My latest post at /Ground -- Using Twitter to Protect the Vote on November 4th.
Political organizers have found many innovative ways to the web during this election cycle. However, as we close in on November 4th, the next important step begins: actually ensuring not only that all votes are counted, but that each and everyone who is registered to vote is allowed to do so.
Yesterday, I gave $1000 to No On 8. I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it because it's a big deal. It's a big deal because it's a good chunk of my paycheck, and because the issue is worth it. I don't want discrimination to be written into our state constitution. And, frankly, I don't want to have to worry about my marriage certificate being nullified on November 5th.
Over the last few weeks, No On 8 has been out-spent and out-marketed. Our once-promising double-digit lead has dwindled to a dead heat. Proponents of Prop 8 recently enlisted the help of the Mormon church, and their massive phone tree, for $$$ and GOTV.
With the campaign to defeat anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 behind in money and in two recent polls, Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors declared Tuesday, “We are going to lose this election if we don’t raise the money we need to stay on the airwaves.”
No on 8 senior strategist Steve Smith who, along with Kors, was speaking on a conference call with LGBT media, said the campaign needs to raise at least $10 million before the November 4 election. That money is crucial to reach voters through TV ads.
-Bay Area Reporter
Anna and I were married at San Francisco City Hall on June 18, 2008. Since it was our third wedding (long story for another blog post), we didn't make a big deal of it and we'd already gotten everything on our registry the first time around. :) So, this time we've set up a different sort of registry...Rachel Maddow highlights four events during the tenure of Bush's eight-year term so bad that even one of them could have deemed his presidency an abject failure. Her guest Thomas Frank, author of "The Wrecking Crew," states that Bush is not personally responsible (nor are his policies) for these failures, but rather that conservatism has failed.
It's judgment day for the conservative philosophy of governing.
With their new Ads Off subscriptions, the gang at Ma.gnolia continue to "pay it forward" and talk the talk when it comes to community and a social experience.
No matter which subscription you choose (there are two plans) you extend the ad-free experience to others interested in what you're doing on Ma.gnolia. So you can feel free to share your profile and your bookmarks with others and they, too, will have an ad-free experience.
We think this offering is a 3-way win
A win for Ma.gnolia, with affordable support that goes right back into R&D. We’re not buying jets or writing our own browser here.
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A win for you, with a benefit that works for you on every Ma.gnolia page, for a full year, costing at most about a week’s worth of lattes. And unlike a week’s worth of lattes, Ads Off has no calories.
http://ma.gnolia.com/blog/2008/10/07/ads-on-and-ads-off
Confession, the title of this post is a little misleading. It should probably say, "Vote for ME to be the SMC's 42nd Board Member."
For anyone following the link from the SMC post, I wanted to provide a bit of background. (I'll flush this out tonight, as I only have about five minutes to write this now.)
About me:
I am currently the Director of Integrated Marketing at NIC Inc. -- the leading provider of eGovernment portals and services in the nation (if not the world). I have worked with NIC since 1997 as a web designer, art director, marketing manager, and now as a web 2.0 and social media evangelist. NIC builds online services and web sites for 21 state governments (and 100s of local governments within our partner states).
During my stint as a consultant and freelancer, I also created MyPollingPlace.com for the People for the American Way -- a national online polling place finder -- during the 2004 presidential election. The site is now offline, but was an enormous success (almost "too successful," as we were adding additional servers all day).
I'm passionate about social media in general, but primarily its application to government and government services. If you're curious, you can find me on most social networks under the username "quepol".
Go vote -- there are 37 other names on the list, too. Just vote!
The Sunlight Foundation is once again taking on "the deepest darkest holes" in all of government -- i.e. the House floor, according to Congressman John Culberson (R- TX).
Culberson recently started a bit of a firestorm on Twitter.com regarding his ability to use social networking sites and other live streaming technologies (think Twitter, Qik, etc.) from the floor of Congress.
Aaron Brazell (Technosailor.com) wrote a very thorough post that does a good job of highlighting both sides of the issue. I won't attempt to go into the nitty gritty, so if you want the gory details check out his lengthy post, which includes the documents and proposals in question.
