One-Click Activism

Cory on Terra Nova has an interesting proposal for social networking and 3D worlds regarding ways to effect or affect legislation that’s more in their interests. This comes as a response to the increasing attacks on games and sites like Facebook and MySpace for their perceived ills (my take is that violent games don’t cause violence, they merely train us for it). Cory’s proposal is to rally the power of the youthful mobs for good.

I use the term "mob," of course, to highlight one danger of One-Click activism. Sending a mass of form letters to your Congressperson or Senator does something, I imagine, but how much is debatable. Certainly the content matters less than the numbers after a few identical form letters come pouring in. Given the so-called "grass roots" activism of right-wing groups complaining about broadcast indecency, it’s clear that even a small handful of individuals armed with some indignant prose and a ctrl-V key can paste their way to moving record fines for CBS and others.

People who take the time to call or visit will likely do much better, at least generally reaching a volunteer or low-level staffer. People who write personalized letters or emails seem to do okay too, though I’ve never once gotten more than a form response. But if you take One-Click activism to the extreme, how is it any different than an unscientific poll? Like a Lou Dobbs question of the day: "Do you think it’s good or bad that your hard earned tax dollars are being wasted on such and such?" It turns out, 98% of our viewers think it’s bad.

Well, the one difference is that you’re reaching an audience that wouldn’t otherwise be reached or motivated to act. But the bigger danger than mere dilution is with intentional mis-direction and manipulation. How easy would it be for savvy marketers to put up a button on MySpace announcing that House Bill such and such is intended to kill kittens. Do you want to kill kittens? No? Then click here to act. Or if MySpace decided it wants to legalize posting of profiles by 6 year-olds — it could launch a campaign for "equal access and freedom of speech for all."

What we really need is for this sort of activism to come in a trusted form, with ease of use paramount. Sites like WashPo’s votes database and Project Vote Smart are just two examples of how we can hold elected officials to account. Non-profit, non-partisan sites will eventually feature even more user-friendly ways of tracking who’s supporting what and how to reach them to change their mind. If those turn into polling services too, then I’m all for it. I’m all for increased Democracy, but not mob rule, whether it works in favor of my views or against them. Getting involved with government issues is always a good thing. But the most effective tactic we all still have is voting the idiots out.

Now, with that in mind, my question for Cory and others is: Given the tremendous talent for UI design in games and virtual worlds, can you design and implement a web-based 2D or 3D site that allows citizens to virtually visit their representatives, give their opinions, but also get a sense of the track record and voting patterns, as well as integrating the publicly available information on campaign donations? A simple one-stop shop to "Better Know a District" (without the jokes)?