e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — June 30, 2010

June 30th, 2010

Quick Hits is back! Strap yourself in: we have some major cache-clearing ahead.

• Alvin Green (D for SC Senator) now has a website, straight outta 1999.
• Alleged Russian agents used high-tech tricks. C.f. Russian spies took advantage of tech.
• Senate Judiciary Committee members’ Twitter feeds, plus Elena’s Inbox lets you search Kagan’s Executive Branch emails.
• State Department Staff Twitter Musings in Syria Elicit Groans in Washington.
• Daily Kos to Sue Research 2000 for Fraud. C.f. Kos fires pollster after reading Nate Silver’s ratings, Pollster Fight Gets Ugly, Pollster accused of fabricating data, defrauding Kos, and The Kos pollster charges, explained.
• Online Plot Hatched to Annoy BP Executives with Vuvuzelas, via Matt DeLuca.
• DNC Wants Many Eyes on the GOP, as Democrats Seek “Macaca” Moments.
• WaPo’s Weigel Lets Loose With Scathing E-mails on Liberal Listserv. The Fallout: Washington Post blogger David Weigel resigns after messages leak. C.f. Breitbart’s JournoList bounty and the secret Republican listserv leak and L.A. Times blogger is also a professional Republican flack. Finally, Gerson: internet bad, again. Why can’t we all be just like him and his friends?
• Sharon Angle hides from the cameras, relying on social media to hit true believers. But Nevada Dems break into her bunker, and c.f. What’s up with Sharron Angle’s website?
• DNC rolls out iPad app, with coverage by Politico and tPrez. Also, NY Senate app lets you find the senator of any spot you’re standing on, via tPrez.
• OFA Looks to Boost Democratic Candidates in Midterms, as Democrats spend big to lure Obama’s minority and young voters back to the polls. Plus, The New ‘Raise Your Vote’: OFA’s Design to Turn Out Mid-Term Voters.
• Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire, but Is the LOLcat Empire Built on Exploited Humans? The latter via Aminatou Sou.
• Mind Over Mass Media. The internet is making us stoopid — just like books did. C.f. No, The Internet Won’t Make You Stupid.
• Obama welcomes his Russian counterpart to Twitter. And it wasn’t even #FollowFriday!
• “Rahm, u lie.”
• “These are not writers, or journalists; these are self-confessed generators of content in the much the same way that horses are self-confessed generators of glue.”
• How Joe Barton found out that Auto-Tweeting stories on a given topic is not always a good idea. C.f. Apologize to BP, online (cute), and Facebook: Takedown of BP Boycott Page was Automated Error.
• No footage from the House floor on campaign websites!
• California dreamin’: The story behind that eBay shove (reenacting the Second Life battle “rocking” CA politics). Plus, New site tracks who said what in California politics, Top 2 [California] G.O.P. Candidates Don’t Reflect [Silicon] Valley, and Unsure how to vote in California primary election, many turn to Twitter.
• Some Mayors Bypass Media, Government and Talk Directly to Constituents on Facebook. C.f. SC State House politicos start online politics show.
• 2012 prelude: GOP hopefuls go online.
• Year Two: Tea Partiers learn how to do more than wave signs. Plus, an interactive map of Tea Party events on Meetup.com.
• How future historians will use the Twitter archives.
• Was 2010 the (UK’s) internet election? C.f. How the Internet is Changing Politics in Great Britain and UK Election Email Newsletters Rated.
• The Politics Online Conference 2010, with photos and links.
• Ad Campaigns, SEO Content, Even Disaster Planning: Real Time Search in Action.
• Is your Facebook Page Worth it?
• Online database of corporate/organizational social media policies.
• What You Can Learn From Ford’s Social Media Strategy. C.f. Reach Customers in 140 Characters, All of Them Free.
• NASA, White House Launch Digital Comment Box for Space Plan.
• The 7 Somewhat United States of Facebook.
• The Future of Social/E-Mail Integration. C.f. Google Making Gmail Into a Communications Hub.
• Why the Army Doesn’t Train on XBoxes.
• A Democratic campaign committee sponsors a contest to illustrate and caption a photo of Sarah Palin. A little old but I couldn’t leave it out.
• People share news online that inspires awe.
• Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic.
• Jurors: Stop Twittering.
• Ad Network Use Grows as Marketers Promote Brands Online.
• 95% of User Generated Content is spam or malicious. Via A Loyal Reader (thanks, Dad!).
• Measuring Return on Social Investment.
• Politicians saying the tweetest things with advent of social media.
• Lessons from an Advocacy Campaign on Twitter – The #losethecig Case Study.
• Income from Political Blogs: Online Politics Coach.
• Online News Fights to Live on Its Merits.
• The Twitter Revolution that wasn’t.
• In Search of Lonely Diners and Unbought Bloggers.
• Social media: The next generation.
• Analyzing the Facebook Factor (in elections).
• A Diaspora from Facebook, or from Reality? Sensing blood, Privacy Start-Ups Cash In on Facebook’s Troubles.
• Guggenheim and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists, or YouTube, HP And Guggenheim In Search Of The World’s Most Creative Online Video.
• Online video sites embrace live concert streams.
• Apple App store and censorship.
• Hulu Founding CTO Eric Feng Leaving For KPCB, Al Gore.
• The President’s Record on Border Security. Using the White House blog to push back against critics.
• Making a Video for Nonprofit Communicators.
• The man who invented the Obama-is-a-Muslim meme?
• Tweeting Death.
• Social Media Scores at World Cup, by my NMS colleague Fenella Basilio. Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!
• I Can Play Mass Effect 2 on My Dinky Laptop. Online gaming service a model for the future?
• World Wrestling Entertainment Understands Their Audience, Embraces YouTube.
• Enviro Websites and the Big Spill: Continuing the Debate, and re: The Big Spill and Enviro Web Traffic.
• After Obama, Gibbs Bats Cleanup in Virtual Press Conference.
• What Annoys Consumers the Most About Online Ads.
• What You Never Would Have Guessed About Facebook Users.
• Slam Dunk or Snake Oil? Everyone wants to Raise Money with Social Media. But is it Possible?
• As MSNBC flees IAB ad unit coffin, Are Banner Ads Dead? Bonus track: They Move, Smell, and Can Get You Arrested: Odd Ad Formats.
• Bill Clinton’s name on CO fundraising email raises attention. As does ‘winger’s online video from Alabama, for very different reasons.
• Mobile tech in an AFSCME internal election.
• Tweets in Japan fall silent in election campaign.
• The Perfect Political Ad?
• Behind the 2204355 prank. Deconstructing a man dancing with chicken.
• Britney Spears wins, Twitter loses. Rise of the robots continues; self-awareness on horizon.
• And finally: “Democrats tend to have more problems with harassment, staffers and underage girls while Republicans tend to have more problems with prostitutes, hypocrisy and underage boys.”

Too much is never enough? Try past editions of Quick Hits for more tasty links.

– cpd