Student Takes Aim At Democracy.

“Hopefully, it will start at the U of A and spread to other campuses, expand into local cities, become province- wide, develop nationally, and then perhaps even internationally.” Additionally, the software will include links to articles in the media related to specific topics. “In one page, you’ll be able to see the U of A’s page about tuition increases and automatically have links to all of the local and regional media that have articles and information about that. So you can become informed and access discussion forums about that issue, and then vote on it using the software,” explained Schroder. In order to make his software successful, Schroder’s plan is to bring students and similar projects on board in the foundation and development stages of the software. In the long run, he plans to run the software on mobile phones or other personal digital devices. All demographics will eventualled be marketed including grade-schoolers, who may use it as part of their social studies curriculum. “Eventually, we really want to have a version of the software that we distribute through seniors’ homes that deals with issues that affect seniors. To get a real consensus, you have to target everyone. It’s really about making it accessible to every person,” said Schroder. Schroder stressed that in producing this software, he hopes people will be aware of the change that can come about through democratic means. “We shouldn’t feel as though we’re the victims of various forces in the world. My view is that democracy isn’t this thing that happens once every four years, which is what it’s been marginalized into. It’s been backed into this corner where it’s... simply voting. We have power in numbers, and if can tap it using the techonology that exists today, anything is possible,” said Schroder. With a plan to give our collective voice a vehicle, we certainly hope so.

Note: http://www.demosphere.net