Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Interactive Politics

A few years ago, I was enjoying an adult beverage in a bar. In and of itself, that was nothing of note. The person next to me, though, happened to be a political pollster who made his living collecting national data, running it through algorithms and predicting elections.

Months before the 2000 election, he said George Bush was going to win.

I scoffed. I'd lived in Austin. The Texas governor has little power. The machine is the thing. There was no way he'd convince a nation that his spotty business record and his lackluster political career would translate on a national stage.

So much for that idea.

What I have learned in the last eight years is this: the wisdom of crowds-- at least when conditions are rights -- is far better at predicting outcomes than I am.

As election season ramps up, news organizations and forward-thinking media companies are looking for ways to engage Web-users by deploying interactive software applications.

The Los Angeles Times launched an interactive Electoral College map, giving people the opportunity to put together multiple scenarios and share them with their friends. That's a big deal for passionate political wonks (and aren't we all a little wonky during election season).

In the battle for supremacy in cable news, CNN continues building its i-reporter section, integrating news and opinion from its readers with its more traditional coverage (scroll down on the bottom right); however Fox News has opted for a more traditional, one-to-many strategy.

Regardless of the outlet, though, media organization must take care that they nurture these interactive communities in the right way. There are pitfalls. If you simply turn an interactive community over to the masses, it's likely to get swamped with partisans on both sides of the aisle.

Posted By Brad at 10:09 AM
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