorate was much more conservative than 2008, so we ended up with a huge drift to the right. That's what made possible so many ridiculous things like the debt ceiling debacle, the failure to pass needed legislation like the Veterans Jobs bill and the American Jobs Act, the unprecedented state level attacks on abortion rights, the various voter suppression efforts, etc.
Your vote may not be a deciding factor, but it contributes to the civic well-being of society. A community that participates in elections is a stronger community because the winner of the election can be confident he or she is acting on behalf of a large portion of the people because they cared enough to vote. Low turnout leads to fearful, base-motivated politicians who can't make the hard decisions necessary to govern.
Community aside, on a personal level, do you want to feel that your government speaks for you? If so, then vote. Voting is a psychological buy-in that builds trust in the govern
Your vote may not be a deciding factor, but it contributes to the civic well-being of society. A community that participates in elections is a stronger community because the winner of the election can be confident he or she is acting on behalf of a large portion of the people because they cared enough to vote. Low turnout leads to fearful, base-motivated politicians who can't make the hard decisions necessary to govern.
Community aside, on a personal level, do you want to feel that your government speaks for you? If so, then vote. Voting is a psychological buy-in that builds trust in the government. It means that even if the people I vote for lose, we all were playing the same game and that I have a chance to win next time. However, I campaign and am basically an activist. This gives me a stake in the game, and I assume this makes voting more important to me than the average person
On a side note, remember that Lizard People mattered as a vote. If nothing else, vote for Lizard People to confuse election boards and pundits during recounts:
.
EDIT: The Iowa caucuses '12: https://twitter.com/#!/jmsummers/status/154451228041023488
"CNN reports Mitt Romney is ONE vote ahead in Iowa. Wow."
I have develop and designed idea of booth management at grass root levels.
With proper setup it can be a hack of democracy and will make winning elections a cakewalk.
Only thing I am lacking is funding.
Just a few:
Starting out: Political campaigns are similar to startups in that they start with nothing but an idea or product (in this case a candidate). They then must sell themselves to users (small donors, mostly culled from the web) and investors (major donors) to have a chance of making it. In this regard, in both worlds, networking is essential.
The role of the internet: Increasingly, the web is crucial to the success of both. In many cases, a startup's entire business exists on the web. While this isn't exactly the case with political campaigns, things that were once strictly offline (FUN
Just a few:
Starting out: Political campaigns are similar to startups in that they start with nothing but an idea or product (in this case a candidate). They then must sell themselves to users (small donors, mostly culled from the web) and investors (major donors) to have a chance of making it. In this regard, in both worlds, networking is essential.
The role of the internet: Increasingly, the web is crucial to the success of both. In many cases, a startup's entire business exists on the web. While this isn't exactly the case with political campaigns, things that were once strictly offline (FUNDRAISING (caps for emphasis), voter contact, issue outreach) are now online, and comprise a crucial portion of a campaign identity. Since politics is inherently social, the advent of the social web has been an important part of this transformation, and is turning old beliefs and practices on their heads every day. Similarly, the advent of the social web has been explosive for startups. It's also worth pointing out that it has been political campaigns, not startups, that have pioneered many of the web marketing and data acquisition techniques that are now standard across the industry.
Culture: As many point out in other answers, culture in many startups and political campaigns is scrappy and entrepreneurial. Things should move fast (though they often don't, which is often reflected in the end result), and employees often take on multi-functional roles with limited staff size. Just as people often refer to people with significant startup experience as "startup guys," campaign veterans are often referred to as "campaign guys," both referring to a "get-it-done" attitude which has seen its share of adversity. People often look for seasoned campaign vets the same way they look for rockstar founders to repeat their success--it's a very similar mindset.
Exits: Every startup looks for an exit and candidates are no different. Sometimes candidates "pivot" and run for lesser or parallel offices. Other times, they win their party's primary, which entitles them to a universe of resources they never had before (often making things move much slower in the process). This is very similar to a startup getting acquired. And, of course, sometimes they win, and like public companies, are now subject to the opinions of large groups of stakeholders who have a huge interest in their success.