Gathering input from one million people
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Feb 12 13:24 UTC
Short link
Here is my rough cut at how you might engage one million people over a month or
two - say from WhiteHouse.Gov and other government websites. (Or if it is
inconceivable that government will ever ask for input after the votes are cast,
across a network of media or other high traffic civic/political sites.)
Distributed Online Survey The Widget
I recommend producing a small survey widget that is embedded across the home
page of all major government websites and available for inclusion on any
website or blog. A widget is a small piece of code that allows someone to
include syndicated content/applications from another website within their
website. (It is how one displays a YouTube video on another site.)
Each day for at least one month a new question selected by a panel of online
participants from public submissions would be presented across the network.
Project goals:
1. Promote mass participation
2. Acquire opt-in e-mail addresses for further engagement opportunity publicity
3. Produce quantifiable results while engaging many with a low time commitment
Upon completing the syndicated survey question, people would be taken to a
central website where they can without registration be:
1. Given the opportunity to answer why? with a comment
2. Shown five to ten second tier questions select for that day/week that they
can answer
3. Be given the opportunity to securely share demographic data for use in
either weighing a potential display of the results based on census data or if
not saved with the answers, to at least measure outreach to diverse groups in
society
4. Provided an option to rate other comments and view comments (default view +1
or above - Slashdot style, which was recently adopted by YouTube to allow the
audience bury useless comments below the visibility threshold)
5. Asked to provide their e-mail address and postal code for a project
e-newsletter and other important updates
6. (Random) prizes should be available for those providing their e-mail address
(S. Korea has offered prizes on government-funded voter education websites)
In addition, upon rating X number of comments, participants would be invited to
register and join the online group receiving and rating proposed questions
submitted by the public. Assuming that most questions are too biased for direct
use (E-Democracy.Orgs experience with online candidate debate questions
submissions), these super users would be empowered to amend/re-craft the best
question topics into a neutral format appropriate for question display across
the large syndicated network.
How would you engage one million people online? Please share your outline.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org