Hot Soup - New Social Networking for political and other opinions

Tomorrow, Oct. 19, a new social-networking Web site will launch named Hotsoup.com. It "aims to give an online voice to the millions of U.S. residents who keep up with the news and influence the opinions of their friends, family and coworkers," according to an online article today in Macworld. 'The goal is to create smart, civil debate, said three of the site’s co-founders during a preview Wednesday. “Americans are tired of yelling at their TV screens,” said Allie Savarino, a Hotsoup co-founder who also helped start the Sisterwoman.com social-networking site. “They want a voice of their own, and they want someone to listen.” '

I had read about the Hotsoup project, and registered for membership, in July with the understanding that it would be operational for the 2008 national elections. Interestingly, it now appears it will be available for citizens to use for the upcoming 2006 mid term elections. I wonder how many people might participate and whether it will make a difference in just a few weeks. Check it out and tell your friends about it, and we will see what happens.

Another source of detailed information about Hotsoup.com is another Wiki type site named, "Source Watch" a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. One overview comment is that "HOTSOUP.com "will be organized in a way similar to MySpace.com, with areas for information and networking so people can connect to one another"; "will also include discussion boards throughout the web pages"; and "will feature a ranking system to allow users to rate how persuasive, interesting, and relevant they find someone else’s insight or opinion to be."

My understanding is that another goal of the Hot Soup project is to try to get politicians to take a stand, before elections, on issues that large numbers of people support. I sincerely hope a significant number of issues that start to be discussed immediately are related to local, regional, national and global issues related to natural resources, environment, ecosystems and climate. In addition, I believe that as more people learn how to participate in this type of Social Networking effort, they will be inclined to participate in other civic projects and even start their own project blogs, wikis and discussion groups for people with mutual interests.