Al Gore's second act

Not content to just invent the internet, Al Gore is now going to save the planet. For real. Watch this trailer for his film "An Inconvenient Truth", promoted as the most terrifying film you will ever see. The website has the backstory - it's a film about climate change, based on a speech Gore has apparently been delivering for many years. Looks terrific, apparently got THREE standing ovations at Sundance. I first heard about the film while reading Mitch Kapor's blog. Kapor, co-founder of Lotus 1-2-3 and the EFF, is writing a fascinating series of posts about using the Net to re-design democracy and the political process from the ground up:

The internet, if kept open and accessible to all, is a tool we can use to reform our politics and create new democratic processes and institutions. By using the internet and building upon its open decentralized architecture, we can help give every person a voice and offer them a forum to participate in creating a healthy politics. The internet provides the tools to build bottom-up systems that are both globally interconnected and locally controlled. As the printing press was the technology that helped birth modern self-government, so the internet can be the tool to build a new democratically controlled participatory politics.

Comments

[Stephen Edgar]

It would be great to have software that could do these types of things. What was the name of the web site in the UK that scrabes the Hansard that Cory mentioned at ACMI? (Something about holding politicians accountable!)

[Cameron Reilly]

thanks for reminding me Stephen. It was http://theyworkforyou.com/. Going to check it out now.

[Paul]

Theyworkforyou.com's a pretty decent website. I use it to keep tabs on my local MP...
I like the fact that my MP's stated as the '85th most rebellious of 635 MPs in parliament'. He's got my respect already...