Can these 2 concepts coexist in the same project? I have what I consider to be a very important idea. Possibly the most important idea I have ever had. In a nutshell, it is an opinion registry website where people can record their opinions on all current social and political issues. I call it POWURS.ORG. It stands for the People's Opinion and Will Registry of the United States. There is already a test website up at that address.



Traditional nonprofit organizations are very cumbersome to start and manage. But, I think this idea is desperately needed ASAP. It doesn't matter who you are or what you think. The goal of the organization is to record WHAT you think and to make that information available, for FREE, to anyone who wants to know. At the same time, your private information is kept private. Only the answers to questionnaires, and your demographic profile, are made available publicly.

I need this to be a nonprofit organization so that our elected officials can recommend it to their constituents. I already spoke with my local congressman, and he loves the idea. Each elected official could have his or her own home page where they can host their own questionnaires.

Also, as an example of why I came up with this idea, consider this actual polling question that I found on the web a few years ago . . .

"Do you want young women to die in back-alley abortions because the right to choose has been taken away?"

This is a slanted question if there ever was one. If a person is truly against abortion, how can they say YES to this? The only way to deal with such a question is to not answer it.

Too many polling organizations try to educate the people who are taking their polls WHILE they are answering the questions. They attempt to slant the answers in their favor. So, if a person were to answer NO to the above question, that answer would be taken as a YES for PRO CHOICE. This means that many PRO LIFE people would be tricked or embarrassed into answering the wrong way.

I don't mean to get bogged down in the actual abortion debate. I just think it is a good example of how questions can be so misleading.

The number one rule of POWRUS.ORG questionnaires is that HOW and WHY a person came to form their opinions does not matter. Only WHAT a person thinks at this moment is important. Because of this, a sizable portion of the site will be dedicated to evaluating the questions themselves to assure that they are not slanted.

So, the collective crowd will police itself and assure that no one group takes over. This means that it doesn't matter what your social or political views are. It also means that my own views do not matter. It only matters that we collect the true opinions of the crowd.

Polling organizations collect their answers in secret and sell the data to the media. POWRUS.ORG will be the, if you will excuse the pun, POLAR OPPOSITE of such organizations. It will require people to work on the questions, produce the answers, support the organization, and we will GIVE the data away for free.

Too many people want to tell us what we think simply because there is no available pool of data that contains that information. This organization will fill that order. We will produce POWRSTATS on all questionnaires breaking down the data by all demographic categories and regions of the country.

But, what I'm not sure about is how such a website could support itself. Nonprofits do not permit advertising, so banner ads would not work. If we asked for donations, that could work, but it doesn't sound like wikinomics.

What do you guys think?

Posted: May 14, 2008, 12:05 pm

Well, I was hoping someone could help me with the questions I have about this. I'm still interested to know if a nonprofit organization can use "the crowd" as part of the business model.

Posted: May 15, 2008, 9:36 am

I understand the concept and I like it. However, other than donations and government grants, I don't see a way to monetize it.

Now, if you want to switch gears and be a polling site and sell the results, that would be pretty easy to do.

The way i understand the idea, you want constituents to be able to tell their representatives what they think (collectively) and then pass that information along and hopefully be governed by these decisions. Great concept. However, any politician who would do this would be committing political suicide. Only rich white middle aged men have internet connections and so everyone else would be left out in the cold.

Now, if you were just a site that collected opinions, and if you got enough hits, other media would be using your data. Just make sure your information is scientifically collected.
I can see tremendous potential with this. Is powrus.com available?

Posted: May 15, 2008, 10:56 am

On May 15, 2008, 10:56 am interviewables said:

I understand the concept and I like it. However, other than donations and government grants, I don't see a way to monetize it.

Now, if you want to switch gears and be a polling site and sell the results, that would be pretty easy to do.

The way i understand the idea, you want constituents to be able to tell their representatives what they think (collectively) and then pass that information along and hopefully be governed by these decisions. Great concept. However, any politician who would do this would be committing political suicide. Only rich white middle aged men have internet connections and so everyone else would be left out in the cold.

Now, if you were just a site that collected opinions, and if you got enough hits, other media would be using your data. Just make sure your information is scientifically collected.
I can see tremendous potential with this. Is powrus.com available?

This is more for letting the crowd know what everybody thinks. Politicians can make use of the site to ask their own polls. After speaking with my own local Congressman, I learned that he does polls constantly. His staff try to call people to find out what they think. But, it's like trying to get people to do homework. Hardly anybody will stay on the phone to answer the questions. A website like POWRUS.ORG allows people to come to us and participate, rather than having someone call and intrude into their personal space.

I DO NOT agree with your assertion that only rich middle aged men have internet connections. There are more than enough people who have computers - of all ages races and income levels - to make this work. After all, it ain't just rich white guys who have FaceBook and MySpace pages.

Donations will be possible and can help pay for the site to keep going. I guess it would still have to function as a nonprofit and have fund drives. But, the primary concept must be kept in place - collect the data and give it away for free.

