U.S. State Department Cozies Up to Crowd-sourcing and Infographics, With Opinion Space

Can infographics help generate ideas for government--and make us into better citizens?

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That dizzying infographic you see above isn't some interaction designer's master's thesis. It's actually on the U.S. State Department's Web site: Opinion Space, launched on Monday, attempts to gather up thousands of people's opinions on foreign policy, graph them relative to each other, and spur dialogue about the issues.

The infographic was created by Berkeley's Center for New Media, a think tank that's...