Facebook Gives Users A Voice At Davos

Facebook users have been known to form groups protesting poverty, world hunger, and disease, even as cynics responded, "All right, let me know when that affects something."  Now, some changes may actually occur, as certain users’ responses to poll questions will be shared with crowds at the Davos World Economic Forum.

Yes, you read that right.  Your best friend from high school may not be allowed to influence U.S. economic policies, but his opinion on a few issues could at least be conveyed to some very important people. 

Rodney Rumford reports, "Facebook is partnering with the World Economic Forum 2009.  For the first time ever, Facebook will be running real-time ‘polls’ during a select group of panels . . . .  [P]olls will appear in News Feeds of a randomly-generated set of people from Facebook’s 150 million user base, and will ask questions like, ‘Which renewable energy source is most promising?’ and, ‘If you lost Internet connectivity for an extended period, would there be vitally important data you’d leave behind in the cloud?’"

Then, "Facebook users’ responses to the polls will be viewed live during the discussion forum, enabling the Davos audience to get a real-time pulse on what millions of people around the world are thinking and feeling."

This promises to be an interesting move; Davos attendees will receive instant feedback even as Facebook is likely to see a surge in traffic.  Meanwhile, MySpace and YouTube are getting in on Davos in their own way, too.