The Web on the Candidates

• Stand Up for the Internet: With the stomach-turning shakiness on Wall Street reverberating around the planet, our global interconnected is painfully apparent today. But it's perhaps fitting that today also happens to be the day on which we celebrate the wonders and promise of the networked world. The idea behind OneWebDay, reports organizers, is to "create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the Internet;" think of it as "an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem." While there official OWD events worldwide, this is at its core a do-it-yourself celebration. If you love the Internet, then get involved -- edit a Wikipedia article, bone up a tech policy issue, or find your own unique way of strengthening and supporting the global network. We built this thing, and it's up to us to protect it. #

The Candidates on the Web

• Co-opting Idea Gizmos from For-Profit World: What do Nancy Pelosi and Starbucks have in common, besides the west coast thing? They've seen the power of online-based idea tools in action, reports Adweek's Wendy Melillo. How so? When the organizers of Netroots Nation wanted help figuring out what to ask the House Speaker at their annual conference, they turned to the same sort of community-driven software that lets MyStarbucksIdea.com tap the wisdom of the company's caffeinated customer base. Says our Andrew Rasiej: "Open-source legislative wiki's [sic] like Politicopia already exist. It's only natural crowd-sourcing models identifying the best ideas in civic life will follow." Sitting politicians have been slower than corporate America to embrace idea tools. But activists haven't been so pokey. One good example: the Clinton Global Initiative's MyCommitment.org, whose annual conference I'll happen to be reporting from late this week. #

• Obama Camp's Tech-Driven Economic Sessions: Tomorrow in Reno, Nevada, the Obama campaign will kick off a timely series of swing-state discussions focused on how technological innovation can power economic revitalization. The Reno event will feature key players in making the best use of tech: local technologists, business leaders, academics, and politicians, reports the blog Reno and Its Discontents. Similar sessions will follow in areas hit hard by the struggling economy, including ones at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University and Columbus's Ohio State University. #

• Barek Maccane for Prezidunt: Here's a bit of silliness. Like any other perfectly normal person, I happened to be skimming the source code for JohnMcCain.com early this morning. There, I discovered the variants on the candidate's name that programmers helpfully included in the site's keyword meta tags in a bid to draw in sloppy spelling searchers: "John McKaine, John MacCane, Jon McCain," and "John MacCaine." Team Obama is also prepared for fat-fingered Googlers, with meta tags for "Barack, Barck," and "Barek." Thankes. Veree helpfil. #

TechCongress and Beyond

• The Humans Inside the YouTube: Kansas State cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch is well known for producing gripping short videos that explore the human side of the living web. Michael's mesmerizing 55-minute rumination on the nature and meaning of YouTube was post this summer, but has been getting passed around the web of late. The piece makes clear that the humble video service gives us insight into the honest lives of "strangers" that was once the province of ethnographers. The Berkman Center's David Weinberger calls Michael's exploration "compelling, brilliant, and moving." Indeed. #

In Case You Missed It...

In the wake of the just-announced Wall Street bailout plan, Zephyr Teachout calls for some distributed help in figuring out just how much a mind-blowing $700 billion is.