May 08, 2006
California Candidates Invade MySpace
MySpace is playing a supporting role in the campaigns of California Gubernatorial candidates.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
Search Users "Stop at Page Three"
A new U.S. study has found that most people using a search engine expect to find what they are looking for on the first page of results.
The study was conducted by Jupiter Research and iProspect, a search engine marketing firm. It surveyed 2,369 people from an online consumer panel. Jupiter and iProspect have released several other interesting findings:
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At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up.
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One-third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands.
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62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002.
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About 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002.
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41% of consumers changed engines or their search term if they did not find what they were searching for on the first page.
The study points to the importance of internet marketing, which allows an organization to be among the top matches for its search terms. Robert Murray, president of iProspect, says, "It's time that companies that are refreshing, re-designing, or launching a new website start with the end in mind. If no one can find it, no one will use it."
Fortunately for our users, PoliticsOnline is the first site that appears when a Google user does a search for "politics online".
BBC, "Search Users 'Stop at Page Three'"
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 19, 2005
Giving a Voice to Non-Voters in Germany
An innovative new website gives German citizens the chance to weigh in on why they won't be seen at the polls in September for the German parliamentary election.
The German website Ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de (translated literally "I do not go there", implying "I am not going to vote") is designed to give those who would rather keep their votes to themselves a chance to explain their absence at the German parliamentary elections in September. From "I'm not voting because I'm too young" to "I'm not voting so that later I can proclaim that I didn't vote for THAT!" non-voters are weighing in on why they won't cast their ballot in September. Already 2,182 entires and 5,861 commentaries on those entries have been submitted. The creators of ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de are not trying to encourage people not to vote, or encourage people to vote for that matter, they are simply collecting the voices of people who don't give their opinions at the polls.
http://www.ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de/
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 07, 2005
CiviCRM 1.0 Beta Announcement
The CiviCRM Team is proud to announce the release of CiviCRM 1.0 Beta.
Passing on some great news for the civic sector. I've briefly played around with the new product and it is pretty sweet, but use caution as this is just a Beta and bugs are rampant:
The CiviCRM Team is proud to announce the release of CiviCRM 1.0 Beta.We'd like to thank over 50 individuals whose contributions have helped make the nonprofit, community-driven CiviCRM project a reality (see the list below). If you have any questions, please contact David
Geilhufe at info@socialsourcefoundation.org. A demo of the software
is available at http://www.openngo.org/.
CiviCRM is an open source, internationalized, nonprofit-centric constituent relationship management core. It is designed to handle common contact and relationship needs (CRM needs) in the nonprofit and nongovernmental sectors. CiviCRM will form the basis of a number
of end-user targeted applications including CivicSpace 0.8.2 and the Social Source Foundation's donor/constituent management, broadcast email and online donations solution (if you are interested in being a beta customer of this web-based solution, please contact
info@socialsourcefoundation.org).
CiviCRM currently runs within the content management systems Drupal and Mambo. CiviCRM will operate as a standalone application latter this year. CiviCRM 1.0 Beta is focused on developers and integrators. Truth in Advertising: Organizations considering CiviCRM to meet specific organizational needs should carefully evaluate whether CiviCRM 1.0 is a viable solution for your organization (try the demo for yourself at http://www.openngo.org/).
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
Filipinos Go Mobile On President
Forget Eric Clapton's "Layla." In the Philippines, the hottest ring tone for cellular phones features what may be the voice of the Philippine's most powerful politician, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The ring tone is a remix of a recorded telephone conversation purporting to show that Arroyo and an independent poll commissioner conspired to cheat in the 2004 election.
Despite a government warning that possession and dissemination of the audio clip is illegal under the country's anti-wiretapping law, the ring tone immediately became a hit in the Philippines, where more than 30 million cell phone users send roughly 200 million text messages daily.
A website operator of www.TXTPower.org has also launched a cyber-campaign against President, posting jokes this week that can be downloaded as text messages.
