More and more people want to interact

It's a cultural trend. People want to chat, raise their voice, and register their vote. Often the issue is seemingly meaningless or the vote is nonscientific. That doesn't matter. Increasingly people expect the ability to respond -- to talk back -- rather than simply be entertained.

No greater evidence of this phenomenon exists than the television show American Idol, where more than 40 million votes are cast by phone each week, and more than 100 million calls are logged on the final show each season.

American Idol, of course, uses telephone voting as its official voting method, but its website has more casual opinion surveys week to week. These surveys mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but again, people want to interact rather than just watch.

This is just one example of the Social Web. Explore it yourself and tell us what you find. You can interact with this blog by clicking "comment" below. Leave us your first name, your social site, and your user name on that site. Come back later and see your classmates's sites & explore them!