Citizen Governance Website features

Citizen Governance Websites could be used as the primary interface with citizen customers for all types of issues including customer service issues. A process change such as this would automatically change government departments into customer service organizations. Such a change would be more effective than simply issuing an edict to employees of the bureaucracy that they must change their mindset to that of a customer service organization.

As a customer service portal, citizens could submit any type of issue or problem they encounter with the associated department. Some issues would require a governing solution by the people. Other issues could be resolved by an administrative decision by the Federal Council while others would require an action or response by the department's staff. Here are a few examples of different types of issues and the appropriate decision makers for each type.

• An addition or a change to any law or policy would require a governing solution by the people.

• A service enhancement, a new program, or a strategic issue that could result in an increase to the department's budget would require a governing solution by the people.

• A change to a department process such as an improvement in efficiency or a cost savings could be a mandate to be decided by the people or a suggestion to be decided by the Federal Council. However, a Federal Council could always choose to engage the collective intelligence of the people to ensure an optimal solution that meets citizens' needs. In other words, they might want to develop an "open source" solution. It would be a new era when government personnel and citizens worked together to improve every department.

• A suggestion for an administrative change or a fix to a frustrating process within the current budget and laws would be decided by the Federal Council. However, the people would always have the final say.

• A complaint or an issue for the resolution of a specific service problem such as an error or process failure by the department would be resolved by the department's operations staff.

Entering a suggestion, complaint, or service problem would vary according to the nature of the department. For example, the United States Postal Service and the National Park Service already have customer service websites. Either their Citizen Governance Websites would incorporate their service websites or they would link to them.

The four Citizen Governance Website activities

Every Citizen Governance Website would allow people to perform four activities.

1. Register once to use all Citizens Governance Websites.

2. Search for issues and follow them to be notified when they become active for participation. People could also follow a government department or a topic to be notified of new issues for that department or topic. They could view the status and results for each issue.

3. Submit a new issue. Available for adult registered citizens only.

4. Participate in solving an issue using the democratic solution process. Available for adult registered citizens only.

1. Register as a citizen

We do not want bad actors or non-US citizens disrupting or influencing the solution process. We want to rule ourselves, not be ruled by anyone from around the world. While customer service portions would remain open to all and anyone could see the list of issues and their solutions, only US adult citizens would be allowed to submit governance issues and to participate in solving them. If a legal entity, another country, or a non-citizen individual wanted their issue addressed, they could have a US citizen submit the issue or they could submit the issue as a suggestion or as a customer service-type issue.

A unique national citizen ID

Registration would assign a unique US ID and require a password, allowing a person to sign in to any Citizen Governance Website. Just as banking and stock brokerage websites are secure, each citizen's account would be secure. Citizens would be required to submit their name, address, phone number, email address, social security number, citizenship, and proof of identity such as a photo of a government-issued ID just as they do when opening a bank account or a stock brokerage account. Because each is required to sign in with their ID and password, any voting that would be part of the process would be secure. The solution process could not be "stuffed" by bad actors.

Citizen demographics

Federal Councils will need to monitor participation to ensure relevant groups are represented for issues that affect them. To enable such monitoring, each Citizen would complete a demographic questionnaire when registering with questions similar to the census. For example, such information might include their age, declared gender, ethnicity, income range, education, and primary language. Demographic information would be aggregated, not used individually.

2. Search issues and follow them

The democratic solution process would allow resolution of one issue at a time with complete transparency. The list of issues, their priority, and the order in which they would be addressed would be visible public information on the website. To participate in solving an issue, citizens would use a federal issue directory to find the issue and then click to follow it just like following a person on Facebook. Anyone could register and search the list of issues and follow them.

Issue search features

A person could search the issue directory using an issue number or key word. They might receive the issue number from their friends or from a public announcement about the issue by the associated Federal Council. A key word search would also return a list of issues and a list of Federal Councils with responsibilities matching the search.