Links:
Website Operator Plans More Cyber Protests Against Arroyo
Philippin es: Cell Phone Ring Tone Taking Aim At Country's President
Ring Tone: www.TXTPower.or g
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
Daily ePolitics Buzz Brief
Savvy Penn Republicans Podcast... more
National
- Senate Republicans To Offer Weekly ’Podcast’ (mysan.de)
State Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R-Lebanon) announced today that the Senate Republican Caucus has begun offering a weekly "podcast" on its website to expand its coverage of news affecting the lives of Pennsylvanians. (June 21, 2005)
International
- Australia: Verdict In On E-government (Computer World)
Australia's use of online government services has nearly doubled over the last two years, with taxpayers swapping standing in queues for Web transactions, according to the most comprehensive study of the subject to date. (June 21, 2005)
- Angry Arab Blogger Thrives (Detroit News)
As'ad AbuKhalil is a California professor and runs the Angry Arab News Service, a popular blog that provides leftist commentary about the war in Iraq, Lebanese politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (June 21, 2005)
- 'Cybersquatters' Play Virtual Politics With Same-sex Marriage (Globe Technology)
Canadian politicians debating same-sex marriage have suddenly found themselves into the worldwide debate over "cybersquatting" -- appropriating someone else's name and claiming it as your website address. (June 21, 2005)
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
Political Podcasting Scene
MarketWatch's Frank Barnako has been hot on the Political Podcasting beat lately.
Here are a couple of his excerpts:
NPR may podcast alone
A spokeswoman for National Public Radio said the organization dropped its distribution agreement with Audible.com (ADBL) because the reasons for the relationship didn't exist any longer.
Schwarzenegger is podcasting now
The Governator podcast from Arnold Schwarzenegger has been launched. It's the California Governor's weekly radio address as a downloadable file.
In a posting on his Web log, Rush Limbaugh disputed the Apple founder's statement that podcasting is the hottest thing in radio. Limbaugh countered: "I am the hottest thing in podcasting."
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 07, 2005
Great New Tool: Capaciteria
Capaciteria is a comprehensive, searchable database directory of administrative resources that help nonprofits leverage their own capacity.
Deborah Elizabeth Finn passed on an interesting new tool for nonprofits:
"Capaciteria is a comprehensive, searchable database directory of
administrative resources that help nonprofits leverage their own
capacity. It promotes peer review because members can comment on and
rate individual resource links as well as add useful new links. Like
Google, search requests return link results weighted to rise based on
ratings and popularity given to them by nonprofit users..."
Click here to see Deborah's blog article about Capaciteria.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 25, 2005
Broadcast Machine Is Live
Participatory Politics is offering a great new tool that’s free.
“We're proud to announce the official release of Broadcast Machine, from our parent organization, the Participatory Culture Foundation. Now, anyone can publish video online with virtually no bandwidth costs.”
Link
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Next iTunes To Support Podcasts
Everyone’s all giddy about the next version of Apple iTunes music jukebox, which will include podcasting function.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
Podcasting: A New Voice On The Net
Here’s some advice from Michael Gowan at Tech Soup:
Podcasts are like Internet radio broadcasts, and they're gaining in popularity. What promise does the technology hold for the nonprofit sector? We'll show you how organizations are using podcasting now, and how you can get started.
More
Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Video Voter Coast To Coast
New York and Los Angeles Provide Video Voter Coverage
This is cool
The Center for Governmental Studies is pleased to announce that America's two largest cities – New York and Los Angeles – have implemented Video Voter programs for their 2005 Elections. The CGS Video Voter program seeks to provide American voters with direct and unfiltered information on candidates and ballot measures, in video-on-demand formats, directly from the candidates and ballot measure committees themselves, over multiple platforms (TV, cable TV, Internet, digital video recorders, iPods, etc.).
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
MeetUp Backlash
TownHall.com is not happy and is dropping Meetup to create their own service.
As most of you know, Meetup has started charging monthly fees for members. Meetup expected some groups to drop off with the announcement, but claim fees were necessary to start turning a profit on their service.
Here’s an excerpt from an email sent out by the President of TownHall.com this morning.
