- 37,000 participants on Facebook during the live debates last night.
- live polling
- live blogging
- email direct to campaign advisors
- immediate reactions
- raw videos from the event
- videos from the location
The debates were lively and alive. Interactive and immersive. Ok, ok, so some of the political banter during the debate itself was the same ol’ schtick but this time we get to tell these campaign managers what we need NOW.
Pretty amazing that we, the people, received 4 hours of coverage with all the candidates and had accessible and usable interactive tools to discuss.
The YouTube – CNN debate format was exceptionally cool too. Imagine if Facebook and YouTube joined up to bring the audience, media tools, and interactive experiences all together. Man, what a tool for democratic discussion!
Perhaps there’s a downside to this… the American Public. The online / social network crowd is NOT representative of the American public. Facebook and YouTube are not the tools of most people in the country. It’s going to get easier and cheaper for campaigns and media outlets to use the online tools to reach people and they may leave out the non-tech-savvy crowd for sometime.
There has to be some way to bring the interactivity to the masses.
Can YouTube and Facebook use their considerable creativity and investments to “get local” and “get offline” to reach people? These tools are bigger than online advertising vehicles. They are platforms for national discussion, for democracy and for transparency. As such, they need to grow into their bigger roles (heck, the consumers and media companies demand it!).
If you haven’t looked at the YouTube archives, MySpace Impact site, Facebook US Politics application nor many of the GREAT online politics sites… you need to do it. Really, you do. If you value your vote, your rights in this country, and the strength of the democracy.
Here are some book marks for you:
New Hampshire Primary Channel on YouTube
Citizine Tube – YouTube Politics Vlog
Facebook US Politics Application
Politics Sites linked from Google…
For fun, but actually a great Futures Market tool… Fantasy Congress
~Russ
Social Mode 
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