For a politician, is a promise a promise?

At Las penas del Agente Smith I read that the guys that run El Manifestómetro [1] have launched Lo prometido es deuda, a wiki to track politicians’ electoral promises. The initiative has already made it into the mainstream media: El Pais has published an article about it.

A wiki containing quotes from politicians’ promises, with accompanying evidence, searchable by campaign and candidate name seems an interesting way to engage citizenship in an attempt to hold politicians responsible for their promises. I can imagine plenty of interesting ways of using the data: computing politicians with the most un-fulfilled promises, politicians that promise the most, trends in the kinds of things being promised, etc.

As the site becomes more mainstream, the amount of spamming and “improving” of entries will give the editors a hard time keeping the wiki honest. So if you are Spanish-speaking, and have some minutes to spare, have a look at the suggested tasks for editors, and sign up!

– [1] El Manifestómetro tracks participation in Spanish demonstrations, to keep politician’s “improved” participation numbers in check.

Tags: current affairs

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