Chris Barton: Harnessing democratic power of web

It was heartening to see an online petition against the high cost and poor speed of Telecom's fast internet service, Jetstream, on Monday night.

Consumers are fighting back: "We, The Undersigned, request that you (Telecom New Zealand) provide New Zealanders with a more substantial and competitive service in the 'fast' (a.k.a. Broadband) internet connection market."

The call is for Telecom to stop crippling the country with its pathetic broadband offerings and give internet users what they want - a cheaper and faster service with "true" broadband speeds and more reasonable monthly traffic caps.

The petition got 1000 signatures in the first eight hours and when I last looked there were 2772. Not a bad effort for just three days.

But to make chief executive Theresa Gattung listen, there needs to be a lot more - so don't just sit there, get online and sign. Will it have any effect? Probably not, because when you're a monopoly you don't need to care about what your customers think - but any chief executive reading customer comments like these ought to feel concerned.

PetitionsOnline is just one example of a host of web petition sites.

While not totally reliable, because they mostly rely only on an email address for verification, they are a good weathervane of public opinion.

They're also much more trustworthy than those annoying email petitions that invade your inbox from time to time and travel the web in a neverending loop.

Yes, website petitions do sometimes work. In July, 80,000 people in China signed one objecting to Japanese participation in a contract for the US$16 billion high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai.

The Patriotic Alliance collected the signatures in eight days, but was suspended on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Japanese friendship treaty.

But the rekindled memories of Japan's wartime aggression were enough to get Chinese leaders to say Japanese companies were unlikely to be awarded the contract.

Then there were the dissatisfied WebTV customers in the US who won an apology from Microsoft.

Closer to home, just 306 signatures managed to stop the auctioning of dogs on Trade Me. Less than 24 hours after the petition started, Trade Me agreed to stop not just the auctioning of dogs but also cats, birds and horses. Result.

But what about the big issues of the day? The National Party was almost overwhelmed by the 68,687 signatures it got for its Beaches For All petition, which is a sign our politicians are beginning to harness the democratic power of the net.

But they have a way to go to catch United States Democrat Howard Dean, who is on target to raise US$10.3 million in just three months and has gained 344,000 supporters.

The ability of the web to garner and gauge support is also being shown to a seemingly reticent General Wesley Clark (Draft Clark and
Draft Wesley Clark), who is being lobbied to throw his hat into the presidential ring. To help him with his decision there are already over US$1 million in pledges.

Much of this new respect for web politicking is down to MoveOn.org, which began about five years ago as a modest online petition effort. From an initial email to about 300 friends, MoveOn now has a "membership" of 1.4 million liberal Americans, plus 700,000 people outside the United States. Its political action committee has raised US$6.5 million.

Petition sites also give a wide-angle view of what gets people going: Say NO to Welsh Assembly assisted Puppy Farms! and Stop drive through mastectomies.

I had some sympathy with the plea "to stop people talking in movie theatres, stop pre-screening slide shows and commercials, and keep the lights off during end credits".

And the call for a National Underwear Day on August 13 was brilliant: "We believe that underwear is under-appreciated, under-mentioned, and that too often it remains under our clothes." Hear, hear.

But, while the ease with which an online petition can be signed makes a groundswell of public opinion more immediate, it's almost too easy. To keep apathy at bay, protest always needs followup.

I'm looking forward to the day when web petition sites combine with flashmobs.

* Email Chris Barton