Daily Digest: 7/10/07

The Web on the Candidates

• More details have emerged about a MySpace-based reality show in development called "Independent." Developed with cooperation from Mark Burnett, whose resume includes "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," the show will capitalize on the ongoing political activity on MySpace by giving users a chance to select a "candidate" -- a regular Jill or Joe, not a current candidate -- who they think will best represent them. The winner will receive $1 million, which they can give to a candidate or a PAC or use to fund their own real run for president. Jeff Berman, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for MySpace, sees the show trying to replicate a mythical America that ensures equality for all. "One of the most amazing things about MySpace is it's a completely neutral platform. No matter how rich you are, where you come from, or what you believe in, if you have a compelling message and you deliver it well, you have a chance to find an audience. We think it's a great thing for the political process and a great thing for America," he says.

The Candidates on the Web

• Two weeks ago we wrote about a new project from California Rep. George Miller called "Ask George," which will allow voters to ask Miller questions about the Iraq war using just about every technology available; they can post videos, write blog posts, participate in Facebook groups, send a text message, use Twitter, or even write an email to Miller, being sure to tag or label the questions with "Ask George." All of the submitted questions will be aggregated at Community Counts, the site run by David Colarusso that also aggregates YouTube Spotlight videos and submissions for the upcoming YouTube/CNN debate. As we've written before, this is an innovative idea, and one of the first by a national politician to truly leverage the underlying architecture of the web. Miller's team is still putting the finishing touches on the project, but check out Miller's first video response to submitted questions; it's refreshingly honest and direct. We believe this is the first time a U.S. politician has used SMS and Twitter for pull instead of push messaging, meaning that instead of spamming supporters with messages, supporters send messages to the pol. Also, go to the Community Counts page to see what they're up to. Again, this is something the presidential candidates need to be doing. Also: check out Community Counts' Town Hall, where Colarusso et al. ask other politicians to participate in similar "Virtual Townhalls."

• It’s been about three weeks since John Edwards and Eventful announced their “Demand and Be Heard” competition, in which citizens of towns and cities across the country can use Eventful to “demand” that John Edwards visit their home. A couple of surprises have transformed what may have been just another contest designed to attract supporters and money into a surprising example of a presidential campaign engaging in a dynamic relationship with grassroots supporters.

  As we’ve reported before, Edwards will visit the city with the most demands, and will answer ten questions — submitted to Eventful during the contest — from citizens of the winning city.

  The surprise is that the town with far and away the most demands isn’t Denver, Ann Arbor, or even Cocoa, FL (which are among the top four cities); it’s Columbus, KY. While Columbus has only a population of 229, it's generated 1,126 demands for Edwards due to the diligence of resident Shawn Dixon, who has been rallying surrounding towns to demand that Edwards visit them. It looks like Dixon’s hard work is paying off; the town with second-most demands is Eureka, CA, falls far short of lease with only 422 demands.

  But the story doesn’t end there. Two weeks ago, a Second Life user and Edwards supporter named Jeremy Aldrich (username: gxeremio) pointed out that although Second Life, the virtual world, had 36 demands, which would have put it in 23rd place in the competition (which rates the top 30 most-demanded places), it wasn’t listed at all.

  Although Second Life users are also heavy users of Eventful (“Second Life is probably our biggest API user… we are essentially their events calendar,” Alex Hunsucker, the Business Development Manager at Eventful, told me), Eventful uses geo-coordinates to place users within a specific physical location, and since Second Life has no physical location, it wasn’t considered part of the U.S. by Eventful’s machines. Thus, it wasn’t included in the contest, which is was restricted to the U.S. only to ensure that Edwards wasn't demanded to make an appearance in, say, Ukraine.

  I talked to Hunsucker about the issue last night, and he told me it was simply an oversight on Eventful’s part. Within minutes, Eventful changed Second Life's status and it was added to the list of the top 30 most-demanded cities for Edwards, coming in at number 28.

• Hillary Clinton just sent out a press release that, once again, asks for your help: during the July 23 Democratic debate co-sponsored by CNN and YouTube -- the one that is asking YouTube users to submit video questions -- each candidate will show a 30-second video. Clinton is asking her supporters to upload their own 30-second video about why they support Hillary; the winner's video will be shown during the debate. This is a great idea, but let's see how it's executed. If it comes off like last week's lackluster HillCam experiment, it will be sure to underwhelm.