- Welcome
- Ask a question
- Good questions
- Ratings
- Forum
- Site plans
- Volunteer
- FAQ
- Input & Feedback
Welcome to Real Questions
The purpose of Real Questions is to harness online public participation to generate increased political accountability.
Australians have a strong interest in genuinely improved political accountability. Through broad user input, the Real Questions website aims to provide an online environment which produces targeted questions to political leaders as a way of prompting and arming the media in their interactions with them. It defines ways to enable users to develop and refine effective questions, and show the extent of user support for them. It expects to show key questions addressed to each politician, and show comparative performances by politicians in response. The online site when initially launched will cover Federal and Commonwealth governments in Australia; but plans to expand when possible to cover local government across Australia as well.
The site currently shows three pages with a static mockup of what the site will offer when it completes its first stage of development. Those pages are: "Ask a Question", "Good Questions" and "Rankings".
More info on the Real Questions project is below on this page.
To assist the Real Questions project, go to the "Volunteers" page.
To begin with questions, go to the "Ask a Question" page.
More Information
Effective questions to politicians
On many occasions, politicians can conduct interviews on their own terms, either because they manage to avoid answering the actual question, or because the interviewer does not have the capability to put effective questions. Without effective questioning, a politician will be able to “take a free kick” ie make a doubtful assertion without having to justify it. Allowing politicians to continually repeat doubtful statements amounts to support for propaganda.
Effective questions are topical and incisive. Good questions force the interviewee to address specific issues. They address vague, ambiguous or meaningless aspects of politicians’ stated positions.
Equipping journalists
Real Questions will be a resource which journalists can easily access to enable them to quickly tap into a wider range of public concerns that might not be previously salient.
A small number of journalists are noted in Australia for their ability to put politicians on the spot, but most journalists (especially TV journalists) are not noted for their ability to effectively probe for meaningful answers. This can occur because increased media concentration increases journalists’ workloads, thus reducing their ability to prepare. It may happen due to editorial perceptions of what stories they want to see. It may also happen in when journalists without a specific background in a specialised area interviews somebody on a complex topic, covering areas like climate change and other environmental topics, economics, defence, and the arts.
Examples of questions
The following are general examples of questions which can be addressed:
Real Questions website
The website will allow users to ask questions of their nominated politician. It will allow users (based on their level of login) to rate all questions for clarity and political importance, to comment on questions and answers, and participate in other ways. It will also provide information on questions to politicians, showing various views of questions and results by politician.
The key purpose of the site is to show an online, focused view of the public’s questions, whether or not individual politicians respond. However, the site will also send summaries of questions to each politician to them, and publish their responses to questions. The site will also show further ratings and comments on the answers.
The usability of the site is crucial. Users must be able to intuitively operate the in the site, and must be comfortable in doing so. The site is governed by terms of use which ensure fair operation and protect privacy.
The Real Questions site will be built using open source technology. All identifiable personal information - including the questions, responses, and ratings - will be held in a secure database.
Who is “Real Questions”?
Charles and David Jago, who have a background of involvement in public participation and facilitation, started real Questions. Real Questions will be set up as a non-profit organisation. Initial funding (mostly for legal costs) is being paid by Charles Jago.
Within the coming year, Real Questions will be led by a board of respected, transparently independent group of men and women from a range of occupational and political backgrounds, Australian states and age groups. It will include people with experience in social &/or political participation, media, politics (as former elected representatives, ideally covering multiple levels of government) as well as business and project management. Real Questions will operate substantially as a virtual organisation.
The main form of revenue for the venture is expected to be website advertising, supported by some individual donations. No corporate donations will be accepted. However, grants from non-corporate organisations such as foundations may be accepted where the board believes that they do not compromise the independence of Real Questions.
Volunteers
The project will rely entirely on volunteers for the short and medium term. The site will include a clear acknowledgement of the contribution of all the people associated with the project. Key areas of input include:- contributions to the technical design,
- involvement in specific programming activities,
- graphical user interface (GUI) design, and usability testing,
- help on resolving difficult technical issues that arise.
- marketing and promotion.
Next Steps
At present, the following stages of evolution are planned.
- Preparation: secure trademark rights and domain names; prepare basic website; plan for future phases. This is the current phase.
- Project Announcement (Website v 0.2): a public (essentially static) website describing the project and inviting participation, while the next step of the website is prepared. This will seek involvement in the next steps.
- Simple working prototype (Website v 0.3) A simple prototype of the participation website will be created, not necessarily using the same technology as the full online website. This will allow early development issues to be identified and managed, assist in working through the design, and provide a basis for generating further interest. It will also allow the site to be tested to measure the interest and needs of various types of users (men/women, different age groups, or users with different approaches to politics, etc)
- Closed Alpha (Website v 0.5): in addition to the public website about the project, a “closed version” of the underlying participation website will be accessible to people who log in. They will be able to submit questions on a trial basis.
- Public Beta (Website v 0.7): in addition to the public website about the project, a public beta of the underlying participation website will be accessible. People who log in will be able to submit questions on a trial basis.
- Launch version (Website v 1.0): the site will have all key planned features, at a level of maturity to sustain ongoing interest and participation.
Contact
Charles Jago
1/159 Concord Road, North Strathfield NSW 2137 Australia
0403 902 613
02 8765 9380 (61 2 8765 9380)
[This is a mockup page - NOT LIVE!]
Step 1: Log in (Create a new account)
Step 2: Choose an office-holder
Use the search box to find an office holder, or choose a government below and find the responsible politician from a listing of ministers or other roles. If you have one, you can also select a favourite from the box on the right.
