I met Brian Buser, marketing manager at Minggl, a few months ago at SXSW Interactive. He and I have exchanged emails regularly every since, so I decided to ask him a few questions about Minggl and how it might apply in the political space.

Who are you?

Minggl is a social interaction manager that helps manage multiple social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. We are based in Austin, TX.

What did you build?

In addition to the web browser toolbar, we’ve built a Facebook application called Political Wall. Political Wall uses technology built for a future feature of Minggl to get people involved in the current election debate.

What does it do?

The Political Wall displays comments made within Facebook on www.barackobama.com and www.johnmccain.com. The wall is viewable by anyone who has the Minggl toolbar. On the wall, viewers are able to vote up or down comments similar to the Digg ranking system. The most popular comments rise to the top. The Political Wall also displays vote totals for each candidate. A comment wall is also displayed on each user’s Facebook profile as a place for their friends to debate.

Why politics?

Quite simply, politics is the big story of 2008. There hasn’t been this much interest in a Presidential election in a long time. The internet has played a big role in bringing new people into the debate. And it just so happens our technology enables people to do some cool things on the Internet that haven’t been done before. So, it’s a natural fit.

Some people are really skeptical of Facebook as a political tool. They see it as a headline-grabber but not an organizer/mobilizer. What do you think?

First, we want to be clear that Minggl has no affiliation with any of the candidates or political party. However, we do see our Facebook application as another avenue for mobilizing support for candidates and interest in the political process. We think it will be interesting to see which comments are voted most popular and how the rivalry between Obama and McCain plays out on Facebook.

The Political Wall provides a unique way for people to voice their opinion in this hotly contested election. In a manner we know people very much enjoy…socializing with their friends on Facebook. And who knows…maybe your comment makes it all the way to the top of the rankings and is read by Obama or McCain someday. Isn’t it fascinating to think you could only be a couple clicks away from the next President of the United States?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under 2008 Election, Facebook, Interviews, Social Networks, Social Web, Tools and Apps, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.