Critique on 10Questions.com

10Questions.com is a great site to find direct answers from the candidates about issues facing our country. 10Questions was created based on user feedback regarding the CNN/YouTube presidential debate. YouTube users felt that the questions chosen by CNN were not representative of what people wanted to hear about so a group of users created their own site which allowed visitors to vote on which questions should be asked. Then the questions are posed to the candidate and they are given ample time to post a response on the site.First thing I did was watch the welcome video so I could better understand the site and its purpose. As the spokesperson said in the video, people are turning to the Internet to gather information to help shape their decisions about the election.

When you visit this page, you can click on the answers tab and find questions posted via YouTube video and along side it is a Republican/Democrat category. Within each category you can click on the candidate you want to hear from. The questions posted range from medicinal marijuana use to the impeachment of Bush to the environment. The site isn’t currently taking votes but when they were, users could vote on whether or not a candidate has answered the question well. You can also search the site by topic, I typed in Medicinal Marijuana and two video came up, which can help you narrow down the questions that are important to you. Another important feature of the site is allows you to email the links to friends or link it to your Facebook page. This can be very powerful when you consider how quickly information is shared these days.

What I find even more interesting, is that two of the three people running for president right now chose not to respond to the questions or the website. Specifically, when I clicked on Hillary Clinton’s photo, I received this response, “Clinton has not uploaded an answer. Let her and the other candidates know you’d like to see one.” I assumed all the candidates would want a presence on these sites. I would think a site like this can help a candidate understand the needs of the people and offer them an opportunity to be heard on the issues.

Overall, I was impressed by the people power that developed 10Questions.com.  I think this is a great example of people working together who want real answers to real questions.