Regrettably, we were recently shocked, as many of you were, to learn about the implementation of Meetup group fees – $19 per month ($228 per year) to be paid by each of the group organizers. Moreover, I was notified of the change only one day prior to each of you. As a paying and longtime customer, I was not pleased about how this was handled. This is not how Townhall treats its readers and I certainly don’t want Townhall’s good name to be associated with such practices.
It goes on to say that the group has decided to “Build our own Townhall.com Meetup-type service and transition away from Meetup.com.”
The response we received was unanimous! Effective this Thursday, Townhall.com will officially end its relationship with Meetup.com. In place of Meetup, Townhall will begin developing a custom solution to better cater to the needs of our Townhall Meetup members and organizers [Option #2].
You can expect the following improvements:
Currently, we expect to offer a Beta version of our service sometime in September 2005. If you would like to be updated on site developments, please register here.
http://www.townhall.com/meetup/
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Conversate Launches
Participatory Politics is proud to announce Conversate, an instant online discussion space.
From the website:
Conversate is really an experiment. We think a lot of people feel frustrated trying to have group conversations over e-mail, and Conversate is one way to reign in the problem. We’re very interested in your feedback on this beta version.
Here’s how it works: simply fill in the title of a new conversation and enter the e-mail addresses of whoever you’d like to talk with. Your group will receive an e-mail invitation to join, and by clicking on the link they’ll be brought to an online discussion space for whatever you want to talk about. Your conversations can be public or private, and Conversate is free.
We think it's better than group e-mails because your friends and family won't get annoyed with inbox clutter. Plus, nested comments are way more legible than a bunch of people trying to quote each other in replies.
Once you create a Conversate account, there are a number of ways to make it even easier to have conversations online and stay in touch. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of new messages in different conversations, or if you prefer the old-fashioned way, you can receive e-mail alerts of new messages.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 04, 2005
Pope's Death Told Via SMS Text Message
It took just minutes for the Vatican to alert the world's media of Pope John Paul's death -- using text messages and email so the 2,000-year-old Church could meet the new demands of real-time news, according to Reuters.
The Global Language Monitor, which scans the Internet for the use of specific words or phrases using Roman characters, found 35,000 new stories on the pope in the 24 hours after his death Saturday. That compares with about 3,500 new stories on Bush within a day of his re-election and 1,000 new stories on former President Reagan within a day of his death last year.
35,000 New Stories on Pope After Death
Pope Loved Tradition & Technology
Pope's Parting Message for Media
Vatican Used SMS, Email to Announce Pope's Death
Posted by Buzz Webster at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 02, 2005
Online Political Ad Auction Success
PoliticsOnline took part in an online political first when it began running ads in its newsletters on Friday. The ads were auctioned through eBay to the highest bidder, which happened to be NGP. It's the first time we know of that political ad space has been auction this way.We love the transparency of the transaction and the idea that people are paying what they want for the ad, or at least the market rate.
The folks at NGP tell their side of the story on how they won the bid, which is pretty interesting.
Next eBay ad space auction begins April 11, 2005.
Click here to sign up for PoliticsOnline ePolitics newsletters.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 01, 2005
POL Exclusive: Podcast Interview With President Bush
Here's President Bush's first ever podcast recorded exclusively here:
http://www.PoliticsOnilne.com/podcast/bush/ape_reel_phools
Posted by Buzz Webster at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 23, 2005
Podcasting Politician Breakout
I’ve received a lot of email today on John Edwards' first Podcast. Yes, it looks like he is the first national politician to do one of these, unless you count Donnie Folwer’s DNC bid, which didn’t have an RSS feed.
I’m not a proponent of long podcasts, but Edwards’ is over 20 minutes. However, everyone I have talked to loved it. I listened to it, and it is does go by quickly, maybe because of how genuine it comes across.
Podcast Here. Press Release Here.
I would suggest you listen to it, no matter what side of the fence your on, for no other reason than because it’s well done. I’m also suggesting that Republicans do more of this.
In fact one of the folks at PoliticsOnline hopes to lobby the White House in order to get them podcasting the President’s weekly radio address. How incredible would that be?
