crowdsourcing to develop a political platform

[Col. Crackpot]

http://www.thefoundationparty.org/


A good friend of mine is in the early stages of developing a political party whose platform is based wholly on solutions provided by crowdsourcing. Think populist technocracy. Could anyone here give some feedback on the efficacy of crowdsourcing, provided it has a base in logic and the scientific method, in the development of a political platform?

[Themightytom]

There's a crowdsourcing community place making organization at work in our downtown, and it basically operates like a miniature city hall. it is moderated by a real estate agency with a clear agenda, but the participants don't seem to grasp how this affects the direction of the conversation. Several community initiatives have been developed as secondary effects of this process, while the initial project has only made ponderous progress.

To me this suggests that if you go in with an agenda, that agenda may not be accomplished unless it happens to be compatible with the group. While the real estate development group is clearly hoping to galvanize support for a gentrification project, what has actually taken place has been increased support for a farmer's market, a local buying program, a nonprofit was founded to teach kids positive artistic self expression, and has finished a dozen murals over the past three months, and a quarterly philanthropic bar crawl. Everybody identifies strongly with the group they participate in, and it's meaning to participants is described emotionally, rather than subjectively.

It would probably work VERY well for developing a political platform at the local level, I don't see it working out in a broader context any more than our current political system does because of diversity of opinion, but you could franchise a bunch of local crowd source initiatives, and they would all collectively identify as a base, the same way the occupy movement did. At some point though formal affiliation would need to include shared objectives, or it will fall apart the same way Occupy has.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Meh, crowdsourcing is like anything involving large numbers of people. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The efficiency of this kind of system has more to do with the way it is organized and the logistics of it than just the fact that it is "crowdsourcing" or not.

[K. A. Pital]

This really depends on the structure of the organization - how dedicated are the key discussion members, et cetera. If you want some real-life data, just see how well (or how poorly) some Occupy internet rally points and discussion platforms on the web performed. There were many for each city - and not all of them performed equally.

[Irbis]

Or you can check formation of Pirate Parties in various countries in Europe, it's the first broad political movement to primarily utilize internet and crowdsourcing to form and operate, I think.

[madd0ct0r]

This is intresting, but would require something - even a dedicated group of mediators, to hold the disparate groups together.

It also seems widely open to being bought or 'directed' by interest groups.

[Terralthra]

Iceland's current Constitutional committee would seem to qualify, on some levels.

[K. A. Pital]

This is intresting, but would require something - even a dedicated group of mediators, to hold the disparate groups together.

It also seems widely open to being bought or 'directed' by interest groups.

Buying the current leaders of a movement that can still shuffle its leaders via internet votes is not a guarantee of control.