Policy Statement via Tweet

"Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity."

@thejointstaff, aka: Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Admiral Mullen's quote comes after President Obama pledged for a repeal of the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which bans homosexuals from serving openly in the US military.

mGive processes record haul

$37,000,000
$37M raised via SMS since the Haiti earthquake 3 weeks ago

From the mGive blog:
"mGive was founded with the belief that the mobile phone could be a powerful force for social good. To all those who have donated, thank you for showing the world whats possible."

"The Internet vs. Obama"
(NYT online) "I think the president has been hit by something deeper still  something that empowers all these adverse forces and wont stop anytime soon. Over the past half century, technological evolution has made it progressively harder to get big things done in this country, and now its just about impossible. This isnt just Obamas problem; its Americas problem."

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US National Archives join Flickr Commons
(Flickr blog)"With over 3,000 images in 49 sets uploaded already, perusing these important archival images should keep you entertained for a long time. Their four collections encompass important Americana, ranging from the famous Mathew Brady Civil War images to historical and iconic images of American history."

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Transparency cures all?
(Washington Post) WaPo's Ezra Klein and ThinkProgress' Matthew Yglesias look at why all Congressional negotiations aren't live on C-SPAN: "Think about a family negotiation over whose house you spend the holidays at, or who goes to watch Billys soccer game on Saturday. At the end of the day, wouldnt everyone be worse off if the whole extended clan had the right to watch the negotiation on C-SPAN?"

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The New John McCain (.com)
(Inside Forty blog) "In June of 2009, Forty was first approached by the Friends of John McCain about developing an all-new Web presence for John McCains upcoming Senate campaign. It was expected to be a major departure from their old site.
It took a few months for things to get rolling, but we eventually accepted the project and began sketching out concepts for new ways to approach a political website."

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"The GOP Rises Online"
(TechRepublican) Conservative new media consultant David All's take on the GOP's progress online: "After President Barack Obama's historic election, the political pundits were quick to declare that the Democratic Party had an enduring hold on online organizing. Much was made of the Obama campaign's use of social networks - especially My.BarackObama.com which was built with the help of Chris Hughes, one of Facebook's cofounders. Countless newspaper articles, blog posts and segments on television news programs were dedicated to deconstructing what the Democrats had accomplished online, and coincidentally what the Republicans failed to accomplish."

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#DemonSheep!
On Wednesday, California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina released a... "unique" web video ad portraying fiscal conservative leaders as sheep and rival candidate and fmr. US Rep Tom Campbell as an "FCINO: Fiscal Conservative in Name Only," using a hellish looking sheep's costume to depict Campbell as a 'wolf in sheep's clothing.' After making its way around the political blogs and finally breaking through to Twitter and Facebook, the internet pretty much exploded with "#demonsheep" talk. We can only speculate, but it probably sounded like a good idea in the meeting...

Campbell responded saying that Fiorina was in, "full mutton meltdown mode," and 3rd candidate in the race, CA Assemblyman Chuck Devore, posted his response on DemonSheep.org.

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World Economic Forum more wired than ever
(Globe and Mail) "Notwithstanding that some very good things will likely happen at this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, it's tough to solve the world's problems in a week."

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Mobile activism gains ground in Africa
(Guardian) "The trouble with people who know about mobile phone technology is that they are a lot better at good ideas than they are at explaining to non-techies what their good ideas are for. So I fell upon SMS Uprising: Mobile activism in Africa, a collection of essays by people who either write mobile applications or transfer them to the field, hoping that at last I would understand not so much what's going on as how."

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Threat of "cyber war" growing
(Guardian) "Cyber-warfare attacks on military infrastructure, government and communications systems, and financial markets pose a rapidly growing but little understood threat to international security and could become a decisive weapon of choice in future conflicts between states, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies warned yesterday."

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MI5 warns of online Chinese attacks
(V3.co.uk) "MI5 has warned UK companies that the Chinese government may have gained access to their computers with the intention of remotely monitoring their online activities.
A leaked document seen by The Sunday Times claims that Chinese security officials have been offering free computer devices that contain Trojan software to high profile business users in the banking, defence and energy industries."

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Event: We Media '10
Location: Miami, Florida, USA
Date: March 9-11, 2010
Details: What if you could put on shades, filter out current woes and see the possibilities of the creative now? What if you could talk to Game Changers about their breakthrough successes? Find support and investment for your ideas? Discover the elusive models and realities of business in the digital age? Travel to a place where knowledge, interaction and creativity transform you and your organization? The innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders shaping an enlightened age of media, technology, business, communications and connections are coming to We Media Miami on March 9-11, 2010. Join them in the Digital Renaissance.

Use the promotional discount code POL-1 to receive $100.00 off registration!
Register Now! An iFOCOS member who registers before Dec. 15 with your PoliticsOnline discount can attend We Media for $300 and a non-member for $400.

Derek Wyatt
First to launch iPhone App - MyMP

(Telegraph) A Labour MP has designed an iPhone App that he hopes will encourage constituents to get in touch with him more easily. Derek Wyatt MP, who is standing down at the next election, represents Sittingbourne and Sheppey and his new MyMP app, currently in beta, also offers constituents the chance to give him their opinions on specific topics.

The application will officially be launched in Parliament in February, and although Mr Wyatt is currently the only Member who is using the service, it is designed for every MP to be able to sign up. Integration with Google Maps also allows constituents to identify what issues their representative is dealing with that are local to them.

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EDem10 - 4th international Conference on E- Democracy

EDem10 will take place at Danube-University Krems, Austria, on 6th and 7th of May 2010. EDem is the leading E-Democracy conference in Europe and the keynote speakers will ensure an interesting vent. On primary aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners.

The Call for Papers ends on 1st of March 1 2010. We would like to invite individuals from academic, applied and practitioner backgrounds as well as public administration offices, public bodies, NGO/NPOs, education institutions and independent organisations to submit their research and project papers.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Stevan Harnad (American Scientist Open Access Forum,Universite du Quebec a Montreal, CAN, University of Southhampton, UK), Ismael Peña-López (Open University of Catalonia, School of Law and Political Science, Spain), Jochen Scholl (The Information School, University of Washington, USA), Micah L. Sifry (Personal Democracy Forum, TechPresident, NY), Andy Williamson (Hansard Society, London).

Further information: http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/edem