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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Anywhere consumers comment on the US primary elections by mashup

Google has an amazingly cool mashup that geographically maps consumer Twitter comments on the US elections in real time. They also promise to present real-time election results tonight when the polls close. My biggest surprise watching this mashup was how many comments on the election are coming from other countries like Australia and France. People outside the US are quite interested in our primary results, but those voices get lost through the filter of the conventional media networks. Tools like this make them heard. When I was a kid, TV networks used computers to aggregate election results and predict winners. Now, we use computers to disaggregate results and to give individuals voices that can be seen all over the world. Technology marches on.

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