But why do you keep putting quotes around "petition," you ask? Well, because signing it is as simple as including the following text in your tweet: #LOCT08
For people not completely familiar with the ins and outs of Twitter, that's called a "hashtag," and several services track them via search: hashtags.org, twemes.com, and summize.com. (Summize is a great overall search engine for Twitter, but many developers are building Summize search directly into their application if you click on a #hashtag. Click and see for yourself.)
So, the Sunlight Foundation is simply tracking the use of the #LOCT08 hashtag -- you are not necessarily "signing" anything. They are being somewhat pretty straightforward about this, using the language "join our petition," instead of "sign," and saying "track...the latest tweets about #LOCT08". I focus on this, because a) I think it's a brilliant new use for Twitter and advocacy, and b) since it's the first of its kind, I wonder about people indiscriminately using the #LOCT08 hashtag (for or against) and getting "counted" in the petition.
The value of social networking and social software for politicians is definitely up for debate, but the hope is that these new technologies can help shed some light on the processes and people at work in our government. Just as Twitter has done for coporations like JetBlue, Zappos, Comcast, and others, the hope is that this new line of communication can bridge the gap between politicians and their constituents. The exciting part? It's interactive and real time.
Update: Avelino Maestas has a great entry over at the Huffington Post.
Update 2: NPR spoke with Technosailor himself this morning, and is covering the story.
Update 3: Speaker Pelosi responds! She says that "inaccurate rumors have been circulated."
I have switched from Blogger comments to the DISQUS comment system. I've always disliked the Blogger system -- having to navigate away from the post -- and Disqus appears to work like other typical systems (WordPress, Moveable Type, etc.). Threaded converstaions are standard, and it's integrated into the blog page.
You can also track and follow comments, as well as rate comments to help make sure only "good" comments stay in the conversation. They also have a variety of widgets that make it easy to integrate certain features into other sections of the blog -- hopefully more on that to come.
The real draw, however? Stat porn. I have a dashboard at Disqus, and can view all comment-related statistics as well as moderate comments and users from there.
For anyone interested in trying it out, it appears to work with several of the top/popular blogging platforms: WordPress, Moveable Type, Blogger, TypePad, and Tumblr (!!).
Go for a tour and see for yourself. Pretty cool. Also, they support OpenID, so creating an account is easy-peasy.
I am immensely proud of the NIC portals taking the leap and adopting Twitter. We'll continue to think outside the box and figure out the best way to use this emerging technology, but for now we're off to a great start.
If you're on Twitter and interested in how governments are beginning to use this hybrid communication tool, get ready to hit the "Follow" button.
Nebraska.gov - twitter - Web site
If there are other NIC portals using Twitter, please ping me. And also feel free to leave links to any egov- or government-related Twitter accounts in the comments. I'll update this post as they are received.
Some other notable states, agencies, officials, etc. using Twitter:
Quick list of federal government accounts (I'll flush this section out eventually):
USAgov, GovGab, and lots of NASA projects
Congress, etc.:
Roy Blunt (R-MO-7th)
John Boehner (R-OH-8th)
Dan Burton (R-IN-5th)
John Culberson (R-TX-7th)
Bob Latta (R-OH-5th)
Tim Ryan (D-OH-17th)
Jeanne Shaheen - Former Governor of NH and now U.S. Senator
Mark Ward - Former Governor of VA and now U.S. Senator
Sidenote: there are a lot of people using Twitter to campaign - this is only a list of people who are actually using it to communicate with constituents.
Last updated: November 18, 2008
Yup, it's a Facebook quiz. Fortunately I didn't spam 15 people as requested, but only my 2 siblings. Sorry, guys. 
People with this hand don't like change. They tend to be slow in nature and have a strong affinity to nature and the bush. They are emotionally stable and make the best workers. Interesting is the fact that you often find successful artists and photographers with earth hands. Most people with trade jobs such as a carpenter have earth hands. People with an Earth hand usually like outdoor jobs, and prefer job security.
EqualityCamp SF was a huge success. Thanks to all who participated. Stay tuned for EqCamp OAK!