This is an answer to all of the slanted polls that are published each week by news agencies around the world. It will only represent the people who have answered our questionnaires - it will never presume to speak for the entire country. But, with sample sizes that are in the millions (if everything goes as planned) the results will put the tiny polls to shame.

Posted: May 15, 2008, 11:46 am

On May 15, 2008, 11:46 am DaveH said:

On May 15, 2008, 10:56 am interviewables said:

I understand the concept and I like it. However, other than donations and government grants, I don't see a way to monetize it.

Now, if you want to switch gears and be a polling site and sell the results, that would be pretty easy to do.

The way i understand the idea, you want constituents to be able to tell their representatives what they think (collectively) and then pass that information along and hopefully be governed by these decisions. Great concept. However, any politician who would do this would be committing political suicide. Only rich white middle aged men have internet connections and so everyone else would be left out in the cold.

Now, if you were just a site that collected opinions, and if you got enough hits, other media would be using your data. Just make sure your information is scientifically collected.
I can see tremendous potential with this. Is powrus.com available?

This is more for letting the crowd know what everybody thinks. Politicians can make use of the site to ask their own polls. After speaking with my own local Congressman, I learned that he does polls constantly. His staff try to call people to find out what they think. But, it's like trying to get people to do homework. Hardly anybody will stay on the phone to answer the questions. A website like POWRUS.ORG allows people to come to us and participate, rather than having someone call and intrude into their personal space.

I DO NOT agree with your assertion that only rich middle aged men have internet connections. There are more than enough people who have computers - of all ages races and income levels - to make this work. After all, it ain't just rich white guys who have FaceBook and MySpace pages.

Donations will be possible and can help pay for the site to keep going. I guess it would still have to function as a nonprofit and have fund drives. But, the primary concept must be kept in place - collect the data and give it away for free.

This is an answer to all of the slanted polls that are published each week by news agencies around the world. It will only represent the people who have answered our questionnaires - it will never presume to speak for the entire country. But, with sample sizes that are in the millions (if everything goes as planned) the results will put the tiny polls to shame.

[quote]I DO NOT agree with your assertion that only rich middle aged men have internet connections. There are more than enough people who have computers - of all ages races and income levels - to make this work. After all, it ain't just rich white guys who have FaceBook and MySpace pages.[/quote]

I was being sarcastic in that comment but that is exactly the backlash you will get from some people. That's politics!


But I still have to ask. What's in it for me? What do I get for coming to your site? Why would I donate?

I like the idea. Have you thought about making this a petition site? Anyone could come to the site, pay a small fee, have their own petition page, and then invite others to sign on. Others who care about a certain cause could sign the petitions and there would be a lot of debate going on. Those for and those against. Now I have a reason to come to the site and I just might see something come from my involvement.

Think about it.

Posted: May 15, 2008, 12:52 pm

On May 15, 2008, 12:52 pm interviewables said:But I still have to ask. What's in it for me? What do I get for coming to your site? Why would I donate?

My reasons for creating this site have to do with listening to news on a daily basis. I'm very much into politics. But, for my particular demographic, a lot of news agencies constantly try to slant the news and especially the polls to try and show that this particular demographic thinks differently than I know they really do.

I got to the point where I actually said, "Hell! I'd pay to have my true opinion recorded." And, that was the spark that started POWRUS.

What's in it for you is to be able to tell the world where you stand on every social and political issue we have and, at the same time, get to see where you are in relation to your peers. You can see how you match up against republicans, democrats, independents, blacks, whites, hispanics, catholics, jews, muslims, age, gender, income bracket, education level, and many other categories.

The media has a monopoly on our opinions because nobody can provide a means for us to present them in one place. True to human nature - when there is a big chunk of missing information, people are more than willing to speculate. And, that's exactly what is happening. The media analysts are speculating - and always in their favor - what we think. And, they use dirty tricks to pull it off.

I don't want to be TOLD by the media what people in my demographic group are supposed to think. I want to tell them what I DO think.

That's what's in if for you. The ability to let our elected officials know what's really going on with their constituents. That will help them to do their jobs of representing us much better.

Haven't you ever wondered what the entire country thinks about issues like Gay Marriage, or illegal aliens, or the Border Fence or global warming or the oil shortage or carbon footprints or Terri Schiavo? Personally, I don't care what you think. I believe that we each have a right to our own opinions. That's why the organization is not interested in changing anyone's opinion - only recording that opinion for all to see. And that is the ammunition we need to combat the slanted polls and news stories that are being used a propaganda to push political agendas down our throats!

I think that is more than just worth something - it's something that is desperately needed. It could also be used as a template for the citizens of other countries to use.

Posted: May 15, 2008, 1:23 pm

Having just arrived (via a review of Don Tapscott's CH video) I am pleased to see several discussions that orbit around the idea of crowd-sourced opinions to drive viable solutions. Jay Deragon refers to them as 'Socialutions'.

I am determined to create a remedy as well. Perhaps the ASK4 concept has merit in this (and other?) conversations here - you decide, comment, whatever - gsbigger@yahoo.com
http://unettednation...rdpress.com/ask4_is/
and THANKS -

Posted: July 24, 2008, 5:50 pm