OR
Choose a government, then follow the prompts:
Commonwealth
ACT NT NSW QLD SA TAS VIC WA
Local Government
[Each of the Fed & state govt links opens up a new box with choices including the ministers of that govt. Local govt probably opens up a complete new page tab.]
Step 3: Ask your question!
| Tag No | Tag name |
| Tag 1 | |
| Tag 2 | |
| Tag 3 | |
| Tag 4 | |
| Tag 5 |
Tags give an idea of the larger topic or category that your question can be part of. For example, a question about the possible effect of withdrawing promised tax cuts on inflation might use the following tags:
- Economy
- Tax
- Inflation
- Election promises
- Political integrity
[This is a mockup page - NOT LIVE!]
Good questions for Kevin Rudd
(sample only)
Questions in the table below are ranked based on ratings for clarity and relevance of RQ members so far. (Clear questions get a high rating for clarity, and low if it’s vague or hard to understand.) The two right hand columns show the number of comments and answers for each question.
You can add your ratings too. Simply click on a score in the <blue 7 part slider> in the clarity or relevance column.
First select the question then:
Add a question, View comments/ Add comment, New question based on selected, Report issue to moderator View answers/ Add an answer
Just select the question in the tickbox in the left column and click on the button you need. You will be able to add a new comment from the page showing existing comments.
| Question | Author | Date | Clarity | Relevance | Comments | Answers | Tag 1 | Tag 2 | |
| Why do you persist with the idea of spending billions on tax cuts when so many people now think that this will add to inflation? | Fred | 4 Feb | 9 |
9 |
2 |
0 |
Tax | Inflation | |
| Why is the Federal intervention with Aboriginal people which is so controversial and intrusive not been reviewed with major changes? | Susan | 1 Feb | 6 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
Aboriginal affairs | Federal/ State relations | |
| Why do you want to hold a summit of 1,000 people in Canberra if you already have a plan for the future? | Bill | 8 Feb | 8 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Politics | Public participation | |
| Why did you shave the hair on your face? | Annie | 3 Feb | 5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
Politics | ||
[This is a mockup page - NOT LIVE!]
The table shows the number of questions asked of each office-holder, the number of comments made, the number of answers available, and the average scores on their answers. It then combines these results into a total score. It also shows their role and the most frequent category shown in questions to them.
Hold your mouse over a name to see that person's role. Click a column heading to sort by that column. You can sort by office-holder (alphabetically), by any of the scores (eg most columns), constituency or category.
| Name | Party | Constit | Questions | Comments | Answers | Average answers | Total score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edna Everage | None | World | 35 |
18,987 |
35 |
10 |
350 |
Fashion, new shows |
| Kevin Rudd | ALP | Fed | 26 |
1,352 |
19 |
6 |
114 |
Sideburns, Obama |
| Wayne Swan | ALP | Fed | 21 |
1 |
7 |
4 |
28 |
Inflation, tax cuts |
| Brendan Nelson | Lib | Fed | 21 |
5 |
7 |
5 |
35 |
Sorry, sorry |
| Malcolm Turnbull | Lib | Fed | 19 |
203 |
15 |
2 |
30 |
Being Malcolm |
| Morris Iemma | ALP | NSW | 13 |
109 |
4 |
4 |
16 |
What? |
| Anna Bligh | ALP | QLD | 12 |
99 |
7 |
4 |
28 |
Hey? |
| Bob Brown | Green | Fed | 10 |
57 |
9 |
8 |
72 |
Pulp Mill |
Table of planned site changes
| Topic/ area | Details | By | Priority/ urgency |
| Frame design | Review/ enhance frames to add additional location for favourites, polls and topical information on the main page | Charles Jago | Medium |
| Working prototype | A website which actually connects to a back end database, rather than our current static mockup. This will start with ASP/ MS Access, then move toward PHP/ MySQL. | Charles Jago (all help gratefully received) | Next Big Thing |
Note: this shows plans for the website, not for the overall project.
Real Questions has no paid staff, and is entirely operated by volunteers.
We currently need the people with the following skills:
- Web designer
- Web application programmer
- User interface testing
- Marketing & promotions
The first three obviously deal with setting up the website, while the marketing and promotions role is to work with a range of people across various age groups, political persuasions, levels of computing skill, and whatever else might be important. From this we need to work out the most effective ways to promote Real Questions to users who could use it to make a difference.
To respond, please fill in the response form on the "Input and Feedback" page. Please be patient, as at the moment this is being managed by a volunteer with limited time!
Q: Do you expect that politicians will actually answer the questions?
A: Having the politicians actually answer would be cream on the cake, but that's obviously not reliable! The key thing is to have a collectively developed set of what people think are the key questions. The questions directed to each politician will obviously evolve over time. They will also improve as users see how they can create new questions which improve in various ways on the existing ones, to be clearer and better targeted.
Q: But do you actually want answers?
A: Yes, we will actually be asking for answers. Emails will go to politicians, asking them to answer the list of current questions to them. All answers will be posted on the website, so that users can see it and rate them for clarity and relevance, just like the questions. This will feed into the score of each politician.
Q: What about answers which might already exist?
A: If we don't have an answer directly from a politician, and somebody sees a direct answer already available (such as in an article online) we will try to link to that, and then use the same rating process.
(Please send any additional questions via the feedback page.)
This page will eventually feature a form for feedback. Until then, please send an email to
