Let me preface this post by reminding folks that IANAL (I am not a lawyer).

Example of White House Flickr Photo

The U.S. government policy on photographs and copyright is pretty straightfoward: photos produced by federal employees as part of their job responsibilities are “not subject to copyright in the United States and there are no U.S. copyright restrictions on reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, or display of the work.”

Why, then, is the Obama White House asserting that no one but “news organizations” can use its Flickr photos? Why is it asserting that manipulation is prohibited? Why is it asserting that photos may not be used in “commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House”?

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In his timely book, CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley, 2008), Tom Watson tracks the growing trend of activists creatively using online media to generate new forms of involvement, support, and fundraising. Watson presents a series of case studies and anecdotes from his personal experience to analyze networked activism and provide a set of principles, as well as a few words of caution, for effective online organizing.

Watson’s overarching theme revolves around the proposition that online philanthropy, and social, political, and charitable activism is turning into a movement and a sector of the U.S. economy that he terms ‘CauseWired’.

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This Associated Press story asks if billions are spent to fund broadband to unserved areas will it do any good?  Will new people sign up for broadband (51% say they’re not interested)? Will there be a “network effect” creating new jobs?

I wonder if the money were spent to upgrade the current system to make it cheaper and faster (think South Korea) whether that would be a better way to stimulate new business opportunities, more broadband users, new applications?

During the 2008 Presidential election, the Obama campaign pushed the envelope in two significant ways: they set out to change the face of the electoral map by mobilizing new and young voters; and they took the guesswork out of their resource allocation strategy to achieve that goal.

Any real change to the political system needed a change in the electorate. Rather than fighting over the same aging, well-off, white constituents, the Obama campaign went after the young and unregistered voices–a heretofore untapped resource estimated at 55 million potential voters as of 2004 (Hayes 2008). Read more…

It is true that President Obama gets to keep his Blackberry.

The historic presidency of Barack Obama earns another “first black” title as the President wins the debate of using his “blackberry” while President of the United States.  According to new White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, “The president has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that use will be limited and that the security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate.”

Many are concerned that President Obama’s usage of the Blackberry will be a security issue if one of his e-mail correspondents lost his or her device?  The other concern with the President having a mobile device is how secure it will be from hackers or foreign agencies?  After all the speculations of him becoming the first Blackberry-in-Chief, the rules have been changed and Obama will be issued a super secured Sectra edge phone.

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After last night’s incredibly successful Digital President event (video to be posted here by next week), I’ve turned my attention to Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Specifically, how will I actually watch it here on the Pacific coast?  Should I share the experience communally with others at the university club?  Watch it online (MSNBC has just launched a really cool viewer).  Or just stay at home and view it in HD glory?  [For you iPhone folks, there's even a streaming app]. Read more…

Facebook. Twitter. Mybarackobama.com.  Text messaging.  The President-elect used all of these digital tools to devastating effect in the 2008 election.  How did he do it?  What strategic lessons can we learn from Barack Obama’s high-tech campaign?  How might he deploy this online army of millions to govern?  And does President Obama’s historic rise to the White House also propel social networking into the mainstream?

The answers to these important questions have a profound impact on the very near future of our democracy, as well as how we organize, communicate, and even do business in the digital age.  Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, describes it as a convergence between movement politics and business strategy.  On the eve of the inauguration, join us for a dynamic, engaging UW Insight conversation that seeks to put this digital revolution in perspective.

The slides from each presenter are now up at Slideshare.com. On the official page (linked below) for the UW Insight event you will find links in parentheses near the name of each presenter which will take you to their publicly viewable slides.

Slides and video of the event here.  Read more…

Obama will be the first president to use YouTube to address the nation.  He will record weekly videos and then they will be posted in YouTube. These videos will be accessible through Change.gov

I think this shows how Obama will continue with the effort of connecting to the people and the foundation of democracy (real democracy now that we the people have a voice).