Guidelines
GUIDELINES FOR CO-CURATORS
Please also refer to the About / FAQ page for a description of the sources, tone, and general sensibility we’re aiming for.
Use your judgment – we’ll give you feedback on your picks as you go.
Sources We’re Looking For
Stuff made by regular people.
Not stuff in professional media.
Not stuff by professional journalists writing on their regular beat.
Not stuff by professional broadcasters or producers.
Not stuff on big blogs that already have big readerships.
Not stuff created by campaigns or advocacy groups or big organizations.
Not stuff created by celebrities who have ready platforms.
Not stuff from political/well-funded/high-visibility citizen-journalism sites.
Caveat: comments on any site — including mainstream media, etc. — are fair game for a couple of reasons: They’re generally just reactions by regular people. And even if they’re on high-visibility sites, they’re often overlooked.
Content We’re Looking For
Media relevant to the 2008 presidential election. We’re focusing primarily on current material rather than looking backwards at what’s already happened. But if you find great stuff from several months or years ago, by all means send it along — especially if it’s relevant to the current conversation (e.g., this post).
Mashups / remixes definitely count!
Issues (Feel free to include others.)
Healthcare
Global warming & Energy
Iraq & Afghanistan
Iran
Homeland Security
Immigration
Recession / Economy
Housing / Subprime
National debt & taxes
Campaign finance / electoral reform
Abortion
Gay Rights
Gun Rights
Social Security
Stem Cells
Education
Free Trade
Candidates (as of 13 March 08)
John McCain
Ron Paul
Ralph Nader
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Qualities/Tone We’re Looking For
Remember that the whole point of BallotVox is to be a filter. Quality is much more important than quantity.
What We Want:
All sides of the political spectrum
Things that are engaging, smart, provocative, and advance the public conversation
Local voices from all over the country
Foreign voices from outside the US (commenting on how the election might affect them)
Stories about issues
Stories about the candidates
Stories that show a very local angle on issues/candidates
Stories that show how issues/candidates affect a particular community
Stories with rich detail
Honesty
Generosity
Engagement in public life
Humor
Big Plus But Not Strictly Necessary:
Good production values — not enough in itself, but definitely a bonus
What We Don’t Want:
Hate speech
Rudeness
Crassness
Meanspiritedness
Ad hominem attacks
Pointless rants
Boring stuff that otherwise meets the criteria
Specific Tips for Each Medium
Words:
At the start we’re focusing our attention on blogs, but if you want to get us going on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, the American Idol message boards, etc., by all means go for it. It would be a big help.
Videos:
YouTube requires a lot of digging. There’s lots of bad stuff out there, and lots of stuff from mainstream media – we want the gems from regular people. Good editing, music beds, etc. are all a plus. Short is ideal unless the video is riveting.
Pictures:
Aesthetic quality is key; so is interesting editorial quality. The best photos will have both.
Audio:
What we’re hoping for here is specific podcast episodes (rather than a whole podcast feed), though we’d consider entire podcasts if the episodes are consistently terrific. Looking for audio is time intensive.
General Search Tips
For searches, try using multiple specific key words to narrow down what you have to sort through.
Some basic places to look:
Blogs (for words and podcasts)
YouTube
Google Video
Vimeo (video)
Blip.tv (video)
Vodpod (video)
Dailymotion (video)
Qik (video)
Flickr
iTunes (for podcasts)
PRX (for mp3s — there are a number that meet our criteria!)
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Comment threads & message boards on just about any site (including MSM, big political blogs, YouTube, Flickr…)
Handy search engines:
Technorati (Tip: you can plug a URL into the search box; Technorati will then show you all of the blogs that have linked to that URL. This is very handy if you’re researching reactions to, say, a news story.)
Google Blog Search
Handy local blog aggregators:
Placeblogger
Voices Without Votes (for bloggers in foreign countries)
Searching by specific location on Blogger.com
(Hat tip to former Open Source blogger-in-chief Greta Pemberton for this info.)
For domestic blogs: http://www.blogger.com/profile-find.g?t=l&loc0=US&loc1=State&loc2=Town+Name
So Mercer Island, WA looks like this:
http://www.blogger.com/profile-find.g?t=l&loc0=US&loc1=Washington&loc2=Mercer+Island
For international blogs:
http://www.blogger.com/profile-find.g?t=l&loc0=RU&loc1=Moscow (is Moscow, Russia)
So: loc0=[2-letter country code, available here]
If you want all blogger blogs in Russia, leave off the “&loc1=” part.
How To Send Us Links
Please use del.icio.us, not email. This will make it really easy for us to keep track of things. It also creates a record of everything you’ve submitted.
1. Sign up for your own delicious account. (If possible, please make your account name recognizably yours — it’ll make it easier for us to know who’s submitting what.)
2. Bookmark whatever you want to send us and make for:ballotvox one of your tags (this way we’ll see it in the BallotVox account). More detailed instructions here.
3. In the “Notes” box please describe what’s cool about what you’ve found and why you think it’s BallotVox-worthy.
4. We’ll check out your link and hopefully bookmark it in the BallotVox del.icio.us account. If it’s a video, we’ll add it to the vodpod video collection. If it’s a Flickr photo, we’ll add it to the BallotVox Flickr favorites.
We Want To Credit You For Your Work!
1. We’ll ask each of you to write a post introducing yourself — and in the About / FAQ section your name will be linked to that post.
2. In the BallotVox del.icio.us bookmarks, we’ll tag your submissions with your name. This will allow you or anyone else to search for everything you’ve submitted. We’ll also credit you in the “Notes” box of each del.icio.us bookmark by saying something like “Found by XYZ.”
3. If we write a BallotVox post about something you’ve submitted, we’ll give you a big hat-tip in the post (linking your name to your introductory post).
Help Us Improve These Guidelines
This wiki is a place for you to share as much of your own wisdom as you can about how to find the good stuff out there on the web — or about anything else that will help the BallotVox project. Please jump in!
