Sunday, November 20, 2016

Govfaces : Can everybody engage in politics ?

Politicians who are not credible, too elitist, disconnected from reality and we do not respond in a concrete way to the expectations of the citizens, or the repeated political scandals revealed one the open space, all of which lead to "disgust, mistrust and scepticism" For the policy.


However can we say that the French people are totally disinterested in politics?
The political world and its discussions often remain too far from ordinary citizens. For the French, for example, to be an actor in politics, or at least to exist in politics, often means joining a party, being "embedded" or having commitments in a community ... Nevertheless, every citizen has convictions, Ideas that are dear to him, values ​​he can defend.

Does he have the tools to be the actor of a true participatory democracy?

Possibilities are available to him thanks to the development of the ways of communication: Internet, ultra-connected devices (Smartphones, tablets ...) and real-time news. The policy benefits largely, sometimes even at its expense. However, a tool is lacking: a real political social network that would allow everyone to exist politically.


Geneva entrepreneurs have taken up the challenge to develop this innovative idea through the Govfaces network. Passionate about politics they want to allow citizens to exist in political society.
The concept is simple: "Provide simple and effective communication between citizens and elected representatives." 



The idea is that politicians can communicate on their work and be heard thanks to a question and answer system. Citizens, by registering, can look for the members they like and connect with them to share their claim or query. Simple citizen, journalist and professional, everyone can interact with political representatives on GovFaces. Users connect via Facebook and access profiles of politicians. They can post comments or ask questions on the politician's wall.

This app could be linked to the collective intelligence because citizens try to improve their knowledge, their political engagement together by asking questions on the social network. The main purpose is trying to make things changing.

The social impact could be enormous in terms of open access to political systems, transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement. But so far the social impact is not the one we could expect.
A few people took part in the experience. I think the reason is that nowadays people care more about scandals and stories in the political world than about the true politics. Citizens forgot the chance that they have to be able to engage in the political process and to have showed a bigger impact in our society. People were willing to fight for their rights and promote the ideas that they care about? Nervertheless, we can possibly expect an increase in the political interest as people are getting scared of the rise of the extreme right-wing parties. As we could see in the United States a few days ago when Donald Trump has been elected people reacted strongly and protested all around the country. It is the symbol of the reborn people's interest in politics. In France for example, we can already see right now many people in the streets who try to convince the others to don't vote for Marine Lepen.

In an opticalistic view, we could imagine that what's happening now with the election would repeat more often in everyday life. As soon as people will interested in politics, media like "Govfaces" could finally be helpful for the society.

Sources : 

  • http://ch.govfaces.com/fr 
  • http://eu-youthaward.org/winning-project/govfaces-the-social-network-connecting-people-with-their-politicians/
  • http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-genevoise/start-up-genevoise-lance-govfaces-reseau-social-dedie-politique/story/1430579

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