Hey kids, September 22nd is One Web Day, and you know what that means! Well, not much yet, since the ‘net’s “Earth Day equivalent” is only hitting its third anniversary this year and hasn’t had time to pick up many traditions yet. But Monday’s events will focus attention on our particular little corner of the tubes:
The Internet has also become the means by which citizens around the world build movements to hold their elected leaders accountable and support those who represent their interests; it is also increasingly the medium through which citizens interact with their governments. The theme of this year’s OneWebDay is online participation in democracy, coinciding with the U.S. elections.
Want to find out more? Try the OneWebDay site and Twitter feed, and see also coverage by Tech Daily Dose and HuffPo. In D.C., there’ll be a time-capsule burial (bring a shovel!) in the morning and a happy hour after work at Tryst in Adams Morgan, both of which e.politics will miss because of a client meeting in NYC. Have fun celebrating the interwebs!
Damn kids, I just can’t seem to shake them off, and at the moment neither can the American political system. Want to know more about the upcoming generation of political activists? Today’s Internet Advocacy Roundtable focuses on their Borg-like synthesis of technology, flesh and mind: “The Millennials use MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as if they were born with the technology embedded in their psyche.” Can’t make it in person? “Here Come the Millennials, Politics Beware” is being live-streamed from 3-5 Eastern today, so you can start planning your survival strategy early. Thanks to Shana Glickfield for the tip.
I don’t writes ‘em, I just links to ‘em: Software spots the spin in political speeches. Money quote: Sure Obama’s a spinner, but “John McCain’s voice analysis profile looks like that of someone who is clinically depressed”
I just went into a live online database via PHPMyAdmin and deleted 22,000 spam comments from a client’s WordPress blog all at once. That’s the first actual database operation I’ve ever done! Scary, even with a backup. Not that I want to make a habit of it — too much potential for destruction. But I can now claim to have executed a command that looks like this:
SELECT *FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved =”0″
delete from wp_comments WHERE comment_approved =”0″
And lived to tell the tale. Thanks to this guy for the instructions.
Slate’s “Map the Candidates” has been around since the primaries, but it’s still a great example of a simple idea that’s nonetheless revealing — just a straightforward Google Maps interface that lets you see where the campaigns are sending their big guns and when. What makes it useful is that the display is multi-dimensional, in that you can easily and intuitively adjust sliders to look at different blocks of time. What pops out is where the campaigns think they should make a splash — the industrial/battleground states get the most attention, but note the Democrats’ focus on Virginia and slight spillover into North Carolina. The current Obama/Palin face-off in the West also stands out, along with Michelle Obama’s earlier trip to the desert.
If it’s possible, a great addition to the maps would be an overlay layer that shows what TV and web ads the campaigns are running, where and in what volume — that way you could REALLY see where resources are being spent. Of course you could get the same information from a simple list of places and dates, but the visual display makes the patterns much more obvious.
First my lawn and now the internets, the damn kids are everywhere nowadays I tell you what. A menace! With their hippity hop and their Facebooks and their constant use of the word “like” as a conjunction, I can’t hardly make sense of a thing they do. But fortunately, Alex Steed can — and he needs your help to make it happen.
The attempted viral angle isn’t subtle, since the subject line reads, “Forward this email.” With the conservative base apparently all fired up over Sarah Palin (for now at least), I suspect that every vote is looking more and more precious.
Oof, there is no joy at e.politics today — I just attempted to upgrade an innocent plugin, and BOOM! The site disappears. I’ve tracked down enough of the problem to restore the interior pages, but while I’m diagnosing why the site front page doesn’t want to show up, we’re gonna run with one of those nice default WordPress themes for a bit. So things will look a little different for a few minutes (at least) — exciting times.
It’s just an iPhone, they said. What could possibly go wrong? A great little pocket computer, and an always-on internet device, with a terrific user interface — it will surely change the way you live your life. Little did they know…
You see, the iPhone also contains a digital camera. Now, cameras can be used for all kinds of wonderful things: photos of pretty girls, and cute kids, and flowers and puppies, and…well, we’re getting into dangerous ground here. Because it was that camera that led me to certain ruin.
In today’s spirit of getting things done, let’s take a look next at how individual citizens can involve themselves in politics using the internet and do it effectively. So before we all stampede straight off to talking about specific tools like usual, let’s think instead for a minute about some basic guidelines — rules of thumb which can apply equally whether we’re working on behalf of a candidate or a cause, and that’ll stay relevant as technology evolves.
Writing on 9/11 is always strange; a shadow lurks around every mental corner, and words seem to lack the needed gravity. We live our normal days wrapped in the familiar and the comforting, forgetting that civilization is a thin veneer, that barbarism is not far back in our past or far away in our present. But on a day like this, we can’t help but confront our own and our world’s profound vulnerability. It’s a day to feel small, as history overwhelms us with its awful sweep — one unbearable morning frozen in a dense web of action and reaction dating back centuries and stretching forward until…well, others will get to tell that story.
What to do? Roll up in a ball and moan? Or get up and do something instead — let’s pick that. Let’s make 9/11 a day to Get Things Done, henceforth and for all our time. “The fate of this man or that man” may be “less than a drop, although it was a sparkling one, in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea,”* but even a tiny drop can make a splash.
Guess what — people who are trained to organize political action might just be able to hit back if you take ‘em on. In the few hours since Republican V.P nominee Sarah Palin made fun of Barack Obama’s community organizer background at her speech at the RNC, the Obama campaign has already sent out a mass fundraising email using her remarks as a hook: “Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people? With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.” And of course a quick donation from you will make it all better.
The lefty blogs have also joined in the spirited defense of the humble community organizer, and their disciples are spreading the word far and wide. And so are individual activists like my friend nerdette27, who figured out last night that Palin’s not the only one with access to a video camera: in the clip below, she neatly turns Palin’s remarks against her with some fine verbal jujitsu. Another highlight: Jesus is on our side! (Pharisees beware…).
Here’s a tip from Ed Kohler at Technology Evangelist: YouTube statistics can be your friend, if you’re doing online political work or just trying to get a video to take off virally. For instance, clicking the Statistics & Data tab underneath a the version of any video on the actual YouTube site (as opposed to a YouTube video embedded in a page on an outside website) lets you see who links to that video page. Once you know where it’s being discussed, you can track and join the conversation there — and attempt to shift it in your direction (please be transparent about who you are! Unless you’re evil).
