upload media | post an article | link to the otherpress | Comment on this article | View comments | Email this Article News :: Civil & Human Rights : Elections & Legislation : Environment : Globalization : Media : Technology Student takes aim at Democracy Current rating: 9 Blending student and global issues with computer software, canadian student, Jordan Schroder is hoping to change the face of democracy. Blending student and global issues with computer software, canadian student, Jordan Schroder is hoping to change the face of democracy.
Although the software for his idea isnt available yet, Schroder, along with a growing number of other individuals, has created an Internet forum @ Demosphere.net as a precursor to their software. Through their website, they encourage people to voice their opinions and contribute to the development of the software on their forums.
The open-source network for the software will initially be for students on campuses such as the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan College, and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). Schroder said that his software will spread naturally and be dedicated to addressing issues that affect people both individually, and globally. It will essentially be a scaleable framework to allow communities to reach democratic consensus on the issues that affect them.
He also hopes that the software will be a vehicle for connecting people, and will make them aware of the ways they can impact society democratically. By becoming better informed, Schroder hopes that people will use their knowledge to affect change. Its not enough to simply have access to these issues and vote on them, because an uninformed vote is practically worse than a non-vote. A big part of this is a community-media framework, which will not only give people access to facts and information, but give them a way to be a part of something bigger,  said Schroder.
Hopefully, it will start at the U of A and spread to other campuses, expand into local cities, become province- wide, develop nationally, and then perhaps even internationally.
Additionally, the software will include links to articles in the media related to specific topics.
In one page, youll be able to see the U of As page about tuition increases and automatically have links to all of the local and regional media that have articles and information about that. So you can become informed and access discussion forums about that issue, and then vote on it using the software, explained Schroder.
In order to make his software successful, Schroders plan is to bring students and similar projects on board in the foundation and development stages of the software. In the long run, he plans to run the software on mobile phones or other personal digital devices. All demographics will eventualled be marketed including grade-schoolers, who may use it as part of their social studies curriculum.
Eventually, we really want to have a version of the software that we distribute through seniors homes that deals with issues that affect seniors. To get a real consensus, you have to target everyone. Its really about making it accessible to every person, said Schroder.
Schroder stressed that in producing this software, he hopes people will be aware of the change that can come about through democratic means.
We shouldnt feel as though were the victims of various forces in the world. My view is that democracy isnt this thing that happens once every four years, which is what its been marginalized into. Its been backed into this corner where its... simply voting. We have power in numbers, and if we can tap into it using the techonology that exists today, anything is possible, said Schroder.
With a plan to give our collective voice a vehicle, we certainly hope so. See also:
http://www.demosphere.net
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Demosphere.net, an underground political forum, has started a new wiki on Tuesday to be used for the design of their socio-political voting software, which is currently under development. Using the wiki, the public can collaborate with project members to resolve issues inherent in such a complex system. A Beta version which will let students debate, discuss and vote on issues that affect their community, should be available on college and university campuses for the start of the Fall 2006 Semester.

The wiki uses the MediaWiki platform, and contribution is not limited in any way. The wiki was set up by Jordan Schroder, Project Director and CEO of Democratic Development Solutions, a student driven Canadian startup.  "Despite the youth of our new wiki, I think students and professionals interested in the project, will find it a great way to have an impact on the software we're developing...", Schroder said in an interview. "Wiki technology is incredibly powerful and is exactly the kind of filter the Internet, as a medium, needs to play a more concrete role in long-term global democracy." He went on to say that he would personally "love to see wiki technology incorporated into the design of our voting software."

Although he couldn't say for certain how it might be used in the media-community framework of the future software, he stressed that, "in adopting this technology during our formative and foundation stages, we can hopefully attract individuals with an idea of how it might be best used in the finished product, and who are interested in leadership positions within the project."

The demosphere.net discussion forums, with 45 registered users and over 1100 posts (many of a political nature), are more active than the wiki. While only a few days old, the wiki had, as of September 27th, only two registered users, according to the site stats .