No10Petitions

Description

The Number 10 petitions project is an online petitions system commissioned from mySociety by 10 Downing Street. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/

History

In early 2006 mySociety was approached by No10 about building a petition system. Having looked at the pre-existing alternatives it was decided that an all-new system was required to meet contemporary user expectations and to guarantee delivery under load.

The site was built over the summer and autumn of 2006 and launched on the 14th November 2006.

Technical Summary

Suggested feature changes and bug fixes

1. Fix FF whitespace discrepency

2. Login system for users to speed signing of multiple petitions (is that a good thing?), see which ones they've signed etc.

3. Column headings on list page clickable

4. User suggestion: "Only thing I would suggest is adding the ability for people to comment on petitions. It would spark interesting debate around political issues, surely something number 10 would like to promote?"

5. Suggestion: Users can suggest connections between petitions.

6. Add ability for people to write to petition creator.

7. Allow petition creators to send messages to the signatories.

8. email a friend feature

9. "I would like to see the ability to register an email address to receieve details of any new petition that is created." - we should offer this wherever we have RSS

   • given the number of places we do this already, we should probably have a simple/modular way of doing it.

10. Add exit poll to gather demographic information on usage.

11. A scrolling news bar showing random petitions, for more serendepity. (Perhaps just have a "random petitions" section on front page, instead of most recent?)

12. "Fastest rising" chart / sort-by-popularity (Calculated by days old / number of votes).

13. Move whole platform to HTTPS

14. Create a community suggestions & editing pipeline before petitions go live.

15. (User suggestion) allow people to create a petition that is the OPPOSITE of an existing petition, and provide some way for the creator to 'pair' it with the original (and be able to view this opposition/pairing on the 'view petitions' screen).

16. Ability to see start date of petitions

17. (user suggestion) I think something about the creator would be helpful in email petitions.

18. (user suggestion for an approach to merging - I think it'd be a bit complicated as is, but it's a different approach to the issue, which is good) "Why not merge the petitions under one heading but allow users to tick a box next to each individual's specific comments, to show which specific opinion(s) they support, (incase there are slight differences)."

19. (User suggestion) Maintain some sort of linkage between similar petitions (eg pro- and anti-, duplicates)

20. (user suggestion) would be good to be able to give your reason for signing, in a free-text field.

21. (user suggestion) Search should be per word, not phrase.

22. (user suggestion) Add semantic markup using microformat conventions: http://microformats.org/

23. (user suggestion) Give proposer the option to pull his/her petition, or redirect to another petition for people to consider if they wish to sign. (if the proposer changes their mind through popular feedback etc).

24. (user suggestion). Give proposer the opportunity to draft the petition in public, or re-query signers after a change/clarification.

25. (user suggestion) "I've noticed that the Google spider software examines the petitions website. This means that searching on an uncommon name can result in the petitions that person has signed being visible. I've no objection to proving my identity is valid by giving my name and address for the purposes of signing these petitions, but a future employer could Google me and see that I had opinions that they disagree with. Could you consider disabling Google scanning of these petitions?"

26. Add spellchecker - would need to be better (ie. more English) than current WTT one.

27. Add option to pass on contact details to petition creator.

28. (user suggestion) Petition creators should get a special edition "Beta Test Petitioner" T-shirt with which to wow and woo the lovely ladies.

29. (user suggestion) Allow users to register an interest in a petition without actually signing it. So the user is sent any announcements about that petition and a copy of downing streets reply. This would be useful for people opposed to a petition, or interested but not wanting to sign it.

30. (user suggestion) put the additional comments by the original petitioner on the left, against the bit on the right for expats, so we can see it, or some of it, without scrolling down - currently it's below the expats bit.

31. (user suggestion) - Petitions should have category at the top of every one

32. (from Chris) I think the response page would be improved by reproducing the further details section of the petition, since the petition sentence alone often doesn't give the full context. [the response is on the number 10 CMS, isn't it, so I guess this is one for them - benc]

33. (user suggestion) - ability to find petitions by name of creator.

34. Some simple feed of the data of petition(s), to make it easier for people to embed into their own sites