In the buildup to this election season’s presidential debates, we’ve seen a number of services launch that aim to enhance the viewers’ experience (and hopefully keep them informed). During tonight’s highly anticipated Vice Presidential debate we put a few of them in the test.
Twitter’s Election Homepage:
It sounds like a decent idea on paper: take every tweet about the candidates and stream them on a single, constantly updated site. Unfortunately, while it may be fun to look at for a few minutes, election.twitter.com is far too noisy to be worthwhile. There are no cohesive threads of arguments, and every quote that raises an eyebrow gets repeated ad nauseum. Verdict: Vetoed.
Hack The Debate:
A joint project from Al Gore’s Current TV and Twitter, Hack The Debate offers a video stream of the debate and overlays recent tweets at the bottom of the screen. The video is broadcast on both the cable channel and Current’s website (the site also includes a list of tweets, which are voted on by viewers to determine their popularity). Tweets that appeared during the debate ranged from irrelevant (but funny) to insightful. I could have done without the faded text that was supposed to describe common terms, but it wasn’t too distracting. Verdict: Approved. Nothing ground breaking, but it’s more fun to watch tweets at the bottom of your screen than meaningless “instapolls” on the news networks.
C-SPAN Debate Hub:
This cable network devoted to broadcasting sessions of Congress has put together a surprisingly well-done election hub. The site includes a frequently updated list of tweets and blog posts, along with a live video stream of the debate. There’s also a timeline that maps the arguments of both candidates, and offers transcripts and video footage of each clip. Verdict: Approved, and would also make an excellent resource after the fact.
MySpace MyDebates
MySpace’s MyDebates has been sanctioned by the Commission on Presidential Debates as its”Official Online Companion”. The site features a live video stream of the debate, archived clips categorized by issues discussed, and popup polls with near-instant results. For the most part it did its job well - overlays were unintrusive, and while the polls may not be meaningful, they help keep the viewer interested. Verdict: Approved, and also a valuable resource for learning about the issues.
RealScoop
RealScoop, which we covered last week, is supposed to automatically analyze audio characteristics of each candidate’s voice and determine if they’re being honest. It sounds cool, but it doesn’t seem to work - at least, not on politicians (perhaps they’re just too dishonest). Neutral statements are constantly tagged as “unbelievable”, and believability often switches sides mid-sentence. Verdict: Vetoed. A fun diversion, but not very useful.
Comments
So Palin rocked, right? Otherwise your a stupid communist who wants me to pay for your healthcare.
My hope is that McCain wins, dies and then we have a libertarian representative who fights for our freedom. Go Sarah Palin!
I thought we already were the freest country on Earth.
Someone who gives shout-outs in the middle of a VP debate should not be allowed anywhere near the office of President.
I’m just going to assume that you are joking. Because otherwise I would have to shoot my computer screen after reading your comment.
A communist? If America is such a great country, why can’t we take care of our own? You seem to love America, why not Americans? Oh! You only love Americans that are rich enough to take care of themselves and the rest can die off because they obviously aren’t worthy enough to care about! I get it! For a moment there I was confused and thought that each and every human being was worthy enough to have a healthy life! Silly me! Thank you for setting me straight!
I wouldn’t want to be a “communist”! Those people loving bastards! Go to hell I say! I mean, Neal, you get it. If you got laid off your job or lost a lot of your savings in the last few weeks and became ill or injured, you wouldn’t want a handout! You wouldn’t want the government to intervene and help! It’s the American way! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps (if you have shoes) and take care of yourself because your fellow American could care less if you live or die!
I don’t understand why I didn’t think of this sooner! It’s so simple! Just screw everyone over and take care of myself and hope that nothing bad happens to me!
Man, and to think I almost threw away my vote!
*okay, just to make sure I don’t have any right wing nutjobs actually nodding to this, this is udder bs. Palin might have done better then people expected, but that’s only because they’re expectations were SO LOW. She wasn’t even on the same playing field as Biden and all she did was redirect the question to a different talking point and talk (or give a “shout out”) until time ran out. What about the whole Deregulation thing? She bold faced denied answering a direct question because she simply didn’t have an answer and knew it! How ridiculous!
THAT can not be anywhere near the Presidency! I have to quite talking about that thought or I’ll get nightmares tonight.
And another thing!
I’m sick and tired of Republicans saying that they will make tax cuts while continuing an insanely expensive war in Iraq!
