Wanted: Women's Voices

There's a group of single women on a singular mission causing quite a stir in San Francisco. And New York. And DC. She19 is working to breathe life into the 19th Amendment. The 19th of course is women's right to vote.

A recent study conducted by Women's Voices, Women Vote, found 22 million unmarried women who were eligible to vote did not cast ballots in the 2000 election. This is the largest group of non voters in the US democratic process, suggesting as a united voting block, they could determine election outcomes.

More importantly, they (and any others who choose to organize) could determine the role of government in our lives (vs simply the people who occupy the posts). Why? Because more so than ever, there are tools that allow people to participate -- in companies, in democracies -- far earlier and far more than by simply buying or voting.

Democracy is predicated on an ongoing conversation between the governors and the governed. While not voting is a significant market signal to send to the governors (ie "we don't believe in the process and we don't believe you make a difference for us"), it's an insufficient one. The overwhelming value in a democracy is the activity of developing a point of view about who represents what matters to you most. When developing the point of view consists of speaking with others -- both individuals and policy makers -- all involved are more a part (and have a greater stake) in shaping what's created.

It's the prep that counts. The vote is merely the final step.

This participatory value creation shift is already occuring in business. Companies know it's in making a product where a majority of the value is added. Today, more and more customers are involved in shaping their purchase options (Ebay customers, for example, create Ebay every day, collaborating both on the transactions as well as on all the tools and policies). A purchase is nothing more than a vote for a product. It's the final step in the value creation process.

In the past, casting a vote was the only visible, persistent signal to send. It was a one day, low bandwidth conversation that occurred once every 4 years. Now with social software (wikis, blogs, etc), the cost to coordinate with others, and further, to build on their thoughts, is nearing zero: People can participate in more meaningful conversations at same time. And unlike face-to-face communication, the cost to merge these conversations into blocks across time and place is neglible.

As a result, people can shape candidates' platforms and officials' policy through their conversations, amongst themselves and with the officials (& their teams) year-round, not simply during election season.

High bandwidth governance however is only as strong as the people who participate. Because a democracy is defined by the group it serves, when we're missing large tracts of people (whether voting as a block or not), the democracy is weakened. In biodiversity terms, it's endangered.

She19 and Women's Voices, Women Vote are playing the invaluable role of encouraging people to participate. Support them. Find the folks who are organizing around what you care about most, support them too. Above all, add your voice to the conversation more than once every 4 years.