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Netroots Platform Committee a Fraud!!!
I recently participated in the Netroots Platform Committee for development of a platform for the Democratic Party. I saw the results today and was shocked at how it changed from the platforms proposed by the participants and the platforms that were mysteriously massaged to leave out any controversial topics ie no more nuclear power plants. So what's the deal when you ask for people to participate and then ignore their input???
I’m totally disenchanted
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Inappropriate?This is what we did:
"The final platform will be submitted through Obama's "Listening to America" process in which the campaign is encouraging supporters to jointly craft platform planks."
We did what we could to facilitate the creation of the draft and make sure it went to the appropriate people, but how they used our submission in the end was out of our control. -
Inappropriate?Hi Scott,
Thanks for your email. We're very sorry the process wasn't clear from the outset. We hope our explanation below puts it into context. The objective of this project was to allow anyone to post a plank, edit, remix ideas, and rate them up or down. The final version of each plank was simply the highest rated version when the process ended on August 9.
You can see the process by going to: http://www.mixedink.com/netrootsplatf... - if you click on the browse tab and then sort by "highest rated," you can see which planks were the most popular.
Please rest assured that nobody was manipulating the outcome or promoting any insider agenda! What became the final version wasn't submitted at the last minute... it was submitted 2 days before the end, and it incorporated text from five different authors, including you.
We agree with you that the platform is imperfect. Even though the Energy & Environment Plank was one of the most popular topics, with 34 contributors, 29 different versions (20 original and 9 remixed), and 138 ratings, it could have been even better with greater participation. As we all know, the wisdom of crowds is at its best with a very large crowd.
That said, the thing we're most sorry to hear is that you see it as a waste of your time! You ARE an actual participant and huge amounts of the final platform seem to have been lifted from your original pieces! That's impressive. As we see it, this process is not "efficient"; if it were, one person would write and own it and then others could suggest small adjustments, or just sign on afterward - and nobody's time is "wasted." Our process encourages brainstorming, allows for many different versions, enables editing and mixing, and depends on ratings to determine the final version -- a process clearly favoring democracy and collaboration over time-saving efficiency.
As many of us see it, this was the start of an exciting experiment in participatory democracy. We hope you are not discouraged - as with all democratic processes, the final result is often a compromise. But we think that this particular case does not so much require compromise as it does more people and more time. So we are thinking about reopening the planks one at a time to allow people to continue working on each them. That will make the planks stronger while also creating a living, breathing platform.
We would be interested to hear more from you about your expectations, your impression of the process, and how you might improve it. You can feel free to call me directly at 732.547.0625 to discuss.
Thanks,
Vanessa (On behalf of the Netroots Platform Committee)
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