Mike is right, I was getting carried away getting my head back into politics. Lots of interesting things going these days...
I'd like to expand on his ideas, using his topic sentences to keep reference to what started the particular thread of research.
1)"I envision us creating a website in which the political activity of politicians from the House and Senate are tracked."
Yes, but as he also specified, it's got to be pitched on a politician-by-politician basis. There are simply way to many general politics sites out there to bring much new value.
Current Top Politics sites (according to Alexa)
www.realclearpolitics.com
www.cnn.com
www.politics1.com (bare bones site, not too impressive)
www.politics.com (absurdly right-swigning)
http://www.opensecrets.org/
www.nytimes.com
...To name a few....
But, I wasn't able to find any site that follows the issues from the perspective of what your representatives are doing.
2) "By creating this service, we create an incentive for politicians to be involved on our site, answering questions and justifying positions"
The best incentive that we can give them is that we wouldn't really need them. Using some basic search algorithms, we could populate our site automatically. That is, for any current issue, we find all public quotes, rhetoric and mentions of the particular representative. Given all this material, and a way for users to make their own comments, the representative would very much want a way to discuss their actions.
3) "This will work towards our grass roots movement because it will keep the policitianca of every district more loyal to the concerns of their districts, voters, affiliations, etc."
While cerntainly not a coomplete solution, it will increase accountability.
4)"If done well, I think that our service has a sucessfull plan to foster growth and expansion along with providing any American detailed information of the political moves of their leaders." Yes, but specificity is crucial.We need to use the popularity and wealth of information of the existing giants in this spac, rather than compete against them.
Now, packaging information on a per-politician basis has many appealing corrolaries. For example, consider the idea of a "[Representative X] Digest." Concerned readers could get condensed digests of their politicians on a regular basis delivered to their email.
Also, there was the "hire me" concept that Denise was a fan of. Anyway we can build that concept into some sort of brand identity for this product?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Our Vision of Our Product
I think it is important that we make clear what specifically we are trying to create. This thread can help us put our ideas in writing in order to keep us on task and focused.
I envision us creating a website in which the political activity of politicians from the House and Senate are tracked. Members are able to comment on the actions of any politician, but the site will be tailored to provide each user with a more focused look at what specifically representatives from their area are doing.
By creating this service, we create an incentive for politicians to be involved on our site, answering questions and justifying positions. I think we should start with the districts in California and expand from there. If only one representative begins to work with us, there will be incentive for their rivals, and their rivals to begin to work with us as well. Our site has the potential to become a useful tool in any politicians battlechest because it allows them an open forum to connect with their constituency regardless of power, connections, etc.
This will work towards our grass roots movement because it will keep the politicians of every district more loyal to the concerns of their districts, their voters, versus party affiliations etc.
If done well, I think that our service has a sucessfull plan to foster growth and expansion along with providing any American detailed information of the political moves of their leaders. Although if one is an active political blogger, spending hours in front of their computer researching their politicians, this information can be comprehended, all of this focused, important information is not available under one roof with a friendly user interface. I think we could provide that.
I envision us creating a website in which the political activity of politicians from the House and Senate are tracked. Members are able to comment on the actions of any politician, but the site will be tailored to provide each user with a more focused look at what specifically representatives from their area are doing.
By creating this service, we create an incentive for politicians to be involved on our site, answering questions and justifying positions. I think we should start with the districts in California and expand from there. If only one representative begins to work with us, there will be incentive for their rivals, and their rivals to begin to work with us as well. Our site has the potential to become a useful tool in any politicians battlechest because it allows them an open forum to connect with their constituency regardless of power, connections, etc.
This will work towards our grass roots movement because it will keep the politicians of every district more loyal to the concerns of their districts, their voters, versus party affiliations etc.
If done well, I think that our service has a sucessfull plan to foster growth and expansion along with providing any American detailed information of the political moves of their leaders. Although if one is an active political blogger, spending hours in front of their computer researching their politicians, this information can be comprehended, all of this focused, important information is not available under one roof with a friendly user interface. I think we could provide that.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sure Enough: A Startup in response to massive taxes
In some of our conversations I've been hearing how more and more people are running away from taxes by getting paid in cash. This creates needs that cannot be met by existing banks or other infrastructure.
Now, a "Reverse ATM" that takes cash to allow the unbanked to pay bills and top up credit cards.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10359131-250.html?tag=mncol;posts
Now, a "Reverse ATM" that takes cash to allow the unbanked to pay bills and top up credit cards.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10359131-250.html?tag=mncol;posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Top 15 Political Social Networks as of Feb 2008
http://directmarketingobservations.com/2008/02/18/the-top-15-political-social-networking-sites/
I couldn't help but check out http://www.adonkeyandanelephantwalkintoabar.com/
I also checked out Essembly because it was at the top of the list. Looks outdated and empty. According to Alexa, that site is ranked around 2.5Mil in order of web traffic.
Ranked a little higher, 700K, is politics4all.com. Looks pretty broad and random, and once again, I'm not sure what the heck the site is trying to accomplish.
Is there any use for a politically driven social network?
I couldn't help but check out http://www.adonkeyandanelephantwalkintoabar.com/
I also checked out Essembly because it was at the top of the list. Looks outdated and empty. According to Alexa, that site is ranked around 2.5Mil in order of web traffic.
Ranked a little higher, 700K, is politics4all.com. Looks pretty broad and random, and once again, I'm not sure what the heck the site is trying to accomplish.
