Hello,

I am interested in exploring opportunites in the online debating industry. I believe this may an untapped multi-billion dollar industry. I have communicated with political people about the limitations in debating online and found that I am not alone in my thinking.

I think that when approaching online debating, we need to rethink the notion of debating being a short-term education exercise to a long term action orientated exercise. Debating is a natural human process that often preceeds action. Examples of great debates are the abolition of slavery, rights for women and black skinned people, minimum wage, global warming, etc... A great debating website should allow teams to create depth to their arguments but without sacrificing simplicity to refine the key arguments. A great debating website should engage communities to allow like minded people to connect with each other but also provide a fair hearing to all sides of an argument so that the debating site is not seen as a biased political tool.

I don't think that there is such thing as a great debating website as I don't think a good one has been invented yet. I think the best debating websites are well moderated forums but I think that the forum is an inefficient medium for emphasising the main arguments of a debate and dealing with highly controversial arguments. Forums are not designed for debating and I think the best evidence of the weaknesses of forums as a debating medium is the lack of influence political forums have over politicians.

The reason I believe that debating is a multi-billion dollar industry is the fact that fostering communities where people are motivated to classify themselves based on their opinions allows advertisers to target their advertisements based on opinions. This allows political lobby groups to find like minded people to support their objectives and other groups who target their advertising based on opinions. It also allows industries that build around types of people (e.g. green, vegetarians, etc...) to target their advertising to those people.

The reason I believe that existing social networking groups like FaceBook are not a good way of debating online is the lack of confidentiality and dependance on close friendships. Debaters often disagree with their close friends and family and so debating on a place like FaceBook is detrimental to relationships. In addition to this, some debaters put their life at risk when dealing with dangerous opposition. A great debating site should respect the dangers of debating.

If anyone would like to be involved with my dreams to help redefine online debating, let me know. Also I love debating so I welcome criticism to my claims.