Coffee Party 2.0

Curating the web for political change.

It seems like a brand new movement is

starting online nearly each and every day.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 54% of adults used the internet for political purposes in

the 2010 election cycle, far surpassing the 2006 midterm contest.

How can we focus our efforts and amplify our

voices into a unified force of change?

Real change that represents the will of the people instead of the Corporations who have corrupted our government.

The answer is web curation.

By connecting the dots that lead to the Coffee Party, editors can organize blogs, events, and other content into actionable items and share them with the supporters of the Coffee Party

Movement.

Step One: Identify your sources.

To start curating the web for political change, the website administrators select the sources that matter most to them and their supporters.

The example on the left shows different types of sources, including the RSS feed from the Coffee Party website and Twitter feed.

Step Two: Organize your content.

Once the content starts flowing through the selected streams, editors select which stories should appear on the Coffee Party website.

This example shows recommended content from different sources, with buttons to scoop it (add it) or discard it altogether.

Step Three: Share your results.

The final step in curating the web is to give your curated content wings by enabling supporters to spread it across their own communities.

This example includes additional editor tools at the bottom of the post, such as edit and delete buttons, and a star to feature the article.

In order for the Coffee Party to affect real change, it must

provide a playbook for its supporters.

The Coffee Party 2.0 website does more than curate the political web. It is a playbook for change which provides actionable items

that supporters can take part in online or in the real world.

Promoting the Coffee Party brand.

First and foremost, the playbook would promote the Coffee Party brand and provide its readers with a goal to aspire towards.

This would include sections of the website that contain our mission statement and our civility pledge, along with a list of our shared values.

Focusing on our shared values.Each bit of content on the Coffee Party website would automatically be tagged with a specific value as set by the administrators.

Editors and supporters would also have the ability to add their own values to the content, in order to create a dynamic list of shared values.

Highlighting the important issues.

Issues are written by editors and highlight the important topics of the day. Each issue would contain a basic description along with links to important stories, research and other offerings that support the issue.

The example on the right was taken from Heritage.org, who uses issues to inform their supporters.

Educating the intellectual mind.

The research section of the Coffee Party website contains links to white papers, fact sheets, videos and podcasts that educate our supporters.

Editors would identify new content from their sources as research, associate it with a shared value, and add it to a relevant issue.

Engaging the active supporters.

The Coffee Party calendar contains a list of events and activities to engage our most active supporters.

Editors would identify new events and add them to the calendar, associate it with a shared value, and add it to a relevant issue.

Adding our voice to the mix.Website editors would also be able to post their own blogs on the Coffee Party website, allowing us to add our voice to the mix.

When writing a new blog, editors would tag them with a shared value, add it to an issue, and categorize it as an event or resource.

How much fun would a playbook be without an

actual game that everyone is invited to play?

The Coffee Party 2.0 website includes some simple game mechanics which are intended to engage our supporters

and increase the amount of time they spend on our website.

Creating some healthy competition.

Every action people take on the Coffee Party 2.0 website would earn a certain amount of points depending on which action they took.

The total number of points for each week is displayed on a leaderboard which creates healthy competition and drives interaction.

Administrators referee the game.

Administrators don’t actually play the game so much as they manage it from the backend by assigning user roles and adding new sources of content.

Administrators also have the same privileges as editors, but they don’t earn points for their activities.

Editors call the shots.Editors have the unfair advantage of access to more activities than your average player, each earning points that are displayed on the leaderboard.

Examples include writing a blog post, creating an issue, or categorizing content as a resource or an event.

Supporters play the game.The majority of activity will come from the supporters who like and share content from the website to their favorite social networks.

This enables the Coffee Party message to spread across the social web in a fun and engaging way that attracts even more supporters.

How does this vision of the Coffee Party 2.0

website sound to you?Feel free to send a message to

CoffeeParty@christopherritter.comand let me know what you think of this vision.