46,000 Citizens Or Bust: Join, Listen and Share

Today we are announcing a goal of getting 10% of San Francisco voters using Democracy Dashboard for this election. That's 46,000 some-odd voters. We're focusing on San Francisco and California for now (and we've started getting ready for 2012); citizens can sign up anywhere and we'll let them know when we go national. (and then, international!) We have 613 users as of when we're posting this. We just put a counter up on the front page, so we can all see how we're doing. We have a long way to go, but with your help, we think we can get there!

So if you want to be part of something special to improve the political system and empower millions of voters, here's how you can contribute. Just join the site, listen to a couple candidates and groups, and use the social media share buttons to let the world know you've done so. When you're ready to start making decisions, you can build slates like this one. But you don't need to take a position or endorse a candidate or anything to get started. Just signing up, listening and sharing will start the process of convincing campaigns that making a direct connection on DemDash is more helpful than expensive mail or TV ads.

We also just built a great tool for listening! Under Your Next Election, check out ElecTweets: we're making it easier than ever to easily follow what's going on in any election, including this November in San Francisco and this little election coming up in 2012.

We know that using Democracy Dashboard to vote works. If you use it to vote this year or next year, you will too. 100% of the feedback we got from people who used the alpha version to vote last year was positive. You'll feel more confident than you ever have about your vote, from the top of the ticket on down the most confusing local proposition. And if you choose to share your ballot and your thinking, your voice will be amplified more than it's ever been.

The challenge we're facing is clear: not enough citizens know we're here. One thing we've learned from getting involved in changing politics is this: there is no cavalry. Change really is up to us. So go sign up, listen to a few candidates and then share it with everyone you know. Twitter, Facebook, email it out to folks, clay tablets, carrier pigeons, sidewalk chalk graffiti, whatever. If your parents or grandparents live in San Francisco, try it out and give 'em a call. (You remember the telephone, right? We've tested the site with a couple grandmothers so far. They love it. Everyone loves it!)

Imagine a world where voters are paying attention to what groups and people they trust, not to TV commercials. And those piles of mail can stay where they are now: as nice happy growing trees! Imagine a world where candidates can focus their energy on talking to voters, discussing ideas, studying solutions, and understanding systems rather than dialing for dollars.

You know that in ten years, the system of democracy in the United States will look completely different than how it looks now. You have a chance to help build this next great version of our democracy.

We have the power. Join, listen and share, on Facebook and on twitter. 45,000 citizen users to go! Thanks for helping to spread the word!

Your Campaign Needs To Be On Democracy Dashboard

Democracy Dashboard is a new platform for citizens to engage with their democracy, including following campaigns and political organizations. We've got big plans, but the first problem we're solving is making the process of voting a whole lot easier for average voters. One way we are doing that is by giving campaigns and organizations, and the activists that support them, easy tools to broadcast their hard-won political smarts.

For Campaigns

The case for why your campaign needs to be on DemDash is simple: some number of people are going to use DemDash to vote in this election, and you want your supporters on there saying nice things about you. Your campaign is probably already using other social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube. Those tools are important and helpful! But DemDash is important too, because it's the only site that those voters are going to use when they go to vote.

If you're still unsure, here are some details we uncovered while looking at our traffic from last year's election. The bottom line is that the number of visitors to our site in 2010 (most of whom came from San Francisco) was MUCH larger than the margin of victory in several San Francisco races! This chart compares the number of unique visitors to DemDash around the November 2010 election to the margin of victory in a few local races:

So even last year, there were far more visitors to our site than the margins. For this cycle, we've set a goal of getting 10% of the San Francisco electorate, or 46,000 voters, to use Democracy Dashboard for this November's election. This is what that would look like:

 As you can see, the number of users we'll get if we hit our goal -- or even if we miss it by a mile -- could easily be much greater than the margin of victory in any of the races, including for mayor.

We are also working on lots of new features that will make it easier for campaigns to get the word out to supporters and prospects about the campaign -- and better yet, that won't require any more work for you, since they'll leverage other new media strategies and sites you're probably already using. Our first step towards this is Election Tweets, or ElecTweets for short. For an example, check out out ElecTweets for the San Francisco 2011 Municipal Election. (or for this other little election coming up in 2012)

If you're convinced, join now, create a group for your campaign, grab some buttons (and you can always find the link to the buttons on the bottom of each page), and start emailing and tweeting links to your profile on DemDash. If you're not convinced yet... well, at least we tried to warn you!

And For Organizations

There are thousands of neighborhood groups, party clubs, chambers of commerce, trade groups and single- and multi- issue groups doing all kinds of great work engaging with our democracy, and that's in San Francisco alone! And yet, far too few people know about the hard work these groups do. At one of our first Hub Ventures pitches, I asked how many people there had heard of one of my favorite statewide groups that does very high quality independent analysis of propositions. Only two of the 30 or 40 generally civic minded folks assembled recognized the name, which I found heartbreaking. Even worse: voters are often misled by those fake slate cards that unscrupulous consultants sell endorsement spots on and then mail out in bulk.

If your organization endorses candidates, propositions and referenda or both, our hope is that DemDash will serve as a bullhorn (ok, a polite bullhorn, if you can imagine that) for your organization. We've got to try and build an audience for this kind of local information ourselves, and yet the project is too large for any one group.

And soon, we'll be working out a way to give organizations access to data about their supporters. (including data matched to the voter file, where possible) So sign up, create a group and a slate, and start sending your supporters towards it. And if you have any issues please don't hesitate to contact us at staff@demdash.us or by using the feedback tool that's available once you log in. Thanks, and we're looking forward to seeing your group on the site!