A Democratizing Force

For many, the Internet is a powerful and democratizing force in that it brings people together for a common goal. Whether or not those common goals are good for the rest of us is rather subjective and yet to be determined as a whole. Nevertheless, the Internet does provide a space for minds to connect and converse with one another. For the most recent election, just last year, Obama's popularity was praised for its getting Americans to go out and vote. The statistics were both astounding and disappointing; it is true that more Americans went out to vote that year but sadly it was a mere 56% of the population, the highest it had been in four years. Obama's campaign was one boasting of change and he was the first one to truly rely on these new formats of communication, (i.e. Facebook, Myspace, mobile messaging, etc.). All this begs the question of had he not used these formulas for word of mouth, would he have won? Would apathy continue to grow, meanwhile lowering poll percentages? The Internet truly is a force to be reckoned with.

Estonians believe in the power of the Internet, taking it a step further with online voting. In 2005, online voting for government officials was established and although only a fraction of the population participated in voting this way, by 2007 it had grown substantially and by 2009, this voice became a large enough one to take notice of and therefore one politicians needed to appeal to. Because the Internet is one that brings people together, there are often ideas about how the government, amongst other things, should run. Change begins with the individual and so The Better Project was created. The Better Project, a website devoted to making anything and everything better, lets users create and then publish suggestions for potential solutions to current problems. Users can vote for and/or comment on others' ideas and eventually, the goal is to come together and establish a campaign to fix or improve something, (ex. possibly even a national campaign to rewrite some legislation?).

For SAM's project go to: http://rhodeisland.thebetterproject.org/ideas/1