Personal Democracy Plus Our premium content network. LEARN MORE You are not logged in. LOG IN NOW >

First POST: Searches

BY Nick Judd | Thursday, June 6 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Far-reaching surveillance of civilians under the Obama administration; better news for advocates of open city data; the start of our 2013 conference and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

First POST: New Hires

BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, June 5 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The GOP's new technology hire; how Internet mogul Sean Parker's wedding was risky for California redwoods; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

Republicans, Here Is Your New CTO

BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, June 5 2013

The Republican Party announced last night that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has fulfilled his promise to hire a chief technology officer to serve as the party's central point person for technology. The RNC announced Andrew Barkett, a manager at Facebook previously responsible for overseeing teams of engineers, will be picking up the mantle. Read More

First POST: Unrest

BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, June 4 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Social media and unrest in Turkey; federal officials' curious application of the Freedom of Information Act to emails; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

First POST: There's Hacking, Then There's Civic Hacking

BY Nick Judd | Monday, June 3 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Social media's role in unrest in Turkey; outcomes from the National Day of Civic Hacking; and more in today's roundup of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

First POST: Going to Washington

BY Nick Judd | Friday, May 31 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The White House's newest employee; the video game console that has German officials worried; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

Code for America's Jennifer Pahlka to Take a Year-Long "Fellowship" as Deputy U.S. CTO

BY Nick Judd | Thursday, May 30 2013

Jennifer Pahlka. Photo: transportationcamp

Thursday, Code for America and the White House announced that Jennifer Pahlka will take a leave of absence from her organization to become the next deputy U.S. chief technology officer for government innovation, working for the limited term of one year under current CTO Todd Park. Read More

First POST: Big Moves

BY Nick Judd | Thursday, May 30 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Former Obama staffers launch a new consultancy with the biggest of big-name investors; Chicago's chief data officer leaves the public sector; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

First POST: Bachmann's Tea Party is Over

BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, May 29 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Michele Bachmann's Congressional career is coming to an end; Facebook says it has failed to suppress messages of violence against women; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

First POST: Our Data, Ourselves

BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, May 28 2013

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Renegotiating the app economy, watching the spread of open data in government, digital tea leaves in the 2016 presidential race and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More

News Briefs

RSS Feed friday >

For Millennials, Institutions Are Out, Selfies, Social Networks and Diversity Are In

A Pew survey released Friday highlights that young Americans are noticeably detached from traditional institutions such as political parties, organized religion and marriage even as they are increasingly connected with their peers through online social networks. GO

Snowden EU Testimony Renews Calls to Grant Asylum

On Monday, Edward Snowden will participate in his first live discussion before an audience as part of SXSW Interactive through a video conference with his legal advisor Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, as well as digital privacy expert Christopher Soghoian. (Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo from Kansas, also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has asked SXSW to cancel the webcast, The Hill reported). Snowden's discussion will come amidst renewed calls in Europe to grant him asylum. GO

Minnesota Announces Civic Tech Legislation

Can civic innovation be managed statewide? A bill in Minnesota is betting yes. It is looking to grab some of the state's $1.2 billion surplus to fund open data, open government, and civic technology. Openminnesota.org, a site set up to promote and explain the bill, says the following: "Open Minnesota will build an engine for public open data use, civic technology creation engaging start-up companies and technology volunteers, and help hundreds more government units get cost-effectively connected to the best global open government lessons for local adaptation." GO

wednesday >

Now You Can See Who Really Pays NYC Property Taxes

Property tax revenue makes up around a quarter of New York City's budget, but until now broader information about it has not been easily accessible. Users could only look up individual properties by entering lot and block information into a basic online form on a city website, and would have had to cross-reference that information with a building's address and other sources, explained Chris Whong, co-organizer of New York City's Code for America brigade betaNYC. "This data is much more powerful in the aggregate," he said. That's why, as part of last week's Code Across NYC hackathon, he along with several collaborators worked to develop an online platform "born out of curiosity" that maps New York City property data. GO

Facebook's Got A Finger in India's Political Pie

Facebook is an increasingly active political force in India. The company launched their Indian election tracker Tuesday to coincide with the first Facebook Talks Live digital broadcast, “Town Hall” style conversations in which 2014 candidates field questions submitted by Facebook users. These projects build on the get-out-the-vote collaboration between the Times of India and Facebook, which was announced in September.

GO

Civic Crowdfunding Looks to Bigger Projects with Phased Campaigns

Civic crowdfunding dreamed big but started small. The platform Neighbor.ly grabbed attention for a 2012 campaign to help fund a multi-million dollar rail car in Kansas City, but only raised $3,775 of its $10 million goal. The early campaigns of both Neighbor.ly and Citizinvestor that were actually successful reached for modest goals, usually less than $15,000. A look at the campaign pages of either platform today shows larger projects, in the tens or hundreds of thousands, creeping in as well. Civic crowdfunding is growing. To facilitate and attract more large projects Citizinvestor this week announced a plan to crowdfund projects in phases. GO

YanukovychLeaks.org Exposes a Corrupt and Violent Regime

Thousands of documents float and sink in a remote reservoir not far from a grand 345-acre estate contained within a sprawling wrought iron fence. As evocative as it may seem, this not the beginning of a spy thriller, but of Yanukovych Leaks, an online portal where the leaks have been uploaded by investigative journalists who say the extravagance detailed in those papers may prove ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's depth of corruption. GO

tuesday >

Surveillance in the Overlooked Corners of Africa

In the video below, filmed during the Oslo Freedom Forum in May 2013, Jacob Appelbaum breaks it to Rafael Marques, an Angolan investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist, that his laptop is being surveilled through a crude backdoor in spite of the fact that he is using Tor. He opens up a file where they can see all the images that have been stored and are waiting to be collected by the hackers. Appelbaum tells an understandably concerned Marques: “Every computer that's targeted is compromisable,”

GO

monday >

How To Follow… The Crisis in Ukraine (Updated)

The EuroMaidan Revolution has passed the 100 day mark and Russian forces have taken control of parts of Crimea. The New York Times described the escalating conflict between Russia and the West as “reminiscent of low points in the Cold War.” The Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said that “we are on the brink of disaster.”

GO

More