- Trust in Peers Trumps the “A-List,” Study Finds. Definite implications for political marketing.
- Act Blue’s Record Take. They’re raking it in for candidates.
- Online Call Tools and the 2008 Campaign.
- Detroit Mayor Is Charged With Eight Felonies. Much to his surprise, text messages are stored somewhere. C.f., TXTmob Subpoena Shows the Hazards of Using Technology to Protest.
- French President Caught Monitoring Blogs: Mon Dieu!
- Voter Relationship Management: The Constituent Is the Customer. A look at the available tools, from the point of view of business CRM.
- With the Internet Comes a New Political ‘Clickocracy’. Jose Antonio Vargas’s new gig, writing think pieces (nice work if you can get it).
- In 2008 campaign, the Internet packs a powerful political punch. Frank Davies overview piece.
- Kenya: What a laptop and a video camera can do.
- Calling all women who tech and talk. Regular e.pol reader Jeanette Russell says, “Hey Ladies!”
- Local bandit eludes Indian police AND Google Earth. But he still can’t get his mom elected.
- Broad Concerns About Internet Voting. Guys are worried, too.
- “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has finally figured out how to raise funds on the Internet”. But still, a lot less than Obama.
- Chinese Authorities Place ‘Wanted’ Posters For Tibetan Rioters On Web Portals. Also, China Destroys Tibet’s Sacred Environment. When wrecking your own just isn’t enough.
- Over 1.3 Million Petition Signatures in 10 Days against Chinese actions in Tibet. China to petition-signers — um, yeah, we’ll get right on that.
- Magic Spy Smart Phone.
- Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Bets ‘Wikipedia’ Approach Will Transform Congress.
- McCain Girls Are Your New Jalopy. And more than a little hard on the ears.
- Raffle craze strikes innocent presidential candidates.
- Republican videos attack congressional democrats.
- The Press and Political New Media.
- Obama Utilizes Internet for Success.
- Cuba Lifts Restrictions On Personal Cellphones.
- Citizen Huff: How Arianna became the Matt Drudge of the Left.
- Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate.
- Blogger’s Rights, via Burt Edwards.
- Website changes political climate. Reaching the young online.
- The Message Box: the Zone to Stay on Message. Fun with diagrams.
- Color-Coded Threat Level System In New Colors for Spring!
- Clinton’s Wiki-Warrior.
- Air America Host Suspended for Clinton Remarks. YouTube strikes again.
- Clinton Floats Delegate (Online) Petition.
- Obama inspires an online art explosion. “The Web has become a rich canvas for artists and candidates who know how to connect digitally.”
- Micha Sifry gets the Download from Joe Trippi.
- Democratic Lawmaker Vouches for Bush Administration’s Secret Plan to End Cyber War. See also DDoS Packets are Two Percent of Net Traffic, Report Says.
- Ed Markey’s Subcommittee has hearing on Virtual Worlds. He really looks stunning in that WoW Orc outfit.
- Latest sign of the impending Apocalypse: New Kids on the Block are reuniting.
- Science Link of the Day: “There you have it: the world’s most sensitive eyes allow them to be simple! And smash things! And it’s worked for 400 million years.”
– cpd
April 3rd, 2008
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- Users’ Online Time Spent Mostly on Content - Not Communications, Commerce. Content is king!
- Tech Savvy Protesters take on China, but when is it appropriate to spam the Great Firewall?
- Social networks not just for kids, as Boomer site pitches own political tent. See what all those Cialis ads have led to?
- Building a Successful Internet Presence.
- Sidestepping the ‘macaca’ moments. Politicians’ desperate desire to be boring.
- Democratic Advisers Take Posts in Group Opposing Wal-Mart.
- Cost of Saving the Climate Meets Real-World Hurdles. On problems with the selling of carbon offsets online.
- As Billboards, Public Phones Always Work. Does advertising assure the survival of pay phones?
