Ok, Screw it, here you go.

I'll post a longer thing based on what I've already written eventually, but I've been holding off too long from writing this.

Temping for the "Read-before-you-sign" coalition last summer I was initially happy, but eventually got turned off as I learned more. While it's difficult to say reading before you sign is a bad thing, and I agree with their stated goals, things related to where the money was coming from, timing, and the amount of information we were given in the first place, made me a bit suspicious. There's more discussion of this in the longer post I eventually will make. However, even if my (and others') suspicions are off, I think this project will realize goals I have beyond what I saw happening with "read before you sign."

I want to create a website which has the text of the ballot measure initiatives. This means both the informal text of the article given to signature gatherers to present to potential signers, as well as the full legal documentation. This is so that potential signers can decide which petitions they want to, or definitely don't want to sign. I'd also like to have the locations of signature gatherers so that those who, reading a petition if they are interested can go straight to a petitioner. Google Maps would be integrated with this website for that purpose. Finally, a discussion board or wiki would be integrated into this same website, purely for the purpose of discussing the meaning of each petition. While I have a variety of other ideas I hope to integrate with this website, these three things: text, locations, and discussion, are the core of it.

Submissions for either side of the political aisle would be accepted--while I am a liberal and agree with the democrats on most issues, I want the website itself to be non-partisan. I also wish the website to be run as a non-profit. While non-profit, I have my own self-interest at heart here as I will be building my web design, database, and people skills through this project. It's also selfish in the sense that I wish such a website to exist, myself. Like many people, I don't like it when I'm hit up for signatures while walking to and from places for anything.

So, basically I'll be posting more on this later: some more of the reasoning behind why I want to do this, some features I'd like to add, and my plans for contacting people, blogs, and organizations to rally support behind this thing. The last of these is probably what most concerns me.

As a final note, if I can't keep this thing properly updated, there's really no point at all in proceeding with this, or any other project I want to talk about here.