techPresident - Let the Two-Way Conversation Begin - Comments

Indaba.org: An Experiment in Collaborative Expression

flywheel — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:07:56 -0400

Along the lines of how to compel candidates to answer voter's questions, I invite you all to have a look at Indaba.org.

Indaba is Zulu for important meeting.

Like CommunityCounts, the Indaba interface can integrate YouTube videos with a chance to vote. But Indaba's elections are more structured. Candidates (or candidate videos) are linked to a ballot. Votes are on the record.

Right now the site does IRV-style straw polls (using ranked, transferable votes), but the goal is to create a venue for massively scalable expression of converging and diverging opinion.

One of things it could do is this:

1) Let participants rank the top 25 issues that concern them.
2) Let each candidate create a video response for each issue.
3) Let the participants rank the responses seperately.

The idea is to give the public a chance to assess their own collective responses to the candidates' answers.

By the way, I hope the people at CommunityCounts will introduce a mechanism way to randomize the display and thereby encourage assesment from across the whole field. Their current system gives too much pride of place to front runners... just like the mainstream media.

Feel free to take a stand at Indaba.org.

http://www.indaba.org

Please check out my Dem/Paul intertube video!

Interevolution — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:51:25 -0400

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lRQTcQ13uKY

NOTICE: George W. Bush has issued Executive Orders allowing the National Security Agency to read this message and all other e-mail you receive or send---without warning, warrant or notice. Bush has ordered this to be done without any legislative or judici

Ron Paul has iphone application out already

Avery Knapp Jr — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:45:43 -0400

http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/78119/Ron_Paul_on_Your_IPhone

Thought this was pretty remarkable to have this set up and ready to go already!

Avery J. Knapp Jr., M.D.

Let the Two-Way Conversation Begin

the editors — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:46:12 -0400

[Eds. note: This is an editorial from the creators of Community Counts, a site that aggregates YouTube Spotlight videos and lets users vote for their favorites, with the goal of “compelling the candidates to answer the questions most valued by the community." We think the group offers a powerful argument for the importance of using YouTube to encourage a two-way conversation between voters and candidates.]

With the 2008 Presidential race underway, it’s clear the Internet is revolutionizing the process of campaigning. Fundraising, mobilization, and the announcement of candidacies have all migrated to the Web. Candidates join social networking sites like MySpace. Viral videos share gaffes alongside electioneered laughs, and the online debates are coming. What we haven’t seen, however, is that most tantalizing of potential benefits: a truly independent, open, and national dialogue—the flattening of democracy. To achieve this, citizens must use the Internet to harness the “wisdom of crowds” and then convince politicians to heed that wisdom.

Esse Quam Videri (to be, rather than to seem), North Carolina’s state motto, might as well be the rallying cry of Internet democracy. The Kennedy-Nixon debate marked the growing importance of image in American politics. It mattered that Nixon wasn’t wearing makeup, and candidates now rely on media consultants. Consequently, many Americans see politicians as a collection of sound bites and glossy imagery. The Internet’s promise is that we can turn this tide by engaging with candidates in unfiltered and direct conversation.