February 25, 2005
Online Attack Ad Stirs Controversy
In case you didn't know - Story of the Week
An online ad debuting on the conservative magazine website The American Spectator turned heads this week, stirring memories of the brouhaha caused by Swift Boat Vet's ads during the 2004 elections.
Outraged erupted early Monday morning when USA Next, calling itself a conservative alternative to AARP, ran an online ad titled "The REAL AARP Agenda," containing two photos-- one of a soldier, covered by a red X mark, and the other of a man kissing his male spouse, covered with a green check mark. The ad was picked up by several bloggers and circulated the Web before appearing on television news reports. It was later learned that USA Next hired some of the same consultants who worked on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's campaign to create the AARP online ad. Responding to the negative attention, USA Next pulled the ad.
The attack on the AARP overshadowed the associations own attempt at online advocacy this week, with the launch of a new national website designed to help consumers and physicians with information about which prescription drugs work best. The website, www.aarp.org/ResearchRx, allows consumers to better understand the relative effectiveness, safety and affordability of prescription drugs.
More:
Anti-gay Internet Ad Takes Aim At AARP
Attack On AARP Starts With The Dirtiest Of Politics
Flare-Ups in Battle Over Bush's Social Security Plan
Posted by Buzz Webster at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Condi Vs Hillary In 2008
The buzz is already reverberating throughout the web.
Both AmericansForRice.com and Hillary.org have started ramping up for the battle.
And you thought the election just ended.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Here Comes Video-Casting
Is Video-Casting the next logical step up from Podcasting? Based on history and common sense Robin Good says, "yes" and explains why in the latest article on the subject: Is Video-Casting The Next Big Thing? Move Over Podcasting.
Daniel Terdiman of Wired news first wrote about the same subject in December of last year.
Use in Politics: Same as podcasting. For one immediate use, I think GOP.com's newly launched "Off the record" with Mindy and Katie webcasts would be more popular if they offered a video-cast version instead of just streaming.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 23, 2005
Hand Held Blog
Behold - Nokia has created the blog application of the future. The Nokia 6682.
From PC Magazine:
"The 6682 is the first phone to support the new release of Nokia's Lifeblog, so users can actually blog from their phone. It allows you to post pictures, videos and text messages to an online timeline that you can either keep private or publish for your friends."
Blackberry on one hip, Nokia 6682 on the other. Now that's a nerd who knows how to bring it. Watch out Geraldo there's a new guy in town.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
Podcasting Rears Its Head In Politics
Last week I noted that I have been learning the ins and outs of podcasting. I've also been searching for how this new tool might be used in politics. In short, podcasting is really only a few months old in the political blogoshpere, and to date here's a surface view of what I found.
Podcasting by eActivists - This is by far the most popular form of political podcasting and there are perhaps already hundreds of examples available. Here are a couple ways its being used.
Digital Divide Network - Online community spreading knowledge to help everyone succeed in a digital age.
AudioActivism.org - Contains various audio about people, democracy and social justice.
Adam Curry's Daily Source Code - Daily rants on podcasting and the world in general
Podcasting by Political Bloggers - Becoming more popular and hard to distinguish from eActivist.
Two Rights - Two Rights is the political podcast that provides a conservative perspective on current events, blogs, podcasting and vision for America. Two Rights' intent is to create Political Discourse on the left-leaning podasphere. This makes me think of podcasting as a way to TiVo your favorite local A.M. radio talkshow.
Trippi-Winer Podcast - Jon Garfunkel of Civilities breaks down a 15 minute podcast Dave Winer and Joe Trippi (shedding light on the Zephyr Teachout-Wall Street Journal controversy). This is interesting, because I see podcasting as another tool that can give bloggers more credibility. Getting a recording of an interview and breaking it down provides much richer information than what traditional MSM journalists do. Also on the MSM side, we never hear the conversation between the reporter and the journalist - allowing for the potential to spin words and stories. Podcasting could help rise above bias reporting.
