tom, how about..... 1. Collect a copy of each of your local papers 2. enter in all the names of journalists, email addresses and phone numbers that you can find.
THEN You will have at your disposal a live database of journalists cross referenced against constituencies (or wards), despite newspapers rarely being coterminous with constituency. This can be used by signupped people now and in the future to publicise the things their candidates say they they like or dislike or indeed their candidates' failure to respond. "what have they got to hide!" etc You know i normally charge good money for this kind of idea!! alex On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 6:33 PM, Thomas Dunham <[email protected]> wrote: > Tim: I think that's a good point - too many harsh imperative verbs. > > I wonder if Alex's, Francis', and Philip's comments are all about the > same thing. You're willing to sign up, but don't want to commit to > open-ended jobs forever (or to feel as if you committed). If there was > an immediate task you could complete in not much time, this would > create an anchor in your expectations - the first task only took a few > minutes, so the next probably won't take ages. It will also mean that > a new user moves quickly through the whole process of getting a task, > doing it, submitting a response and having that response acknowledged > fairly quickly, which would (hopefully) make them feel more invested > in the site. > > Hmmm, what to make the introductory task? Hmmmm.... > > Tom > > > On 30 Sep 2009, at 17:32, Seb Bacon wrote: > > > Yes. I'll make some changes along these lines. > > > > Seb > > > > 2009/9/30 Timothy Green <[email protected]>: > >> It seems like it's a problem of language then - if tasks are > >> "suggested" > >> or "available" rather than "assigned", then I feel it would perhaps > >> be > >> more acceptable. I think of it more like a targeted volunteers > >> mailing > >> list than a slave driver. > >> > >> -t > >> > >> Philip Potter wrote: > >>> 2009/9/30 Seb Bacon <[email protected]>: > >>> > >>>> Yes, I've already had that feedback from friends. The whole > >>>> point of > >>>> the site is exactly that, though; if you want to help out on > >>>> unspecified, democracy-related tasks, you can do so here. > >>>> > >>>> So, not sure how we'd fix that. Perhaps add a sentence on the > >>>> front > >>>> page to the effect that you can opt out at any time? Explain that > >>>> you're not committing yourself to doing anything, just opting > >>>> into a > >>>> list of people who might want to do something? Change the model so > >>>> you're signing up to a particular task? > >>>> > >>> > >>> I could get behind this; while I'm happy to receive alerts about > >>> things that need doing locally, I only promise to do the ones that I > >>> explicitly sign up to. Some sort of assignment tool would also to > >>> help > >>> divvy up tasks and avoid duplication of effort. > >>> > >>> I don't like the "opt-out" idea; it suggests that, until you opt > >>> out, > >>> you're expected to get involved with everything advertised. This is > >>> not realistic and I imagine it would turn people off from signing > >>> up. > >>> > >>> I think many of the objections would disappear once the site has got > >>> going and people can scan it for lists of recent tasks people have > >>> done -- such a live list of examples would demonstrate what is > >>> actually involved and what you are signing up to. But clearly we > >>> don't > >>> currently know ourselves exactly what is going to be involved. > >>> Perhaps > >>> it would be good to actually start doing some tasks in some of the > >>> hip, laptop-wielding constituencies as a demonstration to others of > >>> what is involved? > >>> > >>> Phil > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Mailing list [email protected] > >>> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > >>> > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > >>> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mailing list [email protected] > >> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > >> > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > skype: seb.bacon > > mobile: 07790 939224 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list [email protected] > > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > > > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >
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