Fellow bloggers, Bacon’s Rebellion is rolling out a new feature — an adapation of the “social network” concept to the political sphere. The “Bacon’s Rebellion Political Network” is ready for testing, but not yet ready for prime time. I’m introducing it on this blog first in the hope that you bloggers, being the political junkies you are, can help me refine it — identifying quirks, problems and ideas for improvement — before I introduce it to the broader public.
The core of the “Political Network” is a database of personal profiles. Join the network, create a profile, and then invite your friends, colleagues and associates in the political arena to join the network, too, and then link their profiles to yours.
Why do this? If we can get a critical mass of people to list their political affiliations, hot-button issues, and areas of political and professional expertise, we can create a searchable database that allows you identify people with the skills, partisan affiliations and background you’re looking for — and for others to locate you. Furthermore, the database tracks up to four degrees of separation, so you can see not only “who’s who,” but “who knows who” in Virginia politics.
As a bonus, the Political Network provides cool features, like blog-like personal journals, which are automatically set up with your account, and message boards, and public bookmarks where you can alert your contacts to timely content on the Web. The Political Network also allows you to create “groups” that restrict certain types of communications (such as journals or message boards) to members of that group. If you belong to a particular citizens group or political campaign, say, you can map out your group’s network of contacts, and you can use the tools to communicate internally.
I’m still figuring out how the system works, so I may not be able to answer all questions. But if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, shoot them to me at [email protected].
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