personal democracy forum

A Reboot for Democracy

Submitted by Anna on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 9:40am.

When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they bravely conjured a new form of self-government. But they couldn’t have imagined a mass society with instantaneous, many-to-many communications or many of the other innovations of modernity. So, replacing that quill pen with a mouse, imagine that you have to power to redesign American democracy for the Internet Age. What would you do?

This is the challenge posed by Personal Democracy Forum for its new book project, Rebooting America: Democracy in the 21st Century. It is an anthology of essays from leading thinkers and activists -- check out the impressive list here -- that they will publish to coincide with this year's Personal Democracy Forum conference, June 23-24 in New York City. Folks from the NTEN community are featured in this list, including Alan Rosenblatt, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Craig Newmark, craigslist.org, Nancy Tate, League of Women Voters, Ellen Miller, Executive Director, Sunlight Foundation, and Robert Sherman, Surdna Foundation.

The best part is that they are inviting their readers to submit essays answering how to make America better, stronger, more inclusive, and participatory, and to vote on their favorite essays. Up to three winning essays will be included in the anthology.