TopCorner.org launches today on Stanford campus!

Today's the big day! TopCorner.org has officially launched!

Go ahead, check out TopCorner.org. We are fully integrated with Facebook.com as well as with Amazon.com payments.

A group of nine Masters in Public Policy students at Stanford successfully pooled their own funds on 8/13 and 8/14 (and lobbied administrators for additional funding) on TopCorner.org to install a laser printer in the Stanford SIEPR building for use by public policy students. Voila: TopCorner.org functionality successfully demonstrated!

TopCorner.org launches today on Stanford campus with a lobbying effort to get airport shuttles for students during the Thanksgiving exodus on Nov. 16th and 17th. Stanford students: please Vote, Propose a Corner, and comment on the site. 

Thank you for your insightful feedback! Enjoy exploring TopCorner.org!

CA and US poll results: citizen interest in microlobbying issues

TopCorner community: here are the results of the representative polls YouGov ran for us in CA and the US. 

http://issuu.com/mewells/docs/topcornerpoll1

Question asked: "Imagine that you were going to contribute a small amount of your own money to a national (or state) political campaign. Which (if any) of the following causes would you be most likely to contribute to? Please choose no more than three."

NATIONAL RESULTS:
31% (A) Cutting taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies;
19% (B) Serving healthier meals in public schools;
16% (C) Removing hidden subsidies for sugar and corn;
24% (D) Stopping child abuse by introducing abuse education programs in high schools;
3% (E) Prohibiting the altering of women’s pictures in magazines;
11% (F) Teaching computer science in middle school and high school;
14% (G) Labeling genetically modified foods;
9% (H) Protecting
students from predatory for-profit universities;
23% (I) Making Congress more efficient by fixing the filibuster so that it doesn’t artificially impede the passage of legislation;
36% (J) Demanding a more bipartisan Congress (for example by withholding congressional pay if congress fails to pass a budget, requiring bipartisan seating during sessions of congress, or requiring bipartisan town hall meetings);
22% (K) None of the above

Working hard and hardly blogging

July already! Apologies for the dearth of posts in the past month. Finals kept us busy until the middle of June; since then we've been prepping for the soft launch of TopCorner.org in August. Expect 2-4 updates per month from here on out.

We've moved into our summer office! Find us in office 108 of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) building (map and directions).

One of the issues we've been grappling with is what level of change-making TopCorner should launch with. Should we launch with a local, California state, or U.S. national campaign? Should we partner with government, non-profit, or for-profit organizations? While our ultimate aim is to make TopCorner.org useful to any organization or individual at any level, TopCorner staffing is lean and mean for launch and focused primarily on achieving proof of concept for the website's launch in August. What do you think?

Happy belated 4th of July! It's an honor to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence while actively working to democratize the tools available for civic engagement in the United States. Do contact us to let us know your questions, concerns, and advice for TopCorner.org. Let the great American experiment in democracy continue!

From Britain to India, a Mobile Experience

Things have been humming and buzzing in the TopCorner office as we close out the month of May.  The Core Team was lucky enough to host two very special guests from India and Britain in order to discuss the future of TopCorner on a Global Scale.  It was during these discussions that we realized that if we were going to mobilize TopCorner users around the globe, we were going to need a truly mobile platform.  With this goal in mind, TopCorner is proud to announce the development of TopCorner Mobile - that's right, TopCorner will be available on you phone in addition to your computer!  With the TopCorner App, you will be able to participate in TopCorner on the go. We recognize that everyone leads increasingly busy lives, and we want to make participation as easy and convenient as possible.  So whether you find yourself waiting for that class to start, the kids' soccer practice to end, that bus to arrive, or the meeting to begin, TopCorner is there for you.

Our meetings with folks from around the world have also helped to fortify our commitment to creating a platform that can work on a global level.  As a result, we have gone back to review all of our designs, tinkering and in some cases hammering, to create a platform that is not only usable on a global level, but also truly worthy of such a goal.  The changes we have made may have slowed us down a bit in launching, but the end result will be well worth the wait as TopCorner now cleaner, stronger, and simply more user friendly, on a global and local level.  When you see what we see now, we know that you will agree.