Daily Digest | Keeping it Real through Baghdad and Swine Flu

the editors | April 27, 2009 - 12:22pm | Email This!
  • McCaskill: Twitter Means "Keeping It Real" Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill revealed some interesting insights into why she uses Twitter at PoliticsOnline. She said it is a way to actively and regularly resist the enormous Washington pressure to conform, dampen down the desire to avoid stands, and force herself to take an accounting of her own mind several times a day. Think of Twitter as a training regimen for a grounded, human politician. Read more.
  • Twitter and Politics: What Matt Bai Doesn't Get Micah chimes in on the mainstream media's dismissal of Twitter at every turn. This time it's Matt Bai, of the Times Sunday Magazine, whose misreading of Twitter's importance for politics deserves a rebuttal. Read on for what these writers overlook.
  • Swine Flu Point Oh The CDC is attempting to be all over swine flu like stink on a pig farm. There's a Twitter Channel and a lively section at cdc.gov. Meanwhile, others complain about misinformation and mass panic on Twitter. Of course, we certainly managed to get plenty worked up about bird flu without the benefit of Twitter. What are you seeing on the swine flu front online?
  • What I Did on My Iraqi Vacation If Internet chatter is any indication, then there's a great deal curiosity in tech and politics circles about what the purpose was of that recent "new media" delegation to Iraq. Last week's trip saw folks from companies like Twitter, Google, and YouTube sit down with such Iraqi luminaries as President Jalal Talabani to discuss the future of the new Iraq. What was the thinking behind a State Department trip that brought together the mucketiest of mucks in Iraq with reps from a handful of web 2.0 companies? Find out directly from one of the CEOs who made the trip in Nancy's interview with Jason Liebman of Howcast.
  • Organizing for America in "Every County, Every Precinct, Every Block, Every Neighborhood" Check out this video, where Jeremy Bird, deputy director of Organizing for America, talks about the intensive community organizing model during the campaign, and promises that OFA is going to staff up across the state and cover "every county, every precinct, every block, every neighborhood." That's an audacious goal, reflective more of the Obama campaign at its height than anything the Democratic party has had in the state (or in just about any state) in the past. Can it be done?
  • Obama's Oversight Cop Calls for Backup Earl Devaney, Obama's pick to head oversight over the spending of those $787 billion in recovery funds, may look like the Secret Service enforcer that he once was, but he's not averse to asking for help. He's turned to the Interwebs, where all this week, NationalDialogue.org is hosting an online forum on improving Recovery.gov. Read more.
  • The Danish Consensus Conference Model What with the Recovery.gov IT online forum likely to get some attention in good government circles this week, now is as good a time as any to bring up an alternative model the Danish people seem to be having some success with. The Danish Consensus Conference model pairs a group of topic-matter experts with a collection of interested lay people to reach an understanding about the "public" view of the technical topic at hand -- on everything from, say, infertility to public transportation. Think of it like voluntary jury duty, with an especially geeky aspect. Read more.
  • Citizen Collaboration To Provide Public Services Please welcome Norm Jacknis to the PdF family! With his first post, the former CIO of Westchester County, NY and current advisor in Cisco's pro bono strategic think tank analyzes recent commercial efforts to utilize volunteers and wonders about similiar applications in government. Join the conversation.
  • How to Pitch (and Not Pitch) a Political Blogger You don’t have to be a PR pro to get the blogosphere talking about your candidate or your issue. This Thursday from 1-2pm EST on April 30th, two of today’s most prominent political bloggers, Ben Smith and Ana Marie Cox, will let us in on “How to Pitch (and Not Pitch) a Political Blogger.” Read more.

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