Is there any use for a politically driven social network?
Renewal of the Patriot Act
It will be fascinating to see whether or not the new democratic congress votes to renew them.
Let the rhetoric wars begin...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot-act23-2009sep23,0,6070872.story
Points:
1) Obama has gone back on his campaign promise to get rid of the patriot act. He is calling for an extension of the law but with modifications.
2) Democrats call it a "refreshing break" from the Bush era. I see no difference.
3) There are three primary points of the law that are up for expiration on Dec 31. Most notably is the law that "allows the FBI, with a judge's approval, to obtain an order to get business records, financial data, computer information or even library records that are believed to be relevant to a terrorism investigation. These searches are done in secret and the banks, for example, are not to notify the customer."
Let the rhetoric wars begin...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot-act23-2009sep23,0,6070872.story
Points:
1) Obama has gone back on his campaign promise to get rid of the patriot act. He is calling for an extension of the law but with modifications.
2) Democrats call it a "refreshing break" from the Bush era. I see no difference.
3) There are three primary points of the law that are up for expiration on Dec 31. Most notably is the law that "allows the FBI, with a judge's approval, to obtain an order to get business records, financial data, computer information or even library records that are believed to be relevant to a terrorism investigation. These searches are done in secret and the banks, for example, are not to notify the customer."
Project Vote Smart
This is the accountability that we talked about with Denise. Want to know exactly how your elected official votes? This page has a full database of every vote going back a long way. I checked out Barbara Boxer's record and it goes back to 1992, and I'm sure it goes back further.
Here is Barbara Boxer's record: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53273
However, this site offers so much that it ends up being clunky and, most likely, underused. The data is presented in a way that would make scraping the data and wrapping into another webpage fairly simple.
Seems like a pretty interesting organization. They're rhetoric is designed to place them completely neutral in politics, the intent is purely to educate Americans. "Vote Self Defense" is what they call it. Check out membership rule #1:
"1. No one can join the Project's board without a political opposite. People as diverse as former Presidents Carter and Ford, former Senators McGovern and Goldwater, former Governor Dukakis, former Congresswoman Ferraro and current Senator McCain have served on the Project's board, supporting the efforts of the Project's students and volunteers, and ensuring balance and strict impartiality in PVS programs and services."
The other primary point of interest for this site is the Political Courage Test. As the site describes:
"The Political Courage Test asks candidates which items they will support if elected. It does not ask them to indicate which items they will oppose. Through extensive research of public polling data, we discovered that voters are more concerned with what candidates would support when elected to office, not what they oppose. If a candidate does not select a response to any part or all of any question, it does not necessarily indicate that the candidate is opposed to that particular item."
However, I couldn't find any actual values from this test for particular congressmen. Could be that not many people actually took the questionnaire.
Finally, this site has a great breakdown of campaign finances. Barbara Boxer has $20 million?? And she's only spent $16Mil? Fascinating.
http://www.votesmart.org/finance.php?can_id=53274
Great site, but underused. I hadn't heard about it until I searched around.
Here is Barbara Boxer's record: http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53273
However, this site offers so much that it ends up being clunky and, most likely, underused. The data is presented in a way that would make scraping the data and wrapping into another webpage fairly simple.
Seems like a pretty interesting organization. They're rhetoric is designed to place them completely neutral in politics, the intent is purely to educate Americans. "Vote Self Defense" is what they call it. Check out membership rule #1:
"1. No one can join the Project's board without a political opposite. People as diverse as former Presidents Carter and Ford, former Senators McGovern and Goldwater, former Governor Dukakis, former Congresswoman Ferraro and current Senator McCain have served on the Project's board, supporting the efforts of the Project's students and volunteers, and ensuring balance and strict impartiality in PVS programs and services."
The other primary point of interest for this site is the Political Courage Test. As the site describes:
"The Political Courage Test asks candidates which items they will support if elected. It does not ask them to indicate which items they will oppose. Through extensive research of public polling data, we discovered that voters are more concerned with what candidates would support when elected to office, not what they oppose. If a candidate does not select a response to any part or all of any question, it does not necessarily indicate that the candidate is opposed to that particular item."
However, I couldn't find any actual values from this test for particular congressmen. Could be that not many people actually took the questionnaire.
Finally, this site has a great breakdown of campaign finances. Barbara Boxer has $20 million?? And she's only spent $16Mil? Fascinating.
http://www.votesmart.org/finance.php?can_id=53274
Great site, but underused. I hadn't heard about it until I searched around.
Center for Political Accountability
First hit I found on google on this topic: politicalaccountability.com
As they describe themselves:
"The Center for Political Accountability (CPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that was created in November 2003 to bring transparency and accountability to corporate political spending. It was formed to address the secrecy that cloaks much of the political activity engaged in by companies and the risks this poses to shareholder value."
They cite 60 large companies (http://www.politicalaccountability.net/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/869/pid/869) that have signed up to give full disclosure of political gifts.
Not really what we are looking for, but it shows how "accountability" is defined in modern American politics.
As they describe themselves:
"The Center for Political Accountability (CPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that was created in November 2003 to bring transparency and accountability to corporate political spending. It was formed to address the secrecy that cloaks much of the political activity engaged in by companies and the risks this poses to shareholder value."
They cite 60 large companies (http://www.politicalaccountability.net/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/869/pid/869) that have signed up to give full disclosure of political gifts.
Not really what we are looking for, but it shows how "accountability" is defined in modern American politics.
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