In an effort to increase voter turnout for next Tuesday’s Congressional Election, President Barack Obama has put out a call on Twitter for constituents to install a Facebook application called the “Commit to Vote Challenge.” Like a more noble version of Fast Company’s Influence Project, the Commit to Vote Challenge takes advantage of the “network effect” by using Facebook to spam your friends about voting. Facebook’s population is currently greater than that of the United States.
Right now according to the app, I’m a humble “Committer” and all I need to “reach the next level” is inspire just one more friend to vote. I can also “compete with my friends to inspire the most commitments” which is a serious case of social gaming mechanics taken too far. Paid for by the DNC and Organizing for America, I bet this thing is assuming your Facebook friends are Democrats.
Take a look at the Commit to Vote Challenge interface below, it’s scary. Also: Why is our (American) President tweeting using the (Canadian) Hootsuite?
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
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