The power of contribution.

Okay, so I don't mean this to turn into a political debate, but...

Check out http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Notice the "real time" donation information provided on the main page.

Even if you don't know much about the candidate, isn't there something about this interface that makes you want to participate?

Though Paul's recent fundraising successes have been attributed to his ideas (particularly on immediate withdrawal from Iraq), the New York Times cited the interactive donation interface on his main page as a major factor in peoples' decision to give. Here's the quote:

Stirring the interest in contributing to the Paul campaign is an innovation on his Web site, a real-time display of the dollars and the names of donors as they roll in. By contrast, most campaigns conceal their fund-raising and time the release of financial information for political effect.

"What is new is how Paul's openness about his daily fund-raising data helped foster this surge," said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of TechPresident, a nonpartisan Web site that tracks the candidates' use of technology. "It fed a powerful user-driven feedback loop."

I also think his iphone interface is quite innovative:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/iphone/


The reason I post this is to ask a question...

How does the novelty of the learning interface effect our interaction with it and our motivation to persist in using it?

Quinn writes about education and engagement. You have to admit that both of these tools, the interactive fundraising site and the iphone interface and that extra bit of engagement that makes you want to interact with the information.

-Brian