DigitalPodcast.com has about 40 other examples.
Podcasting by Candidates - The only case I found so far is of candidates making use of podcasting was Donnie Fowler in his recent DNC chair bid. Dan Myers at AtariDemocrat.com passed this on; otherwise I might not have found it at all. Thanks Dan.
Podcasting by Officials -
North Dakota - Grand Forks North Dakota Mayor Michael R. Brown announced a podcasting debut in early on February. The Mayor's March 9th State of the City address will also be podcast. The city will do 6 podcasts to start. The podcasts will be available for direct download at the city's website Those interested will be able to subscribe to the podcast on both sites as well. He is the first elected official that I know of to make this type of commitment to podcasting.
Democratic Congressional Committee - The DCCC's launched its inaugural Podcast with its Chair, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL-05) responding to the State of the Union. It was exciting to see an actual U.S. Rep. do something techy, and I imagine the DCCC, which is known for trendy tech savvy stuff (viral Republican Survivor anyone) will continue to produce quailty podcasts. RNC is just as savvy, if not more so with Ken Mehlman, and this could get interesting.
George Bush - Dave Pell at ElectaBlog got my hopes up with his "W Does Podcasting" post, but it turned out that it was just a New York Times article on secret recording of President Bush. The lesson from this article is that if you are going to record someone, you should tell the person, else or you're a scum bag.
Thoughts - Podcasting does have its merits, and I'm excited about it.
I won't attempt to discuss the long-term viability of podcasting in politics, at least for now. That said, if blogs allow anyone to be a journalist, then podcasting allows anyone to be a talk show host. And I imagine this is good because talk radio is popular among active Conservatives and growing more popular among Liberals. This fact, combined with the growth of blogs and satellite radio makes think that there is a very good future ahead for podcasting. Grassroots activists and bloggers turn commentators will continue to use podcasting more than politicians, and it will most likely stay that way. Finally bandwidth is a big issue and will prohibit podcast growth until broadband Internet is more widespread.
Pod on Pod people.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
February 21, 2005
Help Blogging Brethren
From BBC:
The global web blog community is being called into action to lend support to two imprisoned Iranian bloggers.
The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22 February to the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day".
Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran...
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
I Forgot Poland
PoliticsOnline subscriber Jerzy Celichowski (Former President of Poland Active on Internet Forums) recently emailed to inform us that we have been neglecting ePolitics outside of Western countries.
To make up for the gap I'm posting a blurb that Jerzy sent us regarding some very interesting eActivism taking place in Poland:
Lech Walesa, the legend of the Solidarity movement and the former president of Poland, has recently staged a minor comeback through active participation in discussion forums of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. Using nickname of "lwprezydent" Walesa has commented on several articles published by the paper. When this was noticed and publicised by the editors of Gazeta, his e-mail account was flooded by messages by internauts.
Walesa is using the internet to present his views on the recently hot topic of the former communist secret police agents. An open letter addressed to a right-wing catholic radio, which he had written outraged by a program by the radio on former agents, published in Gazeta attracted a record number of comments. lwprezydent followed the discussion posting his reactions to some of them. "I am an active internaut" he told the paper. "I know a thing or two about computers, noone is helping me. I am using a laptop" he added.
Thank you Jerzy, and with help from readers like you I think we can do a better job of searching the globe more for interesting ePolitics in ALL countries.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 17, 2005
Researching Podcasting
I've been learning a lot about podcasting lately. Below are the sites I've been visiting.
How to get Podcasts and also make your own -
http://www.engadget.com/entry/5843952395227141/
How to Create Podcasts with a Smartphone -
http://www.andycarvin.com/000711.html
What is podcasting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
http://www.podcasting.net
http://www.ipodder.org
http://openpodcast.org/
Podcast Directories:
http://www.podcast.net/
http://www.podcastingnews.com/forum/links.php
I'm currently searching for candidates and or officials who podcast.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
February 15, 2005
FEC To Reign In Online Advertising?
