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The Atlantic
The Interview: U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra
The outgoing chief technology officer of the United States talks SOPA, open government, and MacGyvering innovation policy for the country.
The Atlantic
What It’s Like When Google Comes to Your House for a Presidential Chat
In an online “hangout” with Americans, Obama found a tough questioner in a 29-year-old mother from Texas.
The Atlantic
The Darkest Day in the History of American Super PACs
When it comes to campaign spending, we know only a fraction of the information we have the ability to know.
The Atlantic
How the Internet Has Become an Outlet for Lonely Teens—and Barack Obama
More than a stunt, the president’s upcoming Google+ Hangout might be a real and rare chance for him to interact with citizens.
Salon
Reid Bows to Online Protest
The Internet successfully rallies against the Senate’s Protect IP Act. Says Senator Ron Wyden, “In terms of communicating with government, America is never going to be the same.”
The Atlantic
Doing Digital for Romney: An Interview with Zac Moffatt
The Republican presidential hopeful’s digital director explains how that campaign goes after the modern voter.
The Atlantic
Where Did #FITN Come From?
Digital forensics on the New Hampshire primary hashtag that swept the nation — at least the part of it that obsessively tweets.
The Atlantic
Buddy Roemer Will Keep Tweeting Until You Pay Attention to Him
The former Louisiana governor raises hell over being shut out of the Republican presidential debates.
Salon
Left and Right, Congress Resists the Stop Online Piracy Act
Rep. Darrell Issa is crowd-sourcing an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act. The surprising thing? Congress might be ready for it.
Reuters
Stopping the Stop Online Piracy Act
Now that every argument for and against the legislation has been made, the question becomes this: what does it take to actually stop a bill like SOPA?
The American Prospect
Jimmy Wales Needs Your Help
Underlying Wikipedia’s small-donor drive is the fact that the free encyclopedia’s flaws are the world’s problems now.
Salon
Twitter takes sides on the Internet’s future
While some tech companies aim to sell surveillance, one aims to thwart it. (A look at Twitter’s acquisition of Whisper Systems.)
The American Prospect
Our Municipal Dollars, Ourselves
Mike Bloomberg speaks for many Occupy Wall Street critics when he says the protests fail by not knowing exactly how to solve the world’s economic woes. A revived conversation in Portland, Oregon, over their statewide credit union depository pool reveals that the mayor is thinking too small about how politics works.
Capital
Judge Gives Occupy Wall Street Lawyers an Extension to Expand their Lawsuit Against the City and Brookfield
Attorneys for the protestors want time to refocus their case on the rules now governing the slice of lower Manhattan that has served to incubate the global “Occupy” movement.
Salon
Congress Seeks to Tame the Internet
A look at whence Capitol Hill’s Stop Online Piracy Act came, and why the Internet has worked itself into a frenzy over it.
The Atlantic
Google’s Sticking With a New Controversial Search Tweak
If you happen to find yourself perplexed by the recent change to the Google.com interface that ‘unsticks’ search terms between verticals, you should know that you’re not alone. But you should also know that you’re out of luck.
The Atlantic
Occupy Wall Street vs. Bloomberg’s Bureaucracy
One surprising dynamic that’s emerged in the wake of the mass sweep of that lower Manhattan space is that the sometimes shaggy group of protesters making up the Occupy Wall Street movement seemed to meet, if not beat, the Bloomberg administration’s agility when it came to handling information.
The Atlantic
How the Hashtag Became a Campaign Battleground
Once simply the Dewey Decimal system of Twitter, hashtags are being embraced by the political class as an ideal way to snark.
Capital
For Protestors at Zuccotti Park, Keeping the Neighbors from Screaming Is a Talisman Against Shutdown
For the Occupy Wall Street crowd, key to keeping their space in lower Manhattan is the welcome — or at least tolerance — of locals. But the constant drumming has some neighbors beating their head against the wall.
Capital
Lawyers for Occupy Wall Street Wade Through ‘Legal Morass’ of First Amendment Rights at Zuccotti Park
Attorneys for the protestors occupying lower Manhattan are eager to turn their presence into a First Amendment case; more surprising is that the Bloomberg administration is ready to do so, too.
The Atlantic
The Basis of Rick Perry’s Middle East Policy: It’s Not Oil, It’s Water
Rick Perry’s record as agriculture commissioner raises the possibility that at the root of his deep commitment and professed connection to Israel doesn’t lie in what Texas has in abundance — oil, faith, orneriness — but what it lacks: water.
