More than just technology companies and marketers are taking advantage of the widget concept. Political activist group MoveOn.org has released several of them for use on blogs and open platform social networking sites like Facebook.
Some of the new widgets are explicitly intended for “progressives,” which is the replacement term for the battered and abused “liberal” moniker conservatives like to throw around as if it were grounds for a stoning – or a least a large red A.
But we’ll move on and pretend like we didn’t notice the subtle rebranding. Besides, the rest of the widgets we assume are affiliation-agnostic.
VotePoke wouldn’t be one of those, though, as it was developed in association with Catalist, a progressive voter file data provider. But the tool, which allows users to look up their voter registration status online and register via Rock the Vote, doesn’t seem to bar – what might we call them? – regressives, or status quotians (or independents or libertarians or Marxists, or even the corporate messianics for that matter). It’s all in the name of the democratic process anyway, so the more the merrier.
In advance of Super Tuesday on February 5th, MoveOn created its Youth Primary on Facebook for the League of Young Voters, an application that allows Facebook members to vote for their favorite candidates, declare which issues are important to them, and invite their friends to vote. The League’s widget will tally votes nationally, locally, and by school.
Bloggers wishing to encourage citizen participation in government can add the Call Congress Blog Widget, which allows blog readers to enter their phone numbers and ZIP codes in order to connect with their corresponding Representative or Senator. This widget is expected to launch within the coming weeks. No word on what’s done with those phone numbers after the fact, though.
Expected to launch later this month, ActivList is an event calendar and might be of interest to progressives looking for like-minded people in their areas. ZIP codes required.
Also expected to launch this year is SignOn, a tool that allows people to launch their own online petitions and create their issue-centric networks. My first petition: Leave Britney alone.
“MoveOn’s new tools give our members exactly what they need to get their friends and colleagues involved in the upcoming political battles,” said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.
“More involvement from the local to the national levels means that real people will have a real voice in shaping the new direction of our country.”
