democracy - ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/feeds/tag/democracy en Copyright 2009 Richard MacManus readwriteweb@gmail.com Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:40:23 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.23-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Digg Crowdsources Convention Interviews digg_dialogg_logo.jpgJust in time for the first day of the Democratic Convention in the U.S., Kevin Rose today announced a new feature on Digg: Digg Dialogg. The idea here is to allow the Digg community to submit questions that will then later be posed during interviews with "thought leaders and tastemakers." The first person to be interviewed this way is going to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The interview will be streamed live online on Wednesday the 27th.

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Digg is partnering with CNN's iReport on this. Diggers will be able to either submit their questions in writing through the Dialogg page or they can upload a video to iReport. According to Digg, they will ask the top rated questions, but given the often rowdy nature of Digg, it will be interesting to see if the questions will be censored in any way and how the Digg users would react if that happened.

digg_dialogg_pelosi.jpgAs Digg's CEO Jay Adelson announced last week, Digg will have a substantial presence at the Democratic and the Republican conventions. Giving Digg's users at least some influence over the reporting from there falls right in place with Digg's overall style.

Not New - But Still a Good Thing

Overall, there is, of course, little that is new about this style of doing interviews, which is quite similar to the YouTube debates. Even Slashdot, Digg's virtual grandfather, often uses it to decide on interview question. At the same time though, anything to get young people interested in politics is a good thing in our opinion and Digg definitely has the ability to reach a lot of folks who would otherwise not be interested in the political process. Also, given that Digg, at its core, is still a technology site, its users are likely to ask a lot of tech oriented questions that a lot of the politicians probably never thought about much.

Looking at the top rated questions so far, net neutrality is ranking high above legalizing marijuana and repealing the Patriot Act.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/digg_dialogg_nancy_pelosi.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/digg_dialogg_nancy_pelosi.php News Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:59:18 -0800 Frederic Lardinois MoveSmart: Mashups for Housing Integration Chicago based MoveSmart.org is a project aiming to make housing integration a reality, years after legal changes have left de facto segregation intact, by using mashups. The project will combine collections of data concerning public amenities and services, demographic data and economic numbers together with housing search.

Think of it as Trulia plus, with a social justice angle, or Zillow for people interested in more than just the price of a house.

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]]> The idea is that people without a whole lot of money have less access today to in-depth research about the areas in a city they might want to move to. By giving anyone the ability to research the public services, cultural opportunities and racial diversity of a neighborhood, traditionally less empowered people can make more informed decisions about moving.

I think this is a great idea and hope the project will succeed. Launching first in Chicago in Q3 of this year, it would be great to see MoveSmart go nation wide. MoveSmart is one of the first entrants in the NetSquared Mashup Challenge, an event that will bring nonprofit mashups together with developers, feedback and funding. $100,000 will be distributed by NetSquared to selected finalists at the event in May. Check out the work over there and consider lending a hand.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/movesmart.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/movesmart.php Non-Profits Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:25:56 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick