PDF2008 - New Political Applications

OpenCongress.org - open data on Congress people, bills and supports comments. Partnership witht eh Sunlight Foundation.

MetaVid - thesis project of two UC Santa Cruz students - wondered where the site of all Congressional video was located. Now, people are placing CPAN videos on the metavid site; allowing people to tag videos of Congress on a Mediawiki installation. Provides transcripts, API for meta data, etc. All open source.

PDF2008 - The Power of Information to Transform Government

Jonathan Adelstein, (FCC Commissioner)

Affordable high-speed broadband - importance is that all other issues are impacted by the availability of broadband. We can reduce costs of healthcare, e-learning/education.

We STILL do not have an inter-operable broadband public safety network. Smart electrical grids to overcome our vulnerabilities.

A cry for real broadband access.

Steven Clift (E-democracy.org)
Points out the many different governments efforts on eDeomcracy - Korea has an eDemocracy portal. We need an Democracy.gov - the State Government says there is one, but we can not promote it in the states.

In Estonia, todayIdecide.com website - proposals are sent forward to the Ministers and now it is being shared amoungst other countries. They are so transparent that they now publish their salaries, allow for personal access to your own information.

Everything will be online - which is where we need to be. Why doesn't government allow for the transparency? Why doesn't GOVERNMENT allow us to convene within their democracy?

No investment in eDemocracy at present - those in power will not open themselves up by enlightened ????. Need an executive order, to make this happen.

We are #1 in making noise and making money - most of democracy is local geographically, but the discourse in the cyber world is national. Need candidates need to make their commitments BEFORE they get elected. And, after they get elected - they should have six months to accomplish their executive orders.

Need to update Open Meeting Laws - need to make it mandatory - with agenda, minutes, etcetera. Should be the moment it is done. All meetings should be digitally recorded - need to have this publicly available.

Need to invest in eDemocracy tools in government. eNotification - (google Alerts) timely access to information when released. Public meetings ONLINE - allow people to submit testimony online. Should be within the official meetings.

Paperwork Reduction Act - why not let Federal organizations connect/survey online?

Need to do more with open democracy online - need to put data out there online. Sunlight Foundation.

Connect interventionists - dowire.org/us or dowire.org/uk - eDemocracy projects.

Gotta quit pushing that Delete button on Democracy.

Sheila Campbell (USA.gov)
USA.gov - portal for US government - mobile portal as well
Launched in 2000 - allows for people to get their questions answered.
Looking to personalize government information for individual citizens. Allows information to be channeled to them.

Has close to 24K government websites (not sure) - legacy that the government has to offer.
For example: http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/cats
But most are like PR sites...boring.

Most people want:

• Get a passport
• Apply for a business loan
• Find affordable housing
• Reduce energy costs
• Get a government job

Desire to look/work like Southwest Airlines - like IRS.gov

www.tsa.gov/blog - they opened the feedback, listened, described what the feedback was - and now checkpoint/airport security has been discussed and presented to the conversation. Very successful. And the TSA Blog Team is on twitter - http://twitter.com/tsablogteam

Other efforts: Doing widgets (population clock on Yahoo!), Webcontent.gov - sharing best practices amoungst the various organizations. Have a training academy - good SEO and good metrics.

Their vision:

• Help people complete common tasks efficiently
• Engage citizens in a dialogue to improve customer service
• Get rid of ROT - redundant, outdated and trivial information
• Deliver the same answer via multiple channels
• Ensure access to underserved populations

Can the next Administration deliver on:

• Web needs to be viewed as a strategic asset
• Leaders will engage and trust the public
• Focus on communications -- not just technology project - it is the channel, not the tech.
  
• Funding tied to performance
  
• Reduce, reuse, recycle

PDF2008 - The Declaration for Independence

Talking about a "problem" - a pattern, a pathology - pattern of "4"s
Every four years, we have an explosion of Democratic energy and then "crash"
One night - everything focused on the one night, one year.

Problem: it won't save us. We depend too much, rely too much - on this fourth year.
Something much more fundamental wrong. Need something more than a Thursday night out.

Framers were obsessed with "independence" - not 1776, but 1785 - dream of the republic of America was failing.
That their goal of independence - meaning lack of dependence. They sought non-dependent, they were searching for the "constitutions" to overcome this.

Bribery was not a crime until 1853. In some districts, up to 25% of the voters had their votes purchases.

<2>
But today, the individuals are much better, but the pattern is much worth. Gov't is core to solving our problems - gov't fingers are everywhere. Return of going to Washington has a HIGHER return than simple competition.

Deep public skepticism - 88% in CA believe that money buys access.

This is the dependency of the Founders' fear.

Reagan requoting from others:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

Crony capitalism - this is deadly in this government.


<3>
What is the cost of this corruption?
Telecoms Bill - Gore suggested revised it to have all of the Internet under Title 7 - Congress says no - how much extortion-enabling legislation would there be?

Not all of the cases that government considers are HARD, they are 2+2=4 cases.
Sonny Bono Copyright action - the act -does it advanced the "public good".

Consensus on nutrition - Daily sugar intake - 10% versus 25%.
Consensus on global warming - 1. GW is real, 2. Humans are responsible, 3. It is very bad, 4. We need to fix it, 5. Not too late. In research, 100% agreed. But in public media - 53% disagreed - because of the junk science.

Not the problem of BIG GOVT, it destroys the conditions of trust. In 1998, altoplace was tested - AHA decided it was "safe". All but one dissented and then the AHA removed the dissenting doctor. Turns out Genetech gave $11M to AHA. Removed conditions of trust.

March 4th - House rejected immunity, June 20th: they passed it. MAPLight reports that 2X the money from telecoms went to people who changed their vote. 88% believe their government is bought.

We need to remove


<4>Need more than Thursdays - need a sustained focus, effort - CHANGE CONGRESS [beta]
google mashup - clusters of issues - money, representation, integrity.

• No money from lobbyists/PACS
• Reform earmarks
• Support public finance of public elections
• Support transparency

Wiki Workers - focusing on a sustainable effort to change the dependency on the system.

http://www.change-congress.org

Need to have you join us.


There is a flaw at the core of the People's House - we will not change the core with Thursdays. Just not enough. Need to break our dependencies on these Thursdays. Need to break their dependency - by breaking ours.

Think of the dependency on alcoholism - might be losing his family, job, liver - needs to solve these problems by solving the alcoholism and then to solve the other problems.

We will not solve these other national problems (copyright, etc) if we do not solve the basic problem of Congress.

Join us. http://change-congress.org

PDF2008 - A New Media System or Old Wine in New Bottles?

Chuck DeFeo, townhall.com
There is an old idea that is truly being fulfilled here - the First Amendment, Free Speech

Adam's Thoughts: Examination on the struggle for power - who has the power? Those in power are regularly trying to shake off the limits, the people try to place limits on the people in power (within reasonable bounds).

The discussion of ideas is happening outside the Beltway - where is should be. And it is healthy for our nation.

With TV, we saw a rise of apathy - but now we are seeing an involved activism - core common values is strengthening. Democracy is not clean, it is not pretty - but it is the best we have. I believe that truth always comes up to the surface. One-to-Many model beginning to crumble.

Ability of a limited few to control what we think is being eroded [Ed Note: what happened with the report on Bush and the use of false information to start the Iraq War?]

Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
In campaigns - now tens of millions are impacting campaign
Poverty - discussion from Elisabeth Edwards
War on [missed this part....sorry]

We are definitely using new bottles - but it is not entirely a new wine.

Accuracy, fact-checking, and ferreting out the truth - journos main ideal is that truth comes first.
In MSM - they gave up truth in the exchange of the pursuit of neutrality. [Ed Note: isn't this about eyeballs, grabbing the attention of the biggest audience? ]
Saying that the Iraq War is a mixed bag is like going to the doctor and being told you have a brain tumor, but your acne has cleared up.

• Transparency - everybody knows the allegiances/connections
• Accountability - what you say, you are accountable for
• Community - where we are able to bring people to the discourse

Example: Lou Dobbs is supposed to be a journalist - had a reporter comment on the growth of leprosy in the past 3 years due to illegal immigration. Discovered later that the truth was 30 years and the peak was in 1983 - nothing to do with the increase of immigration. Where is the accountability?

For you tech geniuses - can you rpovide a solution that will stp the trolls who are trying to stop the civic discourse we are working for on the HuffPo?

Need the compulsive disorder of the blogosphere to offset the ADD of the old media.

Fall of a great journalist (Bob Woodword) - to go from a journo who brought down Nixon and completely missed what was truly happening in the Bush White House. In her book, chapter "The Dumb Blond" who was awed by the proximity to power.

Traditional journalism - the pretense that what ever is presented by the journos is fact - when it is not anymore. Need to make sure that we focus on the truth of what is presented.

Q/A:
MSifry: give an example of how this more dispursed, open has done a better job?
CDeFeo: tough one - we have built an "open platform" [Ed Note: assuming he is discussing townhall site] - individuals on the ground can be elevated. 9000 blogger, 1300 content managers.
AHuff: 1) In accountability, we have "watches" on people - Lou Dobbs Watch, Dana Perino Watch, etc. Any time things happen, we are there, putting spotlight on it.

Audience: isn't new media going to have an issue of MSM trust?
AHuff: we need to post the truth, whole truth - not to avoid putting up the content.

AHuff: there is such a relief that GeorgeW is going to be leaving - and that a person like Obama could be president - there is a feeling in the world of wanting to have America back in the global discussion.

