Youngstown Technology Initiative: Political

Ahh, at last everyone’s favorite aspect of life — politics! How can technology, more over a technology initiative have a political scope? Does one really need to ask themselves that…in this day and age? Youngstown Forward realizes that there is a serious disconnect between the political process and the citizens of Youngstown, perhaps the entire Mahoning and Shenango Valley. Politics, or more specifically the engagement/participation, dialog, accessibility and most certainly — transparency is absolutely something that has to be present in the culture of any place that is intent on thriving. The disconnect has to be bridged. Technology can be highly instrumental in this task.

Our goal with technology in the realm of politics is to provide a pathway for pure and meaningful interaction, and engagement between leadership and citizens. As with all of our technology platforms, we will work with RunningH20 for the development of tools that will be available for residents of Youngstown and other cities in the Mahoning and Shenango Valley to engage with the political process. Platforms slated for development to this end are conferencing applications to allow citizens to be present (if only in a spectating capacity) at City Council meetings and ward meetings (of course, if that will be permitted by City Council and City Administrations). Nonetheless, where meetings are indeed open to the public, then the broadcasting on the platforms we will develop with RunningH20 will be available to the public.

Additionally, we have noticed that voter participation in local elections are quite low. In fact the number of people who vote in municipal, county and state elections are exponentially lower than national/presidential elections. This is a national trend of course, but what the rest of the nation does isn’t necessarily a guideline for Youngstown. We have to be better and more engaged. It’s not a competition of course, but the situation of the city (and area) calls for an intense involvement for people to take the choice of their leaders seriously. After all these are the people who will be in charge of how to use funds and make the ordinances that effect the life of residents, and it has to made clear that choosing them is an important choice to be made responsibly. Having said this, we will develop mobile applications for voter registration which can be used by registration workers to go out and proactively get people to register — particularly for the local elections.

The lack of engagement in the local political process is also manifest by citizens not knowing what the candidates’ platforms, plans, and background are. The platforms that we have on the drawing board are those that will provide people with clear looks and insight into what candidates stand for, and what they plan to do once in office. In addition to all of the interaction and insight that the platforms, applications, etc. will enable, it’s also important to provide avenues of education on the political process itself.

To drive home the point of what the goal is for the Political aspect of the Youngstown Technology Initiative, it is to help people develop themselves into an informed and engaged citizen politically, and to look forward in taking responsibility in seeing that their local, county, and state governments are comprised of the best, civic-minded people as possible, and to be proactive and ready to hold them accountable for any and every decision that they make. Lastly, it is to provide both the citizens and the administration with the ability to engage in a meaningful way with one another, and is accomplished via technology.

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