Mike Ryan

Last October, I submitted the proposal below to the Knight News Challenge. Alas, they shot me down... I would like to pick up the idea again at some point.

Just as finding a romantic match can be difficult, choosing the right candidate in an election is a challenge. Often one only has a superficial knowledge of a contender, based on sound bites and word-of-mouth. Sometimes the possibilities can be overwhelming, and one needs help separating the wheat from the chaff. Services such as Match.com and eHarmony have been helpful to many people in search of romance – a similar approach can aid citizens seeking to make the best possible vote.

I propose an online “dating service”, where candidates and voters can find each other – and live happily until the end of the term. Campaigns and voters fill out profiles covering questions from broad political principles to specific local issues. Voters see a ranking of the candidates who best match their preferences, and where each candidate matches them most and least closely. Candidates have access to broader demographic data – e.g., is my support for that school closing killing me with women 25-40 in ward 6? And information on supporting campaigns (through volunteering and donations) will be well-integrated, giving motivated voters an easy opportunity to get involved.

The service would also operate like social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) by matching profiles among users (indeed, one possible implementation of the service would be as a Facebook application). Citizens with similar political tastes could group together in support of a given candidate or cause – and perhaps a group who can’t find an existing candidate matching their tastes could nominate one of their own.

The service would depend on sponsorship at the appropriate level for a given election, primarily from media organizations, from the town paper for municipal elections to national wire services and broadcast networks at the national level. Sponsors would be jointly responsible for the setup of races and definition of relevant profile questions for each race; they would also pay sponsorship fees into the central service provider to cover infrastructure and technical support costs.

Citizens looking for information beyond the sound bites of the most-familiar candidates will find this helpful in cutting to the chase – does the candidate with the most initial appeal really represent my interests? Is one of the names I haven’t heard before a better match? It also would provide social networking around political beliefs on a more complex level than simply party or a particular cause.

For candidates, with sponsorship from major news organizations they will find a presence on the service as essential as a MySpace page. The members of the service will, however, tend to be more politically involved and aware than the average MySpace user, and the service will actively encourage people to volunteer for or donate to their best-matching candidates. The demographic data made available may also be useful to candidates seeking to refine their message.

Quite simply, I am committed to this project because I want to have the tools available to make the best possible selections in the voting booth. At the local level I moved to a new city this year and don’t know the choices available to me; at the national level my impression is that my ideal candidate is not one of those making the front pages; I am motivated to build the tools necessary to help me make the best possible choices at every level as a citizen. Seeing the low voter turnout at all levels of elections, I know that I’m not alone in needing these tools.

On a technical level, I have a solid background as a web developer, particularly with Drupal, and can develop the basic service. To make my vision generally useful, a team with complementary skills is necessary, beginning with a business manager to help me complete the business plan and pull together the rest of the team. I anticipate also needing at least a couple of staff members to work with sponsors, candidates, and citizen users.

A specialist in privacy and security issues will also be necessary – trust is critical to the success of this project. Citizens must trust that that their privacy (including the particulars of their political profile) will be zealously guarded, and that the matches presented to them are controlled by their own profile choices and not manipulated towards a particular outcome. Candidates must trust that their views are presented objectively, and that the profile questions for their election are not biased in favor of a particular viewpoint. Sponsors must trust that the reputation of the service is impeccable, because it will reflect on them.