Wikileaks
Wikileaks is a website that provides an anonymous place for people to make documents available to the public. They allow the contributor to remain anonymous since many of the documents that they receive are highly classified by either governments or corporations and because they believe that it is their responsibility as journalists to provide documentation along with their stories.
This practice of allowing the public to view the full source of the information and provide transparency is the cornerstone of Wikileaks’ philosophy; it is also what makes them unique. Most media outlets keep both their source and most of the information provided a closely guarded secret, only providing the portions that help them to make their point. By posting the entire document as it was provided to them, Wikileaks is making all of the content available to be scrutinized by those who would normally not be privy to the information. This allows the general public to form their opinions and make decisions based on the same information made available to the “power elite.” Since voters have to make decisions based on the information available to them, this website encourages the democratic process by making sure that those same voters have all of the information before heading to the polls.
Wikileaks has become known since they posted 15,000 classified documents concerning the US war in Afghanistan a few years ago, and 400,000 more classified documents on the US war in Iraq on October 22, 2010. The premise of making classified documents available to the public is a very volatile one, where one side says that corruption must be made apparent, while another argues for the safety of the troops and the return of stolen property. Sites that take user submitted information always have a very difficult job in verifying content and although Wikileaks says that they verify information before making it public, even they admit that mistakes can be made. Thus, in theory this type of system may work, exposing corruption and misdeeds, but in practice, the emotions and motives of the contributor need to be evaluated as well. The anonymity provided by Wikileaks makes this impossible and can be seen to corrupt the democratic process.
Ravelry
Ravelry is an online community for knitters and crocheters providing areas to publish patterns, maintain an inventory, research tools and materials, and make knitting and crocheting acceptable for people of all ages. It also provides an area to create groups to discuss anything from patterns to family life to politics.
Knitting and crocheting are generally thought to be crafts done by grandmothers, creating scratchy sweaters that don’t fit and no one ever wants to wear. By bringing crafters together, Ravelry encourages a sense of empowerment and community, while showing the public majority that these crafts are not just for old ladies and are actually very common hobbies across many demographics. Ravelry provides an online location for small islands of fiber crafters to exchange ideas, further develop the craft and maintain techniques that could have been lost forever. It also encourages teaching new people the techniques of fiber arts and get-togethers such as at fiber festivals, organized KIP, knit-in-public, days.
Many user-created patterns on Ravelry experience a sort of fame after being posted, since there is often a forum created to submit questions to, a group to discuss the pattern and a photo gallery for finished projects. Hence a pattern that may never have been picked up by a major company to be produced can now become a sensation in a large online community, earning its designer profits and notoriety.
Ravelry is a successful site in that it is encouraging a subculture to become more prominent in everyday society. It encourages open discussions and exchange of information with indifference to socio-economic status, since membership is free. It also allows an average person to make their creative efforts known to a worldwide audience, without the gauntlet of trying to get published by a magazine, as well as giving the rest of the community the power to choose for themselves what they find intriguing and fashionable. This shift provides a change in the democratic process of who controls the economy surrounding the pattern and fashion industries by introducing additional players to the field.
The Coffee Party
The Coffee Party is a grass roots movement to encourage cross-partisan cooperation and civility in government. According to the Coffee Party website, “Our goal is an informed and involved electorate that takes seriously the responsibilities of citizenship, not only for the purpose of winning elections, but to effectively govern our nation on behalf of The People, and no other interest.” They exhibits a belief that it doesn’t matter what your personal political beliefs are, as long as you are willing to openly discuss them and be willing to accept other ideas as potential solutions as well as your own, you can belong.
After a Facebook post on January 26, 2010, the Coffee Party was formed and very rapidly became a nationwide movement, expanding into 300,000 active Facebook participants as of October 8, 2010. Today, the Coffee Party uses most every form of user created content currently available on the internet, including Forums, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Channels, RSS Feeds, Flickr accounts, Web Radio, and e-commerce through CafePress. Through these media, members across the country can organize meetings and create local chapters as well as see and participate in what the party is doing as a whole. The Coffee Party also encourages the use of its forums to discuss and civilly debate current issues faced by the government. Moderators are only present to maintain a safe arena for discourse, without the fear of being flamed or personally attacked.
Again, as seen with Ravelry, there is a sense of empowerment from belonging to the group and a strength-in-numbers mentality. By using the large number of media to disperse their message, they have been able to effectively communicate with a large cross-section of Americans very quickly, as demonstrated by its rapid growth, recently including the younger college and pre-college aged voters. This is an effective method of both communicating and encouraging the democratic process.
