A one-click signature
Today, political parties, associations and organisations all have a digital address book. The challenge, though, lies in turning these often extensive online contacts into actual signatures. The wecollect.ch platform seeks to leverage this potential and harness the power of social media to get the word out and therefore create a snowball effect.
wecollect.ch gives users the choice of signing an initiative anonymously or registering on the platform. With one click, registered users receive a pre-filled, post-payed signature form in their inbox. All they have to do is print out the PDF, sign it and stick it in a postbox.
Best of Swiss Web Award
The platform builds on the E-Collector project, which in 2015 gathered more than 30,000 signatures for two popular initiatives and one referendum. The project took silver in the Public Affairs category of the Best of Swiss Web Award.
The E-Collector process, which is integrated in the wecollect.ch platform, slashes the signature collection costs.
Smart use of technology
As a start-up with meagre funds at its disposal, the wecollect.ch was built using open-source software. For Gerhard Andrey, «Agile solutions inject a new dynamic. The time has come for the collection of referendum and initiative signatures online. I hope that wecollect.ch will pave the way for a fully digital process.»
The back end was built using Silex, a lightweight PHP framework. The databases are connected through Doctrine. As for the front end, the project team opted for Twitter Bootstrap and jQuery. In terms of email delivery, the developers went for the mail engine from MailChimp, Mandrill, among others. The system supports multiple languages, and this right up to URL configuration. A streamlined CMS gives the platform all the performance it needs and YAML is used to write configuration files. A SQL database provides the system with added support for address checks and other queries.
Demokratie ins Netz katapultieren
«The aim of our politically independent platform is to catapult democracy into the digital age. Key to its success will be the creation of a wecollect community who will, over time, help determine the initiatives and referendums that our platform will engage with.»
Daniel Graf, Kampagnenexperte von gamechanger.ch und MitbegrĂŒnder von wecollect.ch
Agile Lösung
«Agile Lösungen sorgen fĂŒr neue Dynamik. Die Zeit, Unterschriften fĂŒr Initiativen und Referenden im Netz zu sammeln, ist gekommen. Ich hoffe, dass mit wecollect.ch das Fundament fĂŒr einen völlig digitalen Prozess gelegt wurde.»
Gerhard Andrey, Partner, Liip AG
Client
WeCollect
Result
WeCollect
Awards
Best of Swiss Web Award Silver