Votizen

If you missed Votizen Live for the first debate, you can tune in at any time from now through the election, and don't forget to come back next Thursday at 9pm Eastern for the VP debate, when we'll be switching over to Biden/Ryan reactions.

All of us want to make our voice heard. We have causes and candidates we believe in and want to champion, but we know that tossing one more post into our Twitter or Facebook feed and hoping it catches the eye of an undecided friend just doesn't work.

If you've ever thought, "There has to be a better way," you're right. And now, there is.

On Votizen, you can make your voice heard and influence races around the country in a whole new way. It couldn't be easier.

Sign in to Votizen and choose a campaign

Browse the list of races across the country where you're friends are eligible to vote and pick where you want to campaign.

Choose your candidate

Whether it's the race for the White House or the state house, you'll see friends who can vote in the election, the candidates, and which of your friends have already expressed a preference.

Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or Independent, select the one you believe will change things for the better. If your candidate isn't listed yet, you can let us know and we'll add them.

Persuade your friends

Pick a friend from the list and send them a personal note, explaining why your candidate is the best choice. You can even see which friends vote consistently and have more online influence.

Votizen empowers you, your candidates, and your friends in a powerful new way. Reach out to friends anywhere in the country who can vote in the races you care about. Tell them who you support and why they should join you. 

Ryan comes from a background of business, technology and public service. Before joining Votizen, he was one of the core engineers at Redbeacon, a home services startup which won the grand prize at the 2009 TechCrunch50 Conference, and was later acquired by The Home Depot.

Politics is a familiar scene for Ryan, who went to The George Washington University in Washington D.C to earn his B.S. in Computer Science. Although he chose to pursue technology as his career, politics has also always been in his bloodline. His grandfather was the chief of staff for former Gov. Bill Egan of Alaska and helmed the gubernatorial campaigns. Ryan's father recently announced his candidacy for State Representative in the state of Connecticut, whose ongoing campaign ultimately inspired Ryan to also participate in bringing change to politics and the United States by joining Votizen.

Year after year, we decry a broken political system that requires candidates to raise billions and billions of dollars to spend on negative campaign ads. Through social media, we finally have a technology that could repair that and restore some sanity to our democratic process, putting the emphasis on relationship-building and not character assassination. At Votizen we see this vision and working every day to create a world where the size of your network matters more than the size of your checkbook.

Not everyone believes in this vision, and we respect that perspective as much anyone. Still, a broken system is incapable of fixing itself. Change must come from new approaches, new technologies, and new organizations willing to work against the status quo. These are uphill battles to be sure. But if no one tries to change the system then no one should be surprised if the system never changes.

Since San Francisco is fortunate to have many users of and contributors to Django, Votizen would like to begin hosting regularly-occurring sprints.  

These sprints will be hosted at Votizen's office near the 4th & King Caltrain station.  They will occur on the 1st and 3rd weekends of each month, generally on Saturdays.

The first sprint will be Sunday, June 3rd, beginning at 10AM and running until 6PM.  Seating,  internet and whiteboards will be provided.  After this first event we hope to provide lunch.

Attendance is limited, for now, to 25, though the event may grow as logistics and attendance become clearer.  Please sign up to attend.

Let's bring down the bug count and get some features into 1.5.

When you signup for Votizen, we match you with your actual voting records. Every person on Votizen is a real person. That makes your voice as an individual that much more powerful whenever you endorse a candidate or interact with one of your representatives.

Things get really interesting, though, when politics becomes social. Your network of friends and family is unique to you. You have influence that no one else has.

We've recently made it possible to see your influence in a whole new way. First, make sure you've connected your Votizen account to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can do that here.

Next, click Voter Network at the top of the page. At a glance, you'll see how many voters you're connected to, where they live, and their favorite candidates and parties.

Where are you most influential? How many states are in your network? Are more of your friends Republicans, Democrats, or Independents? Any surprises? Let us know in the comments or shoot us an email.

It's also fun to compare your network with other Votizens. Check out tech evangelist Robert Scoble and former campaign manager Joe Trippi, two of the rare Votizens whose influence reaches all 50 states.

How does your network stack up?

Justin 'J' Lynn joins us from 3Crowd Technologies. At 3Crowd he was responsible for Operations and Software Systems planning, stability, and quality 24/7/365, and continues in this role here. J is a long time 24/7 user of Linux and he contributes heavily to Open Source and Free Software communities (especially in the Ruby community).

He is already applying his skills to ensure that Votizen is a stable platform for real democracy. J, as he likes to be known, is a fiscal conservative and social liberal. He believes that any government must rule with the informed consent of its citizens. For that reason, the people must have the ability to freely talk about the matters that affect them and to make themselves heard by their peers and representatives and ensure they are being listened to by their governments.