Online resources for the Indian general election 2009 - Part 1
Sidin Vadukut -
Monday, March 23, 2009 11:02 AM
With mere weeks to before elections to the Lok Sabha here is the first in a series of round-ups of online resources to news and information on the general elections:
1. The mouth of the horse: Start by browsing the government Press Information Bureau's General Election 2009 portal. Expect all official announcements here and data junkies have access on the portal to all sorts of data from this and previous elections. Well-designed and easy to use without completely eschewing the GoI's downmarket tastes in web design. There is some well-intentioned use of Ajax in there. Use Internet Explorer for best results.
2. Times of India has what looks like a couple of online initiatives around the elections linked to each other. The first is a more conventional, newsy, multimedia enabled site called Dance of Democracy. Lots of news headlines, a smattering of data and schedules and a link to another section called Your Voice 2009. Your Voice is a more interactive platform for readers to ask questions to the editors and the political parties themselves. The site currently has several of pieces of interesting content including what the various parties think of the death penalty. Both sites will (should?) get more buzzy as we approach the elections. The highlight of the TOI experience was the slideshow of past TOI coverpages subsequent to election results.
3. Reasonable amounts of content to read on DNA's election microsite. Slightly jarring placement of a huge Google ad in the middle of it all. But less of a micro-site than a simple aggregator of election news.
4. Hindu has a great implementation of the Wordpress blogging platform for its election microsite. Plenty of content that is cleverly categorized for easy access. And thankfully they haven't tried to stick to the main paper's fuddy duddy web design. Clean, easy to use and good use of the paper's picture archives.
5. CNN-IBN's microsite is names IBNPolitics.com, a reference to CNN's CNNPolitics.com website that was hugely popular and addictive during the Obamathon. But besides the name a slightly similar navigation bar design on top the site is very much in the IBNlive.com mould. Lots of content, reasonably well laid out and some widgets to fiddle around with historic election data. The channel is also trying to push interactivity with an online poll booth map marker and a webcam video debate initiative. Oh and Prakash Karat blogged for them on Saturday!
6. Yahoo News has a surprisingly good Indian Elections minisite that pulls news items from a number of newspapers and wire services. Some interactive maps and a nice interactive Your Manifesto section where you can leave comments on a range of election issues.Definitely worth a look, especially if you don't want to trawl through several newspaper websites.
7. MSN has a simple but buzzy website with a few simple categories. The banner on top is a little garish but like Yahoo the site has pulled together interesting content from a number of sources.
8. Orissa-based Breaking News Online has a little operation up online as well. The site says that all the content is original.
9. The Huffington Post does not have too much India specific coverage but Congree Lok Sabha candidate Shashi Tharoor is infrequently posting pieces there and if he continues to do so through the elections it may be well worth keeping track of.
10. And for a truly data dump experience do check Rediff.com's stream of election news here. Everything from quirky wire stories to tremendous headlines that beg you to click. Infotainment is the word.
More online resources and and when we find them. Livemint's special microsite will be up by the end of this week. If you'd like to see special functions or services of any kind on our site do drop a comment below.