Google Maps!

I've just started implementing mapping capability for voting in Fantasy White House. Voting is wide open - no registration required, which of course, is different. I use the clients IP to lookup the location and place it on the map and only allow one vote.

I'm using Emad Fanous's Geocoding service to look up the clients Longitude and Latitude from the IP. Thank you !

http://geo.localsearchmaps.com
http://emad.fano.us/blog/?p=277

All IPs are not found however so as a bonus feature, if the client's ip is not Geo-Located, I allow them to place there icon wherever they want, hopefully where they live ;)

Using the API is so easy. I've not had this much fun developing for some time. I've just spent a day learning things and can't wait to really dig in and learn the API. It is astounding the utility you can provide basically for free. Heck of a job Google!

You can check it out if you want.

The future

I'm considering allowing the client to return and change their vote (say we get closer to the election and want to pick someone who won the primary) and location on the map. Changing location is be a good feature because Geo-Locating is error prone and even if it does find your ISP's IP, it can be off by many miles. My location, for example, is way over on the other side of town - probably as much as 30 miles away.

Right now, non registered voting (which I'm working on above) has no effect on Fantasy White House. They are not related at all but I think they will in the future once I hammer out the details of how it will work.

When the idea occurred to me to do the site I wanted to emulate the hugely popular fantasy sports applications. Accept that I've been unable to come up with a good/fun/easy way. This is the only idea I have. Say you choose a candidate that no one has. You become the administrator of that candidate within Fantasy White House. Your score reflects the selection when others choose that candidate as well. This promotes choosing the best candidates rather than say, your cat.

Here is how the points/rating system works.

Ratings
- You get a point for each star you receive so you get at least one point for every rating.

Selections
- Anytime a user chooses one of your original selections you get a point. Here is where the sports analogy comes in. If, in the future, you want to trade that Candidate you can. With that in mind, I may institute a draft when we first go live whereas each person signed up can come and select a candidate until all the top ones are gone. That way someone can not hoard all the good ones.

Signups
- 5 points when folks sign up and use your selections - even if they change them. I hope this will promote sharing and promotion of your selections.

Real Fantasy

I think it would be REALLY neat to use the site, if successful, to fund a grassroots candidate. Say I put an adsense campaign on the site, all funds would got to the candidate with the most votes come 2008.

It would be neat to make money off Fantasy White House but I'd be even more thrilled to play a role in establishing a better "people by the people" democracy. You know ?