Brown: Web A Must To Campaign

"We have to use email, Twitter
and other social networking. We have to use all these
new media to get through, because sometimes we
don't get fair treatment from some newspapers in this
country. There are more people online talking to each
other than there are readers of some of our
newspapers and we have to use that new media to
our best advantage."
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to
utilize modern web tactics to see Labour succeed in
next year's general election.
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Pre-orders of fans buying Sarah Palin's book
online skyrockets memoir to #1 on
Amazon
Though Palin's book --
described as a "personal and political chronicle of her
life" -- won't be released by Amazon until November
17, 2009, pre-orders of Sarah Palin's book
have already sent it to the top of the list, proving her
publisher right in creating a 1.5 million copy
first printing.

Soldiers' Data Still Being
Downloaded Overseas, Firm Says

(Washington Post) The personal data of tens of
thousands of U.S. soldiers -- including those in the
Special Forces -- continue to be downloaded by
unauthorized computer users in countries such as
China and Pakistan, despite Army assurances that it
would try to fix the problem, according to a private firm
that monitors cybersecurity.


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src="http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs039/110069
6476798/img/1255.jpg"US Relinquishes
Control of the Internet

(Guardian) After complaints about American
dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in
some parts of the world, Washington has said it will
relinquish some control over the way the network is
run and allow foreign governments more of a say in
the future of the system.

Icann - the official body that ultimately controls the
development of the internet thanks to its oversight of
web addresses such as .com, .net and .org - said
today that it was ending its agreement with the US
government.


Full Story

(AP) US to share Internet review amid worldwide
growth

Why Community Still Matters in the
Digital Age
(MercuryNews) In an era when so
many of us have embraced virtual communities on
Facebook and Twitter, a groundbreaking study (and I
don't use those words lightly) reminded me that our
real, geographic communities still matter more.

These geographic communities face a crisis that
threatens our democracy: a growing gap in terms of
the quality of information, access to it and the ability to
participate in the digital revolution.

But there is also a tremendous opportunity to make
more of our citizens fully engaged participants in
America's ongoing democratic experiment.





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src="http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs039/110069
6476798/img/1256.jpg"Work Begins on
National e-Health
Record Network
(Washington Post) Dr.
James E. Sanders is a big believer of switching
patient records from old paper files to sophisticated
computer databases.

The electronic medical records system at the
Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical
Center gives Sanders and his staff almost immediate
access to medical histories, allowing them to
seamlessly treat veterans from other states. But when
patients aren't in the VA's system, it could mean hours
or days before doctors have crucial information to
properly care for patients.



Full Story

Obama Death Poll on FB Puts Third-Party Apps in
Spotlight
(TechNewsWorld) Federal
authorities are investigating a survey created by a
Facebook member that appears to threaten the life of
the president, which is a crime. The poll was made
with a third-party app that's used to create thousands
of polls daily, the vast majority of which are innocuous.
The incident highlights the perils of publishing user-
generated content.
Full
Story
(AFP)
Facebook yanks poll asking whether to kill Obama

src="http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs039/110069
6476798/img/1260.jpg" Recovery.gov Asks
Citizen
Developers For Ways to Improve Site

(NextGov)
The official stimulus-monitoring site is intended to
show the public the results of the hundreds of billions
of dollars in spending that Congress authorized in
February to stimulate the economy, including the
number of jobs created, the amount of money spent
and timelines for projects down to the neighborhood
level. But when the government published
requirements for Recovery.gov this summer, some
open government advocates voiced concerns that the
spending data on the site would not be easily
accessible to other sites.

Full Story

GovDelivery Acquires Social Network
GovLoop
(GovTech) GovDelivery is
reasserting its roots in local government with
Monday's announcement it has acquired social
network GovLoop.

GovDelivery, a provider of "government-to-citizen"
communications platforms via software-as-a-service
subscriptions, was founded in 2001 as a public-
private partnership with St. Paul, Minn. By acquiring
GovLoop, a Facebook-style Web site for government
employees, one of the company's goals is to facilitate
more "government-to government" collaboration
among employees who are working in state and local
agencies.




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Story

Rio will be the first South American hosts
of the Olympics
Celebrations have
begun in Rio de Janeiro after the Brazilian city was
awarded the right to host the Olympics in 2016.

src="http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs039/110069
6476798/img/1257.jpg" Counting the Cost -
Electronically
(Guardian) You have a task:
count around 10m votes. You discover there are two
alternative solutions for doing the count. Both will take
about the same time; both can be verified by checking
back; but one is done by humans and one is done
largely by machines. Which do you pick? If your
instinct is to go for the cheaper one you're not thinking
like the Greater London Assembly, which indicated
last week that it will go with electronic counting
systems for the May 2012 elections.




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Shuttered Honduran Radio Resumes Broadcasts
on Web
(Reuters) The unofficial radio station
of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
resumed broadcasting via the Internet on Monday, a
day after the country's caretaker government shuttered
it by force.

The de facto government issued a Sunday decree
suspending media freedom and some civil liberties
and sent troops on Monday to shut down Radio Globo
and a television station that backed Zelaya, ousted in
a coup three months ago.


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Story

src="http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs039/110069
6476798/img/1258.jpg"Tories launch
campaigning website based on Obama
model
(Guardian) The Conservatives today
boosted their online fundraising push by launching a
new campaigning website, that the party leader, David
Cameron, claims is the world's most advanced bar
the much-lauded site that helped to carry Barack
Obama to the White House.


MyConservatives.com, perhaps inspired by
my.barackobama.com, aims to simplify the
campaigning and fundraising process so that
members of the public will find it easier to support the
party.

Full Story

Brazil to Allow Political Speech on Social-
Networking Sites
(AdAge) Brazilian President
Lula da Silva has approved a law ratifying the freedom
of expression on the internet during the elections,
rather than extend tight regulation of political speech
observed on other media to the web.


Full Story

From e-Government to e-
Governance
Using new technologies to
strengthen relationships with citizens

In this report, the Accenture Institute for Health &
Public Service Value explores the fundamental shift in
how public service organizations are viewing and
using technologies. Over the last decade,
governments around the world have invested heavily
in e-government-technology solutions designed to
improve service delivery and realize cost efficiencies.
Today, public service organizations have begun
developing strategies for e-governance-using
technology not only to enhance efficiency and
effectiveness, but also to strengthen relationships
with citizens.




View Report