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First POST: Answers

BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, January 24 2012

  • Mitt Romney has released his tax returns online. At last night's debate on NBC, in response to attacks from Romney on his record in the House, Newt Gingrich said he wouldn't spend time responding to what he said were Romney's "falsehoods" and would instead give his own perspective on his website today.

  • The Department of State has launched "My State Department," an interface to the state.gov website that allows users to customize content based on their interests. Users sign in via OpenID and can then change or add widgets focused on different areas of the department's work.

  • Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his challenger, Democrat Elizabeth Warren, have signed a pledge to limit political ads by outside groups.

  • Some Republicans still wish Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is delivering the State of the Union response tonight, would run for president. To that end, they've created the website runmitchrun.com, the New York Times reported. According to the website, almost 5,800 people have signed a petition since January 21st.

  • Mitt Romney is the subject of a viral video called “Nobody Loves Me,” which highlights some of Romney’s more awkward campaign stops and the Republican party’s lukewarm reaction to the candidate.

  • Mozilla will crowdsource translation of President Obama's upcoming State of the Union Address to provide captions and subtitles in various languages.

  • Slate has an animation of the Republican horse race, so far.

  • Hackers, possibly from abroad, appear to have disrupted railway signals in the Northwest for two days in December, according to a government memo, Nextgov reported.

  • Google nearly doubled its spending on lobbying in 2011, and now outspends Microsoft. Mashable reports that out of all the 2012 presidential possibilities, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama are the only ones who can include the "Computers/Internet" industry among their twenty largest donors.

  • A Twitter account linked to Anonymous denied reports that the group planned to attack Facebook. Senator Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) Twitter feed was hacked by what appeared to be a supporter of Anonymous who opposed SOPA, PIPA and the international counterfeit trade agreement ACTA. Anonymous also appears to have temporarily deleted all information from CBS.com and targeted UniversalMusic.com, government and music websites in Brazil and Vivendi. A group affiliated with Anonymous also attacked several Austrian governmental websites, according to local media reports.

  • According to a report cited by Reuters, the shutdown of Megaupload is unlikely to deter piracy.

  • Engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace have teamed up to create the “Don’t Be Evil” bookmarklet, which “looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+."

  • South Carolina is the latest state to participate in the 2012 Project, a non-partisan campaign to encourage women to run for public office, with a new web-based training program.

  • The head of the American Crossroads Super PAC vows that the group will be focused on defeating Barack Obama using social media and voter registration and turnout efforts online. Meanwhile, Reddit users are discussing how to use a Reddit Super PAC called Test PAC, Please Ignore.

  • ClickZ reports on an analysis of what other Facebook likes correlate with support of the presidential candidates' fan pages.

  • NPR reports on how the CIA has gone from analyzing and translating radio broadcasts to analyzing social media around the world.

  • The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Transportation are currently requesting feedback on their open government practices as part of a required update in accordance with the White House's Open Government Directive.

  • Gadi Beh-Yehuda, social media director for IBM's Center for the Business of Government think tank, is offering a course on social media in government through the General Services Administration's Web Manager University. The course is being offered to government officials, who will learn about implementing various social media tools.

  • According to an audit, most New York City teachers and principals are not using an $80 million student information database.

  • A Stanford professor announced that he will leave his position to start an online start-up to teach low-cost online classes.

  • The Illinois Supreme Court will allow cameras in courtrooms on an "experimental basis."

  • Philadelphia has unveiled a new website to monitor the system-wide status of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Meanwhile, New York City announced that the Bronx and one other borough would get the Bus Time tracking system this year, before the remaining boroughs get it in 2013. But the New York MTA is having trouble with a computer system that is supposed to improve service on the subways.

  • JStreet is encouraging supporters to sign an online petition to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) to unfreeze Palestinian aid that benefits the Palestinian Sesame Street.

  • Trust in government has fallen around the world, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, the BBC reported.

  • Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is co-chairing the World Economic Forum in Davos.

  • Google Plus now allows some pseudonyms. At launch, the service had been criticized for not allowing anonymity.

  • McDonald's social media director explained to paidContent how a recent Twitter campaign got out of hand.

  • Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined Twitter, the BBC reported.

  • The British public have responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to suggest questions for the British Education Secretary via Twitter, the BBC reported.

  • Anne Sinclair, wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, greets the readers of the new French-language Huffington Post site.

With Raphael Majma

News Briefs

RSS Feed today >

New Online Platform for Crowdsourced Videos About Human Rights Issues

Anyone with a phone and an Internet connection can be a citizen journalist, as was made clear in the hours and days after the Boston Marathon Bombings. Citizen journalism has its pros and cons, but it has popped up where most needed: after natural disasters or in war torn regions where career journalists might be barred. A new human rights initiative seeks to link citizen reporting in the form of online videos with mainstream media, governments and other policy makers. The online platform, called Irrepressible Voices, will both document human rights issues and work on solutions as a community.

GO

wednesday >

Facebook Becomes Full Member of Global Network Initiative

Facebook announced today that it has opted to become a full member of the Global Network Initiative, a group founded by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to address the challenges technology companies face when dealing with governments about issues like freedom of expression and data privacy. GO

Russia's OGP Concerns Show That Transparency Matters

Last week, Russian officials announced they have withdrawn their letter of intent to join the Open Government Partnership. The Moscow Times has a statement to the Russian paper Kommersant from a presidential spokesman, saying, "We are not talking about winding up plans to join, but corrections in timing and the scale of participation are possible." So Russia may still be in. Just not soon. And maybe never. Confused? You're not alone. I actually find it fascinating that the Kremlin acts like "openness" and transparency matter. Here's why. GO

In Denmark, Online Tracking of Citizens is an Unwieldy Failure

Six years after Denmark passed a law mandating that telecommunication companies retain and store their customers' personal data for up to two years, local advocacy groups and the telecom industry are pushing for immediate changes to the legislation. The practice of keeping records of private citizens' Internet use is an unjustifiable invasion of privacy, they say. The police, meanwhile, have concluded that requiring telecoms to store subscriber data has not helped them track criminals, which was the the ostensible purpose of the practice. But the Danish government still wants to postpone an evaluation of the law for another two years. GO

"Accidental" Blocking of Australian Websites Raises Concerns About Government Censorship

An Australian government agency admitted last week to unintentionally blocking more than 1,200 perfectly legal websites in the process of shutting down one allegedly fraudulent site. In their defense, they pointed out that they have successfully blocked a number of websites in the past nine months without such digital collateral. This assertion came as no consolation to Australian netizens concerned about Internet censorship, especially opaque and hazily legal censorship.

GO

tuesday >

Honda Campaign Rolls Out Endorsements From Asian American Stars

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) rolled out several additional endorsements from Asian American leaders and celebrities Tuesday, with one of them vouching for his high-tech bona fides. GO

Here Are The People President Obama Hopes Will Repair American Elections

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration established by President Obama after problematic 2012 elections now has a web presence at SupporttheVoter.gov. Obama established the commission by executive order on March 28 "to identify best practices in election administration and to make recommendations to improve the voting experience." GO

After Oklahoma Disaster, Neighbors Look Online for Ways To Help

In echoes of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, social media sites and small business websites in and around tornado-wracked Moore, Okla., are full of offers of help, questions about missing pets and loved ones, and evidence that neighbors are willing to reach out to help one another in a disaster. On a single Facebook group, there's a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City promising free meals to first responders or people hit by the tornado; a mother a few hours' drive from Moore offering to open her door for children who might need a place to stay; a resident sharing a picture of a found dog and contact information for the owner to get in touch. GO

Change.org Lands $15 Million From Omidyar

Change.org capped an extraordinary few years of growth Tuesday with the announcement that it has landed a $15 million investment led by the Omidyar Network. GO

