e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — March 30, 2009

March 30th, 2009

Am waaaaay behind on catching up with the online politics-specific sites, but here are a few stories that stood out over the past few weeks.

• Update: When an Obama email matters more than an Obama TV ad in the Murphy/Tedisco race, plus the new GOP online video against Murphy that invokes 9/11 and Osama bin Laden.
• Update: Online activism targets Notre Dame, Vatican over Obama commencement address.
• Update: Bloggers, MoveOn v. Senate.
• Update: Liberal commenters on conservative blogs threaten humanity — bring in the trolls! (Has this guy ever read a website before?).
• Even online, politics is a rich man’s game.
• Obama’s Interactive Town Hall Meeting and Obama’s gimmicky online chat session actually worked, the aftermath of White House Announces It’s ‘Open for Questions’.
• The List: Look Who’s Censoring the Internet Now.
• Reading list: How Obama Won.
• GSA signs deals for agencies to use social networking sites.
• Practicing Politics in the Twitter Era + Using #TCOT vs. No Hashtags Whatsoever.
• Introducing Hill Tweet News.
• Working to pass budget, Obama seeks help from grassroots, plus The “Mandate Incarnate”: President Obama’s Grassroots Advocacy Organization Gets Underway and Offshoot of Obama’s Grassroots Support Aims Fire at Congress. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
• Welcome to the New Media Campaign Tools of 2012, by friend-of-e.politics Michael Silberman.
• Friendster is at once a thriving success and a robot-ruled ghost planet.
• Why Facebook is good for you .
• How To: Open Up Government Data.
• Departure of RNC’s Top Web Strategist Worries Conservatives.
• Of blogs and bank nationalization.
• Please Don’t Go to Politico! Not all sites are quite comfortable with that whole “linking” thing.
• Is Obama Making Nice With Bush? Curious changes to 43′s bio on the White House Web site.
• [Republican] Leader Boehner Directs Ranking Members to Use Web.
• Gore’s wasting his energy with .eco domain.
• Democrats Ca$h in on Rush.
• What the Heck Is Twitter? It’s not a Google killer, and it’s not a Facebook killer.
• He Who Has Not Hit ‘Send’ May Cast the First Stone.
• A Struggle Over U.S. Cybersecurity.
• Online advocacy in Arizona: Board to decide if student will walk at graduation.
• Bloggers help derail an Obama appointee.
• Book Review: ‘Stealing MySpace: The Battle To Control the Most Popular Website in America. C.f. I Can Has Internet Millions: The company behind lolcats and Failblog tries to turn memes into money.
• Politics and New Media, or “Should I Really Tweetspam Congress?”, via @levjoy.
• Heads Pop Up and Heads Roll: Let’s Keep Track. Following appointees’ fates online.
• Iran’s Drones. Battle bots!
• First the robots, next the damn kids: Student project captures images of Earth from space, using a $100 camera and $1300 balloon.
• Ben Rigby Interviews Gordon Mohr of the Internet Archive @SXSW. The subject: trepanation. The photographer: e.politics.
• A Few Good Tools for Online Distributed Fundraising.
• Facebook Gets New Public Policy Director.
• TXT for (Increased) Success.
• A Small Ride That’s a Big Wheel in Congo — not all vital technology is electronic.
• Stop Whining About Facebook’s Redesign. Nope, not quite done yet.

– cpd