WeGov.com pushes Internet activism in new direction

Now that politicians and lawmakers have embraced Facebook and other Web services for outreach, the newest game in town, WeGov.com, goes the other direction.

WeGov.com will move from testing status to a full launch by the end of this month. It bills itself as "the most comprehensive, nonpartisan platform for civic engagement, political participation, and organizational activism. . . . Our mission is to provide a place where citizens and groups can take REAL political action and make an impact."

The site was founded by David Gordon, a Bostonian who clocked some time in Washington as a lobbyist for the MWW Group and then joined his family's wine business. Gordon had been involved in some local races in addition to his Beltway experience. He was moved by efforts of people to group around pieces of legislation to effect an outcome. WeGov.com has been in the works for at least seven years, and it's had Gordon's full attention for the past year.

Gordon pointed out that as popular as Facebook is, especially in political circles, it generally serves as a way to alert users to a movement rather than to organize around it. His site allows groups to host pages on the site just like Facebook, but it goes a step further by enabling users to donate to campaigns, engage in letter-writing efforts and join petitions.

In that way, Gordon's creation takes a stab at an underlying problem of social networking: It's always been a way to get notice and lap up potential support, but it doesn't mean the supporters will do anything.

"A lot of people may 'like' something, but there's no way to take tangible action," Gordon said.

The bare-bones WeGov Boston team is working with Facebook to get attention around its goals, and does not consider it a competitor.

Another major element Gordon claims as unique to his product is that it's the first open forum where organizers can confirm voting status of users -- and that makes the legislative organizing all the more powerful to lawmakers. As Gordon puts it, registered voters "are harder to dismiss."

To that end, groups and politicians can aggregate users via the legislation they support on the site and determine exactly what causes are moving individual voters at the local, state and federal levels -- its own form of micro-targeting.

Gordon pointed out that the site will go through several phases in which additional components will launch that add to its usefulness. A major selling point already in place, he said, is this: "We're the only Internet platform that provides state legislation for free in all 50 states."

Washington has already taken notice: Groups from Americans for Tax Reform to the Marijuana Policy Project, SEIU to the Chicago tea party, and Rock the Vote to Keep America Safe, are already major users.