So here’s the deal. I’m 24 and I have become a more involved in government over the last 6 years I’ve been able to vote but I still find myself largely apathetic to most issues. Well apathetic isn’t necessarily the right word but put it this way: I just don’t feel like making time to get the polls is important enough for issues A B and C.
Anyways I found myself on votetub.com today and WOW! This is exactly what someone like myself needs. It’s basically a site that gives you the information on an issue and then lets you vote on it.
Reading through their literature on the site it sounds like they were targeting people just like me using a fun, interactive and most importantly an easy way to vote. Whatever the theory behind it, there is no doubt that there could be some pretty awesome stuff that comes out of a site like this.
I mean wouldn’t it be cool if your senator had a site like this and one of his staffers broke down the sides of the issue and you were allowed through a simple poll question to tell him/her how you felt about it. I mean I know there would need to be a ton of cybersecurity in place to prevent ballot stuffing and whatnot but still it’s kind of cool to think about.
It begs for further discussion that something like this or something else from the Gov 2.0 sector could have a major impact on how our government runs. It’s fun (at least for me) to play with the idea that if we open government up completely we could really get back to that ever vote and voice matters type of government and hence have a lot less apathetic people like me.
Absolutely! The idea is to get people proactively involved passionately and actively with the governance. Not just elect the leaders and become bystanders. Gov 2.0 is aspiring to break all systemic intermediaries between the government and citizens. It has potential of turning politicians into true public servants. And, certainly eliminate or eradicate apathy and improve openness and transparency. That is vision, but how that will manifest is another question.