$5 Million for Facebook Causes, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins, Mashable.

During the IPDI Politics Online Conference I heard from one of their founders, Joe Green, during a panel about using social networks for political outreach.

They seemed determined at the time to show the level of success they’ve reached in a number of examples that they cited, and while they didn’t have explicit monetization models in place at the time of the conference, John Furrier, who was participating in the stream and liveblog at the site, posed the question to the panel on how they planned to monetized the Causes application, either from a profit perspective or to channel money into the various groups supported by the application.

Joe Green responded by saying that they would maintain the application always as free to the users, and that further monetization would take place by relevant ad placements in the Causes application.

Sunlight Foundation Asks The Public For Ideas On A More Accountable Government, Sarah Lai Stirland, Wired.

A new effort put together by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington DC non-profit, has pulled together various ideas that have been floating around Congress for some time, consolidates them and asks the public for feedback.

Sunlight has created an online 'bill' called the Transparency in Government Act 2008. It has nine sections and addresses transparency both in Congress and the executive branch. The foundation has used a blog-like format, which allows the public to submit their own ideas and commentary on the proposed legislation.

The foundation has dubbed the project Public Markup since that's the term used by inside-the-beltway types for the process of people from both sides of the aisle working together to shape legislation.

Google steps up eco-activism, will help flood Capitol switchboard, Carrie Sheffield, Washington Times.

A group of environmental activists has enlisted Google to help flood the congressional switchboard with one million phone calls on Earth Day urging lawmakers to enact eco-friendly measures.

...

Rogers said her group is finalizing talks with Internet giant Google to coordinate online advertisements and other publicity measures in support of the calls. Details of the arrangement are still being worked out and are scheduled to be released on April 14.

Know Your Sources, Eric Pfeiffer, Ground Game.

A few problems today with an otherwise pedestrian article by the Washington Times' Stephen Dinan on how John McCain's outreach to conservative bloggers resulted in a "respectful truce" with McCain's campaign. I agree with the article's thesis, but it has at least one notable flaw: proper identification of his blogger sources.

Blogger outreach boosts McCain, Stephen Dinan, Washington Times.

"It gave him a microphone when others had already left the building," said David All, one of the Republicans' Web pioneers who runs Slate Card.com and who said Mr. McCain has benefited from Mr. Hynes' ties to bloggers. "That very much symbolizes the role of bloggers: We don't have editors to report to, and there isn't a big meeting with editors every morning. What that comes down to is personal relationships."

It also helped that Mr. McCain treated bloggers similar to other reporters, including repeatedly inviting them to travel on the campaign bus with the press, said Matt Lewis, who blogs at TownHall.com.

Techies are changing political activism, Doug Abrahms, Gannett News.

Political opinions and decisions to donate have been made by voters talking to each other at work, parties or dinner tables, said Andrew Rasiej, who runs techPresident, a Web site that monitors presidential technology. But more Americans are using e-mail, cell phones and social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to drive opinion, he said.

Voters — including his 82-year-old father — routinely send e-mail to friends that include Web links, YouTube videos and other content, Rasiej said.

“Those (political) conversations are now on steroids,” he said. “When you have a robust online community where the average (campaign) donation is $100, you can go back to them again and again and again.”

What's an Email Address Worth?, Care2.com.

Simple calculator to determine the value of your online supporters, check it out - even if it's run by a liberal org.

Online Chat, as Inspired by Real Chat, Brad Stone, NY Times.

Vivaty turns a flat profile page into a three-dimensional live chat room. Users choose characters to represent themselves from a list of preternaturally handsome avatars — a requirement for any such service — and proceed to one of a dozen environments, like a gothic urban warehouse or seaside villa.

With videogame-like precision, they can then navigate that virtual space, which may feature their Facebook photos hanging from the walls and a YouTube video playing on a widescreen TV. Up to 15 others can choose avatars and enter the same room at the same time for text-based live socializing.

“We want to take all your content on the Web and move it to a more visually immersive, immediate experience,” said Keith McCurdy, chief executive at Vivaty and a former vice president at the big game maker Electronic Arts.

Obama Releases Tax Returns Online, But Conservative Watchdog Group Says He's Not Mr. Transparency, Sarah Lai Stirland, Wired.

But Judicial Watch, a government transparency and litigation group that's received significant amounts of funding from conservatives, has questioned the Illinois senator's own willingness to pull back the curtain on his own records.

"It appears that Obama never kept records of his time in the Illinois state legislature, or he discarded them," wrote Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton in a recent newsletter. "Either way, he clearly intended to leave no paper trail."

Fitton said that his group has been seeking Obama's records from his time as state senator between 1996 and 2004, but so far it's come up empty.

YouTube Feature Tells Video Creators When and Where a Clip Is Being Watched, Stephanie Clifford, NY Times.

In a move to provide better data to its users, YouTube formally announced late Wednesday that it had added a free feature that will show video creators when and where viewers are watching their videos. With this, the company hopes to turn YouTube from an online video site into a place where marketers can test their messages, Tracy Chan, YouTube product manager, said.

This program, called YouTube Insight, provides a detailed view of a video’s popularity, both over time and geographically, broken down by state. (Internationally, YouTube Insight is not as insightful, providing only popularity by country.)

Facebook Tutorials: Customizing Your Privacy Experience Using the New Friend List Privacy Feature, Teresa Valdez Klein, WebCommunityForum.

Short tutorial video explaining how to use Facebook's new privacy tools, worth watching.