Earlier in the year, Eyebeam Research launched Fundrace.org. This website will let you type in your zipcode and find out what political campaigns your neighbors have been donating to.
Now, Gravity Monkey has GPS-mapped the data and built a simple PDA application called red | blue:
red|blue transposes the experience of looking up individual campaign contributions onto a Java-enabled phone. With a GPS-enabled phone, the application will take your current location and figure out if you're in a Democratic area or Republican area. The app will also take this information and plot it around you -- in a compass -- to show which direction the money comes from. It's fun to walk or ride about the city, and see how the money changes -- and see how that's reflected in nature of the neighborhood or your surroundings.
Whether this is a cute gimmick or an awesome GOtV tool remains to be seen. I want to hear ideas, people-- how could this or similar technology be put to good use?
(found via Eyebeam ReBlog.)
Comments
Hey Tim --
Jason of Gravity Monkey here, the developer behind red|blue. To your question "cute gimmick or GOtV tool", I would love to hear more. For me, I go back and forth -- the core reasoning for doing it was "cute gimmick". But with the right data, and the right security behind that data, I think it could be a cool GOtV tool:
As it stands it's anonymous, no individual data. But of course, on FundRace and beyond, individual data exists. What if the team of users were able to use and share this info in the field -- annotate entries, connect users in the database to each other - friendster style -- being able to build a larger record of the community and how best to approach and GOtV.
I have no experience in grassroots organizing. I am a technerd. But I'd love to brainstorm ideas and implementations with you and your readers, in the name of good, not evil.
--jason