Debates 2.0

The Problem with Crowdsourced Legislation

Writing for The Atlantic, Alexander Furnas, a master's candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, critiques the platform for collaborative legislative markup built at Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) behest and launched with their legislative alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act. The platform, he writes, is "flawed."

Things Online Organizers Say

What do you get when you put hundreds of left-leaning, meme-obsessed activists in the same place at the same time?

One is Rootscamp, a weekend gathering of the progressive organizer tribe in Washington, D.C., that wrapped up Sunday. Hundreds of activists convened for an unconference to talk about new tools and tactics for organizing online. The other correct answer is an, um, stuff people say video targeted to their peers and with a series of guest cameos by leading online organizers, including Rebuild the Dream's Natalie Foster, MoveOn's Daniel Mintz and Julia Rosen, Reddit cofounder Aaron Swartz, and others.

European Commission to Refer ACTA to Europe's Highest Court

The European Commission plans to refer the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to the European Court of Justice "to assess whether ACTA is incompatible - in any way - with the EU's fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property," according to a statement released by one of the commissioners earlier today.

Thursday 2/23 PDPlus Call: How Grassroots Conservatives Are Tapping the Power of Open Networks

Conservatives are using online social media in innovative new ways, catching up to or surpassing their counterparts on the other side of the aisle. This Thursday on the Personal Democracy Plus call, I'm looking forward to talking with Martin Avila, whose firm Terra Eclipse worked on Ron Paul's 2008 website, and more recently has partnered with Freedom Works to launch Freedom Connector, a social network that has grown to more than 160,000 active members in just one year. GO

Fact-Checking Group Launches Web Video Campaign To Discourage Flood of Deceptive SuperPAC Ads

A fact-checking web site run by the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday launched an ambitious new attempt to stem the expected flood of deceptive television advertising placed by third-party political groups on broadcast networks by providing the public with a new tool with which to contact station managers who would be accepting those ... GO

U.S. Senate Could Save Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars If It Files Campaign Finance Reports Electronically, Says The FEC

One little-noted item in President Obama's budget proposal this week was a recommendation to require U.S. senators to file their campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission electronically. The FEC estimates that the switch from paper to bits would save it $430,000 annually. GO

Teddy Goff and Joe Rospars On How Obama's Campaign Is Trying to Get Back to the "We"

Getting back to the "we" of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign — the now-legendary level of energy and individual commitment from grassroots volunteers that Obama was able to harness en route to an improbable victory in the Democratic primary and then in the general election for the presidency of the United States — is in many ways the "central challenge" of his 2012 re-election effort, Obama for America Digital Director Teddy Goff said Friday.Speaking with Obama's chief digital strategist, Joe Rospars, and techPresident publisher Andrew Rasiej at a Social Media Week event in a conference room at Thomson-Reuters with a panoramic view of New York City, Goff described the myriad ways Obama's re-election effort is looking to harness digital tools to connect with voters, whether they be supporters from 2008 or newcomers to politics.

Team Obama's Questlove Endorsement

In a video, Questlove, the drummer and joint frontman of the The Roots, the in-house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, endorsed Barack Obama's reelection as part of the campaign's African Americans for Obama effort. "When I started supporting Barack Obama in 2008 he promised to bring real change and hope to our country and community as a whole," he says in the video. "This is not a quick fix. It's not like you can take a wand, 'BING,' and just make magic overnight. He needs eight years to finish the mission and we need to have his back." GO