Helium partners with OpenSecrets

With the campaign jabber of the 2008 elections already getting loud, an organization that promotes transparency in politics hopes one slice of the Web can promote reasonable, intelligent debate about issues.

The Center for Responsive Politics is working with Web startup Helium Inc. to spark public discussion on such topics as "Should there be spending limits on political campaigns?" and "Should members of Congress be allowed to add earmarks to appropriations bills?"

The Web is full of opinions on these and innumerable other matters, of course. What sets Helium apart as a soapbox is that the items voted the most valuable by the site's members rise to the top of its page, consigning -- in theory, at least -- hot-tempered or otherwise poorly constructed commentary to the scrap heap.

Helium, which is based in Andover, is free to use and even shares ad revenue with authors of top-ranked entries, increasing their incentive to contribute.

Helium has employed this wisdom-of-the-crowds approach to amass 300,000 user-generated informational articles since it launched last year. The debate section is newer, and Chief Executive Mark Ranalli wants to expand it by encouraging other non-profits to use Helium as a conversation platform.

The Center for Responsive Politics will sprinkle links to its Helium debate page throughout its campaign finance-analysis site, OpenSecrets.org. Helium will pay the center a small fee for each person who comes to the site this way and ends up registering as a member.

"One of the problems we have in this country right now is that it's hard for people to understand an opposing point of view," said Kevin Rooney, the organization's managing director. If people are exposed to more than just "bomb-throwers" from the other side, "you might appreciate where they're coming from." (AP)