Localocracy: Peer to Peer Politics and online civic engagement
Localocracy is an online platform for peer to peer local politics. We partner with local newspapers to provide an online "town square" where registered voters using real names can vote on local issues and candidates, ask questions, and rank the best opinions for supporting their side; and are building campaign tools for local elections.
About You
Section 1: You
First Name
Conor
Last Name
White-Sullivan
Website URL
Organization
Localocracy
Country
Section 2: Your Organization
Organization Name
Localocracy
Organization Website
Organization Phone
413-259-7840
Organization Address
553 Main St. Amherst Ma 01002
Is your organization a
For‐profit
Organization Country
United States, MA
Your idea
Name Your Project
Localocracy: Peer to Peer Politics and online civic engagement
Country and state your work focuses on
Describe Your Idea
Localocracy is an online platform for peer to peer local politics. We partner with local newspapers to provide an online "town square" where registered voters using real names can vote on local issues and candidates, ask questions, and rank the best opinions for supporting their side; and are building campaign tools for local elections.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
In his March 2010 Endorsement of our barely 1 month old beta, Massachusetts State Senator Stan Rosenberg said,
“It seems to me that one of the best ways to save our democracy is to have more democracy. That’s the beauty of Localocracy. It gives people of all ages another outlet for learning about community issues and participating in our government. It’s like the perfect union of town meeting and modern technology.”
The local political dialog is already cluttered with all sorts of political blogs and discussion forums. Most sites are partisan, most are dominated by anonymous mudslinging, but even still, if Localocracy just offered another neutral place to talk about issues, it wouldn't be to much to write home about.
What we do things a bit different though.
On our town square, we confirm that users are registered voters in the community, and give them a place where they can vote on issues, ask questions, and **using their real names** post and rank the best reasons for others to support their side.
This makes it easy for independent or undecided voters or leaders to find the best points on the issues and to those key questions of democracy--How many of my neighbors support this decision and why?
Our partnerships with local media, our geographic voter ID system, our method of separating arguments to ensure that political minorities don't get buried and our ranking system for reasons all make this platform stand out.
It is for these are the reasons, and their success in our Beta test in Amherst Massachusetts that we were listed among 10 Entrepreneurs Changing how Government Works http://ow.ly/1yPMs, and that our founder will be likely the youngest person ever to present at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York this June.http://ow.ly/1AN78
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Since the launch of our beta in Amherst Massachusetts two months ago, we have been endorsed by the State Senator, the State Rep, and the Town Manager. In the weeks before an election where 5,000 people voted, we formed partnerships with two local papers, had over 1,000 unique visitors from the area and had 53 votes on our most popular issue, and successfully predicted the outcome of the school committee race and override question. We've since been approached by elected and appointed officials from Boston, DC, and San Fransisco and by citizen activists and newspaper editors from New Haven, Kansas City, Williamstown and Salem Ma about launching in those communities.
But the real impact is in the information that users gathered to help others in their community make a decision about who and what to support.
You can see our most popular issues here: http://amherst-ma.localocracy.org/issues/6-budget-override#help/hidden_v...
http://amherst-ma.localocracy.org/elections/2-school-committee
Problem
All politics is local. The local level is where one vote has the greatest power, and we believe that if you seek to change the world you must start in your own backyard. But local political issues are still incredibly difficult to learn about, and even harder to have an influence on.
The community newspaper used to be the informational backbone of local democracy, but that hasn't translated online.
Many people don't have time to spend four or five hours at a town meeting just to speak for 30 seconds, but that doesn't mean they don't have something valuable to contribute.
Actions
Currently, our focus has been on testing the product, completing features, preparing for the Amherst Town Meeting and gathering the resources we need to launch in new communities.
Whenever we enter a community we have the following process.
1) We identify communities with moderate to high levels of public participation and government leaders who are interested in engaging online
2) We form partnerships with those leaders as well as local media (in Amherst, highly ranked Localocracy comments were printed in the paper to ease the digital divide)
3) We establish relationships with the community advocacy organizations
4) We decide on seed issues
5) We acquire the voter registration database and open the Localocracy "public square" up to local voters.
Our emphasis now is on usability testing, making the platform even easier to use, and building group functionality and our platform for campaign organizing.
Results
We believe we can transform local politics.
Our hope is to make it painfully easy for anyone to find out what the issues are in their town and get their own ideas heard. We hope to encourage regular citizens to participate in local government, and hope that some users may even run for local office.
Through our media partnerships we hope to make political news an active activity, and not a passive consuming one.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Our beta was built with just over $10,000 which we won in Start up funding at the UMass Amherst Innovation Challenge and other small business plan competitions last year.
$60,000 would cover our implementation in a larger city and most of our teams costs for the summer.
We believe we can take to company to the point that it would be self sustaining with less than $120,000 in initial grants and investment, but to meet our goals of establishing a Localocracy in 2,500 neighborhoods and towns within 5 years we hope to raise $510,000.
If required we can provide financial statements.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
The two greatest dangers that could keep us from being successful in any given community are:
1) Not enough users to keep community vibrant
2) Users from one partisan group dominate the platform and other groups ignore it
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$1000 - 4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
In what country?
United States
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Localocracy LLC
How long has this organization been operating?
Less than a year
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Currently, the issues on the Amherst Localocracy come from the Amherst Town Government.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1) We need the funding to cover the founders living expenses and early hires until we reach cash flow positive
2) We need to demonstrate success in a larger urban area
3) We need to build, test, and launch our campaign platform
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The first defining moment was when the founder, Conor, was going door to door, campaigning for a piece of climate change legislation. In one town he had a conversation with both a climate scientist who knew much more about the issue than he did, and an economist who put a very different spin on the specifics of that legislation. He felt there was no good reason that other people shouldn't hear both voices, and that there should be easier ways to have an impact on government than just donating to a lobbying group.
Later, when he was the Western Ma Field Coordinator organizing on a statewide ballot inititative, he felt the organizer's pain again. The campaign did not have traditional party support, but had a 50,000 person facebook group. Unfortunately, that group had none of the tools that could mobilize the members into a political force. He felt the extreme difference between a fan page, and the tools that won elections for Barack Obama and Scott Brown, and felt the need for local organizers to have those tools.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Conor, the CEO, is an Undergraduate fellow at the National Center for Digital Government, and a graduating senior in Anthropology.
In Fall of 2008 he was the Western Ma Field Coordinator for a Massachusetts ballot initiative that won more votes in the state than Barack Obama.
In Summer of 2008 he was an Assistant Canvass Director in a non-partisian voter registration office aiding low income and minority voters in Northern Virginia.
This year, he will be the youngest ever presenter at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City.
Along with Technical Cofounder Aaron Soules, Conor was named one of ten Entrepreneurs Changing How Government works by GovFresh http://govfresh.com/2010/04/10-entrepreneurs-changing-the-way-government...
He has been called a "walking talking alternative energy source" which is illustrated best by his presentation style. See this 5 minute Ignite talk on Localocracy from Fall of 2009 for an example
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
Rachel Sterne of GroundReport recommeded we apply
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 | 109 weeks agoConor White-Sullivan updated this Competition Entry. |
| 109 weeks agoConor White-Sullivan updated this Competition Entry. |
| 109 weeks agoConor White-Sullivan submitted this idea. |
