Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Republicans to Crowdsource 2010 Party Platform

by Terrence O'Brien on May 9, 2010 at 01:00 PM

GOP Crowdsources 2010 Platform
The 2004 and 2008 elections made it abundantly clear that Republicans had a long way to go if they intended to catch up to the Democrats when it comes to politicking 2.0. Obama was thrust into office based largely on his success in leveraging the Web to rally the youth vote and has carried that tech savvy into the White House. In the meantime the GOP has struggled to even pull off simple tasks, like launching a functional website. But the party finally seems to be figuring this whole "series of tubes" thing out, with a little help form California representative Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy is looking to update the "Contract With America" that led to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. The new "Commitment to America" will not be written by legislators; it will be created by the voters. Anyone, registered Republican or not, will be able to suggest ideas to include in the Republican platform for 2010 and vote on the ideas of others, similar to Dell's IdeaStorm. The goal is to have the people write the entire platform for the party. No ideas will be seeded by party officials -- instead the citizens will be presented with a blank slate. Will Republicans take on gay marriage this year? That's up to the voters.

The plan to crowdsource the party platform is bold, and has many squirming uncomfortably, but McCarthy has gained the trust of power players like House GOP Leader John Boehner. The prerequisite Facebook and Twitter elements will be integrated, and the GOP even plans to offer a mobile version of the tool for iPhones and BlackBerries. Visiting the site, submitting ideas and voting on others will even be turned into a sort of game where participants earn points, though the only prize will be bragging rights.

It will be interesting to see if Tea Party activists, who have shown some Web savvy in the recent months, are able to push their agenda, or if independents disillusioned with the Democrats will flock to the site in an attempt to craft a more centrist platform. McCarthy acknowledged to CNN that "It's not going to be an easy job," but we can't help but admire his efforts to increase transparency and citizen participation at the most basic levels of party politics. [From: CNN]

Tags: contract with america, ContractWithAmerica, crowdsourcing, GOP, John Boehner, JohnBoehner, platform, politics, republicans, top, web, web 2.0, Web2.0

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular