Come Together, Now? The World Live Web and Politics

I spent most of last night watching the Democratic election returns roll in, with the TV tuned to MSNBC but the sound turned down low, and my laptop in my hands, watching for live reaction and commentary on the event as it unfolded. Twitter, which has now become the web's virtual water-cooler, was my main guide, but while it was fun and entertaining to read and trade snarky and occasionally smart asides with the likes of Andy Carvin of NPR (@acarvin), Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), Dave Winer (@davewiner), Amy Gahran (@agahran), Ruby Sinrich (@ruby), John Dickerson of Slate (@jdickerson), Patrick Ruffini (@patrickruffini), Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield), Beth Kanter (@kanter), Joe Trippi (@joetrippi), Craig Newmark (@craignewmark), Garrett Graff (@vermontgmg), Ranjit Mathoda (@mathoda), David Weinberger (@dweinberger), and--last but certainly not least--Liza Sabater (@blogdiva), I wanted more. That is, most of what we were doing was looking at the TV and online newswire coverage and commentary, and adding our twist. It's not a bad way to experience a live event together, and it sure beats watching the news by yourself.

But something else is possible--which is to use the social web as a real-time reporting tool and a window or barometer into the actual event, as it unfolds. Patrick Ruffini pointed the way forward earlier this year when he organized an effort to use Twitter for real-time reporting of Iowa's caucus results. As much as I enjoy shooting virtual spitballs from the back of the digital classroom on Twitter, I want more real-time reporting and sharing of relevant information, too. Professional journalists aren't the only ones who can report news, after all.

So midway through the returns last night, I went hunting for news from the world live web. I focused on the comment streams on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's official blogs, thinking that they might be a useful mirror into the hearts and minds of each candidate's most die-hard supporters. And indeed, in a rough and dirty way, that's what I found. Both sites had an open thread going with nearly a thousand comments on it, which, if you take the web rule-of-thumb for online participation, meant that they probably had 100,000 readers over the course of the three hours that I spent looking at them. (These are the threads I was reading, specifically, on Obama and Clinton's sites.) Obama's commenters were in much better spirits than Clinton's, for obvious reasons. The best Obama blog comment I spotted was this one: "This Chardonnay sipping, latte loving NPR addict is having a six-pack tonight : )" Clinton's commenters were trying to keep each other motivated to support her, with entreaties to give money NOW!, posts arguing that the late results from rural districts in North Carolina could close the gap to single digits, and the like. There was also a lot of back and forth over whether folks could bring themselves to vote for Obama in November. My rough estimate on the intensity of the conversation was that Clinton's blog got a new comment once every 60 or 70 seconds, while Obama's commenters popped in about once every 20 seconds.

I know these soundings are subjective. But I think they're as interesting as news stories where reporters talk to a few people in a coffee shop about their reactions to the race. Actually, I think they're more informative, because blog commenters on a campaign website tend to be passionate supporters of a candidate. Right now, the Obama campaign site has logged more than 7200 comments on about a half dozen blog posts since about midnight last night. The Clinton site has about 300 comments on a single post since last night, thanking the people of Indiana and North Carolina.

Where else should we look for real-time information and feedback on politics as events unfold? One thing I would love would be a directory from CoveritLive showing who was using their tool to live-blog something, in real time. (Thanks to Ruby's twittering I found Pam Spaulding's live blogging of the North Carolina results really fun to peek in on last night.) I'd also love a guide from Qik.com telling us who was live with video on the web, something that I think is going to catch fire over the next few months. The cool folks at LiveNewsCameras.com already have a wonderful Twitter feed, but again most of what they're displaying is TV news feeds of live events like car chases, fires, and occasionally politicians on the stump. But I want more!