Updated info available at the top ideas list on the change.org site
Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven project that aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for “change” across the country into specific policies….
The top 10 rated ideas will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 as the “Top 10 Ideas for America.” We will then launch a national campaign behind each idea and mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace, and partner organizations to ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama Administration and Members of Congress….
A week after the official launch of the site, and with a month to go until the first round of voting ends, it’s still early days for the contest … but as any sports fan knows, you don’t have to the wait until the playoffs to start watching the standings!
The top three ideas in each category advance to the second round, and the site makes it easy to see who’s leading in each category — for example, the Criminal Justice page currently has Jose Torres’ Legalise the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana in the #1 position,* followed by my Get FISA Right, repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties and Paul Lange’s Fair Investigations of Bush Administration, with change.org blogger Matt Kelley’s Provide Alternatives to Incarceration only a few votes out of the top 3.
Right now, though, the only way to see the overall leaders is to go through each category. While it’s somewhat tedious, this is really important information from my perspective as an ideator and activist — to see how we’re doing, obviously, and even more importantly to see who we should potentially be working with and/or learning from.
The information’s also useful to anybody else with an idea, or any journalists covering the contest, so I figured I’d make it available. Here’s the current top 20 list, as of noon Eastern time:
- Pass the DREAM Act Now (Immigration; DREAM Activist, San Francisco CA): 384
- Legalise the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana (Criminal Justice; Jose Torres, Newark NJ): 325
- Get FISA Right, repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties (Criminal Justice; Jon Pincus): 260
- Build a U.S. Public Service Academy (Government Reform; Chris Myers Asch, Washington DC): 239
- Close Guantanamo prison camp (Foreign Relations; Jo OConnell): 224
- Pass Marriage Equality Rights for LGBT couples nationwide (Gay Rights; change.org blogger Jen Nadeau):204
- Introduce Esperanto as a foreign language subject in schools (Education; Oleg Izyumenko, Lund, Sweden): 201
- restore separation of church & state (Gay Rights; Sarah Nelson Wright, Brooklyn, NY): 170
- Global Union of States (Other; Rafi Rizvi, New Dehli India): 164
- Repeal the Patriot Act (Other; Pierre Loiselle, Carolina Beach, NC): 163
- National Holiday on Election Day (Civic Engagement; Pauline Schneider, Katonah, NY): 138
- Launch an investigation of corruption and unconstitutionality of the Bush Adminstration (Government Reform; Joseph Schollmeyer, Portland, OR); 135
- Fair Investigations of Bush Administration (Criminal Justice; Paul Lange, Lake Stevens WA): 132
- Leave Iraq Now! (Iraq War; Clint Thompson): 128
- Restore Investments In Rail Service And Infrastructure (Energy; Baratunde Thurston, New York): 127
- Act now regarding government transparency (Government Reform; Craig Newmark): 124
- Make the grid green in 10 years (Energy; change.org Managing Editor Josh Levy, Brooklyn, NY): 122
- Provide Alternatives to Incarceration (Criminal Justice; change.org blogger Matt Kelley, Brooklyn, NY): 121
- Plant a large organic Victory Garden on the White House lawn (Agricultural Policy; Roger Doiron, Scarborough, ME): 116
- Stop The Live Skinning of Animals everywhere (Animal Rights; Ginette Callaway, Jonesboro GA): 116
How did DREAM make it to #1? Change.Org and Networking for the DREAM Act and The DREAM Act Leads the Pack on DreamActivist.org are excellent examples of mobilizing activists, complete with a sample email to send friends and suggestions for advocacy on blogs and social networks. The widget for the idea is also featured prominently on the DREAM Act portal. Impressive organizing! Opportunity to achieve our goal (REMOVED) on 911blogger.com and Go vote now (front-paged on 911truth.org) show that other activist groups are using similar techniques.
One of the things that’s really striking about the list so far is the geographical diversity. True, there’s a major cluster in the New York metro area; there are also ideas from Maine, Oregon, Georgia, California, North Carolina, Washington state, Washington DC, Sweden, and India. This is a very good sign that the parterning with MySpace and the publicity (including a brief mention in Newsweek‘s President 2.0 article) is getting broad involvement.
What did you notice about the ideas in the top 20, or the people behind them?
What suggestions do you have for activists who are trying to advance their cause via change.org?
Please discuss!
jon
PS: Hopefully, by next week there will be an automated display of the leaders somewhere on the change.org site … if not, I’ll repeat the analysis.
