With a number of constituents emailing me about various issues I thought it was important that the conversation be able to go in all directions, not just up the hierarchy and back down with a decision, but laterally among citizens as well. Thus, a blog like this helps to serve such a purpose. However, while our institutions remain organized in hierarchies, it continues to be important to push your message up that hierarchy and organize others to help get your voices heard.

As such, I am advising people to form groups around issues that concern them and utilize tools like Citizen Speak. Full disclosure, my company does not make any money from Citizen Speak, but one of my lead developers, George Hotelling, won a $10,000 prize last year for his contributions to the Open Source code for the project.