Capital
The End Game at Zuccotti Park?
Dispatch from a Community Board 1 committee meeting where residents, protestors, and an NYPD rep wrestle with how to handle the occupation taking place in lower Manhattan.
Capital
The Owners of the Park at the Center of “Occupy Wall Street” Are Losing Patience. So What?
“These aren’t privately-owned spaces that the developers have in their magnanimity allowed the public to use,” says one urban sociologist. “There’s really an explicit contract between the developer and the public.”
Capital
Zuccotti Park’s Semi-Corporate Status as Protestors’ Boon
The fuzziness of the rules around New York City’s “privately owned public spaces” seems to be buying time for the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
The Atlantic
The Facebook PAC: When Social Media Discovers It’s Big Business
Behind every beloved web platform is a big company with big political interests.
Good
Four Ways to Improve Tech-Driven Presidential Debates
As Google prepares to co-host a Republican presidential primary debate with Fox News, a look at ideas for using technology to create smarter candidate forums.
Salon
Google, Lightly Grilled
With antitrust in the air, this was Google’s come-to-Congress moment. Chairman Eric Schmidt went along with the senators’ ignorance about how the company’s search and ad properties actually work. That made for a painless afternoon, but when it comes to Google’s dealings with Washington, it might not be the smartest long-term strategy.
The Atlantic
How Republican Bob Turner Won Anthony Weiner’s Old Seat
An analysis of the moving parts that contributed to a Republican winning a seat in New York City’s 9th congressional district for the first time since Warren G. Harding was president. Also: pre-election reporting on the NY-9 race and a quick hit on what Democratic candidate David Weprin said he made of the support given to his campaign by national Democrats.
The American Prospect
Patently Unfair
The Senate is about to finally pass a measure to aide the ailing U.S. patent system, a plan that Congress has been toiling away on for years — but the ‘reform’ they’ve ended up with might be a lot less than it’s cracked up to be.
The Atlantic
Alan Krueger Is Good at Math
Obama’s pick to head the Council of Economic Advisers is often described as a veteran of the Clinton and early Obama administrations. But the Princeton economist also played an intriguing part in the Bush era — in a mix of research skills and political savviness, forcing the post-9/11 State Department to admit that its counting of terrorism attacks was impossibly flawed.
Capital
Sward into Playgrounds: What All the Fuss Over Brooklyn Bridge Park is Actually About
Since the early ’80s, New York City has debated how to go about turning Brooklyn’s old shipping waterfront into something the city’s people can enjoy — and in its final stages, that fight is forcing tough questions on everything from what should be done about post-industrial spaces in cities the world over to what the “public” means in public parks.
The American Prospect
The Google Missile Crisis
Eight years ago, Android’s Andy Rubin set out to make cell phones work more like the web. But with the Google’s $12.5 billion bid to buy Motorola, we’re looking at a web that is taking on characteristics of the mobile in your pocket.
The Atlantic
With Call to Action, Obama Brings Down the House
The President broke precedent by directly asking Americans to push their elected representatives towards a debt-ceiling compromise, but the United States Congress proved itself not up to the task of capturing the citizenry’s passions.
The Atlantic
Elizabeth Warren Makes It Personal
A quick sketch on what she’s saying about who the “enemies” of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are now that she’s been passed over for the job of heading the new agency.
The Atlantic
How Obama Tries to Win Twitter & Influence People
In the age of Twitter, everyone can have a voice. But can everyone be heard?
The American Prospect
There’s No Such Thing as Free Gmail
Google’s latest foray into social networking makes headway on giving users control over their information, but it’s up to us to stay vigilant.
The Atlantic
Can Obama Ride Twitter Out of the Bubble?
A look at why a modern White House might turn to Twitter Inc.
The Atlantic
Cue the Music: Huntsman Has Arrived
Reporting from lovely Jersey City, the scene of the former ambassador to China and governor of Utah’s declaration that he’s here, he’s running for President of the United States, and — vroom vroom — he’s not as mild-mannered as he looks.
The Atlantic
From Spin Room to Web Spin Wars, the GOP Debate Moves Off Stage
The Granite State’s not big enough to contain the ambitions of Michele, Newt, Herman, and the rest of the 2012 Republican presidential crew.
The American Prospect
A Safety Net for the ‘Net
The cybersecurity plan Obama is sending to Congress aims to pull off the trick of opening channels between industry and government while still respecting the privacy of the American people.
techPresident
Digital Mappers Plot the Future of Maptivism
What one crop of digital cartographers think about when they’re mapping.
