I'll be going live to the web from time-to-time during the next two-and-a-half days as Twitter (my handle is @mlsif), and every time I'm actually streaming live, Qik--the fabulous live video streaming service we're using--will send a tweet letting you know.
| Read more ...Everyone knows what you did last summer. In spite of a small victory for privacy last month, Facebook's policies still raise major privacy questions -- and young people may be developing an entirely new conception of privacy online.
| Read more ...TechPresident presents our 2007 Campaign Web Index, a year-end study of which campaigns are best at using the various elements of the web. For the survey we've tapped the very brightest minds working in tech and politics, who happen to be our own bloggers and other friends (some respondents have asked to remain anonymous). Check out their votes and opinions for who's best at online video, advertising, social networking, rapid response, and much more. Some of their responses may surprise you, and some may be entirely predictable. And the overall winners are...
| Read more ...Who Will Be America's First TechPresident? A Challenge to the Candidates
By Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifry
As we prepare to pick the next President, we’d like to challenge all the candidates running to tell America: How should this public resource be used to make our country more competitive, more democratic, healthier, better educated, more secure and financially sound?
I’ll be the first to admit my sense of timing is way out of whack. I always tend to overestimate what I can get done in a given period of time. I had planned to have all three of the CA Gov sites done before the primary. Now here we are a month after and I’m just wrapping up Arnold. Micah has been very diligent in hounding me to get this done, so don’t blame him. I just know y’all are eagerly awaiting the next installment of this series (um… yeah… I tell myself that, anyway).
Anyway, sorry it has taken so long, but here is a close look at Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger’s site. If you have suggestions for other sites you’d like me to review, feel free to mail them to me at websitereview@kungfuquip.com
As a reminder, the six scoring criteria are:
• Appearance
• Communication
• Depth of Content
• Mobilization
• Technology
• Usability
Schwarzenegger is running a multi-million dollar race in the largest state in the country, yet his website, beneath the shiny exterior, has very little to offer. It's a fairly weak offering for a really, really strong candidate. Complete Review »
Anonymity Won't Kill the Internet
Is it possible to build a successful web portal and community hub around issues and activism? So far, no one has succeeded in this quest, though there a lot of people trying and one could argue that sites as diverse as DailyKos.com, Townhall.com, and Idealist.org each play this kind of role for tens of thousands of reader/members, and projects like the Facebook Causes platform built by Project Agape, Razoo, Changing the Present, Donors Choose and Kiva.org each have somewhat similar aspirations.
One of the longer-distance runners in this search for the holy grail of social change organizing online is Ben Rattray of Change.org, who Josh Levy and I wrote up back in December 2007. Back then, Change.org was going through its first major re-design, shifting from focusing on individual users looking to connect with specific causes, to a platform for organizations looking for a ready-to-use social network toolset tuned to their members. The elevator pitch Rattray used with us was that Change was "Ning for non-profits," and he thought the new approach would not only meld well with the site's 50,000 members but would also, through subscription revenue, help float Change.org's boat.
Well, now Rattray is on to a new vision and strategy to expand Change.org's reach, and as close readers of this site already know, he lured Josh away with promises of untold riches and seventy virgins to help him build it out. (No, we are not bitter.) Earlier this week I had a chance to chat with both of them about this new approach, and here are my notes on the conversation.
login or register to post comments | Read more ...We've talked a great deal about data this cycle, from Obama's use of Catalist and VAN to the Republican National Committee's vaunted Voter Vault. And this election may indeed be the election of databases -- but it might be the states' voter databases we're talking about on November 5th; It's amazing what you can learn about new media while waiting in line at your local bagel shop! The polished, intuitive interfaces that the Obama campaign gives supporters to engage with that data -- from the iPhone app to MyBarackObama to Vote for Change -- may well make it the first campaign to truly master the modern art of interfaces. And the White House might be their prize for it; and a fair amount more.
login or register to post comments | Read more ...Online Strategies Director
The enormous number was breathtaking: six million people sent in questions through the Internet for Tom Brokaw to pose to John McCain and Barack Obama during Tuesday night's presidential town hall in Nashville. Breathtaking -- and entirely wrong; Building on what seems to be growing momentum behind using Twitter as an election protection tool, an online organizer has detailed possible standardized tags; Using donor data from ten large tech companies as a representative sample, ZDNet's Robin Harris finds that tech employees support Obama to McCain at a rate of nine to one; and much, much more.
login or register to post comments | Read more ...Recent blog posts
- Changes at Change.org: A Media Hub for Social Action
- Daily Digest: Why '08 Will Be the Election of Databases (One Way or Another)
- Daily Digest: From Field to Felonies to Fine-Tuned Targeting
- Must-Read: Zack Exley on the "New Organizers"
- Daily Digest: Was Last Night a Waste of 90 Minutes? Debatable
- "Townhall" Style Debate a Dot-Bust
- Daily Digest: "Open Townhall Debate" Neither Open Nor Townhall. Discuss.
- Networked Community, or Hyperconnected Mob? What to do about Internet Attention Deficit Disorder
- Social Security Administration Refuses to Budge
- Twitter: An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems?
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