House Goes Home, but Video Goes Online via Cellphone, NY Times.
The videos were shared live on the Internet through the streaming video service Qik. They were also archived for later viewing, and Mr. Culberson’s 12-minute video of a news conference concluding the affair received 22,000 views.
Mr. Culberson’s online communications showed how new media tools like Twitter can supplement professional reporting. They also served as a reminder that many in Congress think House rules that restrict all communications to official sites should be revised. Mr. Culberson found himself at odds with other members last month as new guidelines for external communications circulated on Capitol Hill.
Capital Commentary: House GOP “Tweets”: A New Story on Energy, Democracy, Washingtonian.
“This is an exciting moment for America: this event is the dawn of real time democracy through real time representatives, and no turning back,” Culberson wrote this weekend on Twitter.
Through leaders like Culberson, new media is allowing unprecedented access to the halls of government. Unfortunately, far too many elected officials still ignore these critical and life-changing new ideas. Culberson and Hoekstra are anomalies, especially in their own party.
In the coming years the e-gov movement, thanks to new technologies like Twitter and new groups like the Sunlight Foundation, will fundamentally reshape the way government does business.
Facebook Best Practices, Diosa Communications.
1) Use your organization's logo as your profile photo.
Facebook Pages are the perfect opportunity to further showcase your logo and build brand recognition. When possible, configure your logo image for your Facebook Page so that it is in the shape of a square or at least a full rectangle. Very narrow logos are unreadable in your fan's "My Pages" and are severely cropped when you send "Updates" on Facebook. View Example: Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
2) Keep text to a bare minimum.
Your website is where your fan's will go to read more in-depth information about your organization. On your Facebook Page, keep text to a bare minimum. When editing "Detailed Info" under "Company Overview" enter 1-2 paragraphs about your organization and under "Mission" enter your organization's mission statement. Don't use the products section. If you have an online store, list it under the "Website" category. View Example: The Humane Society of the United States.
Congress wants privacy answers from Google, MS, AOL, ars technica.
"Committee on Energy and Commerce" and "rampage" don't often appear in the same sentence, but the House committee is certainly on a tear when it comes to behavioral advertising. Not content with firing off a bipartisan list of sharp questions to ISPs who installed NeduAd traffic analysis hardware, the Committee on Friday expanded its nastygram list to include "33 leading Internet and broadband companies" including Google, Microsoft, Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast. Legislation on the issue could be coming.
The new list of recipients shows that the Committee's skepticism toward NebuAd (and ISPs Charter and Embarq, who installed the gear) wasn't a one-off deal. The Committee has expanded its investigation beyond the particular questions posed by NebuAd and is now looking far more broadly at the whole field of behavioral advertising.
Companies that make use of consumer behavior (including search queries and websites visited) to serve ads are asked to describe their practices in detail, and to explain whether they take special measures to avoid use of health, financial, or other sensitive information.
