Politics in Social Networking: Ameritocracy
June 30, 2008 |
As part of the ongoing series about politics in social media, we turn our sites to political web site Ameritocracy. To its credit, this site differs somewhat from other political social sites. It doesn't try to be a strict social network around political candidate or opinion. It has a twist to help it stand out.
What Ameritocracy does is focus on what the candidates say. They are a quote submission, searching, rating, debating and sourcing site. Users log in, create their profile, and then can submit quotes or search for quotes by the political candidates of their choice. After they find or submit the quote they want, they have a chance to explore it deeper.
At first glance this seems innovative and fresh. What better way to encourage people to get involved in politics and really listen to what their representatives and potential representatives have to say than user generated content, right? Wrong!
Think of the spam emails you receive from your friends, relatives and co-workers. Those same people who have just enough internet access and just enough brain power to believe that Bill Gates will really send them 5 cents for every email they forward about Microsoft are the same ones that perpetuate rumor emails and false information about politicians.
Now imagine them on Ameritocracy, and you begin to see the issue. When anyone can submit any bastardized quote and claim anyone said it under the guise of "finding the truth", that's a recipe for trouble. Alternatively, someone can put up a real quote and a troll can challenge it.
It's hard enough to weed out good information from bad online already. Do we really need a site like this that encourages potential false information contributed by users? It reminds me of the trouble Wikipedia keeps running into with vetting and verification, only on a much smaller scale.
Overall, I'm going to have to pass on Ameritocracy. It's a unique concept and a nice, easy to use design. However, the potential for trouble and the need for fact checking is high, and in an election year, we need more truth, not less.
