The Web on the Candidates

• Wow - while we at TechPresident get completely wrapped up in the drama of the US presidential race, and get excited when, say, Faceboook opens up its API to integrate third-party applications (it is so cool), there's an election going on in Ireland (did you know that?). A group of Irish bloggers have been blogging it at Irish Election, and now that the election is here, they've constructed a truly wonderful toolbox with which to conduct on-the-ground coverage. In addition to updates on poll numbers and results from across the country over the last 24 hour, they've been using mobile technology to great effect. Sitting in the sidebar are two mini-apps -- MySay and Rumour Mill -- that let citizens and bloggers add their comments to the election process using audio and text. MySay let's you add audio comments, called "snippets," to a thread that looks like a Twitter feed, but with a play button that, when clicked, plays the snippet. The Rumour Mill is a text-message thread that you add to by sending messages to a shortcode. These are simple apps that have been around for a while, but when combined with the citizen-blogging happening on the same page,they provide an amazing look at the election from citizens and non-officials across the country. Disclaimer: I'm a complete stranger to Irish politics and vernacular, which means that I pretty much have no idea what anyone is talking about.
• A new Gallup poll shows that, despite the early start to the campaign, most Americans don't really know who's running. Hillary Clinton has near-universal name recognition, and Rudy Giuliani is known by almost 90% of Americans. But Mitt Romney -- who we are told is among the Republican frontrunners -- has 46% name recognition, and Fred Thompson, the would-be conservative savior who may come to town to restore law & order, is known by only 38% of Americans. Going online to shake hands and reach out, and to make more personal connections, something danah boyd suggested at the PdF conference, might help with the name-recognition thing.
• William Beutler at Blog P.I. has, as his blog's title suggests, been sleuthing it, trying to figure out how the Ron Paul support machine works. He took a look at the GOP Bloggers May straw poll at different times through the day yesterday, and found that Paul gained momentum as the day went on. In the early afternoon, after 1283 ballots were cast, Fred Thompson was in the lead with 639 votes cast (49.8% of the vote) and Ron Paul was in last place, with 43 votes (3.4% of the total). But by early evening the sands had shifted; Fred Thompson was still in the lead with 1831 votes (38.7%), but Ron Paul had moved up to second place, with 796 votes (16.8%), nine votes ahead of Mitt Romney. Beutler thinks it just took a little time for the distributed Ron Paul machine to get organized: "The Ron Paul online effort may be effective, but it does take them a few hours to get organized. And they still face an uphill fight against Fred Thompson’s (presumably more organic) fanbase. But organized they are, so don’t count them out yet."

In Case You Missed It...

Alan Rosenblatt is excited about Facebook's newly launched API and thinks that "the potential for these tools to create a whole new dynamic in the race for the White House is extraordinary."

Videos of the 2007 PdF conference are up at blip.tv!

Micah Sifry is thinking that Ron Paul might be to the Republicans of 2008 what Howard Dean was to the Democrats of 2004.