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First POST: Moving On

BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, December 4 2012

Photo: Pete Souza / The White House

Does the Pope tweet in the woods?

  • Pope Benedict XVI will officially join Twitter on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady, with a primary account in English at @pontifex and translated accounts in Spanish, Italian, Portguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French.

From techPresident

  • Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers, Sarah Lai Stirland details how the Obama campaign used Twitter data to find their most effective advocates and put them to work in the media-saturated social network.

  • President Obama also used Twitter yesterday to take questions from average Americans about extending middle class tax cuts.

Around the web

  • MoveOn picks a new road: The progressive online group announced yesterday that it would do more to put itself at the service of its members' initiatives, supporting more work at the state and local level rather than attempting to organize sweeping national campaigns:

    We're turning over the keys of our technological toolset to our more than 7 million members, asking them to step up and lead their own campaigns, and putting them squarely in the MoveOn driver's seat.

    More in a HuffPo blog post by MoveOn Political Action Director Justin Ruben right here.

  • Politico wonders: What happens to @PaulRyanVP?

  • During a campaign managers event held at Harvard, Obama Digital Director Teddy Goff described Paul Ryan as "highly memeable," while Romney campaign staff acknowledged that the 47 percent video caught them by surprise.

  • Police officials have submitted a proposal to Congress that would require wireless providers to record and store information about Americans' text messages for at least two years, Cnet reported.

  • A new draft of a White House Cybersecurity Executive Order has leaked, according to Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security.

  • James Cowie from Renesys examined in detail to what degree other countries could be vulnerable to an Internet shutdown like the one in Syria.

  • Nielsen has released an extensive report on the state of social media in 2012.

  • The New York Times looked into the regulatory challenges facing Uber. Users of Airbnb may also face legal trouble.

  • That's no moon: A We the People petition asks the White House to "Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016."

  • Tim Berners Lee's Open Data Institute is receiving a $750,000 investment from the Omidyar Network.

  • The National Labor Relations Board ordered Dish Network to change its social media policy which forbade employees from making disparaging or defamatory remarks about the company.

  • New York Magazine profiles Chris Hughes and his plans for the New Republic.

  • KQED, the the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Public Radio Exchange have unveiled Matter Ventures, a start-up accelerator that will provide financial and logistical support for media entrepreneurs, the New York Times reported.

  • Dan Oshinsky detailed the potential he sees in e-mail as the new Newsletter Editor of Buzzfeed.

  • Washington D.C.'s 911 emergency network has been suffering from systemic failures over the past two years, according to the Washington Post.

  • A Forbes column looks at how the Missouri Department of Transportation aims to save $500 milllion over five years with the help of social and mobile technologies.

  • Aztec calendar watch: A blog post on USA.gov explains: "Scary Rumors about the World Ending in 2012 Are Just Rumors."

International

  • Foreign correspondent Lara Setrakian has founded Syria Deeply, a new online platform documenting the conflict in Syria.

  • In a column about the necessity of foreign correspondents, Bill Keller from the New York Times writes:

    Yes, 'citizen journalism' has been an asset. YouTube videos from Iran’s 2009 uprising kept the story alive after foreign reporters were expelled, and tweets from Tahrir Square provided real-time guidance to the Arab Spring. But tweets are no substitute for being there.

    He also suggests that lack of reporting on the ground contributed to the confusion around events in Benghazi that is now a problem for Susan Rice.

  • The International Herald Tribune profiled Alan Shatter, Ireland's minister of justice, equality, and defense, who will play a key role in negotiating an EU data privacy law over the coming year.

  • The European Commission is proposing rules to make government websites accessible for all.

  • The European Commission released research about about European's interest in accessing digital content across EU borders.

  • Lebanese ministers expressed concerns about the Internal Security Forces' request for all mobile phone SMS data from the two months prior to the assasination of ISF intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan.

  • The New York Times looked at five ways Indian Internet users are fighting for free speech.

  • A British MP who had been campaigning against the payday loans market demanded an apology after the Guardian traced abusive tweets to the anonymous Twitter account of an online lender.

News Briefs

RSS Feed today >

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

Female Organizer of Pakistan's First Hackathon Stresses Collaboration Over Competition

After Pakistan banned Valentine's Day this year, Sabeen Mahmud started an online protest in which people uploaded photos to mock the government ban. In the weeks following she received death threats and menacing phone calls, and early on she had to stay home from work. That did nothing, however, to keep her from further organizing. Last month, the café she started in Karachi hosted Pakistan's first ever hackathon, which tackled problems including sanitation, crime, disaster management, and education. She even invited a government representative to observe the initial conversations, tackling sensitive areas like government inefficiency and elections.

GO

wednesday >

White House Innovation Fellows Project Spins Off Into A Business

Clay Johnson and Adam Becker joined the Presidential Innovation Fellows program to help the White House fix the way government does business. Now they're turning that mission into a business themselves. GO

Fighting Fires With Data, New York City Launches New Safety Inspection System

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that New York City has implemented city-wide a new risk based inspection system focused on fire safety that is driven by analytics from multiple city agencies. GO

Chinese Netizens Use Digital Initiative to Gain Media Attention for Unsolved Poisoning Case

Last month a medical science student at a Shanghai university died from poisoning, allegedly murdered by his roommate. The specifics of the crime echoed a case from the mid-1990s, in which a 19-year-old student was poisoned with thallium. That case has once again been thrown into the media spotlight, but after 18 years the media has changed and the spotlight means a trending hashtag on Sina Weibo or an online petition to the U.S. President.

GO

PDF France 2013: “Au Code, Citoyens!”

This year PDF France will take place in Paris on June 13, with the theme "Au Code, Citoyens!" ("To Code, Citizens!") The speakers' lineup includes some of the continent's leaders in the digital revolution. GO

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