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Archive for 2009
Peace Facebook: Friendships on Facebook
In Facebook, Peace Facebook on November 11, 2009 at 7:11 am
I came across the “Peace Facebook” page and was surprised to see how many friendships across unlike boundaries are being created on a daily basis:
Palin’s return to Twitter
In Politicians on social networking sites on November 10, 2009 at 8:02 amFormer Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has returned to Twitter with a new Twitter handle (@SarahPalinUSA) after abandoning her official Twitter handle (and with that a lot of followers):
Facebook and Government group starts posting screenshots of government agencies
In Facebook, Government 2.0 on October 16, 2009 at 11:03 amThe “Facebook and Government” group on Facebook has started to post screenshots of government agencies who have embedded Facebook into their design:
Google launched site for public sector topics
In Government 2.0, Mashup on October 11, 2009 at 6:59 pmA while ago, Google has launched a page that solely focuses on the public sector. In their own words:
Most people reach government and other public sector websites by using Google and other search engines. This site is a guide to the tools and best practices that can help you reach, communicate and engage with your community. Most of these tools are free, so they can also help you do more with less.
Google Public Sector
“You Lie 2.0”: How disrespecting the protocol can get you thousands of new friends and a million dollars on social media sites
In Members of Congress, Obama on September 17, 2009 at 5:45 pmWas Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst “You Lie” last week during the presidential address to the joint session of Congress harmful or helpful to him? This is the question I asked in a not representative poll in my MPA class this Monday. 70% of my students said that it must have been harmful to him. And then we looked at the numbers.
In an unprecedented move, Wilson’s hired a new media strategist who went to work in the same night as his client had breached the protocol. The result: 50 new Twitter messages and a record increase in Twitter followers. Overnight, Mr. Wilson’s followers increased by 500% (from ~ 2,300 followers up to over 10,000 followers over night: see TwitterCounter).
Non of these developments comes as a surprise – although – a conservative Member of Congress is using these channels – which he hadn’t frequented as much and with a very different netiquette and traditional forms of messages: “Have a great Labor Day” – was his last message before the joint session of Congress.
Without a true apology to the American people or his fellow Members of Congress, Senator Wilson managed to create friends – or in the Web 2.0 lingo – picked up people where they are: on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. He mimicked the Campaign 2.0 success of his biggest foe, President Obama, and increased his fans on his congressional Facebook fanpage to over 11,000 fans.
In an interesting move, he is also equipped his Facebook campaign page – a standard profile page that you and I can create – to a donation channel using Google Checkout, without any substantial information about the issues. The main explanation on this page is: “Washington Democrats and their liberal allies want to divert attention away from the concerns about the massive government takeover of health care. In fact, they have made me their Number One target — already raising millions of dollars for my opponent. But I will not give up and I will not back down from our fight. We will not be muzzled. Will you please make a donation to help me fight back against these unwavering attacks? Thank you for standing with me in this fight.”
The result: More than $1.5 million dollars in donations following the weekend of his outburst. Granted – we do not know where these donations are coming from and we are not able to track them back to his Facebook campaign page or even back to his district for that matter. And – his opponent Sen. Rob Miller has made a few bucks himself during the same time frame. Both might be picking up supporters beyond their own playground.
What is interesting and a novelty in the arena of spinning the message is that new media experts are hired – who specifically focuses on targeting new media channels. The messages he is shooting out to the world are no longer about damage control – but about turning a wrong into a right: “I apologized to the President – I believe that is sufficient.”
In other contexts, misbehavior, breaching the protocol, or out-bursting inappropriately creates foes. Kanye West was shunned by his celebrity colleagues for jumping on stage at the VMA awards during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for her best video award – proclaiming that his friend Beyonce should have won the award. Serena Williams received a high fine of $10,500 dollars for insulting a line judge during the US Open finals on the same weekend. Both found themselves in the dog house — and as expected and traditionally the norm – both apologized profoundly, not only directly to the person they harmed, but also to the public.
While Wilson’ congressional website was overloaded with site hits and temporarily went down, it was reported that it was also target of a Denial of Service (DDOS) attack and a slim version without graphics is now back up.
In response to the Congress’ resolution on Tuesday, Congressman Wilson tweets: “Despite Congress’ actions today, I will not back down from speaking the truth. Please stand with me http://bit.ly/duWXu”.
Overall, what we can observe is an immense upheaval of social media tools, a medium that has become the message and a money-for-issue exchange. Social media tools are providing a payoff to catering to the fringe and are facilitating extreme polarization in Congress – and thereby giving a voice to those who were already loud – but not necessarily right. An addition to viral messages of the birthers, death panelists, and now “You lie” shouters.
