Disproof of Concept: Change.org’s Ideas for Change
January 6, 2009 by Craig Stoltz
Change.org is a social network where people who care about a variety of causes–global warming, hunger, gay rights, animal rights, worker rights and a bewildering range of others–find kindred spirits, action groups and all sorts of information. It also accepts donations on behalf of the non-profits in its network.
As a platform to help people connect and collaborate, it’s a classic–and admirable–use of social media.
The group’s Ideas for Change campaign, however, is another story. It’s a ripe demonstration of what happens when a “wisdom of the crowds” effort is overtaken by activists whose real agenda is self-promotion, not the public interest.
Here’s how Ideas for Change works: The site invited users to suggest ideas for change [over 7,700 submissions] which were then reduced [via over 280,000 votes] to a “short” list of 90. In round two, each site visitor is allowed 10 votes to distribute among the causes he or she feels most important. The final list of Top 10 causes will be “delivered” to the Obama Administration and Congress via a press conference at the National Press Club.
I suspect you know where this is heading.
As of this writing, the top two causes on Ideas for Change are. . .to legalize marijuana and end the war on drugs. Number 13 offers what could charitably be considered a slight variant, “decriminalizing” marijuana.
To be fair, other top vote-getters involve matters more central to the public conversation: the Patriot Act, marriage equality, universal healthcare and green initiatives. [All suggestions would likely be considered "liberal" responses to the issues. Nothing wrong with that.]
But there at Number 9 stands “Save Small Business from CPSIA“–a plea to free small toymakers from the strangling yoke of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. [According to the site, the 2007 law is designed to ensure the products of large toymakers are certified free of lead, phthalates and other dangerous stuff, yet apparently captures small toymakers in its regulatory net.]
Number 9 is certainly a legitimate matter. So is the idea of decriminalizing weed.
But the thought that the tens of thousands of activists who participate in America’s civic life believe these to be among the most important issues to bring before the administration and Congress is fatuous.
I imagine the leaders of Change.org having a hard time presenting that list of issues, so redolent with pot smoke, at the National Press Club without humiliation. Yes, Mr. President, activist America has spoken, and we want our bongs back, dammit! And get the hell of small toymakers’ backs!
The explanation for this unfortunate outcome is so obvious I can hardly bring myself to type the words: A small number of activists organized their followers to vote for their cause without regard to what they really think are the most important issues facing America.
As the daily results of Digg have demonstrated over the years, opinion-aggregation sites can be gamed, and usually are. [Top Digg'd item of the last 30 days, as I write this: Digg this if your tired of power users stealing stories.] Ditto sites that review restaurants, hotels and fashion.
Applying a game-able system to serious civic matters just isn’t very wise-as the Obama Administration’s effort of an eerily similar name, Change.gov, is beginning to discover. [Change.org had its name first!]
Let’s all agree to this: There are many ways to use new media to involve citizens in the process of change. “Voting for your favorites” is not one of them.
Okay, so what can be done at this point to save Change.org from itself?
Why, game the system some more, of course!
Activists who really do care about improving the lot of this dysfunctional nation–or at least want to spare a worthy effort like Change.org public humiliation–should go to Change.org and vote in an intellectually honest manner.
Having a hard time? Look way at the bottom: “Create a permanent constituency to end genocide” needs some love. Only 37 votes so far.
Terrific deconstruction of the “wisdom of crowds” phenomenon. Of course, my own awakening came when I was overseeing a drug database that enabled patients to vote for the most effective drug by disease/condition. Predictably, marijuana and oxycontin were consistently rated the highest for most conditions. :)
Please keep the wisdom of crowds out of healthcare! (Maybe I should start a group on change.org by that name?)
Hang on, ending the drug war would be easy, cheap and immediately beneficial. Everything else on the list (ending genocide?) would be really hard.
Perhaps the wisdom of this crowd is to go for the low hanging fruit.
Or perhaps it’s not a big enough crowd……and managed in the wrong way…..
I appreciate your point about the whimsical nature of opinion aggregation online, but I think you’re ignoring the social science that exists about the war on drugs in North America (I’m Canadian, where it’s similar). It’s a multi-billion enterprise that scoops up reefer-smoking teenagers and does little to make communities safer. A substantial portion of law enforcement drug efforts are focused on marijuana. Some of those billions could and should be spent on early childhood intervention and support programs that prevent crime at its roots. Instead, law enforcement continues to wage a war for which it demands ever-increasing resources. The criminalization of pot smoking has also made this segment of the drug trade highly lucrative for organized crime. If it were legal, it would respond to market forces like toasters and TVs, and organized crime would drop it.
I’m not an activist, a pot smoker or a radical. I’m a long-time crime writer just passing on what I’ve heard from many social scientists and other researchers.
Maybe the Ideas for Change folks have identified a legitimate, national issue that should at least be part of the policy debate.
Skepticism is a good thing, so I appreciate your looking at this from a unique angle. May I respectfully suggest you read some of the nearly 2000 comments left on the marijuana page on change.org? It explains that the issue is important on many levels (food, fuel, fiber, medicine, prisons, resources, safety, economy). By the time you learn that this beneficial plant has gotten and really, really bad rap based on scienceless propoganda, and that cancer patients are sitting in jail dying without their medicine, hopefully you will realize that it is a legitimate concern of many Americans (over 40% of adults have broken the law and consumed cannabis).
Prohibition doesn’t work and repealling it would have huge positive impacts that would go towards solving a wide array of pressing issues.
