An online ‘marketplace’ for democracy in Latin America
DemocraciaViva aims to strengthen latin american democratic process by encouraging a frank and open dialogue both among citizens and between citizens and public authorities through Information and Communication Technologies.
The assumption behind the initiative is that Internet and other related technologies increasingly allow people to come together to discuss issues of common interest, and then organize themselves to drive government action and ultimately help shape the whole political process.
A community of those characteristics runs 24/7, turning out content and information about issues that are relevant to society. DemocraciaViva seeks to generate output that makes a unique contribution to the transformation of democracy in Latin America. This will be achieved by building consensus through a coordinated and cooperative interaction, of the kind that only new ICT can provide.
The site offers citizens the opportunity to engage in dialogue with each other by commenting and voting on other people’s writings, start and sign petitions or write letters to public officials. To increase the impact of the letters addressed to public officials, the website has a database of public officials and agencies (including congressmen and other government officials), and users can find out who they should be addressing with their letters.
