A group protesting Barack Obama's stand on warrantless surveillance has attracted more than 10,000 members in just a week, making it the largest user-created group on MyBarackObama.com; we spotlight a tech policy dust-up worth keeping an eye on: the conservative battle over broadband; a new experiment in governing out of the U.K. pairs government data stashes and a cash prize; and much, much more.

Every few years, network theorist Valdis Krebs creates a fascinating map of the relationships among the top political books currently selling on Amazon. In past years, he notes, "we saw a divided nation in our book buying data. We saw then a distinct red cluster and a distinct blue cluster with very little holding them together in terms of cross-links or books in common." But now, he's found something different going on.

Buyers of political books on Amazon are clearly divided between people who favor liberal titles vs people who favor conservative titles, with little cross-buying occurring. But a new study of consumer behavior suggests that so-called "influentials" may not matter as much as everyone thinks, and the malleability and gullibility of voters who are easily influenced by others is the more important factor.