Can eDemocracy make politics less adversarial?

I've highlighted it previously on this site, but digitaldemocracy.org.uk has its official launch today.

According to the press release, members of all of the three main political parties are signing up to take part.

The site uses postcodes to link people to their MPs and constituencies, and allows each participant to make one policy proposal a month.

Proposals are grouped by constituency, and each user of the site can discuss those which are linked to their area.

At the end of each month the members from each constituency can vote on the recent proposals and the results are sent to the local MP who is then invited to respond on the website.

It is interesting to see that each voting cycle has been lengthened from two weeks in the pilot phase to a month now, which will reduce the burdens on MPs.

This was an issue identified in the review of the initial pilot phase and serves to highlight how creating new eDemocracy systems as bolt-ons to existing systems can create administrative headaches.

The website also has some social networking features, including the ability to "assesses your political compatibility with other users" in a set radius.

Jonathan Elmer, the site's creator, said: "I started Digital Democracy because I was fed up with how little say our communities have over the decisions that affect our everyday lives.

"Digital Democracy lets you put your ideas directly to the people who make the decisions and challenges them to respond to the issues that YOU decide are the most important.

"Facebook and Twitter are great for sharing pictures and gossip, but it's about time we had a social network designed to be part of our political system."

It will be interesting to see what impact the website has in relation to the analysis neatly summed up in this tweet I came across recently:

We don't have representative democracy, we have adverserial democracy #ylbbristol PB need to find ways to ensure no winners or losers..

February 25, 2011 1.15pm via Seesmic DesktopReplyRetweetFavorite

@sburall

Simon Burall

Elmer said the site "encourages dialogue, not conflict between people and their MPs".

This model of more reasoned deliberation and feedback has the potential to be a step forward.