Online petitions

A petition is a document that opposes a particular policy or action that an authority (whether it’s a local council, a school, a company, central Government etc) has taken or plans to take, with a list of signatures - which is intended to demonstrate how much support there is for your position.

In the internet age, online petitioning has made the process far easier. There are a variety of websites that provide online petition tools . One that is certainly worth remarking on is the one that the Prime Minister’s office has set up to enable you to submit petitions directly to 10 Downing Street. You can then send your petition page to your contacts and encourage them to sign it before you submit it online to 10 Downing St. The website is run by www.mysociety.org, who also produce a range of other online resources that might be of help to campaigners.

Websites such as They Work for You and Write to Them also enable you to search MPs by postcode. By embedding this search function on your website, you can encourage people to write to their MPs about your campaign issue. The Write to Them website gives some very useful tips about how to do this effectively.

The Ipetitions website lists a set of general principles that they think make good petitions. Here are a few of them.

1. Write clearly and concisely
2. Spell check and proofread
3. Use the power of email
4. Foster an online community, using blogs, discussion groups, and social networking tools.
5. Get media coverage
6. Supplement with offline efforts
7. Be ambitious but realistic in what you asking for

Click here for the full list.

Are online petitions effective?

Much of the following applies to online, as well as more ‘traditional’ paper based petitioning.

Pros

• The internet makes distribution of your petition very easy. It can potentially be seen by millions of people.
• Alongside other campaign tactics, it can spread your message, give people an easy way to show their support for you, and then to demonstrate to your campaign target that you do indeed have support for your position.

Cons

• It is easy to give fake email addresses and names on petitions, which may make them less credible (the same is true of more traditional petitions, but the fact these are hand-written makes it more difficult for it to be, or be perceived to be, a fabrication of support). If you are using an online petition, use one which offers email verification, which may make it more credible.
• It is exactly because it so easy to distribute an online petition, and for people to sign it, that a long list of signatures does not necessarily evidence genuine support for your cause.
• According to Wikipedia, many NGOs do not use online petitioning, partly because they do not consider them to be effective. According to Wikipedia, critics also describe it as an example of slacktivism, which is activism that is extremely easy to participate in, that has a feel-good factor, but has little impact.
• A petition demonstrates support from a subset of public opinion. It is not a survey, which would demonstrate what proportion of a relevant population supports your position.

For an example look at the Stand with Burma online petition. As well as providing an online petition form, the Avaaz website enables registered campaigners to send a petition on to your friends to also sign.

One idea would be to do a duel campaign – get your petition text clear and then do both an online petition but also support it with a download option from the website.
You could create your own petition – by creating a google document page and embedding it in your website.
The bonus of doing it all this way is:

• The individual can take immediate action (by signing)
• The individual can follow up (i.e. they can download it then get their friends (e.g. when waiting for kids at school) to sign)
• You keep control of the data and can put suitable statements to ensure you can then email them about the campaign and/or about your organisation in general growing your email list
• You can update your website as you get policy responses from politicians and endorsements from local celebrities/parents/ key figures’

More information

Twitter can be a useful petition tool. Here are a few websites which can help you set up a Twitter petition:

• Act.ly
• Twitition
• Twibbon (this website is slightly different in that it promotes awareness by overlaying an icon onto your profile picture to show support for a cause.)

Here is an example of a different type of petition approach taken by Amnesty International, using more visual and interactive tools to get people involved.