Is the Internet empowering voters as much as it did in 2004 and 2008? Or have campaigns regained the upper hand, with their sophisticated use of data-mining? That was the question we debated Sunday afternoon in Austin, at the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference. Read More

What was unusual about an evening Super Tuesday gathering in San Francisco was that many of the people there aren't working in a startup aimed at making some commercial aspect of life easier, faster and more fun. Instead, they are part of a generation of people with both political and tech savvy, using the web to fundamentally alter politics in general and specific campaigns in particular. For these people, the promise of a networked world and a new, networked politics — where people connecting outside the by-all-accounts-flawed and scandal-fraught party apparatus are starting to make an impact — is coming into focus. And rather than using their knowledge of the technology world to start the next Facebook, they're building a cadre of Silicon Valley companies that work in public affairs — not just non-profits, government, and civic life, but politics and campaigns. Read More

Just one day after Facebook announced that its new look for profile pages, called Timeline, would be available for brand pages, Barack Obama's campaign page has switched over to the new format. The new format allows for a page owner to selectively place events, photos and images on a vertically scrolling, two-column chronology, with the newest happenings placed at the top. It's a chance to tell the story of a brand in an interactive, highly visual way — but the social aspect of the experience also inserts the perspective of a viewers' friends. Read More

There's no doubt that the former Speaker of the House is a formidable speaker, and that he's most comfortable while at the lectern sharing his policy positions and charming an audience. So in a smart move, Newt Gingrich's online campaign staff in recent months have started live streaming campaign trail appearances by the Republican presidential candidate through his Facebook page. Read More

The French presidential campaign started last Wednesday night when President Nicolas Sarkozy officially announced his candidacy on the national TV network TF1. But it took less than a week for the campaign to become a heated battle online. Read More

Micah Sifry writes: "Ghonim's new book, "Revolution 2.0--The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir," is a revelation ... It is both a careful and thoughtful retelling of the roots of Egypt's uprising and the nuts-and-bolts of Ghonim's online organizing as well as an inspiring illustration of a trend that will be familiar to many techPresident readers. That is, how a new generation that is growing up networked keeps spawning "free radicals"--people who teach themselves how to use technology to build community, share powerful messages and then ultimately weave movements for social change." Read More

In a guest commentary by Esther Dyson, the longtime friend of Personal Democracy, technology writer and investor writes: "With Facebook going public and Google threatened by apps and closed services such as FB, is the open web doomed? You might think so after reading the dueling blog posts of John Battelle, Robert Scoble and Dave Winer in the past few days. But things are a bit more complicated." Read More