Communications of the ACM
New App Puts Political Engagement in Your Pocket
The iCitizen app is designed to serve as a bridge between the public, incoming legislation, and local and national elected officials.
Credit: iCitizen
The free iCitizen app was designed to offer a quick and easy way for smartphone users to become educated on the political issues they care about.
The iPhone app and soon-to-be Android app is designed to serve as a bridge between the public, incoming legislation, and both locally and nationally elected officials. Users will be able to conduct research on issues, receive breaking news reports and issue-specific news feeds, track legislation, and rate politicians on a scale of one to five stars. They also can participate in live anonymous polling, oppose or support legislation, find the contact information of representatives, and directly link to the social media accounts of elected officials.
The live and location-based polls should be a major draw for the electorate and elected officials seeking to gauge constituents. The app can break poll statistics out by state, and provide numerical vote tallies and maps of supporting and opposing states.
"We're trying to lower the opportunity cost to be engaged with government and with politics," says iCitizen CEO Rod Massey. "We have families, we have work responsibilities, we have professional responsibilities, and we want to give citizens a quick and easy way to become educated on issues they care about."
From Governing.com
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