And since we are on the subject of podcasting politicians. There’s a California candidate you should know about because of his pioneering podcasting and other online invoations.
Meet Scott Chacon. He’s running for Congress in California's 11th district, and his campaign is different.
Here’s a few of the online innovations he’s implementing, besides podcasting and blogging. (from an email)
1) Micro-Goals and Reports
- I am accepting contributions of $100 max, and not for a general fund, but towards what I call Micro-Goals; small goals of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars that a handful of donations could cover. When they get fulfilled, I send a customized report of the results of that goal to the donors and post it on the website. So you not only get to see how your money is spent, you get recognized for the contribution.
2) Instant and Total Disclosure
- I will be putting all of my donations and expenditures online in real time - as they are received or spent on a daily basis. You will be able to see them on a webpage including amount, donor or payee, notes and micro-goal spent for or donated to.
- I will also be putting all of my campaign related meetings online as they happen, including who I met with, what we discussed and audio or video as enclosures if available.
- both of these will be web pages as well as RSS feeds.
3) Open Schedule
- I don't know if you saw this on the site, but I have an open schedule - anyone in the district can schedule me to be anywhere, first come, first serve. It is like "Campaign Manager for a Day", but all the time.
That's only the campaign website - I'm also working on backend tools for mailings, precinct captains coordination, and voter tracking.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 20, 2005
Copeland Interview
Henry Copeland pretty much rules the Blog Ad world. Here’s his latest press interview with the folks at Right Wing News.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
John Edwards To Pod Cast
Well it’s official, the former U.S. senator and VP hopeful (and possible 2008 presidential candidate) is set to be the first real deal politician-podcaster.
I first learned of the news from Amy Gahran, who tells of how this all came to pass here. It's actually pretty interesting.
It is also interesting that the first two political podcasters (Donnie Fowler and John Edwards) are S.C. natives who are both Democrats and both lost while running for a high ranking position. It’s also been rumored they can both put a hurtin’ on a Ryan’s buffet line. Pretty freaky I know.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
March 05, 2005
Podcasting Series
This just in from the always entertaining John Hlinko of Grassroots Enterprise (& ActForLove.org & DraftWesleyClark.com).
Grassroots Enterprise is launching a new "podcasting" series, focusing specifically on innovations on the grassroots activism front, and on the interesting people who are making them happen.
You can also read more here, and you can listen to the first podcast here.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 02, 2005
Cool Yard Sign Builder
The next round of local elections will be here before you know it, and so I wanted to mention a neat idea for your online strategic planning pleasure.
VictoryStore.com has introduced the coolest campaign sign design tool which allows candidates to design their own sign without the cost of a designer. Take a minute to look at it. Try it, its a fairly powerful change in one small part of politics.
Thank you Steve Grubs for the FYI.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
New Additions
I've updated the blogroll and wanted to highlight the new editions.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
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 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 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)
January 12, 2005
Tech Companies Can Save Lives
We interrupt your regularly scheduled iTunes house remix for this important information.
-- GET THE HELL OUT OF DODGE! --
From BBC:
Motorola has just announced a deal with Apple to produce a phone that works with the iTunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace.
In light of the horrific tsunami tragedy, it might be a good idea for the two companies to research how their technology can be used to send out ‘early warning messages’ to customers who might be in harms way.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
January 10, 2005
And The Winner Is ... GovTrack.us
GUEST: Jack O'Toole
In November of last year, Technorati launched its first-ever Developers Contest, a competition designed to encourage programmers to create new and innovative uses for the company's massive real-time database of weblog postings. (At the time of this writing, Technorati reported that it was tracking the content of 5,790,155 blogs worldwide.) And when the winners were announced last Friday, the Grand Prize went to Penn grad student Joshua Tauberer's GovTrack.us, "a crossroads for data on the status of legislation, the activities of representatives, campaign contributions and other statistics, and public commentary."
Congratulations, Joshua. And, just as important, thanks. As a result of your efforts, keeping an eye on the US Congress, and what citizen journalists around the world are saying about it, has never been easier.
