I thought the point of this was to get the geeks to network a little bit so that they can better take the "geek wankery" from the Internet to the real world?
A primary focus of this non-partisan event is to strengthen and broaden the social network of people who are using, visioning and implementing applications to support their advocacy and social change efforts.
Seems like the point is that they're recognizing their "very very small crowd of the politically active" and working to broaden the crowd.
I'm actually in the midst of editing an article on the Indian voting system, and clicked on the original post to contribute the very same ideas guyfromindia did. A few quick facts:
--More than 600 million people voted in recent Indian elections. I imagine the paper trail would be roughly the size of the redwood forest.
--Despite being designed in the country in the 1980s and being used sporadically in elections since then, it wasn't until 2004 that electronic voting machines were actually used extensively. I wish I knew the reasons why, but I don't.
--Booth capturing is the craziest practice I've run across in researching this stuff! It's also apparently very widespread, as I found plenty of articles involving Indian politicians who pledge not to support the practice. It's quite possible this is the explanation to my unanswered question about the implementation of EVMs. Booth capturing generally seems to traditionally have been accompanied by riots, but I imagine it's much simpler for someone to mess with an EVM than it is to cause a riot and physically stuff a ballot box.
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I thought the point of this was to get the geeks to network a little bit so that they can better take the "geek wankery" from the Internet to the real world? A primary focus of this non-partisan event is to strengthen and broaden the social network of people who are using, visioning and implementing applications to support their advocacy and social change efforts. Seems like the point is that they're recognizing their "very very small crowd of the politically active" and working to broaden the crowd.
I'm actually in the midst of editing an article on the Indian voting system, and clicked on the original post to contribute the very same ideas guyfromindia did. A few quick facts:
--More than 600 million people voted in recent Indian elections. I imagine the paper trail would be roughly the size of the redwood forest.
--Despite being designed in the country in the 1980s and being used sporadically in elections since then, it wasn't until 2004 that electronic voting machines were actually used extensively. I wish I knew the reasons why, but I don't.
--Booth capturing is the craziest practice I've run across in researching this stuff! It's also apparently very widespread, as I found plenty of articles involving Indian politicians who pledge not to support the practice. It's quite possible this is the explanation to my unanswered question about the implementation of EVMs. Booth capturing generally seems to traditionally have been accompanied by riots, but I imagine it's much simpler for someone to mess with an EVM than it is to cause a riot and physically stuff a ballot box.