- Army Reports Brass, Not Bloggers, Breach Security. “It’s clear that official Army websites are the real security problem, not blogs,”
- More military threats: Russia Orders Long-Range Bomber Patrols. Backfire bombers, coming soon to a backyard near you.
- How Google Works. Nice visual overview, suggested by my NET colleague Erica Peth.
- Which Presidential Candidates Have Mastered Google?
- Mobile Advertising is Irritating. Shocking news from the world of marketing.
- More fallout from Wikipedia edit tracking: Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs, and find out about The Feds Who Edit Wikipedia. Lamest Wiki story, as noted by tPrez and about 10,000 NY Times commenters: Messing With Iowa.
- 13 Winning Ways to Make Enemies in the Press. Never too early in the week for self-sabotage.
- Rule #1 In E-Politics: Don’t Attack The Bloggers. But what if they’re annooooooying?
- Three Strategies for Thriving on the Decentralized Web.
- The continued usefulness of direct mail in the Internet era.
- A Simple Yahoo Pipes RSS Filtering Example.
- Investing In Netroots Innovation.
- Cheap media, cheap ads. Seth Godin takes on a common mistake.
- Facebook Opens Email Up A Little; I Want More. C.f. Newsweek’s take on Facebook, via David All, and Facebook rules for the rest of us (when is a poke not a good idea?).
- EmergencyCheese: A Citizen Journalist gets a taste of MSM.
- Beware the Dark Side of PR 2.0. Spoilsport.
- The Untold Story of the Cheney ‘Quagmire’ Video. The making of an Internet hit.
- Why the YouTube Election Should Evolve into the Gaming Election. Because we have 14 months to go and desperately need a distraction?
- Late addition! Google Maps are now embeddable, via Rochelle Robinson.
- A final sad note: the geek community loses a founder, as Joe Engressia, Expert ‘Phone Phreak,’ Dies. The first guy to manipulate the phone system by whistling in perfect pitch, he was an original hacker — you gotta love someone who picks a city to live in because he likes the quirks in its phone circuitry.
– cpd
August 21st, 2007
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The Post continues its excellent coverage of internation e-politics today with an article on activists’ use of cell phones and the web to organize protests against a proposed chemical factory in China. Local authorities squelched mainstream media coverage and tried to intimidate organizers, but thousands turned out in the streets anyway.
Something unprecedented occurred that gave the demonstrators a power even they had not envisioned: Citizen journalists carrying cellphones sent text messages about the action to bloggers in Guangzhou and other cities, who then posted real-time reports for the entire country to see.
“The second police defense line has been dispersed,” Wen Yunchao, one such witness, typed to a friend in Guangzhou. “There is pushing and shoving. The police wall has broken down.”
Chinese tuned in to the blogosphere in great numbers, viewing written accounts and cellphone photographs. Sites carrying the live reports recorded thousands of hits. Some sites were knocked out by security monitors. But by then their reports had bounced to other sites around the country, keeping one step ahead of the censors. Many of those tuned in were traditional newspaper and magazine reporters whose editors were afraid to cover the protests because of warnings from the Xiamen party Propaganda Department.
“The Chinese government controls the traditional press, so the news circulated on the Internet and cellphones,” Wen, also a blogger, said later. “This showed that the Chinese people can send out their own news, and the authorities have no way to stop it entirely. This had so much impact. I think virtually every media worker in China was looking at it and keeping up with it.”
My favorite detail? That the local party has its own official Propaganda Office — I gotta get me one of those. Overall, a fascinating look at the power of the power of the online world to give citizens a voice. Perhaps one day the Chinese public will do more than just stop a chemical plant….
– cpd
June 28th, 2007
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- Late addition: Community Counts: Real Participation in the Debates. People are stepping up and fixing the problems with YouTube’s debate video process.
- Why MySpace is for freaks and Facebook is for preps. I KNEW I felt out of place on Facebook…Salon’s Machinist blog looks at a new analysis of the two sites’ different demographics.
- Facebook Spam on the Rise — the Changing Face of Email Permission. When friendship isn’t commitment.
