Reality Check - http://www.reality-check.org is a non-partisan, experimental Web site designed to re-energize democratic discourse around the significant issues of our day. While the media can help define our relationships with news events, during media feeding frenzies this relationship becomes distorted beyond recognition. Launched with the topic of the impeachment hearings, Reality Check organizes its members into small, self-regulated discussion groups, challenging both the typical on-line dialogue format and the members themselves.
The three current groups, each with 58 members, have already generated over 1000 posts in the last two weeks, and new groups are forming every week. The fruit from this jungle are highlighted in the Featured Posts section, for those just interested in getting a taste. And for those not ready to commit to a four week dialogue group, the Open Letters section allows site visitors to write a letter to anyone involved with the hearings, with the best selected, edited and posted on the site. Reality Check has been created with support from AT&T WorldNet, Global Media Design, and WebPromote, and built by over two dozen volunteers.
Reality Check is just the latest in a short history of innovative Web sites funded and/or developed by Web Lab - http://www.WebLab.org, a non-profit that seeks to expand the space for public interest sites on-line. It's founder, Marc Weiss, was recently honored by @NY as one of the top twelve most innovative people in Silicon Alley.
