I met Jag in early 2006 after his brief stint at Parliament, and I believe he fits superbly with any characterisation as a "young innovator."

The aspiring Jag made his way to Britain nearly two years ago, fresh from his experiences with Senate and Presidential campaigns in the US - and he's certainly kept busy since then. He built the Labourhome platform (and recently introduced a site-wide refresh, as well) and is constantly trying to find ways of allowing groups to communicate more effectively and efficiently, using the Web. He's also one of the few people whom I know is genuinely interested in exploring ways to increase web-based participation among people who don't already utilise the internet.

Interestingly, at times over the past year Labourhome has had more traffic than the official Labour Party website.

When Jag, another colleague, and I co-founded MessageSpace last summer, his experiences growing up in Florida - with the spectacular 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections firmly in mind - enabled him to bring a very unique and exciting perspective to the table. He built the MessageSpace platform from the ground-up, and has enabled numerous organisations, including the likes of Friends of the Earth, War on Want, Compass, the Globalisation Institute, and various other think-tanks to reach out and influence Britain's politically-active audience. He endearingly terms it, "the man-on-the-street's lobbying tool" and I couldn't agree with him any less.

A gifted WordPress developer, he's assisted numerous individuals, groups and think tanks to better understand the underlying technology behind the platform they use, and constantly finds new ways of manipulating it to do just about anything. When it comes to working on web-strategies for clients, I've known him to work relentlessly to find - or if necessary, create - a value-adding proposition that goes above and beyond the requirements of a basic web presence. Coupling this with his interactive ideas and his emphasis on "accessibility and usability by all" – I nominate Jag for this year's Young Innovator award.

He is currently working on a social-networking tool that incentivises segments of the British population to move from disjointed discussions to taking action - both online and offline. He hasn't been able to tell me very much about it due to confidentiality agreements with a major firm, but I for one look forward to seeing the product of Jag's innovative spirit.

Nominated by Alex Hilton, 30 May 2007

I believe a young innovator is one who can build succesful enterprises, and additionally bring new (and relevant) products to market. I feel Jag Singh deserves consideration for this award, because:

1) He has a deep passion for innovation, proven by his work in the States (political campaigns, community groups, the Middle East Peace Association, the Middle East Center, among other things) and in Britain (Labourhome, RecessMonkey, MessageSpace, and other various campaigns).

As an interaction design/user experience specialist, it's refreshing to see people actively trying to fit _out_ of the generic desktop experience. He doesn't just think about the non-WindowsXP non-IE crowd - he goes the additional mile on every project I've heard him speak of. When working on political projects, he tries to understand the motivations and frustrations of non-political users, and that's very admirable in today's political climate (all over the world, for that matter).

2) He constantly tries to develop new strategies and methods to stay ahead of the crowd - he's got this tenacity in finding answers to tough questions, and he's a big fan of crowd-sourcing, always trying to find novel ways of combining GTD (getting-things-done) tools with the very people who want to "get things done".

While his general unease with the status-quo tends to land him into trouble with political party structures, I sincerely believe he has lots to offer the world and I look forward to charting his progress as a young innovator.

Nominated by Sara Miller, 31 May 2007

Jag is a great problem-solver, and he really has thought out of the box on my behalf to overcome problems. His knowledge-base is geektastic, and he is obviously trying hard to build up the 'experience' section of his knowledge portfolio in a politically non-sectarian way.

He has a vision for the future where geeks and non-geeks can live in harmony. The key quality to Jag's advice is the non-starry eyed realism. I have talked with him about the real organising and campaigning potential of the web. Unlike most web gurus he is focused on what is achievable and effective rather than what is ideal and usually impractical. Few technically capable people have that balance right.

Expect much from him in the future.

Nominated by guido, 01 June 2007

I for one have been very impressed with his ideas, especially those related to getting people from outside Westminster to participate in online politicking.

Labourhome has really (tried to) change the one way conversation in politics, and while I'm not very familiar with how MessageSpace works - it sounds like a unique concept.

He thinks outside the box quite a bit (a little too much quite possibly, given that his Blogspot profile (http://www.blogger.com/profile/01158356849377760808) shows him as being close to Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes) - but I he deserves this nomination. Hopefully this will propel him on to achieving even more, at such a young age.

Submitted by C Fleury, 30 May 2007

I've worked with Jag a few times on different little project and as an admin who uses Unix based Operating Systems his thought process to think about non-traditional users on his projects marks him out of the crowd.

He's innovation when coding to circumvent problems is excellent, and his work with MessageSpace in developing a platform for not just image but video based political ad delivery has been exceptional

Submitted by Phil Hendren, 31 May 2007

Jag is a great problem-solver, and he really has thought out of the box on my behalf to overcome problems. His knowledge-base is geektastic, and he is obviously trying hard to build up the 'experience' section of his knowledge portfolio in a politically non-sectarian way.

He has a vision for the future where geeks and non-geeks can live in harmony. The key quality to Jag's advice is the non-starry eyed realism. I have talked with him about the real organising and campaigning potential of the web. Unlike most web gurus he is focused on what is achievable and effective rather than what is ideal and usually impractical. Few technically capable people have that balance right.

Expect much from him in the future.

Submitted by guido, 31 May 2007