Hi LibTech listserv, Thanks so much for the great feedback EV has received so far! This listserv in particular has been a big help and encouragement for the EV project. Thx again.
EveryVote.org is an open source UI design for an extensible (global) election participation and vote comparison platform. The current goal is to have an implementation of the site testable for the USA Nov 2012 election day. EV has a team of volunteers who want to make civic engagement easier and more equitable, but we're new to this type of project, and would really appreciate help coordinating its programming, or help in any other volunteer capacity. The following is a summary of the site's principles and intended features. Comprehensive UI Design Diagrams- http://imgur.com/a/PKHBy Comprehensive UI Text Design Document - http://tiny.cc/z47miw Phase 1 UI Design Diagrams (fewer features) - http://imgur.com/a/zbeOi Phase 1 UI Text Design Document - http://tiny.cc/g37miw The EveryVote.org UI would emphasize two primary features for its users: 1) Candidate data for every election the user is eligible to vote in ---federal, state, county, and local (in USA)--- all on a single, easy to navigate page. 2) The ability to cast a vote of approval or disapproval for any site entity (officials, candidates, users, groups, bills, and eventually any other article), and to automatically see how their voting records compare to others' voting profiles. If a casual user can't find their local or county level candidate or official data, they should be able to add that data themselves (please refer to the + signs along the right side of this diagram http://tiny.cc/9b8miw) . The platform could use a submission and moderation system similar to Wikipedia's, but stricter to ensure accuracy. Also, EveryVote.org is committed to participating in a federated vote sharing network. In a non-federated voting network, users have to recast all their previous votes again if they try a new voting platform. Developing and/or using a federated voting network also helps developers from reinventing the wheel when making a Gov 2.0 application. Why write a custom CMS when there are great solutions already out there to build upon? Why write a custom voting framework when we could all work on a combined effort and create a great solution everyone can benefit from? Civic engagement would be much easier and more fun if users could exchange their voting records between platforms. It's a big project, but a distributed vote sharing network would give people more incentive to invest their time in Gov2.0 resources, and could increase usage of all participating platforms. The site will share all public site data in APIs and other processible formats. All users should have free and equal access to the public information provided on the site. EveryVote.org will never sell or share your private user data. EveryVote.org will be seeking 501(c)(3) non-profit status, will be financially transparent, and if full-time staff is needed, salaries would be modest. The project does not have funding and is entirely volunteer driven at this time. Sorry for the lengthy summary, but thanks for checking out the project :D If you may be interested in helping coordinate the programming, or in any other volunteer capacity, please email [email protected]. Any other feedback or questions would be appreciated. Thanks! The EV Development Team @everyvoteorg www.facebook.com/everyvote
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