Edgar Acosta e-mailed us the other day to let us know about his new beta site called, Opposing Views:

Opposing Views helps you uncover all sides of the issues you care about most. Here at www.opposingviews.com, experts go head-to-head on real-life concerns, debating news and events, addressing the questions that keep you up at night. We introduce the questions, the experts present their cases (and disagree with each other), and you leave ready to make well-informed decisions and take action.

Each section of www.opposingviews.com is a channel, including politics, society, health, money, and religion. Our point/counter-point format gives each expert a chance to state their information and opinions on an issue. Meanwhile, the other side objects by calling out the flaws in that information, and then states their own side. Opposing Views brings together the information on the issue, the evidence on each side and their counter-points.

The hundreds of known and credible experts, opinion leaders and advocate groups include: the Obama Campaign, the McCain campaign, the National Rifle Association (NRA), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), The Sierra Club and Amnesty International, as well as individuals who are authorities on issues of current consumer interest. Collectively, these partner organizations already have been cited as authorities on their topics.

There are five sections - politics, society, health, money, and religion - pretty much every controversial issue of our time (”global warming” is in the “society” section). There is a strict “civility’ code, and experts in various fields. There’s some good info there - check it out.

Last week, I posted a link to a survey by synovate which indicated that globally, most adults don’t know what “online social networking” is, and the ones that do know are losing interest.

This makes sense, in the traditional sense of “social networking” online, which involves going to social networking sites to meet like-minded people. A quick Google Search, “define: Social Networking” reveals that most of the definitions online see social networking as being very “site” oriented. Adults typically don’t have time to go online just to find friends, and they are aware of the potential risks and dangers of participating in such sites, as the survey points out. The primary reason most of us might visit such sites is for the purpose of networking professionally, to promote our blogs and projects.

In the “real world” (offline), this is simply referred to as “networking,” and it happens everywhere - in restaurants, in offices, at conventions, on the golf course, in airports…wherever people gather. Since so many people are online, this is now happening online.

Online social networking involves, “Expanding one’s social network or sphere of influence by initiating mutually advantageous new relationships with people.” This can be done online through a variety of media, including blogging, commenting on blogs, linking with other bloggers, utilizing feeds, e-mailing, and participating in online groups (Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, etc), as well as visiting social news and social networking sites. Increasingly, virtual life is conforming to “real” life, and the “social network” is becoming more of an activity than a place to go.

Beginning September 30th, the WebWarriors of FHK (WWF) are planning to launch our first Web 2.0 Online Workshop, called “OK, I’m online. Now what?!”

In the workshop we’ll cover: (more…)

In our most recent survey, one of the major needs expressed by respondents was a need for ways to social network more effectively. As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite social networking site is Facebook, because of its ability to interface with all so many of the other sites, and because I believe it is an example of the future of social networking.

Facebook is useful for many aspects of social networking, but the one we’re going to discuss today is promoting your own blog. Before I get started listing the blog promotion opportunities, I cannot stress enough the importance of not overusing any of these strategies - and the importance of not using Facebook only for promoting a blog. Try that, and you’ll lose friends faster than you can add them. The purpose of Facebook is to foster genuine networking relationships - and no one like to be “spammed.” But along with superpoking, sharing videos, writing on friends walls, and responding to clever status messages, here are some great blog-promotion opportunites with Facebook:

1. Sign up for FriendFeed, and add the FriendFeed Facebook Application, and selectively submit your blog posts to the Feed.
2. If you’re on Twitter, you can automate the above submissions by adding TwitterFeed, and then adding your Twitter stream to your FriendFeed.
3. Join Groups that relate to the content of your blog, or start a group on the topic of your blog. As a group administrator, you can message the members of the group when you have an action item that your think they’ll all be interested in (heed word of caution above about overusing these techniques).
4. Put links to your really important stuff in your “status” message (occassionally). Note, there are several Twitter apps on Facebook that automatically update your Twitter status to your Facebook status - if you’ve installed the TwitterFeed app in #2 above, I would not recommend using these apps. Your Facebook Friends might grow weary of the constant blog promotion directly on Facebook.)

Also see:

• Patrick Ruffini: The Early Adopter Effect
• Facebook info on the WebWarriors Wiki
• How to Develop a Social Networking Profile in Four Easy Steps
• Friendfeed: Web 2.0 for Fans of Discussion Forums

NewsFutures: Prediction Markets is a new social news sites, which boasts “delivering the wisdom of crowds”. To see how it works, go here, and create an account. No real money is exchanged, although winners are able to bid on real prizes such as upgrades, or Amazon.com gift certificates.

According to an ABC report:

While the money earned on NewsFutures isn’t real, Servan-Schreiber [the creator of NewsFutures] argues that prediction markets are an incredibly valuable tool.

“I think of them as a brain,” he said. “You take a bunch of individually stupid neurons and put them together. Through massive interaction emerges intelligence. It’s the same thing with the market.”

“The market really is smarter than the average player in there, and sometimes smarter than anyone in there, even the best player,” he said. This aggregation of many people’s opinions, Servan-Schreiber argued, produces an “incredible probability that the market prices really corresponds to the probability [of the event occurring].”

Here is a CBS video about the site.

Question: How, if at all, do you think this type of technology and social networking will affect American politics?

Ft. Hard Knox recently teamed up with with Web Warriors all over the blogosphere to take political activism online to a whole new level. Web Warriors of Ft. Hard Knox (WWF) is group is for those seriously interested in using Web 2.0 to further the conservative movement online.

One of our first projects was to develop a WWF Wiki (much like an online “training manual”) for conservatives who are wanting to be more active online. We’re happy to announce that the WWF Wiki is up and running. There is still a lot of work to be done, and we’d love to have your help and feedback. Or, feel free to use it as a resource for your own projects.

This wiki addresses the technical side of online activism, and should provide useful information for anyone who is getting started, or wanting to become more active online, with or without a background in computer programming. This is a “low-tech,” as opposed to a “high-tech” reference for political bloggers.