“This was the week that government realized that the internet matters. This was also the week that the internet realized that government matters too.”
-Chris McCann of StartupDigest in response to the progress made on SOPA/PIPA.
He is absolutely right. The United States government should have seen this coming from a mile away. Maybe they just forgot to keep up with the current events of 2011. (Entirely possible.) If you disrupt something that people feel very passionate about then they will use their semi-newfound tools of online organization to rise up.
The same day Fight For the Future posted these stats:
Simply phenomenal.
Where were these people the past couple of years? Think of what we could have done as a collective society for health care, financial, and climate legislation had we been this vocal.
Glad to finally see Americans participating in democracy again. This truly shows that we do have a voice and it does matter. We just have to be loud enough.
Two of my favorite startups are Votizen and TwoSides. The former offers a great way to endorse and connect with our leaders online while the latter provides an amazing platform for constructive debate. 2012 should be a great year for both of these sites.
Now is not the time to rest on our laurels but instead kick things in to overdrive. The voice of the people is a force to be reckoned with, no reason to stop now.
