I’d meant to mention this today. But I got sidetracked on a few other projects we’re trying to get squared away before the holiday.
If you’re a long-time TPM Reader you know that one of the things we’ve done a lot of over the last few years and particularly during the 2006 cycle has been to get a jump on stories unseen by the national media by relying on tips from readers in the field. One of the things we did a lot on last November (was that really a year ago?) was getting information from folks who’d received push-polls or deliberately offending “robocalls” in the lead up to the election.
One of the great limitations we’ve always labored under though is a simple lack of resources. We’ve never been able to really bring the process to scale to put together tips and from folks who’ve gotten polled in different parts of the country, with different messages and so forth.
But Huffington Post’s ‘Off the Bus’ crowd sourcing venture is putting the concept to work with the kind of technical infrastructure and resources we’ve always envied. It’s called the Polling Project. And they just launched it today. We, along with a number of other online news outlets and blogs, right and left, are cosponsoring it. And you can find out more about it here. Definitely give it a look and share what you’re hearing from those annoying pollsters on the other end of the line.
