The Web on the Candidates

• "Don't ask me. I just work here." That's the jokey response of Jon Pincus, a strategist and sometimes Open Left blogger who is helping to organize the loosely-coordinated effort to grow the "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity" group on MyBarackObama.com, when I asked him via email this morning what's next for the flourishing group. Launched last Wednesday, the group -- a protest against Barack Obama's support for legislation that that protects U.S.-based telecom companies who participated in warrantless surveillance -- has attracted more than 10,000 members, making it in a week the biggest member-created group on the 17 month-old site. More seriously, Pincus says the next steps are to "keep growing, phoning, [and] influencing the media narrative." An off-site wiki being used to organize the group suggests holding back contributions in protest. [See clarification on this point below.] The Nation's Ari Melber has more. The New York Times has a (non)response from Obama spokesperson Bill Burton: "The fact that there is an open forum on BarackObama.com where supporters can say whether they agree or disagree speaks to a strength of our campaign."

The Candidates on the Web

• Opening an email from the Obama campaign last week, blog pioneer and Obama supporter Dave Winer expected a targeted strategy briefing and instead getting a fundraising pitch. Remarked Dave in response, "the voter as ATM thing is wearing pretty thin." (Via the Minnesota Independent) But Dave should know that his email was, in fact, customized -- the ask in his note was $100, while the one, say, sent to non-contributors and posted on social-networking sites like Eons, BlackPlanet, and FaithBase was just $25.

TechCongress and Beyond

• Here's something to keep an eye on on the tech policy front: the conservative battle over broadband. Now, universal high-speed Internet access is like sailboats or skinny dipping or owning your own pony -- in theory, what's not to like? But, alas, the devil is in the details, and when the Internet for Everyone (IFE) coalition launched at PdF '08, some conservatives weren't so quick to jump on board. The question is: how, exactly, do you go about extending the Internet in America? Stick with me, because the story has some twists and turns but it's an important look at tech's partisan implications. Republican consultant David All was a founding member of the coalition and praised its aims and explained his participation, in part, by pointing to fellow IFE-er and "father of the Internet" Vint Cerf as a fellow Republican. But TechPres contributor and cable industry insider Mike Turk derided All's vision of a "socialist utopia," and former Fred Thompson staffer and National Journal writer William Beutler questioned the coalition's bipartisan bona fides. Cerf, whose remarks at PdF on the government's proper role in building out the Internet raised some eyebrows, has taken to the Technology Liberation Front blog to say he doesn't want to nationalize the Internet, just make it more like the public road system. Finally, there's the take from Red State's Erick Erickson, who, while deriding most of the founders of the coalition, gives warning of their nefarious motives -- and describes the Personal Democracy Forum as "a gathering of internet junkies bent on changing the world." Nice ring to it, no? Might work in next year's marketing materials.

• Under the banner of "political rhetoric examined," a new site called Speechology has just launched, and it's an admirably smooth and spare interface for viewing and reviewing political video -- specifically debates, speeches, campaign ads. (Disclosure: Speechology is funded by a mini-grant from the Sunlight Foundation, where PdF's Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry are tech advisors. But the project earns its mention here because it's really neat.) Take a look.

In Case You Missed It...

An update on our "Does a Connected World Need a Connected POTUS Poll?" -- with voting just underway, the responses are tracking 60% for a president of the United States needing first-hand knowledge of the Internet, 34% for a POTUS having just a firm understanding of the Internet's impact, and 4% saying that the POTUS has more important things to do than go online. The poll is still open, so vote away -- but more importantly, share your take in the comments.

Micah Sifry takes a look a network theorist Valdis Krebs's analysis of the political book buying patterns of Americans. Krebs, who might be best known for his analysis of the "social" ties connecting 9/11 conspirators, wonders whether the U.S. is moving from slightly right-of-center to slightly left-of-center, but Micah suggests that our decisions about the tomes we're picking up are being driven by the Iraq war.

Micah also highlights Show Us a Better Way, a project in the U.K. where the government has released huge stashes of data and a bunch of APIs, and offered a good-sized prize for the citizen who makes the most from it. Hold your tomatoes because there's just no other way to say it: this is governing 2.0.

The Financial Times's Joshua Chaffin looks at PdF '08 as a gathering of former "outsiders". Chaffin comes up with this little anthropological nugget: even PdF attendees sometimes consume news via ink and newsprint. Shhh...

Speaking of PdF '08, videos from some of the conference keynotes are now up on Blip.tv. Catch up with a conversation with Elizabeth (and John) Edwards, Larry Lessig on declaring American political independence, Jonathan Zittrain on the future of the Internet, and Mark Pesce on American-style "hyperpolitics." Keep an eye on the PdF Blip channel at pdf.blip.tv for more videos in the days to come.

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UPDATE: Jon Pincus writes to clarify a detail I muddled somewhat: the wiki set up to organize around the "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity" group on MyBarackObama.com does not call for protestors to withhold donations from the campaign. Rather, it suggests that if they decide to withhold contributions over FISA they let the campaign know exactly why they are doing so. Apologies for the lack of clarity on that point.