According to a recent article on socialtext's website. Utah State Representative, Steve Urquhart, Chairman of the Rules Committee that decides what legislation goes to the floor, has launched a wiki dedicated to promoting open government called Politicopia, based on enterprise collaboration software Socialtext.
Describing the project, he says "One week into the experiment, Politicopia is working. Citizens are participating and citizens are being heard. Legislators are talking to me about things they’ve read on Politicopia. Because of input I received, I have changed a position I've held for years. Already, citizens are using Politicopia to shape the debate. As a matter of fact, a reporter emailed me, to ask why Politicopia wasn't linking to her article. That has never happened in the two-plus years I’ve been blogging."
Politicopia enables citizens to discuss pros, cons, amendments, find further resources and get more information. Example laws that are presently being discussed:
Who do I need to talk to in order to get something like this in use here?
LEt's get the politicians to learn how to speak in the House first before we get them browsing and typing. This reading speeches thing is so soul-destroying. Seriously, it does nothing for dialog. How do we expect them to dialog like Utah if they can't do it face-to-face
Posted by: JayBee | February 04, 2007 at 09:08 PM