First on the Ticket: Twitter Cofounder on Capitol Hill

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone met with congressmen and staffers on Capitol Hill this week to talk about his microblog that sends out messages in 140 characters or less.

Stone provided an overview of Twitter, discussed new features his team was working on such as geo-tagging and iPhone applications, as well as offering tips on how to most effectively use the site at a Friday morning meeting with House Democratic staffers.

Former Top Tweeter Culberson Says He'll Return to Twitter

Once one of the most prolific Twitter users in Congress, Rep. John Culberson's activity tailed off in the last few months.

But the Texas Republican said Tuesday he is likely to use the microblogging service more soon. 

BP's Digital Lobbying

The oil giant is pulling out all the stops in PR and lobbying - Bennett Roth of Roll Call reports: 'BP and its allies are drawing on their considerable resources and deep lobbying teams in Washington as they seek to mitigate the fallout - including Congressional grillings and possible legislative action - from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Already the London-based oil company has launched a major public relations effort, utilizing social media such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate its efforts to deal with an environmental disaster originating at one of its oil rigs. 

The Art of the Twitter Pitch

Over the past few weeks, we've highlighted some tips and tricks for polishing your elevator and email pitch. If a pitch is designed to deliver a succinct presentation of your product or service, then it may be that the 140 character limitation of Twitter makes it a great venue for a pitch.

Google Adds App Store for Analytics

Today, Google is giving users even more tools for finding and understanding their web stats. The company has just announced they’re opening a full App Gallery for Google Analytics.

Currently, the gallery holds 32 applications, with more on the way. Developers can submit their apps online, of course.

Congressmen Asked Apple about iPhone Exclusivity and the Tablet

A few days ago, we received a unique invite to meet with the Congressional House Republican New Media Caucus at a Silicon Valley round table “to promote dialog between California’s Silicon Valley and House Republicans.”...

...We had the opportunity to pepper Congressmen Bob Latta (OH-05), Rob Wittman (VA-01), and John Culberson (TX-07) with questions about social media, how they’re using it, why they believe it’s important to democracy, and a lot more. Here are some of the most interesting parts, along with some pictures of the event...

Why State-Level Online Politics Really Matters in 2010

Plenty of people are already looking ahead to the outcome of the 2010 elections, in particular what happens to the Democrats' control of Congress. The party of an incumbent President almost always loses seats in Washington in an off-year election, and with the Dems having just enough votes to stop a filibuster in the Senate, Republicans have a powerful incentive to stall Barack Obama's agenda as long as possible: they know full well that these few months are likely the high point of his influence in his (presumably) first term. 

TWEET SUCCESS: Why We Love Twitter's 140 Character Limit

From its very inception, Twitter (Twitter) faced complaints from the peanut gallery about its 140 character posting “limitation.” Over time new services sprung up to address the perceived “short-coming” of the microblogging service, from TwitLonger to Maxitweet to Glide Engage: essentially Twitter with 1,400 characters.

Some folks will probably get some value out of those services, but I’m going to make the argument that Twitter is the unique and special snowflake that it is precisely because of its 140 character “limitation.” If brevity is the soul of wit, we are all facing an unprecedented opportunity to be hilarious all day long. Let’s not squander it!

MediaCzar's Matt Morrison wrote a very interesting post about US Representatives on twitter and their degree of connectedness. Here are a few salient points (FYI Matt is from the U.K).

First Matt points out that there are more Republicans than Democrats on twitter and that they don't talk to each other very much. 

The two groups are pretty clique-y. If it weren’t for Neil Abercrombie and John Culberson, there’s little chance that information would flow between the two groups. [...] Now the Neil Abercrombie/John Culberson bridges are so striking that I
thought it would be worth looking at the “betweenness” scores for this
group. Betweeness is a measure of how much (or little) a node controls
the flow of information in the network, its importance to the overall
structure.

Matt has more observations and great illustrations on his blog so head on over to MediaCzar to see them.

This clearly illustrates a divide in American party politics. How can there be any honest policy discussion when we only preach to the choir? I am encouraged to see folks like John Culberson on the GOP side and Neil Abercrombie on the other actually talking with members of other parties. It's a phenomanon that there if far to little of these days.

In some ways the internet has brought people together and aided the free exchange of ideas but in many ways the internet attracts even greater segmentation than before. What it really comes down to isn't the tools (cool as they may be), it's the individuals who tweet back and forth accross the aisle who are making a difference in the way people think.

The House adjourned this morning without considering energy legislation. Nancy Pelosi and company were quick to make an exit, turning off the lights and the microphones in their wake. But some House Republicans stayed on the floor. At 3:30pm, they're still on the floor staging what's being called an "uprising" and a "revolt."

The lights are off. The microphones are off. CSpan isn't taping it. Nancy Pelosi "sent Capitol Police to clear the press gallery [and] lock the doors" according to news on RedState, but "Reps. Bunt, Shadegg, and Hoekstra have been taking turns remaining with media in the gallery in order to keep it open."

This revolution is not being televised. But thanks to online communication we know about it. It's on blogs like RedState, it's on the Twitter feeds of Reps. Culberson, Boehner, and Hoekstra. And now it's spreading as one person brings it up to another. I just mentioned it to a non-political friend in Texas. Her response? "Wow. This is like old school politics. This is amazing!"

This revolution is not being televised, but who the hell cares? To borrow from Rep. Culberson's tweet this morning: "Here is a powerful use of social media - when they turn off the mike we can still communicate."