Can an Argentine startup reinvent governance through a smartphone app?

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/designing-an-operating-system-for-democracy/374526/

by lvevjo • 12 years ago

21 6 12 years ago

hepek2• 12 years ago

probably not

I upvoted you but I think you may be discounting "reinventing in a negative or ineffective manner" as potential outcomes.

The comparison to Wordpress is certainly frightening when one considers the ramifications of failures in security or anonymity. The whole article is rather breathless and trite:

"must sign up using a national ID card and a second piece of identification (early plans to use Facebook as a means of authenticating users’ identities were dropped over concerns about making the platform overly reliant on a U.S. tech firm). And how a person votes on the platform is not secret."

hepek2• 12 years ago

"Still, for all the publicity Mancini and the Net Party have received, participation on the platform is low—debates on legislation rarely attract more than 100 voters—in a capital city with some 2.5 million eligible voters and an Internet penetration rate of 70 percent'

I just lack faith in technological solutionism. If there is an issue everybody felt important people would've found ways to fight for it. Even take it to the streets.

Sometimes I fear of "Like button" democracy more then I fear corrupted officials.

joseakle• 12 years ago

This is the github link of the project: https://github.com/DemocracyOS/app

The initial implementation seems to be around discussing bills.

From the FAQ: "citizens can present projects to be debated, and representative present for debate those bills currently in debate in Congress. DemocracyOS has three basic actions: "get informed," "join the conversation," and "vote.""

How can an identified user remain safe? How can anonymous users be trusted?

dang• 12 years ago

As https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8058496 has now been posted to point to the actual project, we'll demote the current article.

sorin-panca• 12 years ago

If a problem is debated and the problem has 3 solutions, a, b and c; and a representative sees that a is supported by 23.8% of people he/she represents, b is supported by 3% and c is supported by the rest he/she would be stupid to pick b, so he would definetely pick c.

But then again, if the representative is just a messenger, he could be replaced by a device.

Can an Argentine startup reinvent governance through a smartphone app?

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