Our biggest assignment for the young leadership program in Sweden was to come up with ideas for a social media networking solution for 2010. My group, The Frozen 5, contained a Palestinian human rights activist, a Swedish journalist, a Syrian architect, am Egyptian media teacher, and me – Jordanian web developer/blogger.
Inspite of the horrible lengthy debates that took place between us, and the hardship we faced trying to communicate between each other, we were able to deliver an excellent idea, nice prototype and wonderful presentation at the end of the program.
What would we do to help increasing freedom of expression as a social media networking solution that isn’t already out there on the web?
It was a challenging question. We started thinking of what draws us to the internet, and what is the common trait of us – the young leaders participants of the program -. The answer was simple and clear: It is OUR PASSION to defend our VALUES. Isn’t it the same thing that we all share? Isn’t it what made blogging popular?
And so, the idea of creating a “facebook” based on values popped up. A social media network solution where people gather based on their values or issues they are interesting in.
Ofcourse, that was not enough for originality. We needed more, and so we asked ourselves. How do people communicate their values now on the web? What forms of debates are taking place? We looked out there and found message forums, email groups and blogs! All work in a linear form, where someone post a topic and people reply. There is no real HEAD to HEAD debate anywhere on the internet.
That is how the Debate Arena emerged! A place where two people (for now) can go head to head in debating a certain issue/value (see climate change scenario image below). I have always wished to go head to head against Qwaider (:P). Two people challenging each other while having all the resources that they can gather to support their views, and they can invite their friends to support them right below their debate. Supporters (like in blogs) can add comments, they can add videos/images/audio that would help the argument of each contender. And finally, they can vote! A voting that would decide the winner of the debate (if they want a win/lose debate). The winner gets a small icon indicating his win in a debate of a certain issue along with the number of votes he got. Eventually active people in different issues would be collecting many winning icons that would distinguish them as leaders in that area.
We also introduced the friendly arena module which would work as a group arena where people sharing the same values would group themselves, add group feed, and check out which group members are engaged in a debate so that to go and give support.
The project wasn’t meant to stop at this stage. They asked us to think of a potential sources of funding and methods of developing it. We haven’t yet started searching for funding. Today the Swedish Institute Project manager of the program – Wonderful Sweed Javeria – sent us an email telling us that she started looking into this issue to help us (Thank you Javeria).
I personally think that no one would develop this better than people of itoot/ikhbis/watwet…etc. I so admire your work people. I don’t know how much money we would need, and if you would be interested working on this. Maybe I would have to contact Ahmed Humaid? I am just too excited about this project and can see a lot of potential to it.
I personally believe that social arena would grow to help future generation of leaders to emerge.
PS: Don’t steal this idea! 😛
Fadi Zaghmout فادي زغموت 
Very interesting concept. Although, I wonder if majority works in debating concepts. I guess, it could be a vote on debating skills rather than the soundness of the arguments.I really love the idea! Could be a great platform for debate between political parties. 🙂
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Nice idea. I think it’s not hard to implement using current tools. Voting can be a problem if abused, but other than that it is a reasonable thought.
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Zait o za3tar, I am glad you like the idea. The platform can be used for any possible scenario, and those who don’t like to debate, can just watch and vote 🙂DM, you are right, it shouldnt be hard to implement. I am sure some votings would be abused in a way or another. Users would decide upon their preferences which debates to follow and which not.
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Hello there,My name is Mohammad Azraq and I report for Global Voices (www.globalvoicesonline.org), I would like to link to your very interesting post, and I was wondering if I could have your permission to use the image also.
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hey Mohammad, yes sure, you can post both 🙂
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You won’t stand 60 seconds head to head against me man 🙂Stay here… it’s safer 😉Kidding aside, I think it’s a great idea. Granted, it needs a lot of work. But it’s a great idea indeed.Imagine if you can take this concept and extrapolate to include presidential candidates. Where they can go “head-to-head” on line in a documented manner. I see a lot of promise there
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Man, come and pass to my officemaybe we will discuss something regarding implimenting it.my mobile is 0799555033waiting ur call 😉Malik Shishtawi.
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Very good presentation of our idea! As I said before, I think it’s crucial that bloggers can stay on their own platforms, but connect them to the arenas. And, speaking about funding, I joined the group Maliks fans on Facebook, so who knows..
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Qwaider, maybe some day presidential candidates would use it! who knows?!Malik, will call you this weekend 🙂Axel, you are 100% right :). long live frozen 5 😉
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Hi! Check this out, it’s a scoial network based on values, but its not the same as our idea, it is putting people together based on the material they share. Maybe it could be a feature of our system..http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fileride_social_network_around.php
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