Is Decc's collaborative manifesto for Copenhagen web democracy in action?

Act on Copenhagen is a web tool aimed at allowing students to add to a manifesto that will be handed to Ed Miliband next month

The UN climate talks in Copenhagen have certainly caught the public imagination. On the environment desk here at the Guardian it has been a struggle to keep up with the different demands, manifestos, pamphlets and protests from charities, businesses, environmentalists and other civil society groups.
But what if there was a way of somehow bringing those disparate voices together into a people's manifesto: a document that incorporates the important demands from folk who care about the outcome of this summit but one that filters out the peripheral noise? The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) reckons they might have a way of doing that.
Along with the National Union of Students, Decc has set up a living document using an online web-tool called mixedink. The tool is aimed at students to allow them to contribute to a collaborative manifesto that will be handed to Ed Miliband, the climate change minister, on 5 December in London – the day of the Wave protest which bills itself as the UK's biggest climate change march.
Contributors will be able to add to the document's "general vision" plus sub-sections about adaptation, finance, forestry, governance, mitigation and technology. The tool allows you to mix and match bits of other submissions and combine them in new ways with your own text. Alternatively, you can scrap what is there already and write your own. You can also rate other peoples efforts by voting for what you like. There is a handy video on the site that explains how it all works.
Here's the current working text for the finance section as an example:
One of the highest priorities at Copenhagen is to find ways to pay for action to both reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we produce and to adapt to climate change. In the long-term most of the cash is likely to come from the private sector, and a deal must find ways to encourage this. However, public funding will also be needed to make sure the world acts fast enough. The UK wants to see extra money made available to tackle climate change, with measures in place to make sure it is spent effectively.The UK will be working with our international partners to develop our proposals in more detail and prepare for Copenhagen. But international agreements between governments are only part of the effort we need to be successful in tackling climate change. Action at all levels: international, national, in business, in local communities and in our homes, can make a difference.
Ed Miliband said: "Young people and the generations that follow will be most affected if we don't avert the most dangerous impacts of climate change, and they will be instrumental in re-shaping the way we all live in the future.
"There are only two and a half weeks to go before I join my counterparts from around the world in Copenhagen. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for students to contribute their shared vision for their shared future."
Web democracy in action? The proof will be in what comes out of the exercise. There's a danger that it might be hijacked of course, and by its nature it will skim over the rich diversity of opinions on how to tackle climate change. At best it will produce a powerful consensus statement with contributions from hundreds or even thousands of people. At worse it will be a bland, uncontroversial treatise of familiar ideas that leaves out the difficult solutions. Perhaps getting involved is the only way to stop that happening.