Daily Digest: 5/17/07

Joshua Levy — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:01:43 -0400

The Web on the Candidates

It will truly be the first YouTube election. A week after MySpace announced they're hosting presidential town halls across the country, YouTube has announced they'll be co-sponsoring, with CNN, the first of six Democratic debates and are in talks to co-sponsor a Republican debate. There aren't any details on the format yet, but this is certainly a good development in light of the work that Larry Lessig and others have done to ensure that TV footage from the debates is legally accessible online. We'll follow up as we learn more.

In their latest Politics 2.0 column in the Politico, some guys named Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry (they have something to do with a certain technology and politics conference and web site) write about the rise of the netizen, a new breed of citizen-activists who "are mastering the new platforms, tools, information systems and social networks available online and using them to push new ideas or galvanize new communities for change." Presidential campaigns can't dismiss the influence of these "super-empowered citizens," because "unlike volunteers of old, if you cross them, they can hurt you on a national scale. If you embrace them, they may be more valuable than any consultant you can find."

techPresident - Daily Digest: 5/17/07 - Comments

Daily Digest: 5/17/07