- Web 3.0: The Future of Video. “The future of video is professional content with a twist. Interactivity. Targeted to niche audiences, by niche additions.”
- Pro-Romney website dispels Mormon myths. For once, let’s skip the “garment” jokes.
- Bloomberg Announcement Crashes Unity ‘08 Site. Collateral damage is sometimes inevitable in war.
- The Mobile-Phone Primary: Are cell-phone users screwing up Ron Paul’s poll numbers? Slate sez, not so much.
- Forget those new guys, it’s McGovern in ‘72! Via Kevin Reid of IDI.
- Digital Marketing Key to Booze Advertising. A look at niche marketing. You’ll find me in the Busch and PBR demographic.
- Social networks geared for offline success? Another Kevin Reid find. Hey Burt and Ha-Hoa — this guy’s tryin’ to muscle in on your turf.
- An amazing new video-editing program. Online video-editing and hosting.
- PoliticalWire Launches Political News Video Aggregator.
- YouTube dirty tricks and presidential debate Buzz.
- Google to Shut Down Gmail Germany if Bundestag Passes Surveillance Law.
- ‘Great Firewall’ Marks Flickr its Next Victim. Censorship continues to suck.
- Online Branding Takeaways. A Frogloop report from last week’s Internet Advocacy Roundtable.
- What is YOUR Audience Doing Online? Wasting time, looking for love, or something more sinister?
- Estonia Presses Bush for Cyber-Attack Research Center Critical quote: “NATO was designed to counter physical threats and hasn’t yet developed detailed plans for cyber warfare.” Hey kids, how about we get ready to fight the NEXT war instead of the last one?
- Gates Dodges Cyber Attack. Don’t bother calling NATO.
- ‘BONG HiTS 4 JESUS’: Nevermind. Hooray! Schools can crack down on speech — thank god, I was afraid we might teach those little bastards to think for themselves, or something.
- Top 5 stoopid YouTube questions for politicians. Let’s rethink that YouTube presidential debate idea…via ReelPop.
- Ron Paul and Distributed Online Campaigning. The advantages of having a feature-poor website. Hmm, where have we heard this before?
- The Top Consideration When Choosing a Free Blogging Platform. Whether or not chicks dig it, of course.
- A Crisis Communications Primer: 10 Tips for Managing the Interview. Short and clever, with a nice payoff at the end.
– cpd
June 26th, 2007
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- 11 Web Technologies Political Campaigns Should Consider. Virtual napalm not on list, tragically.
- More Blog Woes For John Edwards. Great idea! Let’s attack those bloggers. You know, the guys with free printing presses and unlimited ink.
- Are the Netroots Stalling Out? A serious discussion of the limits of the blogosphere. My question: is Patrick Ruffini secretly controlling the Edwards campaign? Via TechPrez.
- (Audio) Spotlight: Jerome Armstrong. A PoliticsOnline interview.
- As a Campaign Tool, Web Has Its Uses and Limits. Wow, there’s an illuminating headline. Upcoming article: “Weather sometimes good, other times not so much.”
- ‘08 Web Gurus Chase Money, Support Online. A bit more substantive of an overview article.
- GOP Presidential Candidates Gaining Viewers on YouTube, though not always for reasons they’d prefer.
- Does Flickr = Censr? Content limits suck.
- New FEC campaign contributions data presentation. Zoomable! Clickable! Via The Hotline.
- Vlinks: The Web’s Best Video Sharing, Vlogging, and Resources. Excellent collection of video resources.
- Excerpts from the Republican Senatorial Campaign Internet Guide [PDF]. Nice job, Politico! (words not often seen on e.politics). Via PoliticalWire.
- McCain: Let’s Put the Hurt on Mitt. Online video as (virtual) assassination tool. Via WSJ Washington Wire.
- Edwards Goes Low $$$. More on the virtues of small donors.
- Is The Politico Throwing Spaghetti on the Wall? Comprehensive strategy vs. random online lunging: which is more fun?