POSTSCRIPT: Congratulations, too, to Aaron Swartz and Stefan Magdalinski, who were honored with runner up awards for PersonalDemocracy.com and Whitelabel.org, respectively.
And, while we're at it, let's not forget the competition's "nonpolitical" winners: Niall Kennedy for NetNewsWire RSS Cosmos, Timothy Appnel for XML::XOXO Perl Library, and Michael Dale for Touchgraph Integration.
Posted by Jack O'Toole at 05:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 17, 2004
Mapping Out Your Virtual Real Estate
In the wired world of politics, pushing your ‘product’ is a lesson in real estate. The location you place your product matters, almost as much as the product. Below are three examples, of online campaigns in progress you might learn some lessons from, with these folks who are in the process of figuring it out.
Yahoo! Nabs JibJab: Political Satire Meets Product Placement
Dave Pell writes hat the open source web browser, has been upstaged by the open source ad campaign. “Today's NY Times features a 2 page Firefox ad that features, and was paid for, by thousands of people who use and/or helped to build the product.”
Henry Copeland On Lessons Learned From A Local Blog-Ad Campaign In Atlanta
Toby Bloomberg, Atlanta's leading blog evangelist, has been working with one of her clients to test Blogads. The small test wasn't a raging success. Toby has blogged the experience, and I've added some thoughts in her comments. I'll repeat them here to have a copy secure for my own reference.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
December 09, 2004
Silicon Valley Conspiracy
Researchers have uncovered a Silicon Valley conspiracy originating in the early 1990’s, when computer scientist allegedly (and secretively) designed portable machines as a means of birth control without FDA approval. Let’s just say I hope your not reading this news on your laptop. In the lyrics of Elvis, “Lord Almighty, I feel my temperature rising!”
But the real hot potato on the web is an article by CBSNews.com chief political writer, David Paul Kuhn, who appears to be concerned either because bloggers have no ethics or because they are not regulated. Must re-read for more understanding. For a rebuttal to Mr. Kuhn click here. For a funny version of Mr. Kuhn’s article click here. For a mystery link, click here.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
Segway-The-Vote
I just read about the team of documentary filmmakers who recently finished piloting a Segway across the United States. Wow! I can’t wait until this thriller hits the theatres.
It seems that Segways might also serve well for helping political candidates speed up canvassing. A past CNN article tells of how a few local candidates around the country used Segways to go door-to-door during the election season. Besides saving a candidate from walking to death, it also helps undecided voters remember who you are. For example, if the kids come outside to look at the Segway while visiting, chances are you’ll at least be remembered (but maybe not voted for) on Election Day.
Most of the candidates featured bought a new or used (eBay) Segway. However renting might be more cost-effective for candidates. At Segway-Rentals-Now one can rent by the day or up to a month at a time, and even have the vehicle tricked out with custom-built campaign signs.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 28, 2004
Top 25 E-voting List Compiled
Since we are on the topic of Florida, the California Voter Foundation reports that Miami and Tampa are among the top 25 of the most populous places in the country using e-voting.
The list allows you to easily track electronic voting in this presidential election.
Click here for the full list.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 26, 2004
Video Voter
On Monday, the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) launched a new national campaign to improve voter information with the release of "Video Voter: Producing Election Coverage for Your Community" and its companion website, www.videovoter.org. The publication and website offer government access cable TV channels, public access producers, cable TV local origination and Video-on-Demand systems, digital TV stations and others step-by-step guidelines on how to create and distribute unedited video coverage of candidates and ballot measure campaigns in their own communities.
The Video Voter Guide helps producers to code their election programming for capture by Digital Video Recorders (e.g., TiVo), negotiate carriage by Video-on-Demand cable TV systems, and create their own websites to archive on-demand election programming for Internet viewing in homes. The website
(www.VideoVoter.org) provides up-to-date programming and legal information together with downloadable forms (releases, candidate instructions, etc.).
[SOURCE: Center for Governmental Studies Press Release]
Posted by Buzz Webster at 08:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 25, 2004
Top Ten Reasons America Needs Better Voting Technology
10. "I Voted" stickers won't hold up in court.
