Case Summary

More Perfect seeks to enable greater direct public involvement in the creation of laws and public policy by engaging a more diverse constituency to impact the policy process. They created an online wiki similar to Wikipedia, to open up the democratic process---providing a platform for constructive, collaborative online discussion for all who want to participate. By combining leading edge technology and more traditional community outreach, More Perfect brings a diverse population into the process of creating policy, and provides a venue for policy makers to understand the views of citizens.

Business Challenge

More Perfect is an organization that sought to enable more direct public involvement in the creation of laws and public policy by encouraging a diverse constituency to participate in the public sphere.

Approach Taken

More Perfect created an online wiki site similar to Wikipedia, to open up the democratic process and provide a platform for constructive, collaborative online discussion for all those who want to participate. The site allows users to select issues of interest, such as education, healthcare, transporation, civil liberties, and several others. Sections under each issue are devoted to defining problems, setting goals, determining plans for action, and discussing user comments.

Results Achieved

The More Perfect site has allowed for policy proposals to evolve organically as they are exposed to a range of perspectives from a diverse cross section of citizens.

More Perfect has recently announced its first direct partnership, with the People's Waterfront Coalition (PWC) in Seattle to facilitate citizen involvement in a "transit and streets" proposal for replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. There are sections for defining the problem, setting goals, and determining a plan for action. Much of the content already on the site focuses on Seattle and Washington State, but there's sections for all states to have voters' guides and townhalls. It also integrates a WordPress blog and phpBB forums. ¹

Lessons Learned

The approach used allowed individuals, public interest groups, local governments and elected officials to present their issues, policy proposals, and positions to a diverse and engaged audience, gathering real-time feedback while avoiding time consuming, costly and often uncertain public outreach processes.