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Review: Civics apps for iPhone

#1 User is offline   Macworld Icon

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Posted 12 December 2008 - 02:24 PM

Post your comments for Review: Civics apps for iPhone here
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#2 User is offline   pdardeau Icon

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Posted 12 December 2008 - 04:41 PM

I'm the author of America Deluxe and wanted to mention the background behind my George W. Bush biography fiasco.
I have another app titled "Presidents" that includes the same biographies that are in America Deluxe. These biographies were initially used "as is" from www.whitehouse.gov (a non-copyrightable source). Whomever wrote the biography for President George W. Bush was certainly not objective. There's not a single mention of anything that could even be remotely construed as negative/criticism. My application received a significant amount of negative feedback for the glowing biography of George W. Bush (that I didn't write). I received comments such as:
*
Biased for W (1 star)
a 3 star rating: "I was really irritated when I read Bush' bio. It's incredibly...well, pro-Bush. ....."
Bushmongering (2 stars) - "Yeah I agree about the sourcing of the bios. I think Karl Rove actually wrote Bush's. Very partisan"
Complete drivel. G.W. BUSH fanatic!! (1 star)

Have a look at my feedback on Presidents to see what I mean. I also received feedback that I was pro-Clinton too!
After being labeled a Bush "fanatic", I decided to 'correct' this impression. In my attempt to show that I was not a Bush fanatic, I rewrote parts of his biography to add criticism. It seems I went a little too far.
I then started received criticism for being too harsh on Bush and too easy on Clinton (though I hadn't edited any content for Clinton). At this point I realized that I was in a no-win situation -- no matter what was written for Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, I was going to be blasted as being partisan, unfair, not-objective, etc. To completely avoid the political fighting, I edited the biographies for both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to exclude all information from their time in office, except for the very basic facts that are indisputable.
This update has already been pushed out to my Presidents app. You can already see negative feedback that I got for cutting down President Clinton's biography. Here is the full text of the current biography for President George W. Bush in my Presidents app:

"[NOTE: a discussion of President Bush's time in office is omitted due to the rancorous sentiment for the latest presidents.]
"George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas.
"President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968, and then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. Following graduation, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, President Bush assembled the group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989. On November 8, 1994, President Bush was elected Governor of Texas. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive 4-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998.
"President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. The Bush family also includes two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, and a cat, Willie."

The content for President Clinton is very similar in terms of its scope. Within the next 24 hours, I will be pushing these same biography updates to America Deluxe (there are no president biographies in America Lite, so it's a non-issue there).
I can assure you that I have no hidden agenda and there are no other areas where I have tried to "position" content in any way.
Does all of this make sense? I take full responsibility for the whole thing -- none of what I write here should excuse the situation, but it may help to explain how it came to be.
Thanks for your interest.
Sincerely,
Paul Dardeau
SwampBits
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#3 User is online   Sonic1218 Icon

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Posted 13 December 2008 - 06:13 AM

Paul--thanks for your clarification. I'm going to go purchase America Deluxe after I write this comment. It sounds like a very informative app.
I appreciate any effort that uplifts the greatness of America and what it stands for. Thanks for taking the time to try to find the "middle ground" in your biographies, even if that meant listing only the facts. I'm sure it's a difficult task to try to wade that middle ground, knowing full well you'll never please the people on the far right or the far left, but thanks for making a legitimate effort and for taking the time to explain yourself!
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#4 User is offline   ElectroTech Icon

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Posted 13 December 2008 - 10:49 AM

This app is likely to result in a huge health care crisis in the US . . .
The number of cases of broken arms being treated in hospitals has risen dramatically due to the increase in the citizenry overly patting themselves on the back for being so "great".
There has been a huge increase in prescriptions for psychotic medications to treat a mass wave of delusional thinking that there is no room for improvement in their government.
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#5 User is offline   maineguy Icon

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Posted 13 December 2008 - 05:30 PM

there will also be one less room in the asylum, electrotech will take it.

Nice job on the app! there is a lot of information, there truly is a lot to be proud of in the history of America. Seems it's been forgotten for 20 odd years (no pun) but it's healthy to remember where the country came from. I hope you don't catch too much crap for trying not to be partisan... it ain't easy!

all the best!
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#6 User is offline   danviento Icon

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Posted 13 December 2008 - 11:23 PM

More education than you'll get from the pubic school system- all in the palm of your hand!
This is something I would definitely want to have, if I had an iPhone. I certainly didn't chance across the Federalist papers in school, not until I had to kill time and picked up one of my fiancée's law school books. The minds of those men were staggering.
As for people lobbying for different/more documents, we can DEFINITELY skip FDR's speech. Those four freedoms while a decent goals, are unrealistic for any government to GUARANTEE. In fact, that sentiment is the major reason for a lot of our troubles lately...
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#7 User is online   demani Icon

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Posted 15 December 2008 - 11:25 AM

danviento said:

As for people lobbying for different/more documents, we can DEFINITELY skip FDR's speech. Those four freedoms while a decent goals, are unrealistic for any government to GUARANTEE. In fact, that sentiment is the major reason for a lot of our troubles lately...


Well, the merits of the speech are debatable, but that it was a turning point and of great historical significance is not. Your claim that it is the reason for many of the recent national issues supports that argument- if it were insignificant it wouldn't have had an impact. It clearly is an important document that provides key insight into why the US is the US.

Not including it would be more partisan history and would only serve to omit an informative element of US history (it might even be part of what fills the lineage gap to the more modern documents.
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#8 User is offline   Nutbeem Icon

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Posted 15 December 2008 - 04:37 PM

Paul, thanks for the clarification. Writing anything on any president from the last 100 years is a dicey proposition, because the partisanship is so stultifying to rational discourse that it puts even well intentioned authors in a no-win situation.
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