Voterheads: Citizen Empowerment Made Easy!
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Voterheads makes voting on, working with, and influencing your local elected officials as easy as interacting with your friends and family on Facebook. Please read the speaker notes to get more information. This presentation for Voterheads was delivered to a 'Shark Tank' pitch practice session as part of the TechVenture program in December.
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Voterheads: Citizen Empowerment Made Easy!
Editor's Notes
- Good evening! My name is Karl McCollester and I’m the CEO of Voterheads. Our teams goal is to make knowing about and communicating with your local government as easy as knowing about and communicating with your friends on Facebook. Let me start by asking a four quick questions. For each one, please give me a show of hands:How many of you want to be good citizens?How many of you know the position of each candidate on the ballot when you vote?How many of you know what’s being planned and acted on at your next city, county, and school board meetings?How many of you reach out to your local elected official to share your support or a concern about something?<comment on response> … So we all want to be good citizens, but we clearly have a hard time getting the information we need to do so. Why? Because the methods of getting us that information are still buried in the 1950s.
- To keep up with what’s happening at your City, County and School Board
- Karl: … and then You need to go to three different websites to get agenda information
- Karl: and then you have to Download three different agendas and read through 30 to 90 agenda items
- Karl: You then need to plan to attend three different meetings in three different locations.
- Karl: And sit for hours waiting for public comment periods so you can have a chance to have your say.
- And then… come election time, have fun trying to remember how your elected official voted on these items. …And then to see how their challengers may do anything differently, or even who the these challenges are, you’ve got to start doing a lot of research.
- Karl: The whole process can seem frustrating and overwhelming.
- So great. Thank you very little, Karl. I already know all this. How are you going to make it any different? How are you going to make it<click>Like Facebook?<click>First, while we can’t merge your governments for you, we’ll consolidate it all onto one website.<click>And, because you let us know where in town you live and what you’re interested in, we alert you when agenda items coming before council match your interests. Interested in bicycling? You might want to check out the proposal for new bike path funding coming up at the next county council meeting. And then there’s that zoning sign down the street. Is Bob just adding another bedroom, or is Bob subdividing the house, moving out, and letting 6 college kids move in?<click>You could then vote on those items and discuss them with your friends and neighbors…. And we’ll make sure your vote and comments get to your elected official.<click>And for items that you are truly passionate about, you can bring the force of your social network to bear, rallying your friends, family, and neighbors to lend their votes and concerns as well.<click>…and then at election time we bring it all together. We show you how your elected officials voted differently then you did and how they voted on your topics of interest, we link you to their and their contenders’ websites, and we let you track that research and your decisions… so you can bring it to the booth with you on election day either on paper, or on this, your mobile phone.
- Oh yeah, and it doesn’t cost you or your local government a penny. That’s right, free.
- How? Because this isn’t something that’s appealing just to Columbia, but nationwide. There are millions of people, like you, who want to be good citizens but can’t get access to the information needed to be one. As a result, the Knight Foundation’s community report found that only 6% responded positively when asked to respond to the statement that ‘their local leaders represent they’re interests’. There is a great hunger out there for information and accountability, and you see it in our national headlines, with the Tea Party on the right, and the Occupy movement on the left. We’ve run the numbers. We can fund this all through a combination of advertising and additional services to local governments, like making it easier for them to put together those agendas. This is one of those rare opportunities where a person can both do good and do well.
- Where are we? Our prototype is about 70% complete. All of these<click>communities already post the data we need to get started with a pilot release right here in Richland and Lexington County.With a round of angel funding, we can get the additional designers, developers, and staff we need to complete and launch our prototype, prove and refine our product, and be ready to launch nationally by the end of the summer, just in time for the presidential campaign to heat up.
- With your help, we can take our goals nationwide. Our goals of:
- So what can you do tonight? I ask for just three things:First, do you think this is a great idea? Do you think it’s the stupidest thing you ever heard? I’d love to hear from you. Come up and talk with me, or shoot me a line above. I read each one personally.Second, if you’re interested or know someone who would be interested in helping us fulfill the dream of citizen empowerment across the nation, give me your business card. I’ll be happy to tell you more about what we’re doing and discuss we can see if there’s a good match.Finally, if you’re interested in keeping up on our progress, but you’re like me and a little shy about coming up and talking with me directly, We encourage you to sign up. We’re passing cards out now. Fill them out and return them, or you can sign up online. We’ll get your registered, keep you up to date, and provide you with one of our premium accounts once we begin providing information in your area.