29 June 2012

What should we do to the candidates in 2012?

| johnboy
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In 2008 we had some fun with the sim challenge where we made prospective candidates play Sim City for an hour to get a feeling for their priorities.

It worked quite well, but things change a lot in the course of four years.

So with the election being the responsibility of Editorial Resource Number 2 (to be determined) (as I sun myself in Indonesian resorts with the filthy internet lucre) I figured we’d throw it out to the RiotACT hive mind as to what would be a good activity to get prospective candidates engaged with.

Over to you Rioters.

(Above is Speaker Shane Rattenbury’s shot at the title)

sim challenge

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pierce said :

Voight-Kampff tests all round

Excellent!

Do politicians dream of virtual worms?

pierce said :

Voight-Kampff tests all round

Took me a few seconds but I remembered what that is! Awesome.

+1

whitelaughter4:41 pm 03 Jul 12

Bosworth said :

Have each candidate do a guest post on the riotact titled “why should you vote for me”.

Have each candidate personally respond to all comments over a 24 hr period.

Ask the commenters to vote on the best performance. RiotACT will endorse the people’s choice.

I like – this and/or the twitter feed have serious potential.

Besides, I want to see how they handle wingnuts.

Bosworth said :

Have each candidate do a guest post on the riotact titled “why should you vote for me”.

Have each candidate personally respond to all comments over a 24 hr period.

Ask the commenters to vote on the best performance. RiotACT will endorse the people’s choice.

Excellent idea.

And we don’t have to be too polite about the questions we ask 🙂

Bosworth said :

Have each candidate do a guest post on the riotact titled “why should you vote for me”.

Have each candidate personally respond to all comments over a 24 hr period.

Ask the commenters to vote on the best performance. RiotACT will endorse the people’s choice.

Get them on Twitter with some stupid #hashtag (suggestion: #HASHTAGforACTelection) and get them to answer any and all questions for an hour; some may be about what they actually think about policy and stuff, but most will just be general things about that ACT that people have never thought about Googling before.

It will make them look like they are engaged with the community.

Have each candidate do a guest post on the riotact titled “why should you vote for me”.

Have each candidate personally respond to all comments over a 24 hr period.

Ask the commenters to vote on the best performance. RiotACT will endorse the people’s choice.

Holden Caulfield3:56 pm 02 Jul 12

poetix said :

p1 said :

I like option three, but can we drop them in the Simpson Dessert instead?

The Simpson Dessert is one big doughnut…

Hopefully not bought from 7-Eleven, that would blow a bigger hole in the budget.

fnaah said :

Okay, so public execution may not actually be allowed (spoilsports….), so how about a public scrutiny of their capacity to think rationally?

Get them in front of an internets machine, and point them at these quick (but highly entertaining and thought provoking) questionnaires:

Battleground God: (determines whether your beliefs about god [or lack thereof] are logically consistent)

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.php

That was fun, but there are some serious problems with the way the questions are phrased. Their undefined use of the word “justified”, for instance. Justified to who? Or by who? And on what basis?

Interesting, anyway.

whitelaughter3:42 pm 02 Jul 12

Hmm, debate, railroads, yr 9 debate and questionaires all good options (the questionaires aren’t perfect, but on the flip side *knowing* what, if anything, they believed would be great).

How about a race around Canberra – by ACTION? Provide a list of sites they need to drop in on, and then they can what it’s like to rely on public transport. John James needs to be on the list, maybe the Down Syndrome association – a few of the hard to get to locations that exist to help people who aren’t mobile :/

p1 said :

I like option three, but can we drop them in the Simpson Dessert instead?

The Simpson Dessert is one big doughnut…

I like option three, but can we drop them in the Simpson Dessert instead?

Here are some ideas:

Option 1: The Goose Chase (can someone come up with a better name?)
Start them off in civic and give them a set of things they need to do (visit the gift shop at TCH, buy a meat pie at a bakery in Hawker, visit Telstra Tower etc). They are only allowed to travel via ACTION buses. To make it extra interesting, make it on a Sunday when there are stuff all services.

