Every Bit counts: the Advent of Digital Democracy

Original Article in Full Here: http://geekscheaper.com/index.php/democracy/25-digitaldemocracy.

Digital democracy is on the rise - or at least beginning to have a more substantial effect on "real" democracy. At a time when the internet is more accessible than ever thanks to advanced mobile technology, individual people, funneled through well-oiled organizations, are becoming a force to contend with on the political and corporate scene. In the new American democracy, every bit counts. Democracy has stepped outside the ballot box, the chamber meetings, CSPAN and the front of your local grocery store, and it's made a successful home in your pocket or on your desktop. You have but to access it this very moment to get involved in some of the most amazing developments in "people power" that history has ever witnessed!

At a time of incredible emerging technology that makes us more connected than ever, offers the speediest connections between people over our businesses and social networks, there isn't any logical reason that government should continue to function without the informed consent of the people. Digital democracy through these and other means is beginning to affect how Washington, and how America, does business and politics, and is bringing us one step closer to direct democracy in action on a national level. Some of these emerging concepts may sound like Utopian dreams but many were not practically possible... until now...

Each of these use a combination of means to achieve their objectives, whether it be petitions, phone call, email and snail mail drives, or public commentary openings, each is on the ball and serves a clear purpose in making the general public both aware and active in the evolving political and corporate discourse.

MoveOn.org is a grassroots organization that uses a combination of robust mailing lists, highly interactive social media buttons, and massive user donations, to coordinate electronic and physical democratic efforts across the country. They have contributed or been largely responsible for some major recent efforts regarding issues like protecting reproductive rights and access to health care, to maintaining corporate accountability, to the internet blackout in protest of SOPA, to President Obama's recent announcement that he will launch a formal investigation into the activities of Wall St. prior to the 2008 credit collapse. MoveOn is also organizing and sponsoring a massive coordinated effort to train hundreds of thousands of non-violent activists to stand up for human rights while staying respectable and respectful to the law.

SignOn.org is a sister site to MoveOn.org where users can create their own internet petitions in support of or against corporate and political actions. The difference between it and its predecessor is that the user has the power to create their own petitions and broadcast them to the world. Successful and popular petitions will be promoted to the mailing lists and to MoveOn official actions.

CREDO Action is a group that also focuses on social media interactions and robust mailing lists in order to focus on direct actions to protect consumers from the abuses of power and technology. This particular group takes it one step further and has responded to the aggressive, anti-consumer actions of one of the nation's premier wireless carriers, AT&T, by creating a not-for-profit mobile services company offering Sprint and all the newest smartphones to regular consumers for very competitive prices. As if it wasn't good enough that your bill is going to finance democratic actions, a portion of the same bill is donated to a charity of your choice.

SumOfUs is a signer site that focuses on corporate actions. Keep in mind that none of these sites are necessarily anti-corporate or anti-capitalist, they are against the abuses of corporate power with a real human cost for purely capital gain. SumOfUs has been leading campaigns spotlighting abuse in worker treatment by Apple and FoxConn, as well as promoting safe working conditions and minimum wage elevation for workers at corporate employers such as Wal Mart. SumOfUs started last November but has very quickly accumulated millions of users.

There are many other considerations for this list and the "super signer sites" as I have dubbed them are a growing phenomenon. Given their growing effectiveness I don't have any reason to believe they will be going away any time soon - quite the opposite, for the time being I have only reason to believe they will continue to grow with more people becoming involved and getting online.

Here's the best part about it - involvement begets success - those of you who will turn away from this page without clicking any of these links will have both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a missing experience, and meanwhile the power of mobilized group action is increasing. I suggest getting on the bandwagon!

A couple more honorable mentions for the road - The League of Conservation Voters focuses mostly on environmental issues, while LeftAction focuses mainly on support of progressive political and consumer actions.

Happy Hunting!

Introducing a Different kind of Phone Company – Wireless without the Garbage with Credo Mobile

Original Article found here: http://geekscheaper.com/index.php/mobileservice/29-credomobile What are the political affiliations of your mobile service provider? Do you know? Most people don't, and could care less. But the more money we give to these all-too-necessary often-too-evil companies, the more power they gather, and many of them pass this power along to legislators who make decisions with corporations and giant banks, not consumers, in mind. These giant service companies as a result have very little incentive to improve pricing or services for the majority of their customers... and indeed, too many Americans have become familiar with the "run around", doublespeak, confusion and - let's face it - hell - of a customer service environment that these companies create. You practically have to have a degree in IT, Law, and Economics in order to address grievances on your bill with any of these companies. I'm pleased to announce that there is a new arrival on the scene that not only recognizes these disturbing trends in the most popular providers - they aim to reverse it. While AT&T, as one example, gives millions in donations to campaigns to limit peoples' (and increase companies') bargaining power, Credo dedicates a portion of your monthly bill to a slew of progressive campaigns for the environment, humanities, consumer rights, democratic rights, and other pertinent issues. I can also happily report that every time - that's EVERY time - I have called this company, it has taken less than 2 digits input to get to a real life human in the United States of America - and they have helped me every time. Credo is a re-seller of Sprint, which has one of the clearest, most reliable all-digital networks in the country; also, being one of the first into the wireless game, they don't have many of the service issues that other popular providers have. To this date I have not had a dropped call, and the only service interruptions have been verified to have involved the other person's line and carrier. Unlike my own previous providers, Credo is flexible on billing, providing you up to 75 days to pay off a given bill in full before they will consider shutting down your account - a far cry from the majority of providers, some of whom shut you down within a week and charge expensive activation fees to get your service back online. When I signed up, this amazing new company had a promotional that involved a brand new free Google Nexus - an offer, of course, that has expired, since these went like hotcakes up until the point that Google literally has no more to offer. The existing selection of smart and "dumb" phones, however, is still robust. Most importantly, for those of you still wrapped up in your old provider, Credo offers a "Contract Buyout" credit of 350 dollars which is applied to the contract cancellation of your old company - and, for the first year, you receive 40% off your voice and text services. Picture messaging requires a data plan or you can use the very cheap pay-per-MB plan. If any of this sounds intriguing to you, if you're sick of your old company, or for your own moral or political reasons you don't want to be involved with "traditional" phone companies anymore, please check out Credo Mobile today and receive the 40% discount by using this link: http://credomobile.com/40percent Yes, I have a financial reason to be blogging about this - on top of spreading a service I have myself found great value in to my followers, if you put in my name - Brendan McNamara - and my phone number - (360)809-0072 - as your referrer - I get a $50 check in the mail. The same applies to you after you sign up! This may seem like multi-level marketing, but it strikes this geek as a profitable and very smart way to get a new product out there! So what are you waiting for? Start taking back the airwaves for democracy - and you - today!