Battleground State Maps
We’ve thrown together some state maps for some of the states that might into play tonight:
Simplified State Maps — Example: Ohio
We’ve got some simplified state-level maps now available, like the one for Ohio seen above. If you like what you see, just copy this code:
<iframe src="http://votereport.us/reports/map?state=OH&clean=1" frameborder="0" class="stream" width="535" height="500" scrolling="no" ></iframe>
And paste it into your site, replacing the “OH” for whatever the code is for the state whose map you happen to be after.
Nathan Heeded the Call to “Grab the Data and Go”
Over on our “See it in action” page, we posted links to all the data feeds that power twittervotereport.com, in addition to a couple of alternate ways of feeding the #votereport reports. Those feeds are listed under a noted saying “developers, grab the data and go!” Well, Nathan Freitas, saw that and said, well, all right. Now, Nathan built the #votereport Android app several day back, but he hasn’t since had the time to work in close contact with the small knot of developers who have been building out some of the core tools. Nathan, though, popped back into our Google Group late this afternoon and said, in effect, “here, I made this“– where “this” was an interface for reports that sorts and displays the data in a bunch of different way. No one knew what Nathan was up to, but no one had to. Armed with a Geo-JSON feed, Nathan had everything he needed to make a huge contribution to the project.
That was only possible because this group has by design been an open efforts focused on open standards, from inception. And now we have some rather awesome and powerful visualizations as a result. Must be a lesson in there somewhere…
How Current TV Will Be Using Tweeted Vote Reports
Back during the presidential debates, Current TV tried something new. Running just below John McCain, Barack Obama, and the various moderators was a constantly update feed of tweets — or Twitter postings — commenting on the debate. Not every tweet marked #current was included. But any tweet so marked stood a decent shot of making it on air. Here’s a taste of what that project, called "Hack the Debate," looked like.
Current is again innovating how modern news works, and it again involves Twitter. Starting tomorrow at nine in the morning, tweets marked #votereport will broadcast during Current’s special election coverage. So, for example, if you’re watching their coverage on how the election is going in Ohio, #votereport tweets from the Buckeye State may be running at the bottom of your TV screen.
Current has also put together the great overview seen above on how this grassroots, decentralized reporting project works, and how they plan on using the reports that come in. Not sure you get Current? Find your local cable or satellite station here.
Developers: Get Your Twitter Vote Report GeoJSON Feed Here
Just ignore this post if the phrase "JavaScript Object Notation" means nothing to you, but I want to make a point of mentioning that the GeoJSON feed of all Twitter Vote Report data is now up and running. That’s all the reports in our data stream, tagged with geographic information.
We want (and are very close to begging) you to make use of it. Grab it and mash it up with whatever you like — whether that’s polling place locations, real-time results, or something else. If you come up with something neat, just let us now in the comments.
Oh yeah, there’s also a Twitter Vote Report KML link that works in Google Earth, if that’s more your style. That link will update the file every 60 seconds with new reports.
On Twitter’s Value for Non-Tweeters
Blogger Robleh Ali has some interesting thoughts on how #votereport changed his thinking about the usefulness of Twitter:
I’m torn on the value of Twitter. For a long time I have thought it largely useless because I don’t know anyone who uses it and dismissed it as a phenomenon of the tech blogosphere echo chamber. However as with Flickr I have started to see the value of it now I can see it presented in a way I actually find useful.
…
What changed my mind was Twitter Vote Report. This service gives a realtime update of useful information such as wait times on election day. Combined with Plodt this gives a stream of valuable realtime information that could not come from anywhere else. It does not matter that most people aren’t Twitter users - there are enough of them to continuously monitor what is happening and with the right tools that info can be turned into something valuable to non-Twitter users like me.
Worth a read, as it raises an interesting question. Is there some magical critical mass of reports that TVR needs to reach to be useful? Certainly, some visualization don’t work nearly as well with only a few data points. But given the way Twitter encourages users to pick up and amplify information, Robleh suggests that even a few solid reports can have big impact.
Now Available: State-by-State Twitter Vote Report Maps (and More Data Feeds)
Driving the Twitter Vote Report all along has been the idea that real-time information on how elections are proceeding is all the more valuable when it’s local. That’s why it’s particularly exciting that we now have state-level Google maps to offer up. As is everything in TVR land, these maps are still beta. But what’s great about these embeds is that you can add them to your site now, and it will automatically be updated with improvements as they come out.
To embed the Twitter Vote Report map for your state as an iframe, paste this code into your site:
<iframe src="http://votereport.us/reports/map?state=OH" frameborder="0" class="stream" width="535" height="500" scrolling="yes" ></iframe>
That will reproduce the map for Ohio displayed below. To display a map of your state, just replace "OH" with your two-character state abbreviation in the above code.
If you have the chops to build your own visualizations, more power to you. We’ve got the JSON data stream powering the map, as well as some variations on that feed (including a GoogleEarth KML layer), over on the See It in Action Page.
Wait Times Visualized: Check Out Plodt’s Plotting
Our partner Plodt is a rather new Twitter visualization service. They’ve been whipping up some intriguing charting of wait times across the country, pulling from the stream of Twitter Vote Report data. At present, there are only a handful of data points in any one location, so the information should be taken with a grain of salt.
That said, even at this early stage it’s fascinating to comb through Plodt’s early chartings, including places like Holladay, Utah, where a report came in of a 200 minute wait. Lest you think that the good folks at Plodt wasted time building a page for Holladay — which I’m sure is a lovely place but isn’t really one of your election hot spots — a rather neat feature is that city and state pages are created on the fly. If someone tweets a tweet market "votereport" from any spot in the country, then bam!, a Plodt page is created for it.
Keep an eye on Plodt. They’re going to be, I suspect, some of the more interesting visualizations that come out of Twitter Vote Report.
Great New Video: Twitter Vote Report in Four Minutes or Less
We’ve got a fun new video up on YouTube that sums up TVR in just a few minutes. It’s the work of extraordinary team member Noel Hidalgo, known to the Internet as noneck. Noel helps lead a Brooklyn-based non-profit production group called Not An Alternative, whose members helped Noel turned the video into the piece of art that it is.
Give it a look, and please don’t hesitate to send it around.
NPR’s Andy Carvin Does Twitter Vote Report 101 on “Weekend Edition”
NPR’s Andy Carvin has been involved in Twitter Vote Report from its first stirrings, and he was a guest on NPR’s "Weekend Edition" program first thing this morning to discuss the project with guest host Alison Stewart. We’ve got the audio here. In addition to being a great synopsis of how the project works, Andy nicely paints a picture of the "giant global conversation" that is Twitter. If you’re looking for something to help quickly explain this strange beast called Twitter Vote Report to your friends, family, and colleagues, you could do far worse. Well done, Andy.
NPR.org has, under Andy’s direction, set up a great web page with instructions on how to engage in Twitter Vote Report — a testament to NPR’s committment to this project.
