Dalio Sijah

Istinomjer / GlasometarTruth-o-meter/Votemeter

Website

• Launched prior to preelection campaign (BiH general elections 2010.)

• Deliverance of preelection promises of 5 rulling parties on state level

• Aimed to:- influence the tone of preelection campaign - promote political accountability as opposed to

populist rhetorics in the media

Development

• Broadening research: from state to entity and local levels

• Developing the methodology for assesing the quality of preelection party programs

• Blog / international community• “Istinomjer” in print – weekly articles in “BH Dani”• Regional cooperation

Website

Social Media/Print (“BH Dani” weekly)

ResultsAnalyzed and rated:• 367 preelection pledges for the 2006-2010 term (state

level) • 1490 pledges for the current term(2010-2014) (entity levels)• 215 statements since 2010Media coverage upon launch: – Around 50 articles in online and printed media– Around 20 TV/radio appearances and reports– Ranked as 435 visited site in BiH in two weeks

Future plans

• TV form• Local level – preelection pledges for upcoming

local elections in BiH• Building a base/statistics of politicians’

statements• Wider regional cooperation• Stronger focus on social media

Votemeter – Glasometar – Ideology Preferences of Voters

and Parties in BiH

www.glasometar.ba

Dalio Sijah, CA Why not BiH

What is Glasometar/Votemeter:• Potentially: An online tool/quizz for testing voter

preferences/political ideologies • Hopefully: A tool for making political parties more

open and accountable for their ideologies/programs• Ideally: One of the online places where voters

acctually can make up thier minds• Really: An interesting tool to learn how little do

both voters and parties know and care about ideologies and policies

Why Glasometar/Goals:• Learning about ideological and political orientation

of the political parties and voters in BiH• Informing the citizens of the party policies and

programs• Raising awareness on accountability and idelogical

orientations• Making it more interesting/interactive for the

potential voters• GOTV – Getting the people out to vote

How:

• Defining the efficient methodology• Defining the right set of questions • Getting answers from political parties• Developing the site and incorporating the

answers• The site goes live• Getting tens of thousands of people to

participate

Let’s check out www.glasometar.ba

Challenge no. 1:

• The right mixture of ideological, BiH specific and daily-political questions

• Work with a group of experts from different fields

• Split the questions on the point where it splits the public

How to create the right set of questions

Challenge no. 2:

• There is no middle answer, everyone has to take sides (scale with 4 positions)

• You get points only on the same side of the answer

• Let the users have all the data

How to measure it right

Challenge no. 3:

• Choose the ones you need in in order that the people would be interested in the app

• Governmental parties have to be in, one way or the other

• Limit it to the parties that have a chance of reaching the parliament

• Make it available for all other parties to join

How to choose the parties to participate

Challenge no. 4:

• Let them know it’s gonna get big• Make them aware they are gonna participate even

if they don’t want to• Let them be aware of the force of internet• Have an impecable methodology• Be sure to have non-partisan questions

How to get answers from the parties

Challenge no. 5:

• Assure the integrity, accuracy and security of the data

• Make it secure, stable and scalable• Make it easy to understand and go through• Work on the appearance of the results

How to develop a good tool

Challenge no. 6:

• Have an interesting set of questions• Make it annonymus and not obligatory to leave

any data• Always be ready to explain• Get it out to both the online and offline folks

How to get the people to participate

Challenge no. 7:

• Don’t be affraid to tell which parties were the best• Let the public know what the people agreed on the

most and advocate for it• Challenge the parties with the answers they gave • Raise the relevance through publishing relevant

infromation from the research• We got over 20.000 answers, over half a million

answers to individual questions, over 8000 people left their demographical data

How to use the data

Future plans and regional expansion:

• Local elections in 2012 – making it local • General elections in 2014• Testing other uses – getting to know ideologies

of parlamentarians, government officials, etc.• Succsesfull deployment in Macedonia• Upcoming deployments in the region: Serbia,

Albania,...

HVALA NA PAŽNJI !!!

dalio@zastone.ba