It’s just a shame it hasn’t been rectified before now, people are desperate for their freedom and this topic deserves to be at the top of this list. The people have spoken. I personally hope it wins and Obama has to address it.
All–
Thanks much for the comments, and the thoughtful discussion of the legalization/war-on-drugs issues.
I had indeed read [some] of the comments on the change.org site. I agree there are solid arguments for the importance of the issues and recommended responses.
Having said that: I tend to come at this, for worse or better, with a weary eye for realpolitik–and a desire to see the Obama administration succeed.
Recalling how Bill Clinton, with good intentions, stepped on a rake by taking up the gays-in-the-military issue early in his administration, I think it would be a political disaster for Obama to take up an issue like legal dope so soon.
Should he do so, I think it could hurt the legalization movement more than help it.
I think the prominence on the list of legalization/war-on-drugs has been achieved by a small group of skilled and committed activists. Nothing wrong with that–that’s how change happens, when well-organized people run with their cause.
But to the extent other Americans view the outcome of this as a kind of consensus among a group of civic participants–a proxy for collective wisdom of a particular crowd–I think it could wind up marginalizing the whole change.org effort itself.
I guess I’m repeated what I said in the post. Enough from me. Again, thanks for writing–and reading.
Great observations, Craig.
You missed pointing out that the default view on the change.org website will not display Ideas ranked as you show above, rather a more presentable list of “Ideas on the Rise” is displayed and I have yet to ever see any of the Marijuana or FISA Ideas listed there. Viewer must click “Top Rated Ideas” to see the actual outcomes to date.
Unfortunately the “Ideas” project has been fraught with more problems than simply “gaming the system. There is evidence of vote fraud, censorship and behind-the-scenes maneuvering to demote some popular Ideas while promoting others that might be more in keeping with change.org’s own values.
I’ve been writing about this on my blog and am watching to see how the final outcome evolves during Round 2.
Well-written, thoughtful piece. I thought “wisdom of the crowds” required independent actors. Clearly, that’s not happening here, nor is it even necessarily the intent of the site owners. So you’re on target there.
This has very direct relevance for any kind of crowd-driven policy making by gov’t. It’s especially relevant because typical rulemaking invites comments as a means to discover new thoughts or policy approaches, not as a way to vote for the “winner.”
50,000 people voting for option 1 and 3 voting for option 2 doesn’t mean the policy maker should choose option 1, even without deliberate gaming. Policy makers need to balance many different considerations. Popularity might be one of them in some cases, but the people voting are usually not considering the entire range of issues, so it’s far from the most important.
I have mixed feelings about this, aside from the issues that have been raised thus far. On the one hand, it addresses some of the transparency and usability issues I have been frustrated for years about regulations.gov - on the other hand, the lack of structure limits its efficacy unless someone is performing a “gardener” function to aggregate related proposals… which is open to (at least the appearance of) manipulation of the public’s interest… On the third hand, I think a lot of citizens are feeling like our “of the people, for the people” model of representative government does not always result in our elected officials voting on the basis of their constituents’ wants (TARP, auto industry bailout, anyone?). However as *one* input into policy making (and perhaps the Obama team needs to be more explicit about it being one of many inputs) and means of connecting people to the process, I think I come out on the positive side on this. At least for now… for one thing I’m out of hands ;p
Well i voted for cannabis reform.a hard working,tax paying pennsylvanian who has been an advid toker for 20 years or so.this issue has to be addressed.maybe not top priority.but needs changed.To sit back and think that this government is going to wipe out cannabis usage your sadly mistaken(alcohol prohibition worked great huh)same with the war on cannabis.the goverment rather lie and continue their ignorance towards this issue.when they do legal studies then they can have a fair argument.IM not a scientist but as a smoker(tobacco and cannabis)for around 20years no one on capital hill can tell us our cannabis is worst than tobacco,alcohol,or chemically made prescribe drugs.but yet i can get the leadin causes of death in america down at the corner store.If you never been around people who toke or never been involved in the culture or smoked your opinion is void.because americans were brought up with alot of misconception concerning cannabis.THANK YOU US GOVERNMENT.I can say im divided sometimes.if legal i think about how the goverment would charge a arm n a leg for a happy sac and waste that money too.the price of cannabis has been the same for about 20years or more.but on the the other hand the uses and the financial part of cannabis is what america should consider seeing the state of our economy and the level of crime in america due to the goverment misguided prohibition of cannabis.so when you see your local dealer riding by in his mercedes you ask yourself is prohibition working?think about this. goverment spends 50 billion a year of your tax money on cannabis prohibition but meanwhile the dealers are raking in our cannabis money CLEAR AND TAX FREE!cannabis is a billion dollar plant.we the u.s.a. used to be a wealthy nation but now a big joke in the eyes of other countries.I LOVE MY COUNTRY,BUT DISLIKE OUR POLICYS.LEGAL OR ILLEGAL AMERICAN CANNIBIS LOVERS WILL STILL BURN THE BOWL.KEEP CHEMICALLY MADE DRUGS(COCAINE,X,CRACK,ACID AND ETC…ILLEGAL.AND MUCH LUV TO CANADA,SWISS,AMSTERDAM AND CANNIBIS FRIENDLY COUNTRIES FOR RELIZING CANNIBIS IS NOT EVIL BUT USEFUL.and they buillt the right laws to accept cannabis in their society.WE NEED TO THE SAME.CHANGE IS ACCEPTED
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