I met today with Tom Steinberg, the director of MySociety, who was enthusing about the launch of their latest project, Pledgebank (there's a wee news story here).
Basically, it lets you advertise pledge which you will undertake if enough people join in. This could be a national, international or extremely local thing, and it certainly doesn't have to be political.
Current active pledges include:
"Nicola will give 1% of my gross annual salary to charity but only if 400 other people will too."
"Paul Stacey will clean-up the banks of the River Taff between Western Ave and Cardiff Castle but only if 5 other local people will too."
"Councillor Fiona Callison will donate my entire councillor's pay allowance for July 2005 to the charity World Vision but only if 4 Primary Schools in the East Dunbartonshire area of Scotland will twin their school with a school in Africa through BBC World Class Africa"
"Phil Booth will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge."
Plaudits to the crew at MySociety, who come up with answers where government initiatives so often fail, and all on tight budgets and short timescales. You'd be hard pressed to think of any organisation doing more to lead the way in citizen participation in Britain.