From News.com
The Federal Election Commission plans to begin reviewing next month whether the Internet should continue to enjoy its privileged status as exempt from some of the stricter dictates of a 2002 campaign finance law.
For the last three years, the FEC has been fighting to protect the rough-and-tumble world of Net advertising from being shackled by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as the McCain-Feingold law. In the 2004 election, advocacy groups or rich individuals were able to coordinate online advertising with a political campaign without having it count as a contribution--something that's flatly not permitted for traditional media such as newspapers and television.
But now the FEC is reluctantly revisiting its earlier decision, thanks to a federal judge's ruling in September. "The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines" the law's purposes, wrote U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
Inauguration Protest Yields Results
Remember the Not One Damn Dime effort on Inauguration Day to protest, "with those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending?"
Well, here are the results:
A new Bentley College survey conducted by Dr. Christine Williams, Dr. Bruce Weinberg and Jesse Gordon of participants in a survey about the NotOneDamnDime protest on Inauguration Day January 20 has been released. The 1276 respondents reported their total normal spending for that day would have been $59,729, or $46.81 on average; their reported actual spending total was $8,035.16, or $6.30 on average. The total amount withheld (normal - actual) was $51,693.84, or $40.51 on average. The total number to whom respondents passed along info about NotOneDamnDime was 27,170 or on average 21.3 people, and the total number of folks they personally knew who participated was 45,899, or an average of 36 people. 63.5% found out about the NODD protest by e-mail and e-mail is the way 56.9% of them in turn told others about NODD, twice the percentage who told others in a face to face conversation. Results illustrate the power of viral marketing and the potential in online grassroots political organizing.
Thank you Professor Christine B. Williams at Bentley College for passing on this information. And by the way, there's a part II to the boycott.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The GOP Loves Blogs
GUEST: Jack O'Toole
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT: "Convinced that Internet weblogs, or blogs, helped defeat Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and out Dan Rather's bad reporting on President Bush's National Guard duty, House and Senate Republicans are scrambling to put them on their government Web pages. 'Senators want them even though they don't know what they are,' says a strategist helping several GOP senators develop the chat and news pages."
Posted by Jack O'Toole at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Online Journalist Resigns After Blogger Inquiry...
Is A CNN Exec Next?
Talon News reporter Jeff Gannon a.k.a Jim Guckert resigned Wednesday after Liberal bloggers uncovered his real name and raised questions about his background. Gannon was employed as an Internet journalist for the Talon News, an online a news company which covers political, national, and world news. Popular Bloggers such as Daily Kos suspicious of Gannon of "lobbing softball questions" to the White House Administration during press briefings dug into Gannon's history, leading to allegations of him not being a real journalist and his involvement with several websites appearing to support gay pornography and promote male prostitution.
Some Democratic politicians also banned with bloggers demanding that the Bush Administration explain how "a fake reporter" managed to obtain White House press credentials for two years without a background check.
Right wing bloggers were slow to report, if at all, on the Gannon story. The popular conservative blog Powerline responded to emails asking for comment on the story by posting "What Scandal" writing that although somewhat strange and entertaining, Gannon was not very newsworthy. Little Green Footballs similarly wrote "Lefty Blogs Dig Up Scandal, World Yawns."
Conservative bloggers were instead focused on Eason Jordan, one of CNN's most powerful news executives who allegedly told a group of world leaders overseas that American soldiers had targeted reporters for assassination. Conservative pundits are calling for Jordan to provide proof or resign.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 10, 2005
British Labour Takes A Page From US Online Campaign Handbook
With an election expected in few month's time, the Labour Party of Britian has launched an online campaign against the Tories. In a recent email to online supporters, Labour officials promised an election campaign that "is going to be very different than any before it - in part thanks to the Internet".
Labour's first interactive initiative is the launch of campaign pledges by email on Friday. Prime Minister Tony Blair will also take part by unveiling the Party's new pledges for a third term Labour Government to the public at events around the country, and online supporters are promisted to be among the first to get them.
