How new technology has changed my election experience
As technology changes, so do important life events — like an election.
For me, things like twitter, flickr, and twittervotereport.com have significantly impacted my election year experience.
For someone who has only been moderately interested in politics throughout the past 3 elections or so, this year was certainly a change of pace.
Part of my personal increase in interest is certainly due to our current economic situation, but a very large part is a result of my increased interested in new media technologies like twitter & flickr.
Sure, these services have been around and have begun pervading day to day life just a bit more each week, but being able to follow along with friends who went (spur of the moment) to last nights rally in Manassas, and getting to experience their thoughts through twitter and their sights through flickr added a new level of election related interaction for me.
Add being able to participate in real-time voting location reporting, via twittervotereport.com and I’m hooked — both on elections, as well as these new social media applications.
To those nay-sayers who think twitter is just a new way to quickly post ultra personal information to thousands across the internet — you’re right.
But I put forth that in certain situations, that type of powerful and efficient communication tool isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Comments
Politics needs to embrace Web 2.0
Hi Interesting that President Obama had a huge web presence which undoubtedly helped his election. How long do you think it will take for politics to go on-line and really give the power to the people? The tools are there right now. I must say I havent come accross twittervotereport before but I must check it out.
On a smaller but similar note check out a post I have made on Internet voting for the upcoming elections in Europe Regards
Finbarr McCarthy http://finbarrmccarthy.com
Agreed
Hello Finbarr
I certainly agree with your sentiments that Obama's online presence (and the agility he gained in terms of mobilizing his biggest fans) must have had a positive impact on the election. I can't really speculate on a time frame, but I would be surprised if 'new media' didn't play an increasingly important role in future elections.
However, it needs to be carefully thought out and well executed -- otherwise people will view shoddy online attempts as just another channel of political over-saturation, and will instantly tune it out. I think therein lies one of the greatest strengths of these online ventures -- because they are so "opt-in" oriented, when done well they can be very powerful; but when done poorly they simply disappear into oblivion.
I read through your post -- for some reason (and possibly because of failed attempts) online voting just hasn't fully caught on yet. But, like many other things, I think there will be an increased effort to move in that direction over the course of the next few years...
Editor's Note
Editor's note: Online voting has been in discussion and studies since as early as 1999. First hailed as the way of the future, the issues around the voting machines used in the 2000 presidential election quickly changed the nature of the debate. Many of the studies and attempts by states have been rife with controversy and privacy/legitimacy issues. Further, polls indicated a lack of public trust into online voting.
Electionline.org has good information: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID...
And the Make Voting Work project: http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_detail.aspx?id=488
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