Disaster maps (Apps for America)
In Apps for America, Google Maps, disaster, emergency management on September 5, 2009 at 12:19 pmI just came across a new Apps for America application that is based on data provided on data.gov mashed with Google Maps and Twitter messages from the region. Here is the information directly from their website:
Disaster Map
reBlog from socialfeds.com: Federal Agreements with Social Media Providers Released » Socialfeds
In Federal Agreements with social media providers on August 31, 2009 at 7:47 amI found this fascinating quote today:
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request in April by the Electronic Information Privacy Center (EPIC), the GSA has released the “Web 2.0 agreements” that were generated by the agency on behalf of the federal government with many social media providers in March of 2009. The release includes contracts with Blip.tv, Blist, YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace and the amendments to the Facebook, Slideshare, Vimeo, and AddThis Terms of Service. It seems that while these agreements may resolve legal concerns associated with many standard terms and conditions that pose problems for agencies, such as liability limits, endorsements and freedom of information, the contracts with the GSA consistently omit statements concerning Web 2.0 service providers’ obligations to protect privacy.socialfeds.com, Federal Agreements with Social Media Providers Released » Socialfeds, Aug 2009
A list with links to all the federal agreements with different social media providers is included in the original article
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CDC: New social media site including SecondLife island
In Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Second Life, Swine Flu, social media on August 27, 2009 at 6:28 pmJust in time for the start of the new flu season and the return of students to campuses, the CDC has redesigned their social media page. It now includes a Flickr page, Facebook group, Twitter account, YouTube channel, MySpace page, iTunes page and even a SecondLife island:
CDC Social Media
Whitehouse Open Government brainstorming map
In Barack Obama, Collaboration, Open Government, Transparency, citizen participation, participation on August 25, 2009 at 6:13 amOn debategraph.org, an interactive Wiki was created to display the brainstorming process of the Whitehouse’s Open Government dimensions:
Whitehouse Open Government Brainstorming Map
Transparency: WaPo launches POTUS tracker
In Barack Obama, Transparency on August 24, 2009 at 8:33 pmThe Washington Post has just launched the “POTUS tracker” to follow President Obama’s meeting schedule:
Washington Post: POTUS tracker
Facebook to Twitter app (for FB profile pages)
In Facebook, Members of Congress, Social networking services, Twitter, social networking sites on August 21, 2009 at 7:58 amFacebook has launched the “Facebook to Twitter” application. So far it is only available for Facebook Pages of businesses, celebrities, politicians, etc. Here is Facebook’s official definition of a Facebook page:
While I was interviewing congressional offices to understand their use of Facebook pages and profiles, I came across different strategies. Some have started out with profile pages and when they reached the maximum of 5,000 friends, they switched to a FB page. Others waited until they received official advice from their party leadership on how to use FB. Using “Facebook to Twitter” updates would definitely help them to easily update only one social networking service and send the message out automatically to Twitter. Saves the staffers an additional step in their already extremely busy schedules.
Facebook to Twitter
USAID: Global Development Commons of the 2009 Afghanistan Election
In Google Maps, Google Mashup on August 20, 2009 at 6:21 amUSAIDs Global Development Commons: Connect. Collaborate. Innovate:
DoD social media report & web redesign effort
In Adoption of new technology on August 18, 2009 at 7:35 pmAfter its crowdsourcing efforts through DoDLink and several media outlets, the Department of Defense has published its new defense.gov website. While that page certainly does have a few social media components, the DoD Social Media Special Report website displays all used new media tools in a very unique way: Click on the image below to go to the website and mouse-over each of the icons to see the pop-up bubbles with additional information to each tool:
DoD DefenseLink Special Report Social Media
“Twitter Fight” among Members of Congress
In Health Care Reform, Health insurance reform, Members of Congress, Twitter Fight on August 15, 2009 at 4:19 pmI just read about the “Twitter Fight” between Sen. Arlen Specter and Sen. Chad Grassely, both defending their standpoints on the health insurance reform.
Starting with Specter’s Twitter message: “Called Senator Grassley to tell him to stop speading myths about health care reform and imaginary “death panels.”
Grassley said: “Specter got it all wrong that I ever used words “death boards”. Even liberal press never accused me of that. So change ur last Tweet Arlen“:
And another response from Spector: “I will try to persuade Senator Grassley that the availability of counseling is appropriate and should be included in health care reform.”
Congressman Mike Honda: Crowdsourcing approach
In Diffusion of innovation, Members of Congress, New media, Open Congress, citizen participation, crowdsourcing, social media on August 14, 2009 at 1:38 pmI am in the process of interviewing the most innovative congressional offices on their new media strategies and came across a truly groundbreaking approach for a political representative. Congressman Mike Honda, 15th district, CA (which includes Silicon Valley), and his new media director AJ Bhadelia, have initiated a crowdsourcing approach to redesign Honda’s congressional website. While there are a lot of details that I will report later, the first result of this process is up online:
Whitehouse.gov uses social media for health insurance reform reality check
In Barack Obama, Government 2.0, Health Care Reform, Health insurance reform, Obama, Transparency, Web 2.0, citizen participation, health, social media on August 12, 2009 at 4:49 amAccording to an LA Times article, the Whitehouse is using the power of social media to start a “reality check” offensive to stop the spread of health insurance reform rumors:
See also the Whitehouse’s blog post on the topic.
