The ideal of impartiality is evasive when it comes to politics. What fascinates me about the site, however, is not so much its conceit, but rather its claim to be “nonpartisan” and impartial. Having to gather my thoughts to fill out the questions was rewarding in its own right - and I encourage those who might be interested to try it ( I see it as an especially helpful tool for lower-level elections). It’s a clever way to encourage clinical politics - divorcing emotions and identifying with candidates purely on principles and policy.
If an informed electorate is a cornerstone of a great nation, then ISideWith is furthering the cause.Example of Quiz Results from "We want to get more people to the polls this November," Peck said.
They currently have users in every state. Launched in March 2012, thus far over a quarter million people have used the site and taken their quiz. Peck noted, "Our data is different than that of a traditional poll because we do not frame the questions around a certain political party or candidate." The 18-25 year-old age group is using the site the least and least engaged. Overall, men are more engaged on the site than women, but women over 50 are most engaged in discussing the issues and most likely to share their quiz answers with others. 56% of site users in Florida believe marijuana should be legal. 55% of site users in Ohio believe gay marriage should be legal. The social issue ranked most important for ISideWith users was gay marriage. Economic Issues their users are listing as most important are (in order): 1. Some trends they’ve seen amongst users so far, include: They want something that's personalized, just for them and how they feel," said Peck. "The younger generation is going to be more and more turned off by negative ads.
In recent news, the Romney campaign raised more money than President Obama, but Peck points out that most of the spending which goes toward TV campaigns might not matter as much, as the Internet becomes more of a place for people to educate themselves on the issues. “We will do all the research for them," said Peck. They'd like to be go-to site before a voter head to the polls. They also keep an updated list of aggregated news stories on candidates and the issues on the site. On their homepage, they include a live heat map that shows where candidates stand in each state. "That gets people interested in politics, when they can find one of their friends who shares their beliefs - they start discussing and become more engaged," said Boutelier.Īs the presidential election draws closer, it's likely that voters will continue to seek out information on the candidates, and ISideWith is a great place to do so. The startup is also constantly watching the candidates and how they pivot on crucial issues, and updating the site accordingly.Īs for political dialogue, the site also allows users to share the results of their quiz on social media platforms (namely Facebook) - so they can compare answers and scores with others. The site includes all third party candidates and their views, as Peck is intent on educating Americans on all the choices available to them. They developed an algorithm that - based on your answers to their master quiz - will tell you which candidate you align with the most, which candidate you agree with the least, and where you line up with candidates on each of the issues. “We wanted to make it easy for the average American to access information based on their views and match them with the candidates who are running for an elected office.”Ĭentered on a quiz that allows users to home in on the big issues, the site quickly identifies and boils down the topics that America cares about most, including: the economy, abortion, immigration, healthcare, foreign policy, science, and the environment. So we wanted to develop a medium, where we could communicate between people like me and people like Nick.” While I am kind of the opposite - I’m a politics junkie and a news junkie.
Peck said, “Nick describes himself as the typical American, who’s not really interested in politics. They were two polarized Americans, one a politics aficionado and the other completely aloof. The site’s ultimate goal is to get more people to the polls and to increase a more informed political dialogue in the U.S.ĬEO Taylor Peck and developer Nick Boutelier created the concept for the site from their own political leanings.