Labour supporters can also text message or email questions to the Prime Minister that will be answered this weekend at the Party's annual Spring Conference.
Blair has promised to personally read and respond to every message... just kidding.
The Tories have also beefed up their online communications and are running an interactive "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" campaign through the Party website.
I'm thinking this is going to be a short but sweet web war.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 08, 2005
FREE Public Webcast From The Media Center
From The Media Center:
The Vanishing Newspaper: Survival and Public Service in the Age of We Media, March 9, 2005, 2:00-3:30 ET, online
Our good friend Phil Meyer has just published a book, The Vanishing Newspaper, which has inspired us to organize this online event that takes a good, hard look at the newspaper-business model and its viability in a digital world.
How can historic mass-media institutions use new communications trends and tools to once again take possession of credibility and public service, replant them in journalism's firmament, and transform themselves into vibrant 21st-century media enterprises?
This adventure in cyberspace will be lead by Jeff Jarvis, well-known blogger and president of Advance.net. Panelists include:
* Phil Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism, UNC, Chapel Hill; author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age
* Stefan Dill, Online Editor, freenewmexican.com
* Mary Lou Fulton, Publisher, northwestvoice.com, the Bakersfield Californian
* Tim Porter, newspaper analyst and blogger
To find out more or to register, visit here:
http://www.mediacenter.org/webcast/march/2005/
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 07, 2005
Call For e-Democracy White Papers
REVISED CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS in conjunction with dg.o2005, The National Conference on Digital Government Research for an International Research Workshop on Operational e-Democracy Research: Cross-National, Multi-Method, Interdisciplinary Studies of Digital Government Final copies must be submitted via the dg.o website by February 18, 2005. http://dgrc.org/dgo2005/program/workshops/shulman_wrapped.jsp Background Electronic democracy (e-democracy) is attracting considerable policy, technology and academic attention. At a policy level, experiments range from e-voting to attempts to improve citizen deliberation through on-line discussion groups. Technological solutions for enhancing the functioning of contemporary democracies have been proposed by both public and private actors. Academic attention has focused on a range of issues, from attempts to address the security issues associated with e-voting to empirical analyses of different deliberative experiments and the formulation of normative theory-driven analyses. However, the interdisciplinary study of e-democracy suffers from three main problems: 1. Translating Traditional Problems of Democracy Democracy is not a settled concept. The tools and techniques of e-democracy implicitly articulate particular democratic values and favour particular approaches to democracy. Yet most studies of e-democracy leave these values implicit, assuming them to be given normative preferences rather than inherently ambiguous and negotiated ideals. For e-democracy to be properly studied it is necessary to develop specific conceptualisations and new analytical frameworks that help academics from various disciplines test theories about the impact of the new digital landscape. Research on democracy must take into account core democratic principles for developing new methods that both focus on and involve the latest information and communications technologies research. 2. Identifying Empirical Limitations and Opportunities While discussions of e-democracy have existed for several years now, the real application of them is relatively new. Consequently, empirical studies are unable to analyse the long term effects of particular e-democracy interventions or instruments. To resolve this problem, it is necessary to design multi-method approaches that can test newly translated theories and models of e-democracy. At present, empirical studies are too concerned with reporting existing achievements rather than testing coherent, theory-driven hypotheses. 3. Building a Coherent Research Agenda Different disciplines are concerned with different problems in the area of e-democracy. At the same time, however, these problems cut across each other. It is only by careful construction of a proper interdisciplinary framework that it will be possible to build a coherent and mutually beneficial research agenda. Target Audience U.S. and European scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, different empirical traditions, and theoretical orientations are invited to participate in a half-day workshop (Sunday May 15, 2005, from 8 am ? 