President Barack Obama and Personal Secretary Anita Decker watch David Axelrod shave off his mustache. Photo: Pete Souza / WH

Driving the conversation

• President Barack Obama's campaign operation now directing the president's supporters to contact Congress regarding the fiscal cliff negotiations, Micah L. Sifry explains.

  Update: Obama supporters who have signed into Dashboard, Obama for America's online organizing system, received another round of emails urging them to use the "call tool" available through the platform.

• Iran is offering a state-sanctioned alternative to YouTube.

• A WCIT proposal backed by Russia, China and several Arab states that called for governments to have "equal rights to manage the Internet" has been withdrawn from discussion following public uproar over the leaked proposal, the AP reported. A hacker group claimed it stole and disclosed 1.6 million passwords from aerospace industry companies and agencies as a protest against the ITU.

• The FCC is creating a task force to "encourage the adoption of latest-generation wireline and wireless broadband Internet networks," the Hill reported.

• A FTC report found that many mobile apps for children don't make clear to parents what personal information they collect.

• The RNC has launched its official review of the 2012 election.

• Recent campaign finance reports show the significant amount of money the Romney campaign paid to consulting firms.

• A New York Times editorial praises the recent Senate Judiciary Committee vote on email privacy. The committee approved a bill that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant to inspect private emails.

• Meanwhile, a federal appeals court refused to reconsider an August ruling that the U.S. government can conduct surveillance on Americans' communications without a warrant.

The Local

• The city of Chicago has expanded its open data efforts with an executive order from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

• The San Jose City Council has permanently adopted a disclosure rule that sets a policy to announce texts and e-mails sent from lobbyists during meetings.

• More and more transit authorities are installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses, according to the Daily.

• Reuters reports on how new software helps municipalities track debris trucks in the aftermath of hurricane and map the locations of downed or removed trees.

• Crain's New York writes that crowdfunding helped New York City small businesses in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

• Boston teachers are increasingly tracking students' attendance and grades through a school system wide data collection program.

• A man who has declared his home and yard in Nevada a micronation and himself its president, is seeking to " continue and formalize our current peaceful and fruitful relationship" with the United States through the We the People online petitioning website.

Around the web

• The Sunlight Foundation argues that congressional party rules should be posted online.

• Google is making Chromebooks available to schools for $99 through the DonorsChoose website.

• Buzzfeed highlighted the most retweeted news media tweets via analytics site Favstar.

• Techdirt wrote about the potential impact of a copyright small claims court.

• A new book, Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess, edited by Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, is now available.

• Mayan calendar watch: NASA has a page debunking the theories about the whole December "end of the world" thing.

International

• Australian police are warning about the use of Apple's iOs 6 maps after several drivers ended up stranded in a national park after following its directions. Earlier, researchers found that a South Pacific island indicated on Google Maps and other maps does not in fact exist.

• The German Social Democratic candidate for Chancellor, Peer Steinbrück, mocked for his seeming lack of Internet savvinesss, has officially joined Twitter and plans a Q&A tomorrow with the hashtag #fragpeer, which translates to "#askpeer." At the same time, the use of Twitter hashtag pages during both the Conservative and Social Democratic party conferences has prompted concerns that some tweets using the official hashtags were censored or fitered.

• Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping's calls for reform coincided with an easing of Internet search restrictions, Reuters reported.

• Egyptian activists projected video of last week's demonstrations and street battles on the presidential palace.

• Edmonton CIO Chris Moore spoke with IT World Canada about how the city embraces open data.

• For Times of Israel, Laura Ben-David writes that Facebook indicates her Israeli town as being in "Palestine."

• The European Commission recently launched an action plan on a "digital future for healthcare."

• European data protection officials are drafting plans to censure Google if the company doesn't revise its privacy policy.

• An Austrian rights holders group has called for expanding levies on storage media.

• The AP reported on how Ivory Coast exiles living in Ghana express their support for controversial Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo through online writings.

• An regional Indian chief minister has been using holographic technology to project a 3D-image of himself at rallies.

• CNN looked at how cell phones are helping in the fight against cancer in Africa.

• Nigeria plans to impose copyright levies on a wide range of items.

• The Pakistani Taliban are recruiting on Facebook.

• A Kazakhstani news website was raided by the police.