A big question - are we ready to govern ourselves? And can we be led to believe we are ready and able because of clever new software?

YourOwnDemocracy.org puts the case very clearly - do the citizens of the United States want to continue with a representative democracy with all the power brokered on their behalf or would they like a new direct form of democracy? Their suggestion is that tools could be easily built that would enable many more voices to be heard on a much wider range of issues. They also believe that this would prove so compelling that political participation would increase and at a much more nuanced and useful level.

This idea is something I have been discussing with Simon and John for a quite a while. We have argued about whether online polling on important issues would be worthwhile, whether the results could be trusted and whether it would allow for extreme or uncomfortable decisions about the way our country works.

The difficulties that seem to arise quickly from such ideas gather around the tension between two points - one, the need for humans to have direct and clear leadership, at its worse the kind that can subjugate enough humans that the pyramids could be built over several generations, or at best provide the social stability that can reduce extreme poverty over several generations. Or, two, the kind of democracy that allows as many voices as possible to guide policy decisions, that distributes power and makes citizens responsible for letting the state know what they think rather than who they favour to do their thinking for them - but that can lead to vagueness, inertia around decision making and potentially scary outcomes around contentious issues.

I'll let you work out whether YourOwnDemocracy.org looks like it can tackle this enormous conundrum. But I will say that I for one am extremely happy to be seeing the web take this idea on in a really mature way - I am going to be keeping my eyes open for a great UK version.
Justin