Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Alan Silberberg, CEO of You2Gov.com, a former White House staffer for former President Bill Clinton, to discuss his exciting new political social networking website. In addition to discussing You2Gov’s current and soon-to-be released features for users, we also discussed the evolution of politics in the new digital era and how social media is changing the landscape - fascinating to observe a whole new era of political action develop right before our eyes!?

Silberberg explained that he built You2Gov for one reason: to empower real people by providing them with extensive political communications tools and resources on a social network platform. Silberberg’s goal is provide the tools and information that will allow regular Americans to learn more about the issues they care about; form online communities with like-minded citizens; and to take action by using the simple tools available on You2Gov’s social network platform.

Silberberg made the great point that lobbyists often represent billion dollar corporations that are able to influence politicians in a variety of ways and that You2Gov.com provides a platform that shows average citizens that they too can be influential, just like the lobbyists - and that exercising their democracy is not as difficult as one might think.

On the information side, You2Gov.com aims to provide customized, relevant and current information about what’s going in the user’s political world, whether local or national. The web site is populated with valuable timely and relevant content that is provided both by You2Gov and its users, including current news, videos, useful links, a national calendar of events, a burgeoning forum community, and a government database that allows users to connect with the appropriate elected officials. All of this information is aggregated in one place - it is very simple, giving You2Gov.com users no reason to leave the web site to accomplish the task at hand: ACTION!

You2Gov.com not only connects normal citizens like you and I, but it also connects citizens (sometimes individually and sometimes coalesced as a group) with key decision makers. In the words of Silberberg, “Collectively, every American citizen owns the government, so why not leverage our collective voice?”

With the growth of You2Gov, politicians may be wary: this website presents a platform that not only aggregates all of the important information and tools, but it allows literally millions of like-minded Americans to organize themselves and take action. You2Gov gives every citizen a direct line of communication with their Government officials, allowing Americans to hold their representatives accountable. It will be interesting to see how politicians react - will they embrace the open communications or ignore it? And if it is the latter, will they really be able to get away with it given that everything will be public?

Silberberg’s site is rolling out new features periodically and users can expect a steady stream of improvements and new functionalities. According to Silberberg, “…web applications and social networking sites are like ‘legos’ nowadays. It’s not a matter of reinventing the wheel, it’s about how good of a ‘lego’ builder you are.” Silberberg’s website represents this vision.

Though recently launched, his site is solid, comprehensive, and garnering attention in the media.

My main criticism/suggestion would be some key usability and design improvements, improving the registration process and making things even more intuitive and easy-to-use. The features themselves are great and Silberberg’s vision includes even better tools that are being phased in (like allowing users to fax petitions from the site and a mobile version). With just a few tweaks, there is tremendous potential for You2Gov to grow very, very quickly.

During our talk, we discussed how many social networking websites are struggling because they don’t provide enough value or utility to enough people. Many larger social networks are gaining new users, yet retention, frequency, and ad rates are all on a downward slope. It’s obvious that Silberberg has done his homework and has big plans for You2Gov. His core principles are:

• Content is king
• Content creates conversations
• Conversations create community
• Communities take action

Where many social networking websites miss the boat is by focusing on number 3 alone. Or, they don’t give users the motivation or ability to actually take action or take advantage of the content and community for change. Social media, in the belief of Silberberg, represents a fundamental change in power.

He said, “Fortune 1000s and politicians alike are and will continue to be grappling with how to deal with the switch in leverage from companies, PR, and “big money” to individuals and constituents united for a cause and using social media as their megaphone.”

If you’re looking to amp up your involvement in issues you care about, I recommend logging on to You2Gov.com. They are well on their way to growing the site into a powerful force in the political spectrum.

Sign up (free) here

Create & upload a 30 second political commercial and win $1000 here

This blog article was also quoted on MarketWatch and you can read that article here.

It seems like “Google it” has now become the de facto answer to any question with an unclear answer (is it strange that a man-made machine will provide a plethora of options to answer most questions?).

When the Internet became widely available a little over a decade ago, I doubt anyone had the slightest idea how revolutionary this thing would be. Obviously, that’s a different story now: in today’s world, it would be foolish to deny that this “series of tubes” (techno remix here) has had a significant effect on the way we think and live.

In fact, that last sentence is probably the understatement of the year. The Internet has so revolutionized the developed world that there are very few parts of our lives untouched by this force majeure.

The news reader no longer has to wait until morning to read the news, or wade through mind-numbing commercials to get the jist of the situation on CNN. Instead, the news is available to anyone who wants it, anytime and anywhere. All available in a dizzying number of customizable formats: email, text message, RSS reader, and the list goes on.  And not just read the news! They can share it with friends through email, recommend it to total strangers on StumbleUpon or reddit, and discuss it with a healthy vigor (Google even lets you make your case if you’re the subject of an article and there’s more on the topic in this NPR podcast).

Traditional media now has some very, very stiff competition. The behemoths are slowly catching on, lest the Internet leaves them in it’s dust. To be fair, there are exceptions to this. One of my favorites is the BBC, who have always provided excellent content for as long as I can remember, and continue to do so even today.

This radical shift is by no means limited to just the news: almost any topic you can think of will do. The accessibility of the the Internet now means music like Mongolian folk rock (video) is just as readily available as Paul Simon (an even better example might be Finnish band, the Leningrad Cowboy’s performance of Sweet Home Alabama, with the official Soviet Red Army Choir. I’m not kidding). It’s an open secret that the Internet is not so slowly eating up music labels profits (IMO, Janis Ians The Internet Debacle is still a classic on the topic).

The list goes on and on:

Wikipedia has made knowledge sexy again. In what other world can you carry a whole encyclopedia in your back pocket?

Traffic is getting more difficult to battle, and work sites are more expensive (and many other reasons), more people are beginning to working from home. Businesses are also finding that this is more productive (and cheaper), and so more are allowing their staff “telecommute“. Some have never even met their colleagues, even though they work together regularly.

Shopping too has become a lot easier (a slight understatement, I admit). From groceries to books, to shoes, and just about anything you can think of.

The Internet has also managed to destabilize the traditional balance of power of society by allowing everyone to participate. By bringing lots of small voices together, the little man is now making enough noise to make a difference. American politics (with Howard Dean, Ron Paul, and more successfully, Barack Obama) is a perfect example of this. Governments who have tried to control the volume can attest to the difficulty of doing this (Egypt had this experience a few years ago, and more recently is China’s experience with Tibet).

The Internet revolution is here to stay. Will you be a part of it, or would you rather be left behind?