Quick story I didn’t want to let pass: Facebook is linking up with ABC News in a partnership that will allow users to tap into the network’s political coverage.

Three reasons I found this particularly interesting:

1. The enlightened thinking from David Westin, president of ABC News: “There are debates going on at all times within Facebook. This allows us to participate in those debates, both by providing information and by learning from the users.” I’m gonna keep banging on this ‘going to where debates are’ drum.
2. The hybrid nature of the deal: in there, we’ve got… an audience (all Facebook users), individuals (each Facebook member), a content publisher (ABC News), a publishing channel (the Facebook system), peer-to-peer sharing (Facebook’s widgets and apps), a top-down broadcast to a bottom-up, opt-in audience, a ground-level involvement from an organisation’s staff (an important distinction from ‘an organisation’)… I don’t know if this melee is ‘a good thing’ but it’s certainly a lively one.
3. The story being on Brand Republic. That’s pretty telling about the increasing convergence of politics, participation, debate, civic society etc and permission marketing, viral, social networks, audience engagement etc. I’ve been fascinated by the way the US Presidential elections flaunt the boundaries between marketing and politics and it’s now interesting to see how the money and stimulus that accompany the elections are pushing through a lot of e-democracy projects from either angle.

I wonder how this will all apply to the UK, if at all…