12 pm) to collaboratively build a research agenda for future cross-national, multi- method, interdisciplinary studies of e-democracy. White Paper Instructions Participants in the workshop are required to submit a 2-page, single-spaced White Paper addressing the workshop theme: Operational e-Democracy Research: Cross-National, Multi-Method, Interdisciplinary Studies of Digital Government. Participants must address at least one of the three problems highlighted above. Specifically, the White Papers should discuss the types of emerging Digital Government research problems that the author feels are amenable to international dg.o-style research projects. White Papers for this workshop should seek to identify opportunities for, and barriers to, cross-national, interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of social, computer, and information sciences. No citations are required. Rather, these papers ought to be written in the visionary mode, with a clear recognition that the various disciplines represented are tough to fit together. Final copies must be submitted via the dg.o website by February 18, 2005. http://dgrc.org/dgo2005/program/workshops/shulman_wrapped.jsp Workshop Chair & Contact Person Dr. Stuart W. Shulman (Shulman@pitt.edu) Assistant Professor School of Information Sciences Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Senior Research Associate University Center for Social and Urban Research University of Pittsburgh, 121 University Place, Suite 600 Pittsburgh, PA 15260 412.624.3776 (v) 412.624.4810 (f) http://shulman.ucsur.pitt.edu/ Workshop Fee: $100 US for dg.o2005 registrants & $150 US for non-dg.o2005 registrants
Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
February 04, 2005
Trash Bush The Online Way
The State of the Union Address this week brought out the creativity in a few anti-Bush e-activist. I wanted to mention two that were especially innovative.
The 16 Word Contest
The folks over at Center for American Progress issued a challenge to the visitors of ThinkProgressive.org.
"Everyone remembers the classic 'sixteen words' from the 2003 State of the Union that came back to haunt the Bush Administration - 'The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,'" he wrote. "What sixteen words from tonight's State of the Union will come back to haunt President Bush tonight? Use this post to nominate your sixteen words."
And the winner is.... "The principle here is clear: a taxpayer dollar must be spent wisely, or not at all."
Putting Words In Bush's Mouth
At the George W. Bush Speechwriter website you can create your very own Bush Speech using the mouse to drag and drop actual words and phrases said by Bush. Once your happy with your speech writing, you can listen to the speech and upload it to the website to share.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
Online First For RNC
New RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman pulled off a political online first last Friday. On a January 19th, the RNC became the first national political committee to pass a formal resolution of thanks to online supporters -- giving appreciation to 2004 team leaders.
Here's the email:
Last week the members of the Republican National Committee gathered in our nation's capitol and elected me as their new Chairman. I am grateful for the honor. At the same meeting the members passed several new resolutions. There is one resolution that I thought you would enjoy.
RESOLUTION IN APPRECIATION OF THE TEAM LEADERS AND VOLUNTEERS WHO GAVE THEIR TIME DURING THE 2004 ELECTION
WHEREAS, these Team Leaders and Volunteers are the greatest political team ever assembled in the history of American politics;
WHEREAS, the Team Leaders and Volunteers helped elect Republicans up and down the ballot throughout the country;
WHEREAS, President Bush became the first Republican president re-elected with House and Senate majorities since 1924 thanks to the hard work of Team Leaders and Volunteers;
WHEREAS, the efforts of the Team Leaders and Volunteers helped President Bush win more votes than any presidential candidate in history; and
WHEREAS, the efforts of the 1.4 million Team Leaders and 1.2 million Volunteers is astounding - with over 15 million contacts made in the final 72 hours before the polls closed; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Members of the Republican National Committee thank the Team Leaders and Volunteers for making a difference in the 2004 Election with their hard work across the country.
As adopted by the Republican National Committee, January 19, 2005.
Click here to read other resolutions passed at the RNC Winter Meeting.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 02, 2005
Republican's Take A Course In Blogging 101
Republican Party leaders and White House officials gathered at the Greenbrier Resort last week for a brain storming retreat. In one presentation, Senator John Thune of South Dakota introduced senators to the meaning of "blogging," explaining the basics of self-published online political commentary and arguing that it can affect public opinion.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
