netsettler

Whoever controls the questions can control everything. It's critical in engaging the public that you don't make this just a vehicle for pushing propaganda out to the community but that you create ways to initiate requests for information (discussion threads, maybe even surveys) by private individuals. It's not unreasonable to have a way for an individual to present an idea and have it vetted by several other people who agree it's a good idea if you're worried about spam or other abuse. But it should not be a high bar that would deter people. If I and 5 or 10 friends think something is worth talking about, that seems reasonable. It doesn't mean that's enough to vote on it. But the threshold for starting new discussions and framing discussion should be low enough that ordinary citizens can get involved and not have to wait patiently for their representatives to involve them, often in packaged ways that really steer people away from saying what they want or need. More raw data in database-ready formats would be useful. The use of open source formats for sharing data so that it can be received in a platform neutral way would be good.