Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 31, 2006
A new World Wide Web service, called Wicracy, has been made publicly available in beta form at http://www.wicracy.org. The system, perhaps best described as a "wikiplatform" for political parties, may be a preview of the way user-generated content sites will affect politics.
Through Wicracy.org, registered voters can create and develop a non-binding political platform for the party to which they belong. Users propose "planks" – i.e., particular stances on issues – to be included in the party's platform and ratify planks proposed by others. Once a given plank has been ratified by enough members, it becomes adopted as part of the party's political platform on Wicracy.org.
"Wicracy is a powerful vehicle for user-controlled content in the field of politics," commented Wicracy creator Shelley Harrison. "We hope to have full functionality in time for the 2006 elections and to introduce a number of enhancements for the 2008 presidential race."
One of the most powerful, unprecedented features made possible by the Wicracy.org model is called the "representativeness indicator." By allowing party views to be broken down issue-by-issue and the strength of these views to be measured with precision, the degree to which a given political candidate represents the views of his or her party can be quantified more accurately and precisely than previously possible. The representativeness indicator function is anticipated for launch later this year.
Wicracy.org also expects to allow formation of user coalitions – essentially voting blocs – so as to further enhance the power of the user control model. The site also features a blog-like function that allows users to submit arguments for and against the adoption of a particular plank.
Eventually, Wicracy.org will allow users to fund individual planks, thereby putting the power of the purse behind their views on specific issues.
"We are using the catch phrase 'Total Democracy' for the site because that is really what Wicracy provides: a truly empowered electorate," explained Nicole Theiss, quality assurance lead for the project.
Wicracy.org is provided as a free public service by Inventerprise LLC, an award-winning invention and design company. Additional information can be found through http://www.wicracy.org.
CONTACT:
Inventerprise LLC
310-500-5593
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