Case study:
occupy Eugene facebook
sunlight foundation
TOP political content websites in US/news
News:
Yahoo! 4
MSN 13
CNN.com 16
Huffington Post 22
Nytimes.com 31
FoxNews.com 41
Washington Post 62
Drudge Report 75
USA Today 77
The Daily Mail 79
Wall Street Journal 81
Los Angeles Times 92
Government:
whitehouse.gov 993
usa.gov 2124
grants.gov 7065
medicare.gov 3319
State.gov 760
un.org 4923
fao.org 17647
oecd.org 23929
imf.org 17519
globalsecurtiy.org 11937
federalreserve.gov 7709
irs.gov 119
census.gov 1356
sec.gov 1715
Politics:
Slate.com 337
newsmax.com 285
infrowars.com 512
salon.com 607
dailykos.com 833
townhall.com 825
worldnetdaily.com 669
gallup.com 1755
Activism:
Facebook 2
Freerepublic 984
newsbusters 1979
The petition site 3468
occupywallst.org 7427
democracynow.org 6293
gopetition.com 27391
Ipetitions.com 14164
Globalvoicesonline.org 28658
credocation.com 2951
Page view comparisons of whitehouse.gov to political news websites:
Top Ten Government websites in the US compared to other political categories in terms
of their rank in overall views in America:
Political websites, but not the government's websites themselves, receive
views/attention. Activism sites have the lowest views. There is room for improvement for
the Government's website view count- which could increase communication to voters.
0.014
(1/US rank)
0.012
0.01
Government
0.008
politics
0.006
Activism
0.004
new s
0.002
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Rank
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Looking at the Top 50 websites in America:
6
7
8
9
10
entertainment
social
search
shop
news
information
The top 50 websites in America grouped in the categories of shopping, social, and
searching involve interaction with the user, either as a marketplace or as a forum to
communicate.
My project idea is to make a blueprint for a social website that integrates politicians, bills,
and political ideas with the public in order to further transparency of the government and
allow greater communication with voters.
I propose this website to emulate the successful models of social media sites such as
digg.com, reddit.com, and youtube.com which allows a voting and "point" system for
registered user's contribution. The system of Wikipedia is also suggested to be
implemented involving the use of moderators and editing.
Methods to increase transparencyPoliticians will have a track record of bills they voted for
Incorporation of information from sunlightfoundation.org
-daily activities etc.
Methods to increase voter communication/education:
Bills will be displayed
-summaries of wordy language can be voted upon
-opponents and supporters of bills are shown (congress)
Instant emailing to your congressmen
-signing in allows instant emails to be sent- sample letters can be made
Bills can be debated and then voted upon
Ability to draft Bills and find public backing to have a rep. introduce it into
congress
Bills can be listed by topic
Graphics of information of budget can be easily accessed
footnotes are made clear
News stories are also voted and discussed
A government website
Government presence/representation on the itnernet via website which increases its
popularity will lead to a stronger democracy, allowing better communication to voters,
greater transparency which ultimatley allows for more accurate reprsentation.
ability to have accounts
ability to verify accounts- each congressmen has an account
voting/point system
legislature/bills are fully shown to the public-users get points for paraphrasing the bills most accurately
- concerns are listed and voted upon
-each congressman's account will represent which laws they support
integration with face book and twitter.
the ability to edit and write bills which can also be voted upon- editing words with
justification.
front page with newest news- home pages in terms of your representatives and senatorssee their feed.
also a news section
petitions
users can support bills
bill's name can be decided on?
interactive status on bills, votes, and dates.
congressmen
public websites, like public parks
SOPA PIPA
transparency
legislators have 2-3 policy people
idea is to get more people, the public, with greater involvement
write websites-
direct democracytransparencysunlight foundation-
increase transparencyby state,
by bill
Top 50 websites in US:
1- Google - search
2-Facebook- social
3-youtube- social
4-yahoo- search
5-amazon- shop
6-Wikipedia- information
7-eBay-shop
8-twitter- social
9-Craigslist- shop
10-linkedIn-social
11-blogspot- social
12- windows live- search
13-msn- search, news shop
14- go- search
15- Bing- search
16- cnn- news
17- paypal- shop
18- AOL- search
19- espn-entertainment
20-wordpress-shop
21-netflix- entertainment
22-pinterest-social
23-huffington post-news
24-tumblr- social
25-twitter-social
26-imdb- entertainment
27-Bank of america- shop
28- apple- shop
29- weather- news
30-sedo- shop
31-NYT- news
32-chasebank-shop
33-microsoft-shop
34-about- search
35-imgur-social
36-flickr- social
37-wells fargo- shop
38-ask- search
39-optmd-news
40-comcast- shop
41-foxnews- news
42-godaddy-shop
43-yelp-search
44-walmart-shop
45-object- search
46-google user content-search
47-Hulu- entertainment
48-blogger-social
49-etsy- shop
50-reddit- social
entertainment 4/50
social- 12/50
search- 10/50
shop- 16/50
news-7/50
information- 1/50
entertainment
social
search
shop
news
information
My project idea is to make a blueprint for a social website that integrates
politicians, bills, and political ideas with the public in order to further transparency of the
government and allow greater communication with voters.
I propose this website to emulate the successful models of social media sites such as
digg.com, reddit.com, and youtube.com which allows a voting and "point" system for
registered user's contribution. The system of Wikipedia is also suggested to be
implemented involving the use of moderators and editing.
Methods to increase transparencyPoliticians will have a track record of bills they voted for
Incorporation of information from sunlightfoundation.org
-daily activities etc.
Methods to increase voter communication/education:
Bills will be displayed
-summaries of wordy language can be voted upon
-opponents and supporters of bills are shown (congress)
Instant emailing to your congressmen
-signing in allows instant emails to be sent- sample letters can be made
Bills can be debated and then voted upon
Ability to draft Bills and find public backing to have a rep. introduce it into
congress
Bills can be listed by topic
Graphics of information of budget can be easily accessed
footnotes are made clear
News stories are also voted and discussed