A directory of all Federal Councils would also be included. The directory would display an organizational map or hierarchy showing all federal departments by name and their Federal Councils. Also shown would be a description of each council's responsibility and the types of issues it facilitates.

A search wizard could be included also to facilitate finding the right Federal Council similar to the game of "20 questions." The wizard would ask a multiple-choice question. Selecting a choice would display another multiple-choice question. Each question would focus the search further until a single Federal Council with jurisdiction over that issue was determined and displayed. I anticipate that it would require 6 to 8 questions to locate a Federal Council using such a wizard.

Once the desired Federal Council was displayed, all issues for that council would be listed. The issues list could be filtered on issue fields such as type, category, status, and federal council.

Notifications

Following an issue would allow a citizen to be notified by email or text message when an issue status changed. The Federal Council managing the issue would also make an announcement to the media each time an issue changed status. The announcement would include the issue number, a description of the issue, and the latest change to ensure communication and transparency.

We want to be sure that all groups have the opportunity to participate. If the issue affected a minority group tracked by the Federal Council and not enough members of that group were participating, the Federal Council could choose to advertise where appropriate to notify the group of the issue.

3. Submit a new issue

An issue would be submitted by completing an online form. Issues would be written in the form of a problem, a need, or a challenge. For example, it might suggest a change to a law or an improvement to the department's procedures or policies to provide better service or to save money.

Review by Federal Council staff

Before any new issue was added to the issue list for a Federal Council, it would be reviewed by council staff. If they had questions or needed more information, they would contact the submitter.

If the issue were submitted to the wrong Federal Council, the staff would change the Federal Council in the issue jurisdiction field. The council staff could also refine the name if they thought it would be clearer. If the issue covered more than one subject, the staff could split the issue into two issues, changing the Federal Council on one or both as necessary. However, if the issue were broad enough that it was necessary that it covered multiple issues and the domains of multiple Federal Councils, then the issue would be moved to a higher level Federal Council with jurisdiction over all parts of the issue. In the broadest case, it could be moved to the Presidential Council or the Legislative Council. For example, an issue might propose the elimination of one service and the creation of another using funds saved by removing the first.

If the issue were a duplicate of another issue on the list or inappropriate, it would be marked as such with the reason and rejected. When an issue was accepted, split, moved to another Federal Council, or rejected for being a duplicate or inappropriate, the submitter would be notified. For duplicate issues, the original issue would be provided with a link to allow the submitter to follow and to participate in solving that issue.

This review would be the first step of facilitation by the staff regarding the issue. Federal Council staff would be trained to understand that their purpose was to assist citizens in submitting new issues and in participating in solving issues. Their role would be customer-service oriented. If they were unsure on the action to take regarding an issue, the Federal Council would decide.

Issues listed in priority order

A Federal Council could have many issues on their list. To let them know which one to start on next, issues would be listed and resolved in order by priority. The issue priority would be calculated automatically based on the answers to all priority questions entered with the issue submission. These multiple-choice priority questions would vary depending on the type of issue. Each priority question would have a range of answers. For example, for some types of issues the cost (or cost savings), the risk, and the percentage of the population benefited could help determine the priority. In addition to prioritizing the issues, displaying the calculated priority would provide an automatic feedback mechanism to improve submissions. It would help educate those submitting issues as to the importance of their issue and its resulting position in the list without expending staff effort. If the council staff felt that an answer to a priority question was wrong, they could contact the submitter for clarification and change it. The staff would complete a different set of priority questions that would be used along with those submitted for the priority calculation.

4. Participate in solving an issue

All issues followed by a citizen would be shown under the "My issues" menu option when they signed in. Clicking on an issue would display its details and allow participation if the issue was active.

The issue webpage on the Citizen Governance Website would have a share button to make it easy and simple to share a link to the issue webpage with others, just like sharing a social media post or a website. The body of the email or post shared would contain the issue name, number, description, and a link to the issue, making it easy for others to follow and to participate in the issue.