In my last post, I neglected to mention what's surely obvious to most Utahns reading this site. Politicopia and ORGware's contribution to governance would be impossible without the leadership of Stephen Urquhart. Before all this Internet-driven politics became obvious to politicians, Steve was, as usual, out in front of the parade. And boy, doesn't he look funny in that tall hat and boots!

Almost 13 months ago, Steve and Phil Windley and I met to discuss what might be possible for Politicopia, in time for last January's legislative session and for the long haul. Since then, I've figured that my little company would be on the right track if we just build Politicopia to fit Steve's requirements. Since then, Politicopia and ORGware both have become more Utah-based than NYC-based, even though I live in the Big Apple. Phil Windley has continued to help us shape and define the platform and, through Steve, the redoubtable Scotty Riding has become central to organizing the many threads of giving birth to a comprehensive voice to the folks whom Thoms Jefferson labeled "We the People."

I’m not expecting very much from people who live “Inside the Beltway.” I don’t live there, never have, don’t even like visiting the place. To me it’s much like the arrogance of Silicon Valley. You can’t pop out every four years get us to vote for you and then go back into your nest. Politics belongs to all of us, in this country, the people are the government. We really lost our way, now it’s time to come back. It’s the change that’s happening in everything, decentralization, disintermediation. Obama speaks of a plurality, his campaign isn’t about a mere election, it’s about changing the way we do things.

My advice to candidates going back to Dean was and is to start implementing the change you seek before the election, while you have the full attention of the electorate. Ask us to give money, not to buy ads, but to buy health insurance for 50,000 uninsured people in a particular state, so we can see how powerful we are collectively, how we can do good, starting right now. We yearn for this, to feel our muscles flex collectively, and individually to make a difference, not just in your hype, but in real terms. Hillary Clinton could have gotten up yesterday and said “There’s no time to waste. We can’t wait until January 2009 to solve the problems. Let’s start right now.”

Maybe she won’t get elected, but getting us organized now would make it more likely.

JFK: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

See how that works??

You really should read all of Dave’s post and Doc’s last 3 paragraphs stressing the difference between elections and governance, quoting a point Dave made earlier in his post:

What the electorate needs is to hire someone to lead us for the four years between elections. It needs someone who will ground our collective behavior in something resembling reality…

In a conversation around this stage in the last presidential election, Phil Windley pointed out that democracies are about two things: elections and governance. We care disproportionately about the former, because elections make great stories, and are easy to explain with sports and war metaphors. But elections are how we hire those who run our governments. We need to care about what they’ll do in reality. Or what we’ll do in reality. The idea isn’t just to change how elections happen, but how governance works as well.

Easier said than done. But we need to do it.

Since Politicopia is, for now, a Utah-based project, it's always exciting when a Utahn is featured so prominently by world-class bloggers like Dave Winer and Doc Searls. There may even still be Utahns who don't realize what a great role that BYU Professor Phillip Windley has played in the emerging world of citizen-based governance.

In fact, the software behind Politicopia would not exist without Phil's guidance and wisdom. Before his appointment to the BYU faculty, he was the Chief Information Officer for the State of Utah. Before that he was CTO of Excite at Home and Founding CTO of iMall. 

Here's a quote from Phil over at openresourcegroup.com, a company I started which would be nowhere now without Phil's counsel:

"I've been following the concepts that are shaping ORGware since June, 2003, when Doc Searls and Britt Blaser and I attended the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, just as the Howard Dean campaign was the hot topic on the Internet. It was at that conference that Doc, myself and others came up with the idea that grew into the O'Reilly Digital Democracy Teach-in at Etech the following February. Many of the elements in ORGware reflect real needs in politics and governance, and I have tried to develop some of those concepts. Those needs became crystal clear during my service as CIO for the State of Utah.

"Therefore, I promptly agreed to be an advisor to Open Resource Group, LLC and to serve as the Chair for the Advisory Board's Technology Committee. I am very familiar with Zaah Technologies and I believe the team is disciplined and competent."

You can judge for yourself. This web site is based on ORGware and you'll find a lot of ways you can contribute to Utah's legislature this year. The 2008 Legislative session starts a week from today, on January 21. 

What is Politicopia?

Politicopia aims to promote better politics by

            (1) politically empowering individuals,                           

            (2) encouraging better dialogue, and

            (3) producing better ideas.                               

Politicopians believe that political solutions are possible and work together to craft those solutions. This allows for plenty of constructive give-and-take and plenty of civil disagreement.  But, if it’s a flame war or partisan echo-chamber you’re after, there are plenty of other sites you might want to visit instead.

We’re trying to make a difference.  If you’d like to help us, we enthusiastically welcome you! 

Navigation

To the upper-right, you see a search box.  Type in your area of interest and see what you find.

The “People” section highlights Politicopians with the most user-generated props.

The “Conversations” section highlights the most active – you guessed it – conversations.

The “Groups” section highlights the Politicopia sites that are most active.

The “Interests” section shows the keywords Politicopians use to identify their discussion topics.

If you have specific questions about how to use the site, check the "Help" section above.