Health insurance reform
OpenCongress.org: Overflowing with comments on health insurance reform
In Barack Obama, Health Care Reform, Open Congress, citizen participation, crowdsourcing, health on August 11, 2009 at 6:51 pmOpenCongress.org, a “free and open-source joint project of two non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation” has uploaded the full health care reform proposal. Per request they included a new version with page numbers and citizens can comment, share the bill, support or oppose the bill, track the bill, etc. Just today over 30,000 people have viewed the bill:
Here is a description of the OpenCongress’ purpose and goals:
OpenCongress brings together official government data with news coverage, blog posts, public comments, and more to give you the real story behind what’s happening in Congress. Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists already know what’s really going on in Congress. Now, everyone can be an insider.
OpenCongress is a free, open-source, not-for-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of two 501c3 non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation. To read more about our mission, our open data sources, and how Congress works, see About OpenCongress. To read more about how individuals and organizations can use this site to find and share valuable info about their political interests, see How To Use OpenCongress.
You can find OpenCongress.org on Facebook.
Book: Influence of social networks on the adoption of eLearning practices
In Adoption of new technology, Books, Diffusion of innovation, Networks, Publications, Social Network Analysis, eLearning, informal networks, network ties, networking, public sector on August 10, 2009 at 12:41 pmOn a personal note: Just designed the cover of a new publication. My dissertation (from 2005) will be available in a print-on-demand version soon.
An increasing number of public institutions of higher education are realizing that there is a need to integrate innovative technologies into their curricula in order to enable students to access and review academic content anytime and to connect with each other outside of the classroom. Many public institutions of higher education have recognized this need and are in the process of introducing new practices in order to meet changing market conditions. These practices are generally referred to as eLearning practices. Besides the intended outcomes of digital student support and access to teaching content, applying eLearning practices and integrating them into the traditional existing teaching routines challenges an organization in multiple ways. The aim here is to show the factors influencing this adoption decision process. To gain a deeper understanding of the patterns and success factors of the adoption of eLearning practices, a social network perspective was applied to the process through which innovative technologies adopted by faculty members.
Reference:
Mergel, I. (2009): The influence of social networks on the adoption of eLearning practices: Using social network analysis to understand technology diffusion and adoption decision, Lambert Academic Publishing, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-8383-1083-1.
InnovateNow.us: Crowdsourcing approach in government
In Government 2.0, Web 2.0, citizen participation, crowdsourcing, public sector on August 7, 2009 at 6:52 amRecently, I came across several examples of active crowdsourcing approaches in government. This week on GovTech.com, InnovateNow.us was introduced: A crowdsourcing approach in cooperation between the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity “to determine how to increase the public transit ridership and reduce greenhouse gas emission”. More than 180,000 people have registered on the website so far. A $5,000 reward will be given to the person who suggests the best or most innovative solution:
DoD is asking the public and interested professionals to weigh in to their efforts in redesigning their website: www.defense.gov. They actively solicit feedback and input on the new DoD Web 2.0 Guidance Forum:
- DHS: Help us design our website:
- UK: Questions to MPs and Members of the House of Lord
DDoS targeted one Twitter user – related to Russia-Georgia conflict
In Denial of Service Attack, Social networking services, Twitter, online networking, social media, social networking sites on August 7, 2009 at 4:08 am
Several sites report this morning, that the distributed denial of service attack on Twitter, potentially also on Facebook, YouTube, Google, Livejournal and other social networking services, was targeted towards only one user: an outspoken critic of the ongoing Russian-Georgian conflict.
Millions of users worldwide received emails with links to Twitter (Mashable, NYT, Guardian, etc.). The resulting heavy traffic brought the site down for most of the day and might have caused problems on Facebook due to additional traffic.
Expert relate this attack to the ongoing cyberwar between Russia and Georgia.
