Tip O’Neil famously said “All politics is local.” Lately, however,
it seems as if the political conversation happens without the local voices. In a project designed to find ways to reconnect voters with each other and with the political process, a team from the CityClub of Seattle; Reinspire Me, LLC; the Design, Use, Build Group and the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington have created The Living Voters Guide.
The guide is part of a National Science Foundation funded project that uses social media technology to bring Seattle voters together online. You can use the guide to lift your voice, educate your fellow voters, gain new insights. Be it crowdsourcing or cloudsourcing – local voters now have a new tool.
If you prefer the standard guide, they’ll soon be available at your local library branch. You can also customize your voters guide online at the King County Elections site.
To better understand the ideas behind crowdsourcing and its impact on our political and civic conversations, we suggest the following books:
The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Lynn Aaker
How You Will Change the World with Social Networking by Deanna Zandt
Netroots Rising: How A Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics by Lowell Feld
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations by Clay Shirky
~ Beth K and Heather M-W
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