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View Full Version : Feedback help: What do YOU want to see in a constituent services website?



GunnyFreedom
11-14-2010, 06:42 AM
I am embarking on a quest to have a constituent services website built that will serve the people of my district for the next two years and which will help to push the will and desires of my constituents foremost in Raleigh. I already have three things which I would like to see which I will describe in rough format below.

What I need from you is to picture yourself as a constituent of a State House district where the Rep actually listens to the people he or she represents. You go to their constituent services website because you have something to say some input to give, or some research you need done. What, exactly, do you want to see in YOUR representative's constituent services website?

Here are three rough points that I would like to include thus far. Please help add to this and/or polish what points already exist. I would like to have the BEST constituent services in the whole United States, and make every single user feel truly invested in the process -- not because it feels like it, but because they actually ARE included.

Voting for Bills:

Listing of all upcoming and prior votes, with an explanation of my thoughts on the vote, how I voted, and room for open discussion of those votes. Preferably people will be able to discuss them BEFORE they are voted on to help ensure that I carry my constituent's wishes forward into the House chamber. In any case, it is a specialized discussion thread that should contain fields for the bill name, bill text, bill description, a prominent "Yes, No, Not Voting" a section for my thoughts on the bill prior to voting (with public discussion) and a section for my thoughts on the bill after voting (with public discussion).

Possibly a poll for each bill that users can vote in -- but it would be important that the poll not be 'gamed' or manipulated from Timbuktu. I think maybe requiring member accounts for discussion privileges, and said member having a current voter registration within the district for voting privileges, and each member can only vote once would probably solve that.

Constituent Help Desk:

This section for everyone in my district who needs help from me for whatever purpose. I am thinking of something very close to a standard cookie-cutter help desk application with trouble tickets open and closed, ticket tracking etc.

Constituent Feedback:

Basically a standard contact area with a web contact form, available regular email addresses, telephone and all that. Maybe even a discussion forum -- or even just a webframe of the Glen Bradley subboard of RPFs. Probably a special webform specifically for "suggest actions you would like to see Glen Bradley take."



Beyond that I am open for suggestions. If you could have anything you wanted when you went to your State Rep website, what would you like to see as your access portal to State Government?

I can think of a bunch more stuff but it's kind of undirected. Obviously a set of links out to important websites like the NC General Assembly website and my NCGA page, as well as some political orgs in the state/region for analysis, maybe some linkouts to news sites etc but I'm not sure where to put such a thing off the top of my head.


Thanks so much for your help!

Glen
Travlyr
11-14-2010, 06:47 AM
Offer regular, or timely, town hall meetings 2,3 maybe 4 times a year.
GunnyFreedom
11-14-2010, 06:50 AM
Offer regular, or timely, town hall meetings 2,3 maybe 4 times a year.

That is already planned -- however it would be a good good thing to have a section on this website with a schedule and locations and maybe an RSVP for these town halls though no?

Thanks!
Travlyr
11-14-2010, 07:00 AM
That is already planned -- however it would be a good good thing to have a section on this website with a schedule and locations and maybe an RSVP for these town halls though no?

Thanks!
Yeah... that would be good... keeping it more comfortable and personal.
Man, I wish I lived in your district! ;)
teacherone
11-14-2010, 08:01 AM
submit a bill?
teacherone
11-14-2010, 08:01 AM
"how your state goverment works" flow chart?
teacherone
11-14-2010, 08:02 AM
transparent pay scales of legislators

state budget
GunnyFreedom
11-14-2010, 08:05 AM
Yeah... that would be good... keeping it more comfortable and personal.
Man, I wish I lived in your district! ;)

Thanks man! Yeah, the plan is to hold around 6 such events per year in different areas of the district. Not only do I want to get the feedback cycle going, but I want to do it in every area of the district (including the hard-core Dem areas).

But the Town Hall events are a separate matter from the website. Every year we get a higher and higher proportion of users on the web, and the web become more and more of an important tool for representation. My ultimate goal here is to literally make history by leveraging the web into the most open and transparent representation in history.

I still intend to pursue the virtual caucus idea I spoke about a long time ago, but that too is kind of a different purpose and it can eventually be folded into the CS site. For now, I want to give the people of my district so much more of a say in how their government actually runs that it is awe-inspiring, newsworthy, and makes politicians around the country scramble to try and do something similar. :D
GunnyFreedom
11-14-2010, 08:15 AM
submit a bill?

That was kind of the idea behind "suggest actions you would like to see Glen Bradley take." The specification for submitting a bill can probably branch off of that.


"how your state goverment works" flow chart?

I like that. It is of course a bit more complicated than the Federal flowchart, but one of the nice things we have going for us in NC is that the separation of powers is stronger here than at the Federal Level. It might be nice to be able to hyperlink various segments of the flowchart to detailed explanations...or even better make a simple flowchart that links into lower level more detailed flowcharts. Difficult and time-consuming, but an absolutely outstanding idea!


transparent pay scales of legislators

That one should be relatively simple -- I'll have to dig up my links but that data already exists and can probably be pulled in realtime. There is a chart (I think at Civitas?) that sets up legislator pay in a bar chart. At the end of the year, every single legislator has a different compensation. There are a variety of perfectly innocent (an not so innocent) reasons for that.


state budgetAlso an excellent idea, but that one may be the most difficult at all. The text of the budget itself would be an easy thing to host, but hosting that I would be motivated to chart and visualize it in a way that makes it easy to understand. It would also be great to be able to 'side by side' the projected budget with actual spending.

Thanks! that's a great help!
tangent4ronpaul
11-14-2010, 08:56 AM
Humility!

Title your feedback page 'Dear shit for brains" and contemplate that every time you read a constituents message....

Best of luck to you - BE AWESOME!!!!!

-t
james1906
11-14-2010, 09:38 AM
Allow anyone to send you feedback. Most Senators and Congresscritters won't let you write them if you don't live in their district.

Take a cue from Amash and explain your votes on a Facebook page, maybe also have a Youtube page doing this as well.

Don't forget the old people who do vote and don't use the intertubes. Perhaps have weekly/monthly "breakfast with Bradley" where you go to a restaurant and talk with voters over coffee.
angelatc
11-14-2010, 09:46 AM
Be careful about allowing your page to become "debate central." To be honest, I saw a candidate that had an open comments section, and it worked against him. To the supporters, it looked unkempt and cluttered with trash from the opposition, and it gave his detractors a place to relentlessly attack him on his own turf.
Nate-ForLiberty
11-14-2010, 09:52 AM
hey Gunny,

about representing the budget, you could take a cue from this guy...

http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/
Nate-ForLiberty
11-14-2010, 09:56 AM
Be careful about allowing your page to become "debate central." To be honest, I saw a candidate that had an open comments section, and it worked against him. To the supporters, it looked unkempt and cluttered with trash from the opposition, and it gave his detractors a place to relentlessly attack him on his own turf.

this is a really good point. If you have a comment/debate section, you need to have a "thorough" registration process. (i.e. name, address, phone number, email, driver's license number, etc)

Problem is if you do that, you'll need some very good security setup.
teacherone
11-14-2010, 12:08 PM
track a bill