[taylorportman]

I've always wondered why governments can't run social networks for giving voice/reputation to citizens weighing in on current issues to give rise to a phenomenon similar to the net in the Ender's Game books that gave voice to Ender's siblings. There exists a lot of untapped potential to harness the passion of the armchair pundits but no pressure to mold this passion into grassroot hierarchical influence that could potentially grant political sway for individual's expert opinions. Currently opinionated relatives of holiday dinner & BBQ socials are under little pressure to cultivate their passion beyond a small inner circle of hostages of social etiquette - if only they had an outlet to mold that cunning & passion, to temper it with the satisfaction of having your opinionated views addressed by the big shot president of the times. In the book, these kids are calling shots under pen names. It's fun to think about.

[ls15]

Even though it is not an official service, in Germany there is Abgeordnetenwach [0](Translate: representative watch), where citizen can ask parlamentarians directly. Some parlamentarians are great at answering questions, while some never reply and some only let their offices copy & paste standard replies. I wish politicians would be forced to make an effort to reply to their sovereign. Certain reasonable anti-spam and DoD measures granted.

[0] https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/