The American Prospect
The Return of Big Bell
AT&T wants to convince the public and regulators that its merger with T-Mobile is inevitable. It shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
techPresident
NationalField: The Private Social Network That’s Reinventing the Ground Game
Can a hierarchical, metric-driven online space change the way we campaign?
techPresident
The Guardian Project: Building Mobile Security for a Dangerous World
Inside an effort to engineer activist-ready cell phones.
techPresident
Question: Does Quora Do Politics? Answer:…
Whether it turns out to be a flash in the pan or the next Twitter, the burgeoning question-and-answer site pushes our understanding of digital political engagement.
The Atlantic
Can Obama 2012 Bring the New-Media Band Back Together Again?
What’s next for the digital operation that made Internet — and political — history.
The American Prospect
Big Brother Apple
What petitioning Apple to pull an ‘ex-gay’ apps really gets us in the end.
The American Prospect
A Tea Party Hit on Net Neutrality
Inside that special genre of political theater that is the Hill hearing on a foregone conclusion.
The Atlantic
When the Internet Nearly Fractured, and How It Could Happen Again
The story of Eugene Kashpureff’s AlterNIC, and modern challenges to the domain name system.
The American Prospect
The ‘Net and Tunisia
Scrubbing the Internet from Tunisia’s uprising doesn’t make much sense.
The American Prospect
Radio for the People
On passing the Local Community Radio Act.
New York
Julian Assange, Media Mogul
The selling of “Cablegate” shows a Wikileaks learning to make the most of the new media world. 
The American Prospect
“The Internet Is Not a Tuna Sandwich”
Law professor, technologist, and Obama White House vet Susan Crawford on what’s missing from the media reform cause.
Salon
The Alan Grayson Effect
The flamboyant and dogged Florida congressman has career advice for his fellow Democrats in Congress.
The American Prospect
Washington’s I.T. Guy
Citizen-archivist Carl Malamud is open-sourcing the federal government.
The American Prospect
Authority in the Internet Age
What a federal judge’s brushback of the FCC in the Comcast case means for the Internet from here on out.
The American Prospect
Google Everywhere
The ubiquity of Google, online and in Washington, and the case for Google skepticism.
Science Progress/Center for American Progress
Battling Back Bacteria
Science provides smarter ways to manage eating’s invisible risks.
The American Prospect
The Next Diplomatic Cable
Inside the Clinton State Department’s plan to use technology to save the world.
Seed Magazine
The New Interface of Governance
On the power of UI design in the Obama era.
Science Progress/Center for American Progress
Cheaper by the Dozen: The Dark Side of the Organic Boom
Why the Walmart-ization of organics means you might find salmonella in your top-shelf peanut butter.
Seed Magazine
Crowdsourcing the Genome
On what the aggregation of personal genetic data means for unlocking the secrets of disease.
Columbia Journalism Review
All the News That’s Fit to Feed
On APIs, aggregation, and what the New York Times can do to keep its reporters in the news business.
Science Progress/Center for American Progress
Better Patents Through Crowdsourcing
The first step towards solving the patent approval mess is admitting that patent examiners can’t do it alone. (Reprinted in Science Next)
techPresident
Twitter: An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems?
The 2008 post, co-authored with Allison Fine, that sparked the process that lead to the creation of Twitter Vote Report.
Science Progress/Center for American Progress
Broadband Done Right: The Old Dominion Model
Figuring out how to bring high-speed Internet to (almost) every holler in the commonwealth of Virginia.
Science Progress/Center for American Progress
Our Fractured Food Safety System
On the mismatch between the U.S.’s Jungle-era food system and the way we actually eat today. (Reprinted in Science Next)
AlterNet
Facebook: A Powerful Agent for Social Change
From Colombia to Burma, activists are learning how to use the social network to create social change.
AlterNet
Monsanto U: Agribusiness’s Takeover of Public Schools
The influx of corporate funding into U.S. land-grant colleges is shaping a new generation of chemically-dependent farmers and researchers.
AlterNet
Will New Hampshire Mike Huckabee’s Flat Tax?
How an Arkansan sells the Live Free or Die state on a 30% national sales tax.
AlterNet
Why Iraqi Farmers Might Prefer Death to Paul Bremer’s Order 81
What India’s farmer suicide epidemic shares with the seed patent laws imposed on the new Iraq.
AlterNet
Roadmap of a Progressive Victory
Inside Rhode Islanders quixotic — and successful — campaign to give former felons back their right to vote. |
