Text Below is Dave Goodman's attempt:
MySociety's Projects
MySociety is a non-profit organisation, established in the UK with the aim of using new media technology to empower you as a British citizen to access the people, institutions and information you need to influence civic society. What that means is we give you the tools you need to find out who represents you, find other people who care about the same issues as you, connect, communicate and take action.
Here's where we'll talk through each of MySociety's projects and give you an idea of what they are, how they work and how people have been using them to make the UK a better place to live.
= Connecting with your representatives =
We have a number of sites that let you find out who your elected and non-elected representatives are, what they think and speak about in public life, and how you can contact
TheyWorkForYou.Com
TheyWorkForYou.Com is a simple but powerful site that let's you find out who your elected representatives are, from your local councillor to your Minister of Parliament to your Lord. By simply entering your postcode, you can find out how they vote in Parliament, read the text of their speeches, find out where they stand on the issues of the day, search their public statements and writings for specific keywords and make sure that the people who represent you are actually representing you.
All of the information on TheyWorkForYou.Com is publically available, but we believe that it has never been truly accessible. The site aims to change that with a simple interface that lets you find, and then find out more about the people who are paid to represent you. We believe that the Government is put in place, by us, the British people, to be our representatives, and that anything that gets in your way when you want to make sure that they're doing their jobs is a bad thing. So we try to take those traditional obstacles away, and give you the power to make informed decisions about who you choose to support and vote for.
So go ahead, put in your postcode and find out who works for you.
WriteToThem.Com
So, now you know who your elected representatives are thanks to TheyWorkForYou.Com But how do you get in touch with them? WriteToThem.Com is the next step, and is an evolution of our original project FaxYourMP.Com (fairly self-explanatory that one). WriteToThem.Com lets you choose the elected or unelected representative that you want to get in touch with, and write an email to them. You can write about any issue you think needs your representative's attention, ask questions, express your concerns and make sure that your voice is heard.
Again, the central idea behind this site is to make the people you pay to govern the country directly accessible to you. In time, we hope that this service will help thousands of people to ensure that their views are heard and represented at all levels of government.
So, once you have identified your elected representative with TheyWorkForYou.Com, and found out what they think about the issues that matter to you, now pick up your mouse and keyboard and let them know what you think.
HearFromYourMP.Com
This is one of our simpler sites, but one that has huge potential. HearFromYourMP.Com lets you join a group of people in your area who want to establish regular contact with their MP. As more and more people join your MP's potential mailing list, your MP will get a series of emails letting them know that there are 25, then 50, then 75, then 150 and more people waiting to hear from them, until it becomes both career suicide and patently ludicrous to ignore you. It's the digital equivalent of a silently waiting crowd outside their office, and we hope that it will let you have a similar effect! Once your MP engages with the people waiting to hear from them, HearFromYourMP.Com provides you with a simple page to discuss your MP's communications - it's direct, real-time democratic contact and debate.
So, you've worked out who your MP is, you've written them a letter, and now you want to make sure they work to build communications with you and the people who live around you - this site makes it easy. So get on to HearFromYourMP.Com and join your neighbours in holding your MP to account.
== DowningStreetSays.Com ==
DowningStreetSays.Com is your route into the corridors of power. Every day, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman gathers a small group of journalists known as 'the lobby' and briefs them on the events of the day, and the Government's responses. That's often what it means when a journalist quotes 'official sources'.
DowningStreetSays lets you listen to those conversations, unofficially, you understand. Click over to DowningStreetSays.Com and hear what the Government is thinking before it goes through the lens of traditional media.
= Connecting with your fellow citizens =
We don't just help you get in touch with the people who run the country. MySociety also lets you find and connect with other people who share your views, allowing you to communicate and take action together to improve civic life.
PledgeBank.Com
PledgeBank is one of our newest sites, and also one of our most popular (it won the New Statesman New Media Award for Advocacy in July 2006). PledgeBank lets you overcome the feelings of powerlessness we all feel when we try to deal with modern states and layers of bureaucracy and officaldom that come between us and the execution of our will as citizens.
You can create a Pledge, where you promise to do something, but only if a certain number of people will do it with you. Or you can find people who have made a Pledge that you believe in, and you can join in. Thousands of people have made Pledges and kept them, and new Pledges are going up all the time. Here's a few examples of recent Pledges, taken from the front page of PledgeBank on the 25th of July 2006
Richard will form part of a human chain around the Westminster no protest zone but only if 6,000 other people will join in. (174 days left, 4821 more signatures needed)
Michael Allen will make use of an improved X3 bus service between Cumbernauld Village and Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station but only if 20 other local people will too. (38 days left, 18 more signatures needed)
Austin Plunkett will pay £10 into a fund that aims to fill a public advertising space with something thought-provoking but only if 350 other people will too. (99 days left, 219 more signatures needed)
rol will recycle all our waste paper but only if 4 other Rutland businesses will too. (37 days left, 2 more signatures needed)
Sheel will give a kiva.org loan of atleast $100 to help alleviate poverty in the developing world but only if 35 other people will give a loan on kiva.org (of any denomination). (7 days left, 20 more signatures needed)
Tom Newby will pay £10 to support EWB-UK's low-cost housing and community sports projects in Jozini, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa but only if 100 other people will too. (7 days left, 48 more signatures needed)
PledgeBank lets you mobilise people for causes large and small, and gives you the courage and confidence that comes from acting as a group. You've found your elected representatives, you've written to them, listened to what they have to say and contributed to democratic debate - now get involved and change your world for the better.
Special note - PledgeBank.Com is not confined to the UK - get involved whereever you are in the world!
= Your Life =
MySociety doesn't only get political - we help you to organise your life, and we also play around with the possibilities that the web and new media offers.
HassleMe.Co.Uk
HassleMe.Co.Uk is a simple web service that lets you set up a 'Hassle', which is a roughly randomised email sent to you whenever you request it to remind you to do something, whether it's to get on and finish that novel, call your mother, buy milk or organise a protest. You can set it up to hassle you as often or as occasionally as you like, and since you never know exactly when it's coming, it will be all the more effective. Trust us, we use it to make sure we blog regularly, and so far, it's working.
== PlaceoPedia.Com ==
PlaceoPedia.Com is a collaborative project that uses a mashup of Google Maps to link Wikipedia articles to the places they refer to, allowing you to browse around the world visually. So, drop by and add the places you know - together we'll Wiki the world!
Past Projects
We've also got past glories that we like people to see - take a look
NotApathetic.Com
Maybe you didn't vote in the 2005 elections. Millions didn't, and thousands of them came to NotApathetic.Com to explain why...