9. A constitutional crisis can ruin your whole week.
8. Yeah, like no one's ever stuffed a paper ballot box.
7. Accountability is better than recountability.
6. Few county officials have the 212,234 fingers needed for a real hand count.
5. No one's calling for a return to typewriters.
4. Friends don’t let friends use paper ballots.
3. You absolutely, positively, have to know your vote counted.
2. A vote is a terrible thing to waste.
1. At some point, we have to know who really won.
Brought to you by VoteHere, Inc.*
Although the subject of electronic voting is a serious one, we are taking a few minutes to make light of the electronic voting issue and the knee-jerk responses some have made to revert to paper ballots as a way to ensure safe elections. We believe adding paper ballots to voting machines would be a step backward. We should instead add cryptographic audit technology that gives voters a private paper receipt to take home and verify their vote. This is a better way to strengthen confidence in our elections.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 30, 2004
AOL To Launch Searchable Video Archive Of Presidential Debates
Below is a message from our friends at FedNet who gave us the scoop on a new tool:
I wanted to give you a heads up about a project we are working on with AOL to create a searchable video archive of the presidential debates. FedNet has integrated our proprietary searchable video platform (reCap) into the AOL subscriber service to provide a state-of-the-art keyword search access to the Presidential debates.FedNet will capture and process the video content of the debates, indexing the information and enabling the event to be searched by keyword for user replay on their desktop through the AOL service. With the Presidential race so close, voters need the ability to reclarify what a candidate said, how they reacted under pressure, how they expressed their leadership ability.
The service will allow AOL subscribers to search for video of the debates that contain issues important to them through a simple interface on AOL, subscribers will enter the keyword and be brought to a results page of video that includes that word being spoken by a candidate.
There are a great number of voters that are anticipating the Presidential debates. They want to see and hear how the candidates carry themselves. This exciting service enables voters to clarify, not only what the candidates said, but how they said it.
You might want to take a look at the service on AOL - it will be up within about an hour after the debate has concluded or on Friday morning and we will be providing the service for all of the debates. Please take a look at AOL if you get a chance - at this time they are planning on putting it on the Press Pass page of the election coverage.
Regards - Keith
Keith Carney
Federal Network, Inc.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 08, 2004
Track This Bloggers
A very cool political blog tracking tool was unveiled today by Intelliseek. From the press release:
Intelliseek, a marketing analytics firm that helps companies and brands measure buzz and word-of-mouth, today launched Campaign Radar 2004 (http://politics.blogpulse.com or http://www.campaignradar.com), a free web service that analyzes and displays political issues and trends among the nation's blog writers through the upcoming election. The service draws from Intelliseek's BlogPulse, which tracks over two million blogs every day.
A similar feature at Blogpulse has been available for some time called the Trend Tool that allows you to search with your own keywords, but this new feature seems to be election specific.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 26, 2004
Technocrati Way Cool For Convention Coverage
I really like what Technocrati is doing with a new meta-blog covering the convention: offering statistics, analysis and real-time updates on what political bloggers are saying.
It's divided up into the same format as WatchBlog.com, but with three different topics- Liberal, Conservative and Convention Bloggers.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Blogs Are Buzz Of Convention
The Convention Gavel has dropped and so far the talk of the convention has been on the newest members of the press.
Maybe there's little else to talk about, or maybe just maybe bloggers are an interesting crowd. This should all change by later tonight when the Clinton's take the stage.
The LATimes is doing a good job tracking the blog convention buzz.
The WSJ also has a good free article profiling some of the convention bloggers.
It may all look scripted on TV, but the Fleet center is a mad house behind the scenes...
Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 14, 2004
E-voting Progress?
This week the online world of technocrats will discuss e-voting. California and Ohio are setting the standard for verified paper trail touch screen voting machines, and I’ve been informed good news will come from these two states in few a days.
I have mixed feelings about this but I think we are headed in the right direction, which is voting online. I have great hope in the genius of American people, especially people with pocket protectors and horn-rimmed glasses.
Onward E-voting Away!
Posted by Buzz Webster at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