- 2008 Presidential Candidates Do Use Pay-Per-Click Search A Lot, despite slanderous rumours to the contrary.
- National Journal, NBC Embedding Reporters with Campaigns. No word on whether they’ll be forced to subsist on MREs. More details from Tech Daily Dose.
- HeyCosmo: Webcams Meet Group Collaboration. Useful tool for online organizing?
- Telling Your Story With Words and Images. Grunts and rude gestures no longer sufficient.
- Let’s Play the Redistricting Game. Nice use of an online game to explore a complicated political truth — redistricting is where the REAL political power lives. Details from The Caucus and the IPDI blog.
- We Didn’t Start The Grassfire: Conservatives Use The Internets Too.
- One Hit Too Many: The new cosmetic surgery craze is “man boobs” reduction. Look just below the entry on the evolution of women’s erotic dreams. Coincidence? We report, you decide.
- Two Hits Too Many: Gay and Lesbian Gangs Terrorize Metro Station. Online tie-in: MySpace was central to their capture. Suggested by a loyal reader (thanks Dad!), who’s still scratching his head over this one.
– cpd
June 15th, 2007
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- The Shock of the New. What the history of the electric dynamo teaches about the future of the computer (we ain’t seen nothin’ yet). Related idea: It’s the Use, Not the Tech.
- Return of the Live Commercial. Another attempt to outwit Tivo users.
- SEO Pros Sip Web 2.0 Kool-Aid
- Does Sex Still Sell in B-to-B Marketing? Surprisingly, not always.
- Who’s With Fred? A Look At Thompson’s Web Team.
- Hits and Misses on YouTube
- Democratic Presidential Candidate Expenditures. Obama’s spending the most online, by far. Via techPres.
- And here’s one place the $$$ is going: Obama Parlays Internet Strength into ‘Walk for Change’. A nice offline-online conversion story.
- Google Gives Advertisers More Control. Via Bivings.
- Authenticity in Blog Comments and Product Reviews. Sincerity, baby — if you fake that, you got it made.
- Does Online Engagement Lead to More Money? Future cloudy; ask again later.
- Candidates Will Have to Take Questions Submitted Via the Video-Sharing Site. The Rabble Speaks! Another techPres find.
- A couple of Beltway Blogroll pieces: How Blogs Shaped The Immigration Debate, and Ky. Prosecutors Investigate Republican Blogger (uh, oh…).
- You, Too, Can Be a Senator from Wyoming — just fill out this handy web form…
- Note: science background strongly discouraged, since Most Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution.
- PBS News Hour Looks at Online Campaigning. Via the prolific David All.
- Political Watchdog Follows the Money Online. The green-eyeshade brigade is on the march.
- Chinese virtual world to focus on business, not politics. Ancient Chinese secret = pervasive censorship, self- or otherwise.
- Surprisingly, Pre-Roll Video Ads Work. Hmmmm, longer is also apparently better. Jokes “appropriate” to this moment are left as an exercise for the reader.
– cpd
June 12th, 2007
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- What Kills a Social Media Campaign. Case studies of bitter failure.
- Amateur charge infuriates blogosphere. “Millions and millions of exuberant monkeys … are creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity” (e.politics is proud to be doing its part).
- Growing Internet role in election. An interview with techPresident’s Andrew Rasiej.
- RNC fires phone-bank staffers. The dark side of technological change.
- Dark Side, Part Two: The internet is destroying porn!
- Dark Side, Part Three: Google Earth works for terrorists too. That’s the hassle with tools — they don’t care who uses them.
- Dark Side, Part Four: Teen Tests Internet’s Lewd Track Record. On the downsides of Internet “fame.” Via Adrants.
- And now, the Bright Side: YouTube Serves as Venezuelan Anti-Censorship Tool. Video’s not just for cute kittens.
- A Little Bit Quieter Now. Blogosphere loses a couple of voices.
- Which would be just fine with the Chinese government: Chinese online reporter arrested.
