First POST: Moving On
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, December 4 2012
Photo: Pete Souza / The White House
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: MoveOn's new direction; the Pope's Twitter plans; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
The President Doesn't Always Tweet, but When He Does ...
BY Miranda Neubauer | Monday, December 3 2012
Photo: Pete Souza / White House
President Barack Obama spent a little over 40 minutes on Twitter this afternoon answering questions about extending middle class tax cuts. He took eight questions from Twitter users, including a self-described liberal atheist with purple hair in her profile picture and a former soldier. Here are the people who the White House reached on Twitter today. Read More
First POST: Back Online
BY Miranda Neubauer | Monday, December 3 2012
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Syria's Internet access appears to have been restored; Obama supporters continue to use the president's campaign email list; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
Hashtags and Robots.txt: How German Parliament Debates Internet Policy
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, November 30 2012
The German Parliament on Thursday held its first debate about a government-proposed law that could force search engines and other online news aggregators to pay a license fee to news publishers for displaying snippets of online news articles.
During this first round of debate, scheduled Thursday at 10:40 p.m., Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration and its allies defended the law as harmless to freedom of expression and a necessary step to regulate an increasingly vital Internet. Opponents questioned the unforeseen consequences that might result and criticized the coalition government's record on Internet policy, joining Google and some allies who have sought in recent weeks to build public opposition to the law.
Read MoreFirst POST: "Hey," Redux
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, November 30 2012
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Quantifying the usefulness of the "Hey" email subject line; anger mounts among Republicans over how much money consultants made on the Mitt Romney campaign versus how many missteps the campaign reportedly made; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
First POST: Hashtags
BY Miranda Neubauer | Thursday, November 29 2012
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The White House's new aggressive use of the web to support its policies; Obama for America reports back about a supporter survey; how a Google lobbying push might have German lawmakers on the defensive; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
It's Like Snopes For Your Inbox
BY Miranda Neubauer | Wednesday, November 28 2012
A group of developers have created a tool that uses information from Politifact and Factcheck.org to highlight red flags for forwarded e-mails that contain misinformation. The tool, LazyTruth, is currently only available as a Chrome extension for Gmail, although the developers say they are interested in expanding to other email providers and browsers. Read More
First POST: Retrospectives
BY Miranda Neubauer | Wednesday, November 28 2012
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Top Republican digital strategists plan to analyze the election aftermath; Rep. Darrell Issa goes to Reddit looking for a conversation about Internet regulations; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
With "Betatext," German Green Party Tries Out Open-Source Politics
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, November 27 2012
(wegewerk)
As Germany gears up for its parliamentary elections in fall 2013, the parliamentary group of the German Green Party has released a tool called betatext to allow supporters to comment on position papers, motions or legislative drafts. "While others only talk about more participation and transparency in the political process -- we implement it," the parliamentary group states. Users of the tool can also see other people's comments and rate them. Read More
First POST: Bad Bet
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, November 27 2012
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Court action on the right to record law enforcement officials; movement at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; no more political bets for Americans on the prediction markets of Intrade; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More