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May 18, 2007
Steve Urquhart: The Extremes of Politics are Rotting Our Core
Utah State Representative Steve Urquhart, founder of the political wiki Politicopia, spoke about the reasons he created his site, which allows the public to collaborate on debating and crafting policy. Some notes:
"The extremes dominate the political process and the core is rotting," he said. The extremes have the money and the rock star status. Solutions evade us because this is at odds with democracy. "Democracy requires comprise - and that takes place in the middle, not on the extremes." The bulk of Americans get discouraged and disgusted because they're disenfranchised by the extremes. People of good will enter the system and get eaten alive. Imagine if everyone in this conference took over power in government. Within two years we'd be doing the same thing people in power do today. So it's not a matter of changing people - it's about changing the system.
So at first I launched a blog, then a wiki called Politicopia.com. I put up issues pages, as can anyone else, and we debate issues facing the Utah legislature. On one issue, the argument brought things to the right; on another one, to the left. But in both cases, the discussion moderated the policy outcome. What I want politicopia to become is some networking function, so it's easier for people to talk directly to each other.
"We need to engage the smart mob in the middle, not the fringes."
Tags: collaboration | partisanship | Politicopia | politics | wiki
Posted by acarvin at May 18, 2007 2:00 PM
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