techPresident - Collaborative (and Polite) Platform Crafting - Comments

Innovative is relative

Nancy Scola — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:35:18 -0400

Point taken, but when the starting point is having people write letters to party HQ to compete for a slot testifying in person before the platform committee, than opening it up at all is indeed shiny and new. Who should ultimately be crafting a party's platform is great question. But my sense from talking to people involved in the process is that the GOP policy committee was motivated by the useful idea of seeing what's bubbling up in the public realm; as I always say, openness is tricky, but the alternative isn't so great -- the last thing we want is where our elected leaders and their surrogates lag behind and become more closed off from the rest of the world than they already are.

Is it just me...

davidfarrar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:04:04 -0400

..or is the "new and innovated" GOPPlatform2008.com platform crudely designed and really doesn't allow for any kind of deliberative groupware advancement towards a unified set of political goals? I suspect the only thing innovative is the RNC attempting anything along these lines in the first place.

Secondly, call me old fashion, but shouldn't establishing the political platform of the party be limited to registered Republicans? Here again, I see party officials buying into the concept that the RNC should follow the political agenda of the day rather than leading the public on important issues of the day.

Lastly, allowing the general public access to the formation of the party's political platform doesn't seem to be a very effective way of solidifying its political base to me.

If the RNC would like some helpful suggestions, they should start now and redesign this effort for the 2012 convention and limit access to ONLY registered Republicans.

ex animo
davidfarrar
The National Online Party

Collaborative (and Polite) Platform Crafting

Nancy Scola — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:53:30 -0400

I want to do take a longer look at something I briefly mentioned in today's Daily Digest but which deserves more consideration -- GOPPlatform2008.com. The Republican National Committee is calling it an "historic online platform." Simply put, it's an innovative attempt to collaborative craft the GOP's manifesto before its convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul this September.

In the past when our national political parties wanted to craft their platforms, the process was simple -- and, largely closed off from the political base.