Another New World » Idea Lab

September 1, 2008 • • 1 Comment »

The greatest failure of technology is that it is often not used to its full potential. And, as I tweeted a short while ago:

Every piece of political news that appears makes me a stronger believer of that statement.

A while ago a post entitled “Solve Some Real World Problems” popped up in Google Reader from Chris Brogan. It’s no surprise, really, that the politics of politics could easily be considered one of the problems technology could help to solve. Numerous startups have tried. None have really caught on, though (at least as far as I’m aware)… why?

The need for a new system

I’ve started to think about what it is I don’t enjoy about politics and how it is presented and discussed online. There are actually several factors I feel are missing from the current dialogue when looking at a specific post from a commenter or forum user:

Accountability. A majority of posts are written anonymously or under a pseudonym. Who is this person? Are they liberal or conservative? Where do they stand on issues?
History. At the same time, it’s important to know what the person has said in the past. What has this person said in the past? What is the scope of his/her contributions to the discussion?
Reference. Many posts cite speeches or past candidate views. Where can I read where the points within the post were originally raised?
Freedom. Often comments are based solely on the fact that they involve their favorite candidate. Do you support a candidate but not agree with one of his or her views? (*gasp*)

The style of discussion is also important. This also lends itself to many options:

A free-form discussion forum
A discussion forum based off of broad topics (a speech, an issue, etc.)
A discussion forum based off of external news articles or URLs (digg-style)

I would probably argue for the third option in this case.

From all of this, I feel a successful forum for political discussion would need a few features:

A login system with required registration (name, location, political affiliation, and supported candidate(s))
Some sort of comment rating and user karma system
A user post history
A (very) easy way to cite external sources
Invitation-only… at least to start

Does Digg or Reddit already cover these bases? Yes, to an extent. But I believe the political discussion is so unique that it needs its own specialized arena.

What do you think?

I would love to hear what you think about this. What do you believe is missing in the current online political discussion? How could it be changed into a more effective and productive conversation? Do you agree with what I’ve said… or what have I left out? Is there a site that already does this well?

If you’re a new reader to ANW, welcome. Don’t be afraid to comment! I’d also love to hear from people with all sorts of political affiliations: liberal, conservative, and anything in between. Thanks for participating.

A Twitterati question

March 11, 2008 • • Comments »

While reading through my Twitterstream this afternoon, I noticed an @leolaporte invasion. Leo had asked a question:

Getting ready to speak to radio executives at the Radio Ink conference. Q: Is radio dead? Discuss!

Since my friends on Twitter share my love of the Laporte, I was treated to a constant barrage of replies.

In its fairly short life, Twitter has moved from not much more than a public view of status messages to a close-knit way to read and reply to whatever happens to be taking up space in the minds of your friends. Leo’s afternoon query – and thousands of others from people all around the world – signal another space for everyone’s favorite 140-character addiction: a real-time polling service.

Advantage: popularity

The polling advantage is held by those with a huge following. While a user with a double-digit following may receive one or two responses a Twitter question, Leo (with over 9,000 followers) will naturally receive more.

Where does that leave users with a humbler following? In general Twitter users enjoy making connections and helping others. The missing link is a centralized place for people to ask (and answer) questions in the Twitterverse.

A possible solution

Twitter services such as @commuter have become an innovative way to extend the possibilities of microblogging. Could a centralized question and answer service be the answer for Twitter users who want to ask and answer questions?

Consider the following scenario.

A Twitter user sends a direct message (DM) to a question service/bot.
The service tweets the user’s question with the user’s name at the beginning of the tweet.
Other users reply to the question asker with their answer.

A very similar service already exists; @QNA takes a more reference-based approach. The social component of Twitter seems to be missing, though. Any sort of conversational question could be useful: What should I watch on TV right now? Anyone know how to change roles in WordPress? Where should I go for the best cheese steaks in Philly?

The biggest challenge of such a service would be convincing enough users to adopt it.

In his wonderful “Social Media & Networking Starter Guide” presentation at PodCamp Toronto, Chris Brogan (another member of the Twitter four-digit follower club) explained how his connections on Twitter helped him find his destination while he was lost in Manhattan. How long will it take before any Twitter user can have that sort of convenience?