Great slogan (and a trap)
Hello Smari, great to read you. Vinay speaks highly of you, I am looking forward to meet you in person.
“Democratizing democracy” is one of the best slogans I have heard. It makes complete sense that we would enjoy democracy on the net - having borrowed the concept of democracy from politics - then we’d go back to our political lives and be appalled at their poor democratic quality.
However, I don’t buy completely your mission report. The part that troubles me is “it all comes down to voting”. I just don’t think that is the case: you can wield a lot of influence by making skillful arguments. The ACTA case in Poland reported by Rysiek on Egderyders is only one in a long line of examples of pretty useful stuff accomplished without any voting in sight.
Perhaps my phrasing is unfortunate, because participatory democracy is what it is also because at some point people will vote, and they may remember any wrongdoings their leaders seeking reelection might have done in between election days. I don’t mean to say that elections are useless, of course! But voting has always looked like a lesser substitute to direct action for me. And here is my story as an example of that. 