* the previous #1 in this category, Debora Blake’s Conduct a new, independent investigation into the attacks of September 11, 2001 was deleted by change.org yesterday. Jon Gold’s So Much For “Change†on Visibility911 has more.
Brian Barker | 01-Dec-08 at 3:17 pm | Permalink
My vote was certainly for Esperanto.
There’s so much xenophobia in the World. And I did not mention America!
Well done for Esperanto, however, for keeping the international flag flying.
jon | 02-Dec-08 at 8:59 am | Permalink
Agreed, Brian! I voted for Esperanto as well (although I’m not sure it’ll make my final top 10 cut).
jon | 02-Dec-08 at 10:13 am | Permalink
The only changes in the top 10: Pierre’s Patriot Act idea has moved up to #7, Rafi’s Global Union of States has been deleted, and Donna Marsh O’Conner’s Appoint a scientist to head NIST immediately enters at #10 with 175 votes.
The DREAM Act is up to 574, an increase of 50% since yesterday; legalization is at 371 (+14%), and restore our civil liberties is at 318 (+22%). I think NIST was somewhere around 100 votes yesterday, so it’s at least 70% increase, by far the biggest on the top 10.
There are a couple more new top-20 ideas:
– End the Patriot Act (Other; Donovan Caesar, Scott, LA) is in 15th with 148 votes.
– End the war on drugs (Other; Jonathan Walston), 19th, 134.
These replace the. two Bush investigation ideas, which (as with other ideas for investigations of the past) have been deleted.
With three PATRIOT Act-related ideas in top 20, civil liberties are clearly hot with the change.org crowd. Good to see!
Nuvia | 02-Dec-08 at 3:09 pm | Permalink
The passage of the Dream Act is long over due. It definitely deserves to be at the top of the list. We can’t afford to become an ignorant society by denying the right to education to our youth.
DreamACTivist | 03-Dec-08 at 6:58 pm | Permalink
When I first posted the DREAM Act idea, I thought we would get about 30 or so votes. There are many who blame the problems of this country on ‘illegal immigrants’ and their hatred translates to dehumanization of young American students who were brought here through no choice of their own and are now caged in the waiting rooms of history.
There are so many important changes that need to be made. The DREAM Act is just one of them, but it has been around since 2004, and killed each year because people regard it as some sort of pardon or amnesty. You can kill the DREAM as a bill, but how does one crush the human spirit that these young children possess?
These kids didn’t do anything wrong; they obeyed their parents. They went to school and stayed out of trouble. They graduated, sometimes at the top of their class. Many had to give up dreams of a college education. Many received a college education only to find out that in this country, a green card is more important than 16 years of hard-work and commitment.
We aren’t talking about millions of them; just several hundred thousand over the next 6 years who would have to proof their worth to this country by getting a college education or joining their military. We already invested in them from K-12; lets reap the rewards of our investment now. If we can’t do this for OUR children, we can’t do any sort of immigration reform at all.
Thank you for your support.
jon | 04-Dec-08 at 8:53 am | Permalink
Thanks for the posts, Nuvia and DreamACTivist!
The repeated killing of the DREAM Act is a classic example of how a minority of supporters for hate-based policies can target several hundred thousand innocent victims — and, as you point out, makes no sense economically for our country!
More positively, though, it’s also the kind of cause that can get a huge shot in the arm from change.org, MySpace, and their partners: making people aware of the issue and the chance for impact, and then channeling their energy to reinforce Senators Durbin, Hagel, and Lugar — and President Obama — in 2009. So it’s great to see its popularity in Ideas for Change!
jon | 04-Dec-08 at 1:32 pm | Permalink
Pass the Puppy Uniform Protection Statute to Help Stop Puppy Mills, at 532 votes, and Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence, at 529, have moved into the #2 and #3 places, still trailing the DREAM Act (788) but ahead of marijuana legalization (506) and FISA/PATRIOT Act (462). Marriage equality is at 454 and rising rapidly, and may well move into he top 5 by tomorrow. The public service academy narrowly got back into the top 10, presumably helped by once again getting listed in the “featured” ideas at the top of the page. Free Single Payer Health Care is at #11 with 321, also rising fast.
There are currently five animal rights proposals in the top 20 (including two from change.org Animal Rights blogger Stephanie Ernst). I mean, really, how are any of the other categories supposed to compete against puppies?
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