Twitter: Denial of service attack
In Denial of Service Attack, Twitter on August 6, 2009 at 10:45 amApparently, Twitter became important enough to be the target of a “Denial of Service attack” today (see related NYT article). These attacks were so far mainly targeting banks, government agencies, etc. Twitter relies on its Twitter Status update blog to let the community know:
Twitter - Denial of Service Attack
My Card.ly Business Card with Social Networking Services
In Card.ly, Social networking services on August 5, 2009 at 5:07 amCheck out my card.ly business card:
Marines: Immediate ban of Social Networking Services (- or not)
In Government 2.0, Military, Networks, Twitter, Web 2.0, networking, online networking, social media, social networking sites on August 4, 2009 at 3:56 pm
The Marines are no longer able to access social networking services. The following graphic shows the official statement published online and in all capital letters:
THESE INTERNET SITES IN GENERAL ARE A PROVEN HAVEN FOR MALICIOUS ACTORS AND CONTENT AND ARE PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK DUE TO INFORMATION EXPOSURE, USER GENERATED CONTENT AND TARGETING BY ADVERSARIES. THE VERY NATURE OF SNS CREATES A LARGER ATTACK AND EXPLOITATION WINDOW, EXPOSES UNNECESSARY INFORMATION TO ADVERSARIES AND PROVIDES AN EASY CONDUIT FOR INFORMATION LEAKAGE THAT PUTS OPSEC, COMSEC, PERSONNEL AND THE MCEN AT AN ELEVATED RISK OF COMPROMISE. EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SNS SITES INCLUDE FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.
At the same time, DoD and the U.S. Strategic Command are discussing weather they should restrict or ban social networking services ]. You can join the discussion on the Army Live blog (which will also be block for internal access in case the ban will come through) or on Twitter with @USArmy:
Read the full story on Wired.com by Noah Shachtman: Marines Ban Twitter, MySpace, Facebook
Here is the response of @thejointstaff (Adm. Mike Mullen):
Update (August 7, 2009): See NextGov article: “Marines and Social Nets: We Goofed” => Not sure what to believe… Marines seem still be allowed to use social media on their personal accounts. But they are reinforcing to ban “access to social Web sites on Defense networks to conserve bandwidth for operational requirements.”
You’ve got mail, Mr. President!
In Barack Obama, Government 2.0, Social Software, Twitter, Video, Web 2.0, Wisdom of the crowd, citizen participation, social media, social networking sites, technology on August 3, 2009 at 7:24 amThe Whitehouse has just posted a blog entry with a video showing how the President receives his mail every morning. Mr. Obama states that these letters keep him in touch with what is going on in the country and he responds personally with a handwritten letter. The video shows that the Whitehouse receives about 100,000 emails a week, 6,500 paper letters/week, ~1,000 faxes per day, ~2,500-3,500 calls/day.
Adding all the press coverage, Twitter messages, blog posts produced on social networking services every day that in one way or another touch the subjects the President is dealing with, we need to develop tools to efficiently digest and extract the most important themes.
Moreover, I see a few unsolved issues of information overload, vetting the information that is produced through all those channels and the process of intelligent ranking and selection of important issues. How can we verify that the information produced is true and represents the actual “trending” topics – to use a Twitter analogy. Artificial intelligence might be one answer to support the filtering process and grouping of similar topics, but the additional reality check is critical and can only be done with human intelligence.
See also the Whitehouse Blog entry and the responding @whitehouse message on Twitter.
US EUCOM website redesigned
In Government 2.0, Social Software, Web 2.0 on August 2, 2009 at 8:47 amThe US European Command has redesigned their website adding social networking services to their frontpage:
Twitter: New form of citizen participation – Tweet your senator
In Google Maps, Google Mashup, Government 2.0, Obama, Twitter on July 29, 2009 at 4:30 pmI just stumbled upon the “Organizing for America” website with a new feature: Constituents can send Twitter messages to their Senator by adding a zip code to their message. The goal is to alert Senators of who is supporting Obama’s health insurance plan. The Twitter messages are popping up on a Google Mashup. Here are the instructions:
Enter your zip code above and you will be re-directed to the Twitter website to send your message. Due to character limitations, one of your senators will be selected at random each time you tweet.
Regulations.gov in Web 2.0 look and feel redesigned
In Government 2.0, Transparency on July 26, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Regulations.gov is a website that hosts U.S. government regulations from over 300 agencies with the following functionality (quoted from the site):
Search for a regulation such as a proposed rule, final rule or Federal Register (FR) notice
Submit a comment on a regulation or on another comment
Submit an application, petition or adjudication document
Sign up for e-mail alerts about a specific regulation
Quickly access regulations that are popular, newly posted or closing soon-directly from the homepage
Subscribe to RSS feeds by agency of newly posted FR notices
Besides supporting the traditional e-rulemaking process, the website has a remarkable design: The site itself looks like a page in a book and tabs have the look of post-its. In addition to the search functionality (search for proposed rules, search for final rules, submit comments, submit and read comments), the page has a few Web 2.0 functions including sharing to over 60 different social networking services and RSS feeds.
Facebook privacy settings gone wild – Husbands receives single ad with wife’s picture
In Facebook, Government 2.0 on July 18, 2009 at 1:20 pm
It seems as if Facebook has changed their privacy settings again without informing the users: Facebook now uses by default your pictures in their Facebook ads. I first heard about it on the Mashable Blog.
This came out recently when a man saw ads on his Facebook page for a dating website with his wife’s picture in it. The screenshot of the wife’s blog shows the ad and the whole story.