AHuff: Make sure the Trojan Horse of the Right (John McCain) does not get into the White House.
CDeFeo: Vote John McCain for President

PDF2008 - A New Activist System: The Changing Role of the Net-roots and the Right-roots

Jane Hamsher, firedoglake.com
Grew from the Scooter Libby event - learned to ride the wave and how to build a community on the anger against GeorgeW.

Video from an angry Clinton supporter which became the most watched/discussed. After 1.5M views, the MSM finally decided to show the video.

The world of article being posted, and then letters to the editor, and then you could forget it. But in the blogosphere, you can not avoid the discussion. So MSM is beginning to migrate their models (e.g. Swampland), with money and name recognition - the 'sphere needs to build out their influence in other areas [Ed note: this sounds a lot like the discussion of a third party].

For example - the incredible creative energy that exists in the community can post and create and get visibility, whereas MSM blogs/efforts are still quite risk adverse UNTIL the community at large makes it happen.

Average age of liberal blog reader: 40 and 60 yrs old, $100-150k per year.

Even with a Democratic President, conservative Blog Dog House members are getting K-Street money and are able to play on both sides of the aisle.

Obama campaign has changed what people think they can government via money online - Obama raised $55M online without attending a single fundraiser.

[Ed Note - only one question, what about the fact that now candidates are going to have to become "entertaining" over and over again to get visibility?]

Patrick Raffini, TheNextRight
To answer the question, "Who are those right roots?" Earlier, a few core blogs on three key issues - the war, fiscal constraint and earmarks and judicial appointments. They represent a primarily fiscal side - focused there.

Mentions the evangelical community and the fact that the community ususally does not get active in politics, but eventually reconfigured to be a political force. [Ed Note: isn't this indicative of the Christian Fundamentalists? Kingdom Coming].

Mentioned the November 5th effort for Ron Paul - suggests that Ron Paul made this happen. Suggested that this was the foreshadowing of the "end of email". [Ed Note: eyes rolling upward?]

The Ron Paul faithful have now goine into the local communities and are taking roles in the local political plays and winning seats at the local political table. A small network group beats a large atomized group.

[Leaving Q/A for someone else - need a bottle of water]

PDF2008 - Visualizing the Political Blogosphere

Anthony Hamelle - linkinfluence
Shows us a virtual geography of the "political"internet - tool has similarities to the google analytics tool, demonstrating influence. Needs a help-guide to explain it, but seems powerful.

Incoming links are used to measure influence, outgoing links are measure to fine-tune position on the linkmap.

Matthew Hurst - Microsoft Live Labs
When all the World Collide - what if all of your products/content/data came together?

When you post, there is always:

• a date, title, content
• the author, their profile, physical location
• past posts, etc.

What can we do with Content, Time and Location data; Content Data -
Demonstrates how posting on a blog makes the spread across the tightly coupled network. Jeff Jaris is centralized between the technology clusters and the political clusters. When he posts, it spreads across the network. Great visualization simulation.

Allows us to observe trends across the 'sphere.

In terms for citizen consumption - creating a tool to watch as news is published, how the

PDF2008 - Come Together Now

After an opening from Andrew and Micah, discussing to the incremental changes that are "reinventing government that is co-creating government with the wisdom of crowds".

Zephir Teachout, Director of Internet for Dean 04
[Ed Note - Wow, Z looks great. New style!]

"Great Internet Poet - Walt Whitman" - terrifying amount of power - still at the beginning, will still feel like we are at the beginning of the event.

Industrial language and the Democratic language are similar. Industrial appreciates mass and resource allocation. We talk in these terms: 1MM Obama Facebook friends, $500M raised, etc.

Also think in terms of task - what are your untapped abilities to handle tasks. In Democracy, we are looking for giving power to others.

Democratic language is about giving power to the citizenry, not about marshalling the volunteerism.

What if we use technology where we can build tools for people to have power. The best is the model of the "associations" - Americans of all ages and all minds continually unite.

5% of Americans were president of their local organizations - they had access to a channel of "power" for making a difference in their community.

Right now, we are in the biggest change of transportation usage (re: price of oil) - billions of miles driven less. 80 years ago, groups would be fighting against this. If the mortgage crisis happened 90 years ago, we would be rising up and fighting. With the Internet, why haven't we risen up and fought as an association? How many people actually know that they have the power to make a change?

As we see the solutions for today - is it an industrial innovation or a citizen/democratic innovation? Is the technology distribution tasks or power? Is it empowering the citizen or the organization?

Finishes with a Walt Whitman poem, "As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days"

I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen,
And here the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.

But I too announce solid things;
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing—I watch them,
Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles, pouring, triumphantly moving — and grander heaving in sight;
They stand for realities—all is as it should be.

Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad, and the divine average—Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
The rapt promises and luminé of seers—the spiritual world—these centuries lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.

For we support all, fuse all,
After the rest is done and gone, we remain;
There is no final reliance but upon us;
Democracy rests finally upon us (I, my brethren, begin it,)

And our visions sweep through eternity.