Website vs. Platform

We refer to what we are building as a platform because it moves beyond the traditional notion of a website by providing the possibility for other developers to extend its reach and ability in ways that we have not yet envisioned. A couple of examples:

Twitter. If you’re familiar with this quirky internet star, you’ll know that once you set up an account at twitter.com, you never have to go back there. You can literally perform every function that you can on their website through over 2,000 different programs written by other developers. These include clients to run on your desktop, browser plugins, other websites, smart phone apps, widgets, etc, etc ad nauseum. It all seems a little silly at first, but wait – it’s incredibly cool. Think about it. Serious twitterers are always tweeting – always connected.

What if it were like that for political discussions – for things that make a real impact in how the world around you operates? What if political blogs, discussion forums, and social networks all had the ability for you to express your opinion right there – while you’re in the middle of an intense discussion about it? What if you could look up the aggregated opinions of people by electoral district and issue area on your phone at any time of day or night? How does that change the way you interact with your government? How does that change your notion of citizenship?

Facebook. Facebook allows developers to create apps that enhance the way Facebook works. These apps connect you to your friends in new and interesting ways, through games and quizzes, videos and gifts. This same functionality will be built into the platform that we’re developing.

We know that we will not be able to provide everything that people will want. That is the point of the current technological revolution – give people access to the data and they will figure out what to do with it.

In addition, what functionality will we be missing? Advanced discussion, dialogue, deliberation, or debate functionality? Educational resources? What sort of social network-based politically-oriented games will  people find fascinating?

And on the other side of the communication channel, what features will Congressional offices want? How about the ability to request a tailored discussion around a specific issue with verified constituents? Or the ability to request a white paper written collaboratively by constituents on a specific topic?

The possibilities are endless, and we will provide the opportunity for them to be explored – all within a secure structure that keeps the end user in control of his or her data and interface. And at the end of this process, we intend this platform to become the norm for communication between citizens and their governments, the world over. While Twitter and Facebook provide useful examples for explaining the benefits of a platform, the technological infrastructure of email is a better model for the universal acceptance, reliability, and non-ideological nature of what we are seeking to attain.