Here is how you should change your privacy settings in case you want to avoid the same disaster and actually keep your privacy:
- Go to settings
- Privacy settings
- Click on “News Feed and Wall”
- Go to tab: “Facebook Ads” and for “Appearance in Facebook Ads” select “No one“:
Update: Facebook responds on their blog saying that they are tackling the problem.
Update 2: NYT picks up the topic: “Can you protect your image while on Facebook?” (07/24/2009)
Government 2.0 – Collaboration: NASA launches CosmoCode for internal collaboration
In Government 2.0, Web 2.0 on July 7, 2009 at 5:17 amNASA has announced today that their CoLab has launched CosmoCode as an internal alpha to provide “free and open source space software through an independent project hosting website, and the development and management of a free software community specific to the challenges and opportunities afforded by space.”
Here are the goals and vision of the website:
Goals
The goals of CosmosCode are to:
- Explore the cost-benefit of leveraging the free and open source development process for projects that normally costs millions of dollars in development and testing;
- Open a door to our silicon valley neighbors and encourage private industry to create products and services which leverage and extend NASA’s investments, extending their applicability and relevance to the commercial sector;
- Leverage the free and open source community to improve software quality, enhance the functionality of existing software products, and create a virtual center of expertise in the area of space software;
- Improve the effectiveness of existing collaborations with other NASA Centers, space agencies, universities, and contractors;
- Through tutorials, transparency, collaborative planning, and a direct connection to NASA developers, provide an on-ramp for programmers looking to get involved in space, and for space companies looking to get involved in software;
- Distribute NASA’s public software to as wide an audience as possible.
Website
CosmosCode will offer:
- Free Project Hosting (source code repository and project tools (Trac): wiki, tickets, subversion browsing)
- Guides and HowTos on developing open source for the space sector, blogs and discussion forums for questions and relationship building
Community building: bridging the divide
- Clarifying and paving the way for NASA projects to participate in the free/open source community; Opening the door for the the same community to support core NASA mission requirements
- Focus on interaction and collaboration
SeeClickFix.com
In Transparency, Twitter, citizen journalism on July 6, 2009 at 5:55 pmThe Boston Globe reports today the following article “Municipal complaint? There’s an app for that“ about a new Government 2.0 application: SeeClickFix.com which reminds me of FixMyStreet in the Great Britain. Citizens can type in their complaint including a zip code. The complaint will be displayed on a Google Mashup and other citizens can comment or vote (e.g., “4 people want this fixed too”). The results can be sent to Twitter. Here is a screen shot of the app:
Red Cross Social Media Strategy Handbook
In social media on July 6, 2009 at 8:01 am
The Red Cross Social Media Strategy Handbook including slide deck:
Open Government: IT Spending Dashboard launched by the US federal government today
In Government 2.0, Open Government, Transparency on June 30, 2009 at 8:11 am
Today, Vivek Kundra announced the launch of the IT Spending Dashboard to track federal spending on IT projects across departments. It will be interesting to see if this will also trigger interventions in the way that the federal government spends money. Moreover, it might have the potential to change the way the federal government is organizing procurement.
Besides keeping track of contractors, government might also need to think about redesigning and redefining the internal specification process before the actual spending starts.
And here is a YouTube video with an introduction and overview of the functionalities:
New article: Co-Citation of Prominent Social Network Articles in Sociology Journals: The Evolving Can, by Lazer, Mergel, Friedman
In INSNA, Publications, Social Network Analysis, connections, research papers on June 25, 2009 at 6:29 am
Our paper “Co-Citation of Prominent Social Network Articles: The Evolving Can” was published by Connections in their current issue. You can download a copy from my publications page at Maxwell.
Abstract:
Social network analysis has been a particularly hot area across the social (and some non-social) sciences. How has this growth, in turn, affected the field of social network analysis within sociology, the discipline which has served as the primary home of social network analysis over the last several decades? In order to answer this question, we examined the citation patterns of the social network papers in the two leading general sociology journals, the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology, from 1990-2005, focusing on the body of literature that was cited by at least two social network papers in a given year. We produced two network snapshots of the social network canon during this period. These analyses reveal a combination of great change and substantial continuity. There was a substantial increase in interest in social networks in sociology throughout this period, and, in particular, an enormous rise in interest in small world issues, coupled with the abrupt entry of mathematicians and physicists into the sociology social network canon. However, during this entire period Granovetter’s work remained squarely at the center of the canon, with Granovetter (1973) as the most cited piece at both the earlier and later snapshots.
Twitter Whitehouse account updates Obama’s message in Farsi
In Government 2.0, Iran election, Twitter revolution, YouTube, online networking on June 24, 2009 at 6:04 am
President Obama talked about the protesters in Iran this week. The Whitehouse Twitter account was subsequently updated in Farsi.
