EDITORIAL – E-petition site innovative, efficient

Gone are the days when concerned citizens had to slave away at hand-written petitions, then… Gone are the days when concerned citizens had to slave away at hand-written petitions, then sign, stamp and mail them to a government office – well, in Great Britain, that is.

The Prime Minister’s office of Great Britain has created an online alternative to the hand-written-and-mailed method. Since November 2006, British citizens have been able to go on to the Prime Minister’s Web site and submit an online petition addressing their grievance of choice.

The petition service, which recently received its millionth signature, is surprisingly user-friendly. A user simply goes to the Web site and can either create his own petition or “sign” on to another one by giving his personal information. The service, which is overseen by a non-partisan charity project, mySociety, then filters through and tallies the petitions.

The information in the petitions must be submitted in good faith and must comply with Britain’s Civil Service Code, according to the Prime Minister’s Web site. Any submission that contains personal information, advertisements or requests that cannot be appropriately responded to by the Prime Minister – an example being the recent request to “ban broccoli as an edible foodstuff and reclassify it as a toxic substance” – are not accepted, according to a BBC article.

Despite the inevitable frivolous response or two – we feel sorry for the intern who is sitting at a desk somewhere sifting through all of these – the service is a simple and effective way for the government to monitor public opinion.

While the idea of submitting a petition is not new – remember the Stamp Act? – an online forum for signing onto petitions really revolutionizes the process. Logistically, it is easier to submit a petition online. We are creatures of the Internet, we go online daily. Hey, some of us never go offline. And a government forum where citizens are free to voice their opinions makes it incredibly easy to participate in the government. It’s easier than voting – not that we are saying it is an alternative to voting.

Almost all of us have signed an Internet petition in one way or another in the past. Ever joined a Facebook group or sent one of those ridiculous chain e-mails? So, it makes complete sense that the government would jump on to this trend.

And so far, it seems to be working. The Web site has received more than 600,000 requests for Prime Minister Tony Blair to “scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” – the most popular request – a number of signatures which would have been incredibly difficult to compile through a hand-written petition, particularly in only three months.

While the United States has yet to implement a similar type of system, it would be an intelligent and efficient project to take on. Making government participation easier will increase government participation, which will hopefully bring more issues to the forefront of our government’s policy.