Recently some guy contacted me and was supportive. We talked and then exchanged a few emails. I said perhaps he could give me some feedback on the questions, when the software approaches alpha.
(Note: Alpha is when the site is suitable for potential customers to see and try and give us feedback. Beta is when everything seems to work at least for one customer set, and we want to do real user participation.)
He said, “What questions?” Maybe the email thread just wasn’t clear. But if not, then for him, and for you, let me spell it out again.
What is PeopleCount? High Level
PeopleCount will be a site where you and your politicians can have a relationship called: Accountability.
To do that, you need to be like a boss, or a teacher. You need to guide the worker and have expectations about what they should be doing. They will report to you and you will judge and grade them.
By sharing your guidance and your grades with all other citizens, we’ll all be able together to hold politicians accountable. Since they’ll be communicating with us effectively on the issues important to us, they won’t need money for expensive campaigns.
What is PeopleCount? Questions, Answers and Reports.
Questions
To guide your politicians, you’ll answer questions about what you want for our future. They’ll be about issues you’ve heard about, and some that are rarely in the mainstream press, even though, for many of them:
- Americans are roughly in agreement about them
- Congress doesn’t act on them
We’ll start with just four categories of issues, and about a dozen issues total. Each issue will contain a few or a half dozen questions. We, democracy, will need you to answer them so your representatives can know what you want.
And so your fellow citizens can know what you want so we all know what Congress should be doing.
Answers
You’ll be able to see the results for your district, state and the country. What your district or state thinks tells you what your representative or senator should be working on. What the country thinks tells you what has support, what you can expect. So, with the answers, you can set your expectations.
Currently, they tread carefully. If they do something and a thousand constituents object, they can get a lot of bad press. That’s not fair because 1,000 people are less than one percent of an average district. But, not knowing what most people want, they must listen and fear.
With the answers on PeopleCount, our members of Congress can see what we think and want. They can move forward with confidence.
Reports
The next part of PeopleCount is the reports. You say on which issues you want reports, and our politicians will submit them, roughly monthly.
This will be great for politicians. They want to communicate with you. They WANT you to know what they’re doing and/or what they are planning. In ads and postcards, they can’t tell you much and can only mention the vaguest subjects, and it’s very expensive. PeopleCount will be very, very inexpensive, and they’ll be able to report to you focusing on just the topics you’re interested in.
Being the boss- judging the reports
Finally, you’ll judge each report on how well the politician is representing you. And you’ll give it a letter grade.
Plus, you’ll see what everyone in your district thinks of the job the official is doing. Come election time, this will be crucial.
But come election time, you’ll know a lot more. And your politicians won’t need a ton of money to run a campaign. They’ll be working to satisfy us, the people.
Please help us get started. Please put your name on our announcement list and make a donation. You’re also welcome to like our Facebook page.