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PresidentialElection posts

Filed under: Fun, Utilities

Glassbooth: it's not too late to choose a candidate

GlassboothBack in January I wrote about Glassbooth, the web service that helps you choose a Presidential candidate by answering questions about your views on common issues. Any voters who are still undecided may want to use the site as an aid in their decision-making process, especially because there have been some significant updates to Glassbooth since my last post:

  • Additional issue categories (like Science and Internet)
  • "Pulse" section serves as a mini-blog full of updates on the candidates' positions
  • Glassbooth Portable serves as a widgetized version of the quiz that you can put on your blog
  • New Zealand election quiz
  • Some Wisconsin state representative election quizzes

Glassbooth is a novel concept that I wish I could apply to all of my local elections. I find it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to research state representatives, school board members, judges, etc. It would be nice if all voters made their election decisions based on the candidates' views instead of how many signs they have posted or how many promises they may make.

Remember to vote on Tuesday!

Filed under: Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Blogging

YouTube gets in the political spotlight

YouTube is giving this years presidential candidates time under the internet spotlight by launching You Choose 08'. Each week a new presidential candidate will be put in the spotlight and given the opportunity to talk to the YouTube community about a topic of their choice.

At the beginning of the week the candidate posts a question on YouTube, and then throughout the week viewers are encouraged to upload a video response. The candidate, or more likely the candidates "people" will watch the videos, listen to the responses, and then make a response video of their own based on what they've heard.

You Choose 08' officially kicked off Wednesday with a video featuring Governor Mitt Romney who asked "What do you believe is America's single greatest challenge?" As of this morning Mitt had only received 21 video responses, but had well over 200 text responses to his video.

Using YouTube as a place to discuss politics, and more importantly discuss politics witha political candidate is an interesting idea. How do you think it will do? Do things a candidate says on YouTube have the potential to affect the presidential election?

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

MySpace to hold presidential primary

With more registered members than all the people in Mexico, MySpace would be the 11th largest country in the world...that is if it was a country. With stats like that MySpace is a logical place for presidential candidates to look for supporters. Currently candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Rudy Guiliani, and John McCain have their own Myspace pages, and soon they'll have their own MySpace primary.

MySpace has announced plans to hold a presidential primary on January 1 & 2, 2008 well before any US states have the opportunity to cast their ballots with every MySpace user having the opportunity to cast a vote for their favorite candidate.

It's no secret that MySpace is made up of a predominantly younger crowd, and members are allowed to create account with no actual verifications that they are who they say they are, making it possible for one person to have as many MySpace accounts as they can create hotmail accounts. So, could a MySpace primary make an impact on the actual election? If someone wins the MySpace primary by a landslide do you think they'll likely fare well in the real one?

If the election were determined solely by the amount of friends a candidate had then Barack Obama would currently take the race by a landslide. Obama is currently rockin 89,465 friends. His closer competitor is John Edwards who has a meager 16, 921 friends. You've got to take into account Obama also has that sweet networking site all by himself as well, that's got to count for something.

[Via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Internet, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software

Obama launches social network

After receiving a huge amount of support on Facebook before his campaign even started, presidential candidate Barak Obama has decided to capitilize on the popularity of social networking sites and launch a social network of his own. My.BarackObama allows you to create a profile, connect with friends, schedule events, send and receive messages, join groups and even write a blog essentially creating a Facebook or Myspace like atmosphere right on the campaign website.

The site I think will do a great job of organizing Obama's current supporters, allowing them to easily get to know each other and about events going on in their particular area. After only being live for about a day the site has generated over 1,000 new groups. As far as bringing in any additional support off the web for him and his political campaign, I don't see how it really helps. What do you think about using your own social networking site as a political tool?

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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