There is already a lot of software available that governments can use for referendums. I therefore don't have any desire to work on software that a government could use simply to get opinions and votes. My interest is in software that a government is actually using or is going to use, or on my site, Democratic Intelligence.
One of the things that makes my site different is that, although a government could use it, the main intention is to create an international network of decision makers and volunteers. It's more like crowdsourcing than traditional democracy, and while it can be used for small decisions, my ultimate, utopian dream is for the idea to eventually replace traditional democracy and unite the world, making country borders obsolete.
The following are the principles that Democratic Intelligence is based on:
- International (uniting, and can even spread into countries ruled by dictators, rather than being specific to a single country)
- Self-improving (the system is designed to continuously change and improve itself through use - users can create suggestions for improvement and volunteers can implement the suggestions)
- Fully democratic (anyone can create suggestions (not just a government) and anyone can vote and volunteer / implement)
- Meritocratic (people earn points in various subjects in order to have a stronger weighting of arguments and votes)
- Critical thinking (competency in all subjects requires competency in critical thinking)
- Transparent
- Gamification (points are earned to encourage use of the system)
- Goal oriented (the entire system exists for a single, unified purpose)
