BuzzDash: Polling Quirky Data in 'Real Time'

There is a new community forming online. A percentage community. One that thrives on pie graphs and statistical data...but they're a rowdier bunch than you might assume. While their format requires mass number crunching, this particular Web 2.0 application and its users are anything but dry. They have, in fact, created a far more dynamic network than other social web 2.0 concepts I've seen.

BuzzDash.com is a polling community where anyone and everyone can "solicit, measure, and share opinions” on various issues in real time. The site is composed of over thirteen thousand "buzzbites", which are customizable polling modules, topics ranging from the more traditional (entertainment, sports, politics, and finance) to the more controversial and obscure (sexual preferences, philosophy, salad dressing, office behavior, shoe lacing strategy). Also, the polling "buzzbite" widget isn't restricted to just Buzzdash.com, "the module can be embedded in any personal web page or blog". Go ahead; create your very own poll and broadcast it to the world…(via myspace, facebook, etc). The site’s unspoken anthem: what you ask is as important as how you choose to respond.

In its Terms of Service, Buzzdash releases itself of all liability regarding user content: "You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable...This means that you, and not BuzzDash, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the Service." That being said, there isn't much you CAN'T find on BuzzDash. Site reviews include praise and appreciation for its "easy-to-use software" that seems to cater to the "obsessively curious". Its unique approach to tracking popular opinion has earned Marina del Ray based BuzzDash.com a place on PC World's 25 Web Sites to Watch (2007). It was also voted "Best Web 2.0" on allthingsweb2.com (2008).

My particular interest was peaked when I came across its sub-category labeled “relationship” (listed on homepage sidebar under ''other''). What kinds of questions are people asking in this network about sex, sexuality, love, marriage, dating, betrayal, divorce, children, childhood? How does this Internet audience differ from other audiences polled on the web? What are the gender discrepancies of online statistical research as compared to those found in other mediums? The breadth of question on this site is remarkable. Some of the recent polls posted include “Ladies: Would you sleep with a bi-sexual man?”, “Are your parents happy with the role religion plays in your life?”, “Parents with pets: do you love your kids or your pets more?”, “Should we have the right to choose to pay child support?”, “Are you more attracted to people with a different hair color than you?”.

I would imagine that part of the reason people become “addicted” to a network like Buzzdash is because it (seemingly) provides a direct route to that ever mysterious thing we call ‘normal behavior’. While charting a particular poll’s progress, you’re not reading between the lines. You’re reading numbers. You’re reading a very simplified explanation of very complex social indicators. Buzzdash presents immediate access to ‘average’, to a so-called normative. But does the public opinion aggregated on Buzzdash accurately represent greater trends of some sort? If you are registered with site you can, in fact, explore the particular demographic responses to polling prompts. If you click on the magnifying glass in bottom right hand corner of the buzzbite you are given these categories to choose from: Gender, Age, Geography, Marital Status, Political Affiliation, Race/ethnicity, and Household income. For the relationship buzzbite entitled, "If the fountain of youth was discovered, would you take a drink?", 1999 people have voted since its post date on July 17th... the problem being not all of these 1999 pollers have provided information regarding their age, race, marital status etc. Of all those votes only 25 have identified themselves as female and even less have identified their race/ethnicity.

With such an innovative way to track popular opinion on a wide variety of issues, I hope more people (not just those fluent in the world of web 2.0) decide to join this community. It will make the result more dynamic, more accurate, and perhaps generate type of discussions that are too embarrassing or "taboo" to prompt face-to-face.