Article source for : Wiki used to help pass bill
February 05, 2007 "posting":http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/wiki_deliberati.html from Ross Mayfield's blog.
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On Friday, the Utah House of Representatives passed the first Universal School Voucher bill in the nation. The bill is destined to become law according John Fund in the "Wall Street Journal":http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009624 and was also the first real test of wikifying the legislative process.
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Mr. Urquhart was so confident of his math that he started an interactive Web site modeled after the interactive encyclopedia Wikipedia. He posted his bill on it and invited comments. Thousands of people logged on to www.politicopia.com and participated. "If anyone can show evidence (not just alarmist rhetoric) that public education does not come out financially ahead with this bill, post your arguments and data in the comment section," Mr. Urquhart challenged his readers. No one was able to effectively rebut him.
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In an email, Representative Steve Urquhart noted to me:
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"For six years we've been chasing our tail on this bill, and today the bill passed in very large part because of "Politicopia":http://politicopia.com/. When private dialogue was made public, the main area of criticism was publicly revealed to be fictitious. Only that kind of sunlight forced critics to abandon a criticism they knew to be false. When the debate turned to actual policy and actual issues, the bill advanced."
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Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of "Socialtext":http://www.socialtext.com, an enterprise wiki software company.
February 13, 2007 NewAssignment.net "posting":http://www.newassignment.net/blog/david_cohn/feb2007/12/extreme_democrac titled +Extreme Democracy -- When Wikis Inform Legislation+
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Urquhart took another step into digital democracy when he recently launched "Politicopia":http://www.politicopia.com/ — a simple "social-text":http://www.socialtext.net wiki for people to congregate and discuss issues and legislation.
To bolster his new effort at interaction and transparency, Urquhart posted his "school voucher bill":http://www.socialtext.net/utah-politicopia/index.cgi?vouchers_for_private_school_tuition in its entirety on Politicopia before he distributed it to his colleagues in the Utah House. Soon the page expanded with pro and con sections with findings from states like Vermont and Wisconsin accompanied by a section for comments, as wel as links to news articles about the bill.
“For six years we’ve been chasing our tail on this bill, and today the bill passed in very large part because of Politicopia. When private dialogue was made public, the main area of criticism was publicly revealed to be fictitious,” Urquhart told WebProNews in an email.
Beyond the voucher page on the wiki, other pages exist for legislation about "college tuition":http://www.socialtext.net/utah-politicopia/index.cgi?illegal_immigrants_in_state_college_tuition for illegal immigrants, payday lending, and other issues facing the state legislature.
In writing about the "brief history":http://www.socialtext.net/utah-politicopia/index.cgi?the_history_of_politicopia of Politicopia, Urquhart boasts that “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.”
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tag=technology
tag=politics
tag=wiki
tag=socialsoftware