Similarly his YouTube address was published with Farsi subtitles:
A new “Twitter Revolution”? Is social media helping or hurting the protesters in Iran?
In Facebook, Government 2.0, Iran election, Twitter, Twitter revolution, Web 2.0, citizen journalism, online networking, social media, social networking sites on June 20, 2009 at 10:18 am
Originally uploaded by Ines Mergel.
In the aftermath of the Iran elections, social media tools have played a signicant role in publishing citizens’ stories and pictures on tools such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Mashable has posted a great overview of the number of posts published on blogs and micro-blogging tools that made it through the Internet blockage imposed by the Iranian government.
While it is not clear yet if Twitter really played an absolutely integral role and the traditional media channels didn’t play a role at all(see the Washington Post’s article on “Reading Twitter in Tehran: Sorry, but real revolutions exceed 140 characters” or the BusinessWeek “Iran’s Twitter Revolution maybe not yet“), the following picture shows a Facebook page Musavi’s supporters have set up for him. They label him here as the current “President” of Iran and I am wondering if this might hurt him more than it might actually help his cause.
See the post of the Institute on Ethics and Emerging Technologies on the dark side of Twitter in Iran.
Without any attribution or a source, I heard on Twitter that citizens should take out the batteries from their cellphones after they publish their messages and videos to social networking sites, so that the government won’t be able to geotrack them.
My Facebook Vanity URL
In Facebook, Social Networks, social networking sites on June 13, 2009 at 5:11 am
Government 2.0 in action: Redesigned Utah.gov portal
In Government 2.0 on June 9, 2009 at 7:39 amThe Utah.gov state portal was redesigned this week and has now a lot of interesting Web 2.0 features, such as direct connections using social media tools (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, different mobile applications and RSS feeds). Besides the traditional functions of a portal, Utah has extended their online presence by geolocation services. The new administration’s open government and transparency paradigm seems to be accomplished as well: online government data is provided (data tab), tracking of taxpayers’ money (transparency tab), support of citizen participation (public meetings tab), support innovation (innovation), and a lot more:
Update: YouTube video with explanations of the functionalities:
Treasure hunt on Twitter: Rejected man hides engagement ring, posts clues on Twitter
In Social Software, Twitter, social media on June 7, 2009 at 7:47 amAnother surprising use of social media: A man in New Zealand hid the engagement ring his former girlfriend didn’t accept and posted 14 clues on Twitter for people to find it:
Government 2.0: Obama’s speech live on Facebook & Twitter (not on TV)
In Facebook, Government 2.0, Obama, Social Networks, Twitter, Web 2.0, online networking, social media, social networking sites on June 4, 2009 at 6:06 amObama’s Kairo speech today addressed very openly all topics the middle east (and for that matter the whole world) is dealing with. It was broadcasted live only on Facebook with a constant flow of comments by Facebook users right next to the video. I had Twitter open in Tweetie right next to it and watched the @whitehouse messages flowing in at the same time. The audio and video quality was excellent – no static, no delay:
Obama's speech live on Facebook and Twitter
Viral T-Shirt Marketing on Amazon.com
In networking, online networking, online ties, social media, social networking sites on May 27, 2009 at 6:59 pmA T-Shirt with two wolfes on it received over 760 customer reviews, triggered by a first review highlighting the advantages of the (rather plain and uninteresting) T-Shirt:
“Show us a better way”, “Apps for democracy”, “Apps for America”
In Government 2.0 on May 21, 2009 at 5:49 pmTwo (not so new) initiatives in the area of democratizing data:
1. Show us a better way (UK)
“Show us a better way” is an initiative in the United Kingdom run by the “Power of Information Taskforce” with the mandate to:
“The Power of Information Taskforce is helping government become more open, transparent and effective through better use of published information. This competition is asking for your help in developing better ways to publish the vast swathes of non-personal information that the government collects & creates on your behalf. Public data is your data.”
2. Apps for democracy (Washington, DC)
Vivek Kundra has created a similar initiative in the city of Washington, DC called “Apps for democracy“. Raw data was provided and a call to programmers was launched in which they were asked to come up with innovative tools to use public data. In comparison to large expenses for “traditional” e-Government applications, this initiative only has $35,000 available to give to the award winners.
Here is the video with an overview.
3. Apps for America
After Apps for Democracy, Sunlight Labs has just launched the Apps for America contest using the Data.gov data.
Government 2.0 enthusiasts worth following on Twitter
In Blogs I read, Government 2.0, Swine Flu, Twitter, Web 2.0, citizen journalism on May 18, 2009 at 2:11 pmCross-posting on “Shaping Network Society” blog:
I am a Twitter enthusiast and as one of those people who do spend a lot of time online, I noticed that Twitter is one of the information channels, that help me get access to information, that is otherwise not on my radar screen or I would not get access to.
