How FourSquare Could GOTV With The "I Voted" Badge 12:01 PM

Yesterday, a petition I started on Twitter urging FourSquare to create an "I Voted" badge for voters who check-in at polling places on Election Day, caught fire and has yet to show signs of letting up.  At the time this post was published, 191 Twitter users have signed the petition, making FourSquare the most petitioned Twitter account through act.ly this week (surpassing Lady Gaga, BP and President Obama) and the second most this month (only behind Bieber).

Obviously the rightroots and the netroots are both pretty fired up about this idea which has the potential to be a massive GOTV effort, but if FourSquare agrees to commit to creating the badge, how exactly would it work?  After an email exchange with a FourSquare contact, I am confident this is the question we need to answer in order for FourSquare to pull the trigger.  That's why I am soliciting your input.  Our ideas combined will be much more powerful than mine alone.

Here's the dilemma: How can FourSquare verify polling places in order to give out "I Voted" badges?  First, Supervisor of Elections offices would need to add their polling places to FourSquare (work an intern can easily do).  Then, FourSquare would need to authenticate the Supervisors' offices as the rightful "owner" of the polling places on FourSquare.  This could be a massive amount of work.  How could we simplify the process?  Maybe the solution is getting one state to commit to the project for a primary election, map out all the precincts, and present it to FourSquare as a pilot program. 

As you can tell, I am thinking out loud here.  Let's put our heads together to find a way to make this work to increase turnout in November.  Imagine thousands of Americans checking into their polling places while posting links to their Facebook friends with a map of their polling place, reminding them and encouraging them to vote.  Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.  Let's find a way to make it work.  Please leave your ideas in the comment section below.  Go!

Reviewing #PdF10 8:37 AM

Last week, I had the great honor of attending my third Personal Democracy Forum in New York City.  This year was even more special than years past, as I was selected as a Google Fellow for the conference.  The work the 19 other Google Fellows are doing at the intersection of politics and technology all around the world is truly amazing, and I was honored to have the opportunity to learn from them at the conference.  Check out these amazing individuals and the work they are doing by clicking here.

This year's #PdF10 focused on answering this question: Can the internet fix politics?  The overwhelming consensus of the conference can be summed up by this: No.  But we can change politics using the internet as a tool.  As promised, I hyper-tweeted the entire conference, attempting to provide you all who couldn't make it to New York with the best tips and tricks I learned at the conference.  An archive of my tweets can be found here courtesy of one of my favorite Twitter apps, SnapBird.org.  The total count of my tweeting frenzy from #pdf10 was 283 tweets, but more importantly (keeping quality v. quantity in mind), I was mentioned on Twitter 452 times at the conference - more than anyone else using the #pdf10 hashtag (though @cshirky and @craignewmark came close).  Thank you as always to everyone who followed along with my barrage of tweets and constantly retweeted my content!

As always, #PdF10 was an amazing two days of learning and sharing with the smartest and most talented people at the intersection of politics and technology.  I can't wait for #PdF11!  Until then, I will leave you with three of my favorite presentations from this year's Personal Democracy Forum:

Closing Plenary with Saul Anuzis, Nick Bilton, Cory Booker, Arianna Huffington, Tim O’Reilly, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry

"Rethinking Leadership" by Clay Shirky



"Rethinking Media" by Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos

A Preview of the 2010 Personal Democracy Forum 9:19 AM

Every summer, the world's smartest and most talented professionals in the field of online politics descend upon New York City for a two-day gathering known as the Personal Democracy Forum.  In the words of PDF's 2009 incredible keynote speaker, Michael Wesch, "The gathering may have been the highest concentration of amazingly creative and concerned global citizens I have ever been around."

This year, I have the honor and privilege of attending the conference as one of twenty Google Fellows.  My fellow Fellows are doing some amazing work at the intersection of politics and technology and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from them at PDF.  Thank you Google!

This will be my third time attending the Personal Democracy Forum, and according to the speaker line-up, this year's PDF could be the best yet.  For those of you attending PDF, I would love to know which presentations you are most excited to see.  Feel free to leave your favorites in the comment section below.  Here are the five presentations I am most excited to hear:

• How Republicans are Innovating in Online Campaigning: Mindy Finn, Rob Willington, Ryan Gravatt, David All (moderator) 
• Debate: Should Government 'Save' Journalism? Andrew Keen, Marc Cooper, Josh Silver, Jan Schaffer, Jeff Jarvis (moderator)
• Can the internet Fix Politics?: Newt Gingrich
• Refining Your Social Media Smarts: Campaign Successes From YouTube to Facebook to Twitter: Jonah Sieger, Barnet Zitron, JD Lasica, Michael Bassik (moderator) 
•  Campaign Grid: Best Practices in Online Fundraising and List-Building Steve Moore, Julie Germany, Michael Palmer, Richard Masterson (moderator)

If you can not make it to New York for this year's Personal Democracy Forum, there are still ways for you to follow the conference from home.

• Follow the #pdf10 or #pdf2010 hashtags on Twitter
• Like last year, I will be "hyper-tweeting" the event, providing you with the latest tips and best-practices discussed at the conference.  You can follow me @JordanRaynor for the latest from #pdf10.
• Check the PDF Video Archives throughout the weekend for video of conference presentations.