What German Politicians Think of Google Glass

The German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has not had the easiest relationship with Google. The company launched a public campaign against a law backed by her coalition that would require search engines to pay to show news articles in search results, with mixed results. What's more, Google has long had to navigate the privacy waters in Germany and throughout the European Union. But that has not stopped her federal minister for economics and technology, Philipp Rösler, from giving Google Glass an enthusiastic test run as he leads a delegation of German technology companies and politicians on a trip to Silicon Valley this week as part of German Valley Week. GO

Crowdsourcing Waste Management Solutions in Montenegro

For once we aren't talking about the worldwide scarcity of toilets, just good old-fashioned household waste. Montenegro has a garbage problem so bad even the tourists are complaining about it. A new mobile app sponsored by the Agency for Environmental Protection, NGO Ozon and United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro will hopefully get citizens involved in reporting illegal garbage dumps. GO

monday >

Her Majesty's Government Wants to Monetize Open Data

A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government's Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government's open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy.

GO

Will Silicon Valley "Disrupt" Politics With a Candidate for Congress?

Sean Parker, of Napster fame and now executive general partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, has invested in political startups before. But last week, he went a step further — co-hosting a fundraising event for a candidate for Congress. Parker and SV Angel co-founder Ron Conway organized a crowd of Internet industry luminaries to support Ro Khanna, a former assistant deputy secretary in Barack Obama's Commerce Department. Khanna is preparing a challenge to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), whose newly redrawn congressional district encompasses Silicon Valley. GO

Burma's Upcoming Telecom Revolution Will Probably Not Bring Internet Freedom

Burma (Myanmar) is on the threshold of an Internet revolution, but Human Rights Watch has warned companies to proceed with caution or risk trampling Burmese citizens' rights. GO

friday >

Chilean Anti-Corruption Resource: A Crowdsourced Database of Social and Political Connections

In countries where a small minority of social circles have a majority of the political and economic power, personal relationships can affect major decision-making, a serious concern of anti-corruption activists. A new web platform stores personal profiles of key players in Chilean business and politics, complete with biographies and personal and professional connections through family, education, social circles, employers and coworkers, to make tracking social relationships and conflict-of-interest easier. Called Poderopedia (from the Spanish word for power), the project sounds kind of like LinkedIn, but the creation and management of profiles is being crowdsourced out to journalists, activists and concerned citizens.

GO

Middle Eastern Telecom Accused of Working With Saudi Arabia to Spy on Citizens

Mobily, an arm of the state-owned Middle Eastern telecom giant Etihad Etisalat, has been accused of working with Saudi Arabia to develop software that would allow the government to bypass protections for social media users. The exposé comes from Moxie Marlinspike (neé Matthew Rosenfield), an expert in a certain type of malicious Internet attack called MITM (man-in-the-middle), whereby attackers intercept and secretly alter private messages exchanged via email and other social media platforms. GO

Saudi Religious Leader Warns Twitter Users of Consequences in the Afterlife

In late March, Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric said Twitter was for clowns and corrupters. Earlier this week, he said anyone using social media, in particular Twitter, “has lost this world and the afterlife.” His comments might be laughable, if they did not come at a time when the Saudi government is looking into monitoring or blocking social media sites and eliminating user anonymity.

GO

thursday >

What The Other Silicon Valley Immigration Group Is Doing This Month

A bipartisan coalition of political advocacy, business and tech groups are moving ahead to launch a social media blitz next week designed to persuade members of the Senate to vote in favor of immigration reform legislation supported in Silicon Valley. "We're going to create a virtual digital storm," said Jeremy Robbins in a Wednesday ... GO

The New Yorker Hopes "Strongbox" Is a Wiretap-Proof Sieve for Leaks

The New Yorker yesterday became the first outlet to implement DeadDrop, a new system for sources to submit information to journalists online in a more secure and anonymous way than, for example, email. GO

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