Political Social Networks: 20DC

A few days ago I did a piece on politics in the age of social networking. I thought I'd follow up that piece with a few features on individual political social networking sites. First up is 20DC.

20DC is relatively new on the block. Its official alpha release date was in October 2007. It is a political social networking site started by 20-somethings for 20-somethings, though all ages are welcome. The look of the site and the interface has a young, fresh feel without the stodginess usually associated with politics (we can't seem to get away from the ubiquitous two-party system blue and red, but beggars can't be choosers).

My first experience with the site was while watching the results tally for the New Hampshire primary. Even though there were hundreds of sites offering a running count, I stuck with 20DC's for its basic interface (shown below). The easy to read graphics and user comments made it a nice way to while away the result tallying hours while doing other things online, like writing for technology sites.

The site has more to offer than just a pretty interface. It gathers users under the moniker of “citizens”, and draws a young crowd of mostly 20-somethings and 30-somethings, capitalizing on the way technology and the real world mesh so completely for that age bracket. It's a natural for the younger set to take their political views, questions and analysis online. After all, this is the generation that I believe may finally bring voting to the masses in the form of convenient online and DMV based registrations and possibly even online voting.

The site integrates blogging with politics and social networking, giving users a place to write political articles and then rate the articles to move them to the front page (or off the front page). The articles are placed on a spectrum between blue and red, causing them to appear on one side of the page or the other, but for the most part the citizens of 20DC seem to take a non-partisan slant to their political rants, with only a few definite reds or blues in the mix.

This seems to reflect the next generations political options - only our parents grew up in a definitive red versus blue era, with donkeys at war with elephants. Our generation has grown up with lines that are much more blurred and no definitive answers. The next generation sees even less reason to draw finite lines between the old two party system. Witness the popularity of two “party buckers” Barack Obama and Ron Paul online - the younger set is ready for a candidate that doesn't tow the party line.

Other features of the site give users a place to discuss local issues based on zip codes in the Town Hall area. The Town Hall is surprisingly comprehensive, leaving no zip code or town overlooked, no matter how small. It works in a way similar to a forum. You are given a Town Hall area based on the zip code you sign up with and can start topics and reply to topics from there in a fairly simple to use interface. When you tire of your local politics in Town Hall you can move on to The Grass, an area designated for user-driven grass roots causes and candidates, where everything from children's issues to race and technology is discussed. The Grass serves as a place to build a community of support for your personal rallying cause, whatever it may be.

One of the three founding members of 20DC is a student of film, and it shows in their area called 20DC Films, where you can watch short videos and skits centered on the political parties as characters in various stories. In a twist that is totally youthful, they have taken a page from shows like the Real World and created scenarios where the parties have to interact together. I found myself having to watch all of the shorts, like little video potato chips.

One area of the site still under development is the Action Kit. It looks like this will eventually give you more than just the current access to your local representatives' contact information. Currently it has representative information, a dictionary and political groups active, with a planned voting guide and other features. I can see this being useful for the undecided voter, but overall 20DCs users seem well informed. I can see how this was placed last on the development list.

Overall I think this in one of the better start ups I've seen in the political Web 2.0 arena. It is youthful, fun and informative, and most of all easy to use. My favorite features are the videos and the user generated content sorted by relevance to the users. As with any start up, it has a lower number of users than most sites right now, but I don't see it remaining sparse for long. I know it's already earned a solid place on my political book marks list, and I'll be watching to see how it grows in this election year, possibly the first election that may be directly influenced by the Internet and the availability of information and ability to draw people out for a cause online.