Voter Generated Content
Web 2.0 is about broadening communication. New applications and widgets are meant to allow content users to be involved in the process. So, why should we be surprised that this concept has been adapted to Vote 2008? The short answer is we shouldn’t be.
Just this year, Facebook, the social networking website played their own role in the news coverage of supper Tuesday. As the night progressed, users would post their comments to a facebook page. News agencies would then post what “voters” were saying.
Personal Democracy described Voter Generated Content as less of a platform for the voting public but more of a business opportunity. Duh.
The following sites below all have their own Vote 2008 pages with interactive widgets.
1. Digg
It seems as though this form of media is designed around an election. Is this not the point of a democracy?Now, we just have the technology to support the town hall forum.
The last link is to the USA Today politics page. Even major news media outlets are using their pages to give viewers more information than just news of day. If you look through the links on USA Today’s page there are pages highlighting the major issues and discrepancies between the candidates. This is all a form of Voter Generated Content. Even with the news organization voters have the ability to write comments and discuss in a blog forum what their opinions are on politics.
Long story short, web 2.O was built for voter generated content, except it is user generated content and in a democracy any voter can be a Internet user.
