So, the single post on the eyebeam reBlog unleashed a wave of attention to red | blue -- and while getting slashdotted didn't knock over the server, a little mention from Wonkette clocked the most traffic on Tuesday. Since then, it's nice to see the reaction, and especially nice to see all the people installing and running the app. In case you're wondering, the servers generating the most references as of today are from the United States Congress (for obvious reasons), and Sun's proxy servers (probably from this little mention in Jonathan's blog).

An article in C-Net is here (note to others -- avoid embarrasment, don't confuse C-Net and C-SPAN when someone calls), and I've talked to other journalists, too. Unfortunately, I feel like a stumbling...well, I guess, uhhm....geek, when talking about this stuff. Luckily there are people a lot more eloquent explaining why it's so fascinating (from v-2):

Most even mildly attentive people have considered, from time to time, the fact that we're continually bathed in latent data about place. Any given point on Earth you should happen to visit has an all-but-infinite series of correlated facts by which it can be characterized. We're literally living in a sea of ambient information.

All kinds of ambient information: facts about climate, about geological history and composition, and so forth. Some of the most interesting stuff is, of course, about the human makeup of a given point on the map: who lives here? What do they do? What do they believe? For the most part, though, this data is difficult or impossible to access, least of all when you're actually at the place in question.

Go read the rest of it here, Adam does a wonderful job explaining some whats and whys I have barely been able to mumble. I'll be updating download information as the days go on, and I plan on releasing source once the election is over. Let me know if you run into problems -- I *think* there are at least 500 users out there, so there are solutions to most issues.

Senator Kerry reveals fall campaign strategy by clearly going after those undecided voters who play on special teams (recent polls show undecideds are on teams assignments at a ratio of 3:1, versus strictly offense or defense). In reprising the role of the long snapper for the cameras, Kerry courts the football specialist whose job it is to pass the ball (between his legs) to someone else to punt -- perhaps a move by notable Clinton long snappers McCurry and Lockhart.

BC'04 hails this as a victory, as Kerry is clearly relinquishing courting Offensive players (with Bush's repeated "we're on offense", and the prominent inclusion of Jim Kelly - notable losing quarterback on four Super Bowl teams -- at the RNC and QB Tom Brady sitting beside Hall of Fame halfback Ahmed Chalabi at the State of the Union). KE'04 response to the charge: "We'll play Franco Harris over Chalabi any Sunday."

[Every fall is for football, but there is no greater sport than the election]

red | blue is now available in three flavors -- the original Nextel GPS version, a version for Blackberry, and a quasi-generic version for any Java/Internet enabled cellphone -- just in time for the stretch run to the election.

With inspiration and data from Mike Frumin and FundRace.org, red|blue transposes the experience of looking up individual campaign contributions onto a Java-enabled phone. With a GPS-enabled phone, the application will take your current location and figure out if you're in a Democratic area or Republican area. The app will also take this information and plot it around you -- in a compass -- to show which direction the money comes from. It's fun to walk or ride about the city, and see how the money changes -- and see how that's reflected in nature of the neighborhood or your surroundings.

For the many without GPS capability, you can enter in your current address, or your current zipcode to get the same data, if you use either the Blackberry or generic-java-cellphone version. These versions aren't quite tweaked out to optimize for the device, it's more of a general J2ME version that will be subject to the whims of your handset's implementation. You get the idea, tho'. It would seem silly to do something like this without a Blackberry version, right?


You can find out more, and download files for installation. The apps are also available on Handango, which will give you more support and structure to manage the install process -- which is varied by phone and carrier. Use the Free Trial Version -- it's fully functional, no need pay any money (I need to offer a version for $$ so that they will list it). If you install it and run into any problems, or can share any phone or carrier specific tips -- lemme know!