A rare chance to ask Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a question by competing on an Australian online democracy platform has yielded surprising results.
Ask Assange – Deakin University and OurSay Hangout With Julian Assange – Friday, 16th August 2013
Deakin University and OurSay are hosting a unique online forum in which the most popular question asker from ‘Ask Assange’ at oursay.org will be flown to Lon…
Questions ranged from policy, to the charges of sexual assault against Assange, with the winner wanting to know his position on renewable energy.
The website OurSay.org, in partnership with Deakin University is hosting an event in Melbourne on August 16 where the top five questions will be put to Assange via a Google Hangout. The person with the most votes will be flown to London to meet Assange.
Adelaide-born Ross Harding- who posted the winning question- founded the environmental social enterprise Finding Infinity, an organisation known for throwing parties powered only by solar energy, now lives in Berlin where he helps businesses reduce their impact on the environment.
Mr Harding says he received a lot of votes because he posted the question early and encouraged his existing social media following to vote for it, but believes he won because people believe in the issue.
“I think this topic really resonates with people. I think that people really are motivated to see renewable energy have a serious leap in Australia,” Mr Harding says.
He denies becoming involved in the forum in order to promote his cause and asserts that he followed OurSay’s rules for posting questions.
“I’m a dude who basically used to get well paid as an engineer, I quit my job and am dedicating my life to trying to create a better future for future generations…it’s about creating awareness about an extremely important topic,” Mr Harding says.
Ross Harding’s question was the most voted for on the Ask Assange forum on OurSay. Photo: Supplied
Eyal Halamish, chief executive officer of OurSay agrees that renewable energy is important to Australians and the questions on the forum are a good indication of where the public pulse is at.
Mr Halamish says with Assange vying for a Senate seat in the upcoming federal election he’s never seen a campaign like this: “you have someone on a screen presenting their position…it seems like a sci-fi event where you’re interacting with someone who’s on another planet. This is not your traditional door knocking campaign”.
Always conscious of his carbon footprint, Mr Harding will not be taking the short flight from Berlin to London to meet Assange: “I did tell the guys at OurSay that if I did win, I’d like a train ticket, and I don’t think there’ll be a problem with that.”
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