Option 2: Trivia Night
Each party (Libs, Labor and Greens) gets 6 on each team (two from each electorate). All questions are based on Canberra (geography, history, sport, etc). I can’t wait to see Labor lose on the final question when they tell everyone that Oaks Estate is located in Queanbeyan.

Option 3: Find your way home
Have a team of 3-4 from each party. Blindfold them all and then drive them up to an obscure point in the Brindabellas. Give them 3L of water each, a bit of fruit and a compass and have them find their way back home. Make sure you confiscate their phones so they don’t cheat.

This one may actually work as an election. First team back to the Legislative Assembly gets to govern.

Option 4: Work for a day
Each party sends a few people out to do various jobs for the day. I’d like to see Zed try to manage 50 kids at a childcare centre or see Katy drive an ACTION bus through the streets of Ngunnawal. Andrew Barr could be a bouncer at Mooseheads and Gary Humphries can deal with cranky people at Canberra Connect.

astrojax said :

what was your bullet, taco?

I answered true to “It is foolish to believe in God without certain, irrevocable proof that God exists.”

Voight-Kampff tests all round

Put them in a car for a drive around a pre determined route on a variety of roads. Have the speedo covered, and score them on their ability to stay within 10km/h of the speed limit without exceeding it.

Or

Challenge them to walk from one end of civic to the other without being stopped by a chugger?

Will there be mafioso contractors? (I know they’re not all like that but to make it realistic you gotta have a few). Also a bar meter that measures people’s reactions to having a civic square absolutely overrun with sculptures.

what was your bullet, taco?

fnaah said :

Okay, so public execution may not actually be allowed (spoilsports….), so how about a public scrutiny of their capacity to think rationally?

Get them in front of an internets machine, and point them at these quick (but highly entertaining and thought provoking) questionnaires:

Battleground God: (determines whether your beliefs about god [or lack thereof] are logically consistent)

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.php

You took zero direct hits and you bit 1 bullets. The average player of this activity to date takes 1.37 hits and bites 1.09 bullet. 555426 people have so far undertaken this activity.

Philosophical Health Check: (identifies contrary or inconsistent ideals/morals)

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/check.php

Tension Quotient = 13%

get them to nominate their favourite coffee purveyor and then a team of voters (perhaps i might participate, on the public purse, of course!) could then go test the veracity of these claims..?

or a pinata. s/he who collects the most sweets is the winner and we all vote for her/him…

The startup picture on the youtube video makes Shane Rattenbury look like the Man from red room in Twin Peaks.

Okay, so public execution may not actually be allowed (spoilsports….), so how about a public scrutiny of their capacity to think rationally?

Get them in front of an internets machine, and point them at these quick (but highly entertaining and thought provoking) questionnaires:

Battleground God: (determines whether your beliefs about god [or lack thereof] are logically consistent)

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.php

Philosophical Health Check: (identifies contrary or inconsistent ideals/morals)

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/check.php

Ko. said :

Engage year 9 debating teams in policy debate as practice.

Whoa!!!! hold your horses there…..You might as well ask them to land a man on Mars while you’re at it.

Paintball challenge
candidates vs a team of voters
but the voters team should have real guns and live ammunition
I volunteer to captain the voters team

Engage year 9 debating teams in policy debate as practice.

They have to stop the boats from reaching Canberra’s coastline.

Get them each to make their own piece of public art.

What should you do to them? String them all up as a warning, I say.

Primal said :

LOLcat-themed policy announcements. Can they stick to their key messages whilst reaching out via the lingua franca of (the sillier parts of) the internet?

I can haz open governmentz?

Given the state of our economy and public finances, maybe get them to fill out a BAS statement in one hour?

LOLcat-themed policy announcements. Can they stick to their key messages whilst reaching out via the lingua franca of (the sillier parts of) the internet?

How about their vision of Canberra built in Lego blocks

Get them to play Sid Meyer’s Railroads! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Railroads! )

This will see how they handle the issues of light rail and bullet trains – both very topical in the upcoming election…

http://www.bullettrainforcanberra.com
http://www.actlightrail.info

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