Towards An Open Source Democracy

By Marc Strassman

The Open Source software paradigm can provide a model, as well as actual tools, for building a transparent, secure, and effective form of self-government.

ISSUE 94, DECEMBER 2000

IN THIS ISSUE:

Section Four: US Case Study
- Digital Petitions

SECTION FOUR: US CASE STUDY
- DIGITAL PETITIONS

TOWARDS AN OPEN SOURCE DEMOCRACY

In our last issue, we looked at how US citizens can initiate legislative measures in some states through the 'initiative process', under which they are required to collect a certain number of signatures on petitions. If they collect the requisite number of valid signatures, the proposed measure goes onto the next public election ballot, and voters can then pass or defeat the initiative at the polls.

The nearest one can come at the moment to collecting signatures over the Internet for these purposes is to create a 'PDF' graphical file version of the initiative petition, post it on the web or email it to those requesting it, and let them print it out, sign it, and post it in.

This is an inelegant and often difficult way of proceeding, given the need to print the forms out on two sides of the paper, compress the text to fit in limited space and so on.

The obvious way to have people sign initiative petitions over the Internet is to let them sign them using digital certificates. As of 1 October 1 2000, the US federal E-Sign bill is in effect, authorising the use of these online credentials to sign contracts online. It's only logical to say that if digital certificates are now good enough to sign multi-million dollar contracts, they ought to be good enough to indicate your desire to see a particular legislative proposal voted on in your state.

The 'Smart Initiatives Initiative' currently being circulated in California was created to implement this idea in practice. Its primary aim is to allow people to vote on a measure requiring the state to provide all citizens with a digital identity certificate. The project has until March 12, 2001 to collect 419,260 valid signatures of California voters who want to see it on the primary ballot in 2002.

With Smart Initiative petitions, as with any petition, verifying the identity of the signer is key. Still, while the identity of the signer must be knowable by the authorities that check the signatures, it need not be made available to the general public. In fact, under the provisions of the proposed Smart Initiatives Initiative, it is protected by the same restrictions on disclosure as are legacy pen-on-paper signatures.

Moving the initiative-signing process online benefits all parties involved. For proponents, it reduces the cost of circulating their petitions by several orders of magnitude. For citizen-signers, it makes it much easier to study a proposed initiative and then, if they want, to sign it from home, office, or other location.

For the election officials who currently need to spend months checking a mere random fraction of the submitted signatures before extrapolating according to arcane formulas to determine the 'official' number of valid signatures, the power and convenience of a digital system to rapidly and comprehensively tabulate the results would be a much-welcomed improvement.

Because the first major provision of the Smart Initiatives Initiative is the distribution by the state of a high-level digital certificate to each citizen, citizens-as-consumers and citizens-as-commercial entities will benefit as well. They will be able to use these certificates not just to sign initiative petitions but to buy insurance, order groceries, tele-commute, check their children's homework assignments, and do anything possible now or in the future that requires them to establish their identity online.

At a minimum cost of ten dollars each, however, providing 20 million Californians with a digital certificate will not come cheap. Hence another proposal that could lower this cost and pay other dividends as well, a proposal to develop Open Source Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) software.

Open Source software is computer programming code that is not secret. The instructions that make it run are available openly to everyone. It makes sense to consider the creation of an Open Source PKI Foundation to facilitate the creation of Open Source PKI code, not only to save the State of California a lot of money, but also to set the stage for using open source software to eventually provide Internet voting services.

In addition to the cost savings for the government, building a PKI and using Internet voting software where the internal code is open would mean that it could be properly understood by the people who use it. It would provide a technological analogue of the political openness and participation that is central to this entire vision of what could be termed 'Open Source Democracy.'

Nor would it be inappropriate, eventually, to move many other existing and future e-government applications to an Open Source model. In such an environment, we could avail ourselves of a seamless web of information, decision-making, and functionality. As the reach and power of the Web steadily evolve, these principles of openness and self-determination would be a concrete realisation of the long-sought ideal of 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.'

• Article by Marc Strassman, Author of the Smart Initiatives Initiative and Founder and Executive Director of the Smart Initiatives Project. See: http://www.smartinitiatives.org