Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA. … Change.org launched the first version of its site in 2007.
Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.
Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.
The site’s main page for ideas quotes Barack Obama on its masthead, "I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again."
The site has drawn interest from hundreds of others, and there are hundreds of "ideas" divided into 29 "Causes". The process is in its first round, which will end on December 31. In this first round, ideas compete with each other within the 29 causes, and the top 3 ideas from each cause will make it into the second round, which will begin on January 5 and last just 10 days.
Here is a sampler:
1. "Get FISA Right, Repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties" currently has 743 votes, and is in 2nd place in the Criminal Justice cause.
2. "Free Single Payer Health Care" currently has 681 votes and is in first place in the Health Care cause
3. "End the Patriot Act" currently has 464 votes, putting it in 3rd place in the Government Reform Cause.
Already, we find the first conundrum: Repealing the Patriot act is a very popular idea in two different "causes". Votes are thus divided rather than brought together. This illustrates the idea that it is better to cast your vote to someone else’s similar idea that already has votes, than to write your own version of the idea, which will start out at the bottom of the pile and may never see the light of day.
4. "Bullet-proof the Elections" currently has 333 votes and is in 4th place in Government Reform cause– unless it gets at least 132 more votes, it won’t make it to the second round.
5. "Quality, affordable health care for all", with 267 votes, splits the health care cause.
6. "End the War in Iraq and Fight Terrorism with Nonviolent Principles"
currently has 112 votes and ranks in 2nd place in the Peace in the Middle East cause.
Who would think that ending the war would rank this far down? But it will probably survive in the Peace in the Middle East cause, and thereby make it into the second round.
Disappointing for me: "No Pardons for the Bush Administration" ranks only in 18th place in the Criminal Justice cause, garnering a mere 46 votes.
"Appointing a special prosecutor for the crimes of the Bush administration" has only 25 votes and falls in 28th place in Criminal Justice.
On the other hand, by far the most popular idea in the Criminal Justice cause is "Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana" with 977 votes!
Perhaps this tells us something about who gravitates to this website. Hardly a representative sample of the national population.
Bob in HI
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Thanks, Bob, excellent article.
I opened DIGG and commented there and recommended above.
I’ll visit change.org after today’s House hearing and put your suggestions to use.
Good piece, Bob! I can’t even believe that the war is so low. This is exactly why we need a draft, people would be invested in this war & it would have ended years ago. As it is, with the so called All Volunteer Force, they can get along with the economic draft and everybody else can just bop along with these wars out of sight and out of mind. No caskets to be seen, nothing about the war on the news, it’s a completely sanitized war.
I have to go and see how my pet cause, Campaign Finance Reform, is doing. I personally believe it is the key to everything else we wish to accomplish. As long as we allow the present system of legalized bribery to continue, the people will never have a real voice in the Capitol. Closely tied to this effort is stripping the Corporations of their “Personhood”. Then we just might be able to get the best and brightest into office, instead of the richest.
Update:
There’s now a diary up over at KOS on change.org, emphasizing that it’s a big deal:
So maybe if enough Firepups go over to change.org and vote for the ideas they consider most important, our concerns will get more of a hearing. Unless Firepups are all just a bunch of pot-smoking hippies (or aging hippies who need to smoke a toke every now and then to ease the pain of cancer?) Whatever. Go and endorse your favorite ideas for your favorite causes!
Bob in HI
Update II:
There is plenty of room for confusion here, as the official website of the Obama transition is at change.gov, which is a different website than the one discussed in this post, change.org
There is now a McClatchy report on the official website:
Bob in HI