New opinion network launches in SA just in time for the elections

State, a new global opinion network that links individuals based on their point of view, is making a major push into South Africa ahead of the May 7th elections.

The London-based company was founded by brothers Mark Asseily and Alex Asseily. Alex Asseily is also the founder of mobile lifestyle company Jawbone. According to the company, the idea for a global opinion network like this is to give a powerful voice to everyone rather than a few.

“Often only the most popular, least tolerant or loudest get heard,” says the company.

This is why the network says it was important to make a move to South Africa before the elections when all voices needed to be heard.

“With the important upcoming general election, all eyes are on South Africa,” said Alex Asseily. “We want to make the State web platform and our latest mobile app for iPhone available to all South Africans so they can debate the issues and see how voter sentiment is shaping up.”

State works by organising opinions by topic and hundreds of new topics are created every day by users.

“Each opinion on State is interactive: it generates instant feedback to the contributor, sparks conversation, relevant links and related topics.”

These opinions and thoughts can then be shared on Facebook and Twitter. According to State the insights that emerge from the global opinion network can be shared with companies, communities and organisations as well.

The way State sees it, the current online comment system is unsatisfying, because conversations end up being dominated by “a handful of extremists or a single point of view”. This way doesn’t allow for any collective wisdom to emerge.

“Connections are even harder to come by.” says the company. It argues that the platform will change that dynamic.

Currently the network is available both via the web and mobile as well as a newly launched iPhone app.

Watch out for Memeburn’s interview with Alex Asseily this week.