We (two guys in a basement) have created AyeTap, a free tool that we hope will make democracy cheaper, more efficient and viral. To bring about civic and social change. From deciding if your school should re-open or picking a venue for your band or putting a stop sign on your street. AyeTap will help people change their space, at a local level. Micro democracy. To fix the broken windows.
Current petitions only show how many agree with something. It's like looking at a football scoreboard and only seeing what one team scored. And polls are everywhere (including here) but they aren’t actionable.
We’ve been working on this for 7 years, mostly developing the language processing engine that’s the heart (more in #2 below and our search page). It understands that “I like ice cream’ is the same as “I really don’t dislike frozen yogurt even though my friends think so”
On AyeTap, your phone number is your voter ID card and:
1. One person, one vote. Each voter is handpicked and can alter the ballot.
2. No duplicate polls. If you have multiple presential elections, you won’t know who won. On Twitter for every poll that says, “Trump is fake” there is another that says, “Trump is great”. So how do you tally them up? Our NLP engine knows that “Does Taylor Swift rock?” equals “won’t you agree that Tay Tay is not dull and boring?” and allow only one. But it ’ll know that “Does Taylor Swift rock?” is different from “does a swift tailor, rock?” even though every word is the same and allow both. Without NLP, we would be just another change.org petition.
3. Polls on AyeTap can be geo restricted, like a real election. To find out what New Yorkers think is the best solution to the city’s parking problems, you can restrict voting to New Yorkers. If Floridians or Russians vote, the results are meaningless.
As it's only been the 2 of us, we haven’t had any feedback and would to hear your comments
> because every vote can be validated and traced back to a person in the real world, through a paper (and peer) trial.
Anonymity is one of the most important issues in voting because it helps prevent coercion. If all votes can be traced back to a real person, given the acrimony in this country, a lot of people will not want to participate, or else other people will try to coerce a person into voting a certain way.
Yes, you’ve pointed out something we have struggled with. We think we have a solution as we have plans to hide voter names by scrambling the breadcrumbs via 3 keys, held by three different entities … but that is way down the road when we start hosting actual elections. For now, AyeTap is designed to be used for private community issues, “should the HOA build a pool?” or “Does our school need a lacrosse team?”, issues where people want to stand out and stomp for an issue. Everyone in a HOA must understand how the other members think for any change to take place. Our discussion boards are also designed to allow others to filter comments and views by voting blocks.
In my opinion anonymity, a bedrock of democracy, is a double-edged sword. While it creates a safe space for free expression, it also creates a safe space to NOT “practice what you preach” If I say one thing in public but do another thing in private, am I being truthful to myself or to the institution of democracy and community? I was actually discussing this with a friend a few months back during the impeachment. If lawmakers did not have to stand up and say ‘aye’ or ‘nay’ in public, how different would our lives be through the ages? If Senators voted in secret how many of our current laws would have seen the light of day? And how many great bills did we miss out on?
3 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 20.9 ms ] threadCurrent petitions only show how many agree with something. It's like looking at a football scoreboard and only seeing what one team scored. And polls are everywhere (including here) but they aren’t actionable.
We’ve been working on this for 7 years, mostly developing the language processing engine that’s the heart (more in #2 below and our search page). It understands that “I like ice cream’ is the same as “I really don’t dislike frozen yogurt even though my friends think so”
On AyeTap, your phone number is your voter ID card and: 1. One person, one vote. Each voter is handpicked and can alter the ballot. 2. No duplicate polls. If you have multiple presential elections, you won’t know who won. On Twitter for every poll that says, “Trump is fake” there is another that says, “Trump is great”. So how do you tally them up? Our NLP engine knows that “Does Taylor Swift rock?” equals “won’t you agree that Tay Tay is not dull and boring?” and allow only one. But it ’ll know that “Does Taylor Swift rock?” is different from “does a swift tailor, rock?” even though every word is the same and allow both. Without NLP, we would be just another change.org petition. 3. Polls on AyeTap can be geo restricted, like a real election. To find out what New Yorkers think is the best solution to the city’s parking problems, you can restrict voting to New Yorkers. If Floridians or Russians vote, the results are meaningless.
As it's only been the 2 of us, we haven’t had any feedback and would to hear your comments
p.s. Our site is only available within the US
Anonymity is one of the most important issues in voting because it helps prevent coercion. If all votes can be traced back to a real person, given the acrimony in this country, a lot of people will not want to participate, or else other people will try to coerce a person into voting a certain way.
In my opinion anonymity, a bedrock of democracy, is a double-edged sword. While it creates a safe space for free expression, it also creates a safe space to NOT “practice what you preach” If I say one thing in public but do another thing in private, am I being truthful to myself or to the institution of democracy and community? I was actually discussing this with a friend a few months back during the impeachment. If lawmakers did not have to stand up and say ‘aye’ or ‘nay’ in public, how different would our lives be through the ages? If Senators voted in secret how many of our current laws would have seen the light of day? And how many great bills did we miss out on?