Twitter – for me personally as a Government 2.0 researcher – therefore has the potential to bridge structural holes in the communication and information structure that I have built over the years. In addition, I noticed that it is expanding my attention network of a) topics I should pay attention to, and b) people and their public conversation streams that are interesting to know. In a new information paradigm of the US government to move from a need to know to a need to share strategy, I thought I would share a few interesting people whose information and conversation who might be interesting to listen in to.
Without trying to convince anyone of the power of public conversations happening on Twitter, I put together a list of people and organizations that might have helpful information for anyone interested in Web 2.0 in government:
@timoreilly: Tim O’Reilly is the found and CEO of O’Reilly Media, traditionally known for publishing IT-related books, is now a supporter of Government 2.0 and hosts conferences on the topic. Definitely worth following -> I learned a LOT!
@mcaffee: Andrew McAffee, a former professor at Harvard Business School, has coined the term Enterprise 2.0. Andy addresses corporate but also general Web 2.0 problems and is asking questions using the hashtag #andyasks -> add the tag to the new search function, so that you can revisit the information purring in every few days.
If you like tweets from space live from the repair team of the Hubble telescope, space astronaut Mike Massimino is tweeting his observations directly from the space shuttle: @Astro_Mike. NASA itself was one of the first twitter users within the US federal government: @NASA.
As the swine flu (H1N1) developed and the threat level has increased to a pandemic disease, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US has adopted a comprehensive Web 2.0 approach to reach potential groups that are at risk at the virtual locations they might be frequenting the most. I posted a blog entry on this on my blog with an overview of tools used. On Twitter: @CDCemergency).
There are tons of government agencies present on Twitter and BearingPoint has put together a huge list that can be found here:
I have selected a few government agencies I am following and find helpful:
- Department of State: Official Blog of the U.S. Department of State @dipnote
- White House @whitehouse
- US Army @USArmy
- Tweet Congress: Aggregator of tweets from Members of Congress @tweetcongress
- USA.gov – the one-stop shopping portal of the US Government: @usagov
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA): @tsablogteam
In addition, the tweets of government-related IT publications and organizations might be helpful to learn about ongoing initiatives and news:
- One Laptop Per Child @olpc
- Govdigest @govdigest and DotGov @dotgov are compiling up to date information and are retweeting information from other accounts, spreading the word to their followers and multiplying the attention base.
- UN Secretary general @secgen is using Twitter to as an online calendar, listing whom he is meeting with each day.
- GovWik
- Government Technology Magazine
As I am located in the US, this post and my list of favorite Web 2.0 people is very much US-centric. Please leave your suggestions for additional Twitter accounts in the comments!
Follow me on Twitter: @inesmergel
Future of journalims: Congressional hearing: Print vs. blog and citizen journalism
In citizen journalism on May 9, 2009 at 7:34 amThis week the The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation conducted a hearing of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet on the “Future of Journalism“. Invited were representatives of traditional print media (Steve Coll, Former Managing Editor The Washington Post and James Moroney, Publisher/CEO The Dallas Morning News) and new media, such as Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience Google Inc. and Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post.com.
Some snippets of the testimonies:
- Huffington:
“Journalism Will Not Only Survive, It Will Thrive”
“Can anyone seriously argue that this isn’t a magnificent time for readers who can surf the net, use search engines, and go to news aggregators to access the best stories from countless sources around the world — stories that are up-to-the-minute, not rolled out once a day? Online news also allows users to immediately comment on stories, as well as interact and form communities with other commenters.”
- Ibargüen, Knights Foundation:
“For the first time in the history of the Republic, news and information are being delivered on platforms far broader than the geographic boundaries of our democratic institutions. Until recently, the circulation area of newspaper or the reach of local television or radio signal roughly coincided with the physical boundaries of cities and countries.”
Coll, Former Editor of Washington Post
American journalism has entered a phase of what the economist Joseph Schumpeter has called “creative destruction.”
The participants made a few suggestion on what Congress could do to ensure the public interest journalists are serving. My biggested question is: should the Government bailout the newspapers, acquiring stakes in newspapers? How can this serve public interest as a democracy element, if journalists have to serve a newspaper owned by the government? Will this ensure neutral coverage and still be democratic?
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra: Five-Point Plan
In Networks on April 30, 2009 at 7:32 pmVivek Kundra’s Five-Point Plan on which the administrative agenda will focus on was published in Government Technology:
- Open and transparent government.
- Lowering the cost of government.
- Cyber-security
- Participatory democracy
- Innovation
I am especially curious how Kundra and his colleague Beth Noveck will accomplish point 4 and what kind of tools they will use to increase participatory democracy.
I visited the Open Government Committee of New York State today and am very impressed with their accomplishments over the last 35 years.
