Eyebeam R&D's new Forward Track is up and running, for now in support of Tom Mauser's mission to ensure the re-up of the Assault Weapons ban.
In their own words forward track is "a system that makes it possible to see exactly how an email forward diffuses, providing real time feedback to every on-line participant. To use ForwardTrack, participants send the email to their friends AND back to our server. This makes it possible to track the email forward as it spreads through networks of friends. We also send people a link to a custom page where they can add themselves to a map charting the email as it spreads across the country."
Eyebeam's R&D, working alone or with artists in residence have done some _amazing_ projects in the past, the most well known / trendy is, of course, fundrace.org. That being said, I am not a fan of Forward Track for a few operational and one (large) ideological reason.
1.) You can not BCC. When sending out large emails one of the largest and most annoying things that people do (other than send me jokes) is to _not_ place my email address, and those of the other recipients into a bcc (blind carbon copy) field. Without this step the email looks really ugly (hundreds of email address' and names to wade through before you actually get to the message) and people I may not want to have my email address are exposed to it. I def. have friends who would yell at me if I were to forward them a message without using BCC (it's sort of akin to hitting 'reply all' over an email list and sending out some inane comment, intended for only one recipiant, to the whole list.
2.) You need to make sure that you place the send back email addy in the 'cc' field in order for the message to make it back to the main site so that it can be tracked. This would be hard to work around and part of me likes it because it is using a type of 'switch' which allows me to decide if I want to be part of the tracking of an email chain (ie 'opt in' as opposed to 'opt out'). I think this is important as any tool like this, which is made to service the goals of positive social change, could also be used in a negative manner.
3.) My main ideological problem is the fact that I think that email petitions do not work, nor do I see that changing. Passing along an email seems to be a way to do the absolute minimum work required while still feeling that one is part of the solution to perceived social/policy ills. I believe that the people that such petitions are aimed at (politicians and the press) know this, and they take the results with the resiqiute grain of salt.
That carping aside, I do believe that FT is interesting in that it is a beginning, a start of the thread that may encourage/allow us to begin to explore the complex and beautiful ways in which information is spread (increasingly across multiple mediums) in viral and weird/unexpected manners.