Misadventures in Politics

In the afterglow of their recent gathering of the tech-minded, the RNC launched a Ning network. The aim of the off-the-shelf social network was to capture the wisdom of the GOP grassroots on the…

Meet OOGL. On his very first full day in the new job, you might remember, President Obama gave word that the as-yet-unnamed person who will eventually fill the as-yet-pretty-much-undefined…

With what seems to be an ever-shifting pendulum of electability in the Minnesota Senate race now resting closer to Al Franken than Norm Coleman, Coleman could use a couple bucks. Coleman’s best…

• Clash of the Robots (Files): Conflating Code and Closed Government CNET security watchdog Christopher Soghoian wonders if the restrictive robots.txt file on the new Recovery.gov site is…

There are two bits of particular interest in this piece from Politico’s Josh Gerstein. The first has to do with the ongoing question of whether WhiteHouse.gov will serve as the “paper of record,”…

You might remember that the short-and-sweet robot.txt file on the new Obama-era WhiteHouse.gov was heralded as the opening bells on a new era of open government. So it’s perhaps not surprising…

• Why you’re seeing black boxes where your online friends’ smiling faces used to be: New Zealand’s experiencing an Internet blackout.
• Ironies of ironies: Florida’s sunshine laws falling victim…

New incoming Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag gave every department and agency formal notice on what it needs to do to stay on the good side of Recovery.gov, in the form…

• “How New Media Helped Make Me the First Openly-Gay Official in South Carolina”
• Some GOP up-and-comers think the party is ready to embrace “peer production”.
• Google Moderator gets…

• Can DC Draw Techies from Silicon Valley? Matt Asay in CNET asks, “Where will all the Techies go?” Silicon Valley is just now feeling the effects of the economic downturn. With fewer jobs for…