Open Source Democracy

Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States and the first to have his own RSS feed.  Since the campaign trail Obama has been using technology and social networking sites like myspace, facebook, and twitter to reach the masses who don’t get their news from the newspapers anymore (lame).  His strategy obviously worked since Obama has the largest following on twitter and over 4 million fans on facebook. The question is where he will take technology to next.

Creating a new cabinet position for expansion of technology, Obama plans to get the top technology out of the private sector and into the mainstream network for everyone to use, as well as providing internet access for every school.  Technology is not going anywhere for Barack Obama now that he is president; he plans to continue posting weekly youtube videos (ChangeDotGov) as an updated version of “fireside chats.” More interesting than youtube, RSS feeds, and the white house blog is the “your seat at the table” section on Obama’s website.  This section gives any user access to previously “private” chats that take place between Obama and his advisors.  The final technology push from the Obama Administration is the Citizen’s Briefing Book.  This gives anybody the ability to suggest a topic for Obama to consider in office, then other users can vote on suggestions and bump it up or down the list giving a truly democratic approach to issues BY the people.

Read more about Obama’s plan at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012400646.html

Get rich off your web-team of avatars

I came across the website through a random google on crowdsourcing.  The idea behind this website (listed in detail here http://www.cambrianhouse.com/how-it-works/ ) is basically that you submit your original idea along with other user submissions, users on the website vote on their favorites and the winner after a certain period of time receives “credits” and a cash to get it started.  Next you choose some of the qualified and interested users to help you finalize your product into becoming a success!  Cambrian House then backs your idea with online marketing and you’re on your way.

It’s a cool idea but I think this website may be shutting down to move to a new location  http://vencorps.com/but I think the reason it did this is it now can receive more funding which means a bigger pay out to the users involved.

Some of the ideas used in the past include Author Honors where aspiring authors can pitch ideas to users online and gain feedback or get help when they’ve hit a mental block, and the Robin Hood Fund where “users essentially post their sob story and the community votes to see who is most deserving of a payout.”

Cool ideas coming from anonymous users.