The Candidates on the Web

• MyBO NOOO!: MyBO (my.barackobama.com) has eliminated the system of awarding “points” in favor of a new “activity tracker,” a relative scale that tracks activism from 1-10. According to Jonathan Tilove of Newhouse News Service, some people were “racking up points for the sake of racking up points.” Tilove was also shocked by the reaction and notices that people on MyBo felt “betrayed, like their bank accounts had been drained overnight.” #

• McCain's Technology Plan: Yesterday we reported on Sen. John McCain’s lack of tech policy. Today, the Wall Street Journal's Elizabeth Holmes and Amy Schatz reports that McCain will unveil a technology agenda that “bundles previously announced pro-business proposals with continued support for a hands-off approach to regulation.” The plan, Holmes and Schatz report, will "reiterate Sen. McCain's opposition to Internet taxes and new laws guaranteeing net neutrality, the idea that Internet providers must treat all legal Internet traffic equally." It also says that McCain maintains, "Congress shouldn't get involved in writing rules for the Internet. Any net-neutrality problems should be left to federal regulators like the FCC to deal with." #

The Web on the Candidates

• Charts and Crafts: New voter-generated video has Andrew Sullivan’s approval and it is pretty effective. Entitled “Approval Ratings: The Public v. McCain,” the video attempts Al Gore’s mastery of fear-inducing charts. The horror! #

• Newmark's 2.0 Cents: At ValleyZen.com Craig Newmark talks about technology and the Obama and McCain's online strategies. On Obama "using [technology] to tell people hey let's work together to get stuff done." On McCain: "McCain's site is kind of like my own joke about myself which basically says 'you kids get off my lawn.'" #

TechCongress and Beyond

• "Drill Here, Drill Now" Wants to Give You Gas: American Solutions has announced a video contest on why America “must adopt a ‘Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” approach.” The winner will receive free gas for a year. American Solutions will choose the Top 3 videos based on their substance and creativity and present them on the contest page where users will be able to vote on their favorite. Oh and Newt Gingrich is involved, if you haven't figured that out yet. Gingrich wants the creative American to help shape the message because "you know, YouTube is a great thing. And it's a lot of fun." #

In Case You Need It...

If you’ve ever thought to yourself “Hey! I would love to see 47 seconds of video that would quickly go through President Bush’s past four years but without any context,” well today is your lucky day! If you need a little more, I can only really describe it as a psychotropic-time-travel-nightmare. #

#dontgo | Craig Newmark | mybarackobama | mybo | tech policy
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