Last week in Las Vegas, an ideological showdown occurred in the political backyard of embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as the left-wing Netroots Nation Convention and conservative RightOnline Conference squared off for the third year in a row. The competing online activism conferences once again returned the media spotlight to an issue that dominated President  Read more »

Last year, the US State Department made an unusual request to a social network. It asked Twitter to delay maintenance that might have interrupted messages from Iranians protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Twitter obliged by delaying its operation keeping the network open and Iranians free to tweet. Anger over the Iranian presidential elections spilled  Read more »

This year’s Show-Me State Senate battle for the U.S. Senate may be the most important race in the nation that no one is talking about.  Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is pitted against Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) to replace outgoing Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO). Earlier this month, I examined the social media efforts  Read more »

The Montgomery Advertiser has an article that states, “There is no one candidate you can point to who has won solely by being a YouTube or Internet hit.”  The article highlights the Dale Peterson and Tim James YouTube videos that became internet sensations but did not translate into wins on Election Day.  This is the  Read more »

Three unnamed sources have said Facebook will delay its initial public offering until 2012.  “Waiting lets Zuckerberg, 26, hone the skills needed to steer a company that issues quarterly results while facing criticism on such matters as user privacy,” says Brian Womack.  Facebook is currently valued at $24.9 billion. Read more from Brian Womack at  Read more »

Sunlight Labs has released a mobile application for Android phone owners, which will connect users with their Representative.  The application had been in public beta testing for months.  Sarah Perez explains the Congress application is a “comprehensive toolset that helps you stay on top of congressional activity, voting records, new bills and laws, and more.  Read more »

While on “The View” President Obama talked about his Twitter account.  Obama said that he doesn’t tweet regularly and “some 20-year-old” does it for him on some official presidential account.  I wonder if he uses someone that looks exactly like him.  Maybe this guy? 0

According to Dave Pell, the five most endangered words on the Internet are “Let me think about that.” Pell points to the recent Shirley Sherrod debacle as evidence that “Facebook and Twitter behaviors are bleeding over into the rest of our lives.”  Pell goes further, “When confronted with the realtime web’s constant flow of incoming  Read more »

(via TechRepublican) ABCNews takes a look at how social networking is influencing politics. 0

Cross posted to TechRepublican We can learn a lot from Ford’s unveiling of the 2011 Explorer on Tuesday.  Rather than introducing the “100% reinvented” Explorer at an auto show (which is standard procedure), Ford revealed it exclusively on its Facebook Page.  Talk about making your Facebook “fans” feel special. Ford’s Facebook unveiling is the twenty-first  Read more »