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"Petitions are one of the most valuable tools organizers have to gather support for a cause and demonstrate the strength behind it.  Even if they're not always ultimately successful in enacting their goal, petitions are an amazing way to bring people together around an issue, spread awareness, and show others how many people care about a cause. \nThe web has made petitions easier to execute, by replacing knocking on doors with a clipboard and pen with emailing supporters a link, and Twitter has now made them more likely to go viral.  Below are four startups that help facilitate petitions over Twitter.  Got something on your mind that you wish would change?  Why not start a Twitter petition and rally others to your cause!\n1. Act.ly\n\n\n\n\nAct.ly is one of the slickest Twitter petition sites available.  Once users have created a petition, it's tweeted out to followers, and others can sign and tweet the petition (using OAuth to connect with Twitter).  With Twitter petitions, every unique tweet about the petition (i.e., each new tweet from a new user) is considered a signature, and Act.ly displays the number of tweets and recent signers.\nAct.ly has a pair of unique features: 1. you can direct a petition at a specific Twitter account, and Act.ly will track how long it takes for that account to issue a response. So, for example, if you're targeting your petition at US President Barack Obama, you can have Act.ly directly tweet the petition @BarackObama.  And 2. Act.ly offers an embeddable \"Tweet It\" button, so petitions can easily be spread through blogs or other social networking profiles.\n2. TinyPetition\n\n\n\n\nTinyPetition is one of the easiest to use and most popular petition sites on Twitter.  It was created by Harkness Labs, the guys behind PetitionSpot, so you can rest assured that these guys know petitions.\nTinyPetition has over 1,300 petitions, and probably owes its popularity to its simplicity.  All you have to do to create a petition is enter your email address, your petition's title, your message, and a short title (for a unique hashtag), and then tweet it out. Signers can connect to TinyPetition via Twitter's OAuth implementation.\nDisclosure: Harkness Labs is also responsible for Tinychat, which powers the Mashable Lounge.\n3. Twitition\n\n\n\n\nTwitition isn't the prettiest Twitter petition site, but it is easily the most simple.  Enter a title and body for your petition and go.  That's it.  The site then tracks tweets about your petition and notes how many signatures (tweets) you collect.   Like Act.ly and TinyPetition, Twitition utilizes OAuth to connect signers to Twitter.\nThe most active Twititions so far have been the pair of petitions launched in June to protest AT&amp;T's and O2's upgrade costs for iPhone users. \n4. Twibbon\n\n\n\n\nTwibbon is a different kind of petition site. Rather than just getting people to tweet to sign and support causes somewhat passively, Twibbon helps supporters of a cause overlay their Twitter avatars with an icon as a show of support and solidarity around an issue.  This is akin to the ribbons people sometimes wear on their clothing or stick to their cars.  \nOne campaign on Twibbon to encourage the death of IE6 recently struck a chord with users and has attracted over 8,000 supporters.  \n5. Do It Yourself\n\n\n\n\nIf you have the development chops, you could consider creating your own custom Twitter petition.  Custom petitions can be designed to match a certain aesthetic (perhaps that of your group or cause), and they're more likely to get coverage in the press because they're harder to set up and more rare (so they stand out).  In turn, that can actually lead to increased support.\nOne recent DIY Twitter petition is the Fix Outlook campaign, which aims to encourage Microsoft to fix the HTML rendering engine in Outlook 2010.  The campaign is more than just a petition - it is a beautiful Twitter mashup that demonstrates support for its cause in a stunningly visual way.  So far over 25,000 people have signed onto the petition.\nMore Twitter resources from Mashable:\n- 5 Ways to Get Your Questions Answered on Twitter- 30+ More Ways to Create Twitter Groups- 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends- HOW TO: Get Retweeted on Twitter- 10 Ways to Find People on Twitter\nTwitter origami image via Paddy Donnelly."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/07/21/twitter-petitions/>