You can’t have both, that’s what this current administration thought and look where we are now. If you decide to stop blowing my tax dollars up in Iraq, I might be inclined to listen but until then you’re not going to be able to pull a fast one by me!
speaking of nut jobs…
Listening to some of these comments especially from my fellow Republicans are just out right crazy, if you want to vote for the idiot McCain then vote for him, it is your right, I am just shocked at how some people cannot open their eyes and see what a detriment the last 8 years have been. I was in an infantry battalion that was the first ones to cross the berm into Iraq and YES we were told that the INTELLIGENCE had shown that we would be given a parade and throw flowers at us as we went through, which as me and my Soldiers found out was a total lie. I understand being loyal to your party, but there is a time when we need to come together as Americans and do the right thing, these last 8 years has been a diaster to this country and to the Middle East. Vote for the person who can make a change and put all your bias aside, I have more respect for someone who would come out and say that are a racist versus someone that says or hints around saying they could never vote for a black man, to me that person has not independent thought.
I am Johns S McShame and I approve this message…
Communist? Just you wait for the real communist when President Palin needs to sit down and negotiate with Putin.
Libertarians don’t support Sarah Palin. Read her record, read the political ideologies of the Libertarian party, and then write a thought out comment, instead of ranting what you heard on Limbaugh this week.
Jason,
Thanks so much for letting your readers know about the C-SPAN Debate Hub. C-SPAN believes strongly in using the available technologies to connect people to the political process — starting with their cameras 30 years ago and, now, coming into the age of social media and sharable content on the web.
We launched our Convention Hub with the help of Mike back in August and continue to work with a full range of bloggers to get the word out about the embeddable video and searchable content C-SPAN has to offer.
If you are interested in talking further, don’t hesitate to let me know.
All the best
Leslie
Communications Manager
New Media Strategies
Enjoyed Hack the Debate … Interactive IPTV that makes sense for today.
Check out VoteGopher.com. A fun, non-partisan way to discover the candidates’ positions on the issues!
When i check out reel scoop, it seems everyone is full of shit. Wow. It makes me wonder.
you guys should def take this into your politics 2.0 list
http://www.emailwidgets.net
President candidates should not under estimated the power of online community now. It can be the power of their election
This poll is good also : http://www.lipstick-piggy.com !
If she was brave enough to confront Badin with only 5 weeks of experience “on the job” I can imagine what a great leader she would be in a few months.
GO PALIN!!!!
I think Joe Biden will eat her alive. Funny though that almost everyone outside the US likes Obama.
There is no way Palin ould beat Joe Biden in a debate. That man has close to 40 years of government experience. Palin is just riding off of good looks, lipstick , a nice hairdue, minus brains…lol
wow, I had no idea Palin was the only one in the debate! Where are the awkward screenshots of Biden, with all the botox, tanning and teeth whitening he had done! Once again, Techcrunch fails to actually write a post that isn’t biased towards the left!!!!
We setup two ustream.tv live streams on 1 debate page where we live streamed two VP debate watch parties. The Republican party was in Raleigh, NC and the Democratic watch party was in Cary, NC. We used meebo as the chat service for each party below the ustream.tv video player. Take a look at the our setup:
http://www.30threads.com/debate/
Also NBC17.com used a live stream & cover-it-live for their online debate mashup.
Palin still seems not polish for the spotlight. There was a slight impersonation of Bush’s twang. Perhaps that is what they’re going for.
Truth-O-Meter can be found at http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter
You can also get the PolitiFact on your iPhone now.
I’ve been comparing them using the Carmatch widget.
I keep getting a Ford Model T for McCain and a Ferrari for Palin, neither of which I’d really want to own…
http://www.clearspring.com/wid.....d53c63ae26
Votershed is doing a CNN-style audience reaction monitor through Facebook - they’re going to be able to use all of Facebook’s demographic data for comparisons (age, gender, network/geography, etc). It’s pretty neat: http://apps.facebook.com/votershed
Nice line-up — you left out http://www.perspctv.com
You may also want to check out http://www.mobdub.com/. They’re doing some interesting things with captions on top of video from the debates. They let anyone add and delete captions…kind of like a wiki.
If you need to get an overview of the election polls across pollsters I can recommend this one:
http://www.youcalc.com/apps/1221747067033
… and its easy to put on your blog and fits in your sidebar!
Make a difference, keep on voting!
it would be dangerous for the GOP to reschedule another VP debate… the more unscripted air time Palin gets, the more time people will have to realize that she couldn’t answer a question about any of the major issues if her life depended on it
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