Dr. W Interview
- ·
Benjamin Brown’s roots in VT: born and raised in
Rutland
- ·
Seventh-generation Vermonter
- ·
Second-generation immigrant from Canada
- ·
Worked in real estate industry when housing
market fell apart
- ·
Moved back to Vermont (from Colorado) with his
then-fiance, now wife, to get back to their roots with the earth and practice
farming in Vermont
- ·
Activist citizen
- ·
New Grass Roots: civic engagement platform
(technological)
- ·
Completely nonpartisan
- ·
Here in Vermont, it can be difficult to get a
hold of legislator, and if you do get through, there’s no mechanism to keep
statistics on how many people have called each legislator
- ·
Currently no data to represent how legislators
are representing their constituents on specific issues
- ·
New Grass Roots wants to fill the data void and
use it to elevate the conversation/ figure out how healthy our democracy is
- ·
180 legislators who serve the public at the
state house in Montpelier: 150 House members, 30 Senators
- ·
Fostering transparent communication between
those 180 legislators and the people they serve
- ·
Any Vermonter can visit the website, make a free
account
- ·
Hopes to turn into a financially viable business
- ·
Currently exploring the model: examining what
people and legislators want
- ·
Main stakeholders: voters, advocacy
organizations who tend to drive advocacy initiatives, legislators who are
hearing from constituents
- o
Adding value to all stakeholder groups
- ·
Account sign-up: name, email, physical address,
phone number
- o
Can select any active piece of legislation,
support or oppose it
- o
Record 1-minute voice message for legislator
- o
Can automate email message to legislator with
link to audio file of voice message
- ·
Want legislators to hear your voice, but on
their own time/when they can get to it – as opposed to legislators dodging
phone calls
- ·
Individual callers can track the status of their
messages
- o
Email confirmation when message to legislator is
sent
- o
Email confirmation if/when message is listened
to
What’s in it for legislators?
·
Often they’re not sure if who’s calling them a
constituent or a non-constituent.
·
Prevents “astro-turfing”—lobbyists calling,
organizations out of state
·
To contact your legislator: face to face in Montpelier,
emailing, phone call (able to capture tone, other nonverbals, more personal
nature)
·
NGR facilitates transparency through
conversations
·
NGR takes privacy very seriously
·
Individuals can share their message on twitter
if they wish to inspire neighbors, friends, advocates.
·
Anywhere online links can be shared
·
Stakeholding groups: citizens, legislators, and
advocacy groups
·
Advocacy groups can aggregate supporters and use
NGR
·
It’s a bipartisan…
·
Everything has to go through actual constituents
·
NGR puts math behind perception
·
“ Democracy tends to be controlled not by all
eligible voters, but by those who show up to play ball” –Ben
·
Allows increased participation on a hyperlocal
level
·
Are legislators voting in line with their
constituents or voting with their own interests or in the interests of
lobbyists
·
Vermonters have to go through multiple human
beings to get in contact with legislators through phone calls
·
Tell us about where you are in the process of
implementing NGR
o
Began at end of 2013
o
Been live delivering messages for the past
couple years, working with advocacy organizations who brought NGR into their
digital tools to push forward
o
Worked on cannabis, grocers and manufactures
association, VBSR, main street alliance about family paid leave
o
Learned a lot about the process of digital
tools- want to now build on the things we learned over the past few years
o
Because we facilitate messages on active
legislation, last sessions legislation will go away and new will be introduced
·
So is NGR, your website, a place where you can
kind of watch these issues go forward?
o
Yeah, it would be a great place to engage
o
Because we are non partisan, we don't take the
main responsibility of educating folks on those issues
o
There are other ways of educating yourself on
these issues- this is also the primary role of advocacy groups
o
When we work with organization if someone came
to NGR we would connect them with the advocacy group who could give them that
info- more curating and facilitating the info than giving them data
·
This is a show about VT independence, how do you
see NGR facilitating a deeper conversation around what we often call
resistance, resilience, sustainability for VTers in the 21st
century- what role are you playing
o
Main thesis we have- very apparent in the recent
election- 2016 election, bottom line people need to realize is no one is coming
to save the day, so that means what do we do to solve the problems?
§
Up to us
§
Our democracy was founded on giving the
government control to the people- so we want to facilitate this process
§
Why we focus on facilitating stats around
specific issues- to give people a handle on what they want and the information
to do it
§
People tend to focus on the personality of the
candidates to be a catch all solution to everything
§
We have a citizen legislature, so I don't
believe legislatures are meant to be the source of all solutions- they are
meant to facilitate the will of the people
§
So what are the mechanics of the will of the
people being conveyed to the legislature?
§
To have a conversation based on data and then
determine how much things are wanted
·
If I am a legislature and I believe one thing
and my constituents want something different than I have an obligation to them
to represent the democratic will- that is a pretty powerful and clear will
o
To strengthen the bonds between them
o
The biggest value data can provide is trust
·
Trying to build trust between citizens and their
government
o
Often times you’ll hear two sides in Montpelier
claiming they have popular opinion on each side, and because there is no data
anywhere to prove either side right or wrong, we simply don't know
·
At this point in democracy, and at this point in
history, with the technology we have available it’s unacceptable.
·
When people talk about the popular opinion in a
district, it’s based on whose spoken up, not on all eligible voters
·
Also can show VT how few people actually contact
their legislatures
Would legislators be nervous about this (NGR)?
·
Legislators aren’t legally held to represent the
popular will, so what is their job??
·
This is why data is so valuable.
·
Data allows us to prove whether or not the
legislators vote with the minority or majority of their constituents
·
Allows us to open a conversation with the
legislator, with verified numbers, on why they voted the way they did
·
“compel the
legislator to dig deeper into their philosophy of a legislator, so that their constituents
can better understand that legislator”
·
Allows for dialogue with legislators***
·
More voice, more information, for legislators-
transparency and more understanding of their constituents
·
Putting math behind the rhetoric
·
-sexy slogan- every voice counts, the art of
democracy
(Next 6 mins discusses Ben’s views on political parties)
