The White House has just released one of the best net-based community involvement programs I have ever seen. Released in concert with ideascale.com, Open Government Dialogue serves as a forum for the average American citizen (or anyone else, for that matter) to get up on the soapbox in order to be heard on ANY issues currently facing American government. A user will make a login, and is then given the options to either post a new idea for brainstorming, or to vote in a yes/no style on whether or not certain issues merits further discussion. Users have already posted a plethora of issues ranging from extremely pressing to blatantly trivial.
After an issue has been posted and voted upon, a small forum is started below for discussion of the topic.
This site has definitely caught the attention of the 18-35 American demographic, as is apparent from most of the more popular issues, (ie. pot decriminalization) but I hope that as time goes on, this site will evolve into an extremely accessable way for any citizen of the world to be heard by the American government.
Apparently, after tomorrow, the website will go into the next "Discussion Phase," where the most popular issues will be examined in further detail. The brainstorming will remain open until June 19th, when all of the information will be collected and presented on the main page.
I think this will serve as an excellent venue for average American citizens to voice their opinions about issues in the White House, and will hopefully provide some transparency where it is so desperately needed.
You can check it out for yourself at http://opengov.ideascale.com/
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