E-petitions are just the first step. Becky Hogge has some advice for aspiring campaigners
I didn't sign the e-petition against road pricing last month (I ride a bike), but I did sign the one against biometric ID cards. This also closed in the past week and though it was signed by a mere 27,985 people, it still warranted a "personal" response from Tony Blair. Unlike his riposte to Britain's angry motorists, it was not appeasing in tone. I should not be surprised - after all, what are civil liberties compared to the right of my parents' generation to pollute the air their grandchildren will choke on?
But I digress. When the e-petition on road pricing closed at midnight on 20 February it had nearly 1.8 million signatures. Campaigning lore (into which, thanks to my work with the Open Rights Group, I am fast being initiated) states that on any particular issue, it takes six letters of protest to land on an MP's doormat before he or she will take the matter further. Had each of my fellow signatories chosen to write to their local MP instead, each member of parliament would have received seven times that figure. Had the motorists done the same, each MP would have received nearly 3,000 letters.
When you ask people who think about such things what makes geeks volunteer hour upon hour of their spare time to contribute to free and open-source software projects such as the Linux operating system or the Firefox web browser, they will give you several replies. Among them will be the observation that people like doing things when they can see, directly, the effects of their actions. The same also carries for Wikipedians - so engaging is it to see your minor alteration to the entry on a rare wild flower fast-track its way to posterity, that you are soon hooked.
The online environment is the perfect setting for this process of contribution and reward. Assuming the congestion charge put them off coming to London to protest against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, most of the 1.8 million who signed the petition against road pricing will not have engaged in civic action before. Blair's letter, and the "full and frank debate" it promises, are rewards for their small contribution to democracy.
Perhaps next time they will employ WriteToThem.com, an equally user-friendly website designed by mySociety, to direct their complaints to their local representatives. Pretty soon, they might be subscribing to receive email updates from TheyWorkForYou.com (also mySociety's) to keep tabs on each time their MP speaks in parliament, or a particular issue they care about is raised.
Some might argue that neither my co-signatories nor our 1.8 million driver chums have made any contribution to democracy with our petitions. But I disagree. Whether the government likes it or not, our leaders are no longer broadcasting their policies to a silent electorate. Like the media before them, they will have to start getting used to the audience talking back.
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