- Building Your Brand In Facebook.
- Howard Kurtz is building his personal Facebook brand, much to his daughter’s dismay.
- Twitterizing Blogs. I just think it’s fun to say “twitter.”
- San Leandro politics move to Web. A look at the influence of local bloggers.
- Fred Goes “Tech Heavy.” What we might expect if Thompson dives in.
- Clinton on CNN Only, McCain on Conservative Sites and Networks in April. A look at the candidates’ early online advertising, via Eric Frenchman.
- Looking under the hood at Google. Go behind the scenes as Googlers tweak the search algorithm. Seth Godin sez, don’t try to game Google — stick to organic search growth.
- Google and Salesforce Team Up, but Donna Bogatin’s skeptical.
- Obama’s Annoying New Ring Tone. Ruby Sinreich answers the call.
- Joe Biden Gives Lousy YouTube.
- White House Director of Internet Communications heads to the PR world. Note to self: get high-paying corporate job one of these days, shoot self in head shortly thereafter.
- I might need more bullets: Mike Tyson Goes to Bollywood. Thanks to Burt Edwards for making my afternoon complete.
– cpd
June 5th, 2007
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Quick Hits is a harsh mistress, but I can ignore her no longer. Special Edition! When the bizarre meets the sublime, plus some scary stuff.
- Gen Y Reads More Print, Not Less, than Older Counterparts. Damn kids, quit hogging my magazines.
- Speaking of magazines: Islamic extremists say Web as vital to them as AK-47. But can you field-strip it?
- Speaking of field-stripping, it’s Ron Jeremy for President! This’ll get a rise out of the political system.
- On a related note: A Meticulous Data Trail May Have Saved ‘D.C. Madam’. Back up those hard drives! And then back ‘em up again…and again…and again….
- Study: Banner Ads Trigger Warm, Fuzzy Feelings.
- Just like the lolcats phenomenon — 2 much Internets indeed. “If cheezburger’s plan unfolds successfully, we’ll soon have a site that combines cute animals plus caption-writing plus a voting competition. That should be just about unstoppable.” Where’s that damn robot army when you need it?
- Ah! The military borrowed it. Bots on The Ground: In the Field of Battle (Or Even Above It), Robots Are a Soldier’s Best Friend. Suggested by a loyal reader (thanks, dad!).
- E-Stonia Under Attack. Real robot warfare breaks out — “And if you thought that terrorists headquartered in ungovernable bits of the undeveloped world were our worst problem, think again.”
- For instance, Global web censorship on the rise.
- Don’t worry, here are some Democratic and Republican presidential candidates who just might save us all (before you scoff, think: how many brains would a zombie Ronald Reagan REALLY need to eat to survive?)
- DEFINITELY one hit too many: NASA analysis of asteroid risk deeply flawed, critics say. WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! Don’t forget to find the dimensions of the crater you might one day call home — it’ll help when you’re sizing the drapes.
– cpd
May 22nd, 2007
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You knew something interesting might happen at this afternoon’s Personal Democracy Forum panel on citizen-generated content right from the start — as the crowd gathered, a confrontational flier put together by MoveOn.org circulated through the room, accusing MySpace of censoring site members’ words and pictures. Once the discussion got rolling, MoveOn’s Eli Pariser wasn’t shy about repeating the points as a part of his discussion of the strengths and drawbacks of social media. Also on the panel? MySpace’s Jeff Berman, who defended his site as a democratic community that thrived on user-generated content and which would be foolish to poison its own well.
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May 18th, 2007
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In today’s keynote conversation at PDF between the NY Times’s Thomas Friedman and Google CEO Eric Schmidt (liveblogged here, among other places), Schmidt mentioned in passing an event from last year that I’d missed entirely. Apparently, Google Earth and several other websites became so politically subversive in Bahrain that the government blocked them for a time.
It’s obvious why a government might block YouTube and opposition websites in order to shut down undesired political discussion, particularly before an election, but why Google Earth?
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May 18th, 2007
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