White House “Open for Questions”
In Networks on April 30, 2009 at 5:51 pmThe wrap up of Obama’s first online town hall meeting are now posted on the White house blog’s section “Open for Questions“. From the Blog:
92,937 people have submitted 103,978 questions and cast 1,782,650 votes
Here is the video in which he explains how he wants to use online town hall meetings as tools to increase citizen participation:
More Government 2.0 from President Obama
In Barack Obama, Government 2.0, Networks on April 30, 2009 at 5:44 pmThe first 100 days in pictures are now up on the White House’s Flickr page. Great behind the scenes pictures again. I like the one where he checks out his new office:
The Celebrity Ecosystem on Twitter (via NYT)
In Twitter, connections, network ties, networking, online networking, online ties, social networking sites on March 30, 2009 at 6:49 amThe New York Times posted a network diagram highlighting how celebrities are connected on Twitter:
(Picture linked from NYT)
Facebook’s Terms of Use and implications for network researchers
In Networks on February 22, 2009 at 12:59 pmI just posted this on the “Complexity and Social Networks Blog“, Harvard’s Program on Networked Governance:
The changes of Facebook’s Terms of Use were quickly followed by massive protests of thousands of users requesting to abandon those changes. The Consumerist Blog was one of the first to ask their readers to boycott Facebook and look for alternative ways to connect with friends.
About a week after the change, Facebook made the decision to revert back to their original TOS (from Sepember 2008) and now works with their lawyers and legal specialists to come up with an improved version.
For researchers the TOS are critical: not just for understanding how Facebook will use our own data, but we also need to understand how we can use network data to analyze emergent social structures and the way users create, maintain, or abandon their online ties. The current TOS leave us in limbo – not knowing what is allowed and to what extent.
To understand this better and to collect the wisdom of the social network analyst crowd, I recently started a discussion on this topic on the SocNet listserver. I am trying to find arguments that will help to explain my research interests to an Institutional Review Board. The discussion is still going on. A few highlights are:
- Facebook does not allow research (or anyone) to store data more than 24 hours, which makes it difficult to clean, analyze and of course at the end publish the data.
- Data needs to be anonymous (especially in SNA network data cannot be anonymous – we need to know what kind of actors are nominating other actors and longitudinal data analysis seems to be impossible).
- So far I have identified three different ways to collect/use Facebook data, although at this point it is unclear how people can comply to the first two bullet points.
- Bernie Hogan at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK, has created a Facebook application available on iTunesU to analyze Facebook data (open iTunes -> iTunes -> Oxford University).
- Dataverse project at Harvard’s Berkman Center has made available Facebook data.
- Create an application or a group on Facebook where you can find a way to have people give their consent to collect data on their online behavior and contacts.
We have set up an informal meeting at the annual INSNA (International Network of Social Network Analysis) conference in San Diego to exchange some of the ideas and information available. In case you are interested in joining us – please email me at ines_mergel(at)yahoo.com. I will post an update after the conference in March.
“Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook”
In Facebook, Social Networks, Social Networks Blogs, network ties, networking on February 21, 2009 at 3:40 pm“Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook” website shows conversations between kids and their various family members.
Here is one example directly linked from their website:
MC Hammer at HBS explaining Twitter
In Good Morning America, Harvard University, Social Networks, Social Software, Twitter, network ties, networking, online networking, social media, social networking sites on February 21, 2009 at 8:22 amA new expert on social networking, MC Hammer, spoke at HBS about how he uses Twitter effectively. Instead of letting other people talk about him, he says that Twitter is a way of controlling what people hear – directly from him. The session was taped for a special issue on Twitter for Good Morning America. As Andy McAffee (HBS) says in the Good Morning America piece: Twitter is a low cost very public way to share information online:
(Picture linked from The Crimson)
Update: Here is the video from Good Morning America with the coverage.
Vote on list of recommendations for an Open Government Directive
In CTO, Obama, Open Government, Transparency on February 21, 2009 at 7:40 amKudos to Facebook for returning to their previous Terms of Use
In Networks on February 18, 2009 at 5:59 amI found the message below this morning on my Facebook profile. Kudos to Facebook for reverting back to their previous terms of use. An example of peer pressure:
Terms of Use Update
Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.
If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
Royal Web 2.0
In Networks on February 16, 2009 at 2:40 pmThe royal Website got a revamp and now includes a Queen tracker… talking about royal Web 2.0:
Queen tracker
Lazer et al. on “Computational Social Science” in Science
In Networks on February 14, 2009 at 4:33 pmSOCIAL SCIENCE: Computational Social Science
Lazer et al.
Science 6 February 2009: 721-723
DOI: 10.1126/science.1167742
Found on the Web: The people and their food consumed in a week, by Joao Batista
In Networks on February 14, 2009 at 4:31 pmJoao Batista’s photo series on “The People and the food they consume in a week” made it onto Facebook and is spreading. The last picture is the most impressive:
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
