Votizen Brings The Empowerment Of The Internet To Elections

A Q&A with David Binetti.

Before political campaigns were all over blogs, Meetup.com, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, there was USA.gov, cofounded by Binetti in 2000. The site, which was the platform for the first ever webcast from the Oval Office, is now the U.S. Government's official portal. Binetti's new venture is a Silicon Valley tech startup called Votizen, a social network where voters can campaign for a candidate or a cause. Users reach out primarily to friends or acquaintances, leveraging their own social networks to organize. Votizen was used heavily in last November's San Francisco mayoral race, which resulted in the election of Ed Lee, the first Chinese-American mayor in that city's history. With the 2012 campaign heating up, we spoke with David Binetti, Votizen's CEO and cofounder, about the disruptive impact of technology on the political landscape and the challenges of innovating in the federal government.