More Effective Than Voting, Easier To Do
In a bid to strengthen the nation's democracy, a new tool named www.NoticeandComment.com was launched on 20th January in Baltimore, Maryland. This event took place on the day of the swearing-in of the nation's President.
Online, January 25, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Baltimore-Launched January 20th to coincide with the swearing-in of the nation's President this week, www.NoticeandComment.com is unveiled as a new tool to create a more robust democracy. The new website, a utility designed to enhance the interaction between the public and all levels of government, is currently populated with federal notices and provides a unique system for public commenting. It is the nation's first electronic library and file management portal that publishes, organizes and files federal, state and local public notices, comments, and press releases.
CEO, John W. Davis, II says, "Local change happens, when local people demand it." The free utility provides each user the ability to search any federal notice, with the help of Regulations.gov, their most valued partnership. The new website differs from its federal counterpart by providing greater integration of social media platforms and sharing abilities through Facebook and Twitter. In a New York Times article about social media's influence on science people are, "in a full-out embrace of the ability to communicate with thousands of others about global subjects in real time (Giordano, 2012)." Davis exclaims that in comparison to voting, "one well-written comment can have more impact than a million votes - and this is the fight for our democracy!"
The company also announced that local governments could begin publishing notices on the site by March 1st, at no taxpayer cost. The company manages a 50 state (and 6 territories) petition drive on Change.org to persuade local governments to publish notices online, and uses the federal partnership of Regulations.gov as the prime example of the cost savings, reliability and efficiency such a system can provide. They intend to collect as many verified resident signatures on each petition in support of online notices. Visitors can access their state or territory petition by clicking on "Why Should I Care?"
In return, NoticeandComment.com generates better public sentiment data for elected officials. The public can instantaneously comment on government action. Political advocacy groups can monitor, support or oppose actions through the site and instantly mobilize state members around critical local issues. Davis challenges users to "affect democracy" by explaining "the law provides a right to be heard and considered" and encourages visitors on NoticeandComment.com to provide any feedback on their new website.
NoticeandComment.com empowers the public to influence outcomes, generate greater support, and participate more effectively in one of the nation's oldest democratic traditions - civic participation.
For more information or to schedule a personal tour of the site or an interview about NoticeandComment.com please contact Rasheeda@noticeandcomment.com . Follow Notice and Comment on Twitter @NoticeComment or Facebook.com/noticeandcomment.
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Reference
Giordano, M. (2012, December 31). New frontier for topics in science: Social media. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/sciencetopics- go-viral-on-social-media.html?_r=0