Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Public protest at the government shutdown starts to surface via the #DearCongress hashtag; the health insurance exchanges launch; Occupy Wall Street launches a debit card; and much, much more. Read More

A study released last week indicates that Bill de Blasio's messaging had the greatest resonance online leading up to the New York City mayoral primary, but much remains unknown about the broader impact of the digital campaign on the electorate. The study was a joint project between Hill & Knowlton Strategies and the Baruch College of Public Affairs' Survey Research program. Read More

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Whistleblowing as an act of generational identity?; Craig Newmark is officially the government's biggest "nerd"; Turkey's ruling party is building a social media army; and much, much more. Read More

While the bulk of the money spent by candidates in last week's New York City primary battles went to old-fashioned TV ads, the campaigns also used a variety of online advertising strategies. Digging into the campaign expenditure reports, Miranda Neubauer reports on who did what. Read More

In this guest op-ed, Noel Hidalgo, the program manager for Code for America in NYC and co-founder of BetaNYC, looks back over the city's mixed record of open government initiatives, and asks whether recent progress will be continued by the new crop of candidates emerging from this past week's primary votes.

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The NSA thinks of smartphone users as "zombies" and Steve Jobs as "big brother"; TechCrunch Disrupt gets another self-inflicted black eye; NYC voters are sharing "selfies" of themselves voting; and much, much more. Read More

NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio currently has the momentum in the New York City mayoral race. He is leading in the polls, close to the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off. But even as De Blasio surges, many in New York City's technology sector, who feel they have benefitted under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, continue to back his rival Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker, who is fighting to reach the second place in a possible run-off. Read More