As 2009 draws to a close, we here at TechRepublican would like to wish you happy #NYE festivities.

Top Moments in Tech/Politics of the Decade

Irrevocably, politics changed in the past 10 years because of technology in general and the Internet in particular. So here, in no particular order, are the decade's top moments in tech and politics.

What do *you* think is a top moment in the tech political world in the past decade? Send it to us! 

You Don't Have a Friend in Me

When it comes to Facebook, what’s more important: Having a large network of “friends” whom you don’t know? Or a smaller well-connected group of individuals with whom you have real relationships?

Local Museums Use Web 2.0 to Spark Arty Conversations

Visiting art museums, once a mostly passive and individual experience, has become much more interactive lately, thanks to the advent of social media. At places like the Phillips Collection and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes and YouTube are making it possible for museum-goers to engage in conversation with one another and learn more about artists and their work. Check below for the more interesting feeds to follow and informative podcasts to download so you can get a little closer to the great works of art D.C.’s museums have to offer.

It Was a Facebook Christmas: Site Hits #1 in the US For the First Time

Christmas is a holiday that brings people together, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Facebook has become a part of millions of peoples' Christmas experiences. For the first time in its history, Facebook was the number one most visited website in the United States on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, according to traffic analyst firm Hitwise today.

Top 5 Social Media Articles From 2009

The year is coming to a close and there’s been lots of great social media content developed.

Here are our top five articles (in order of popularity) from this year…

See you in 2010. 

Grading WhiteHouse.gov, Round Two

Is WhiteHouse.gov, the online hub of the American presidency, getting better?

We've assembled a bipartisan group of five online political observers to regularly grade WhiteHouse.gov. Their marks are based on three criteria: transparency (without jeopardizing national security, does the site reveal the inner processes of the White House?); accessibility (is it easy to navigate?); and engagement (does it offer a two-way line of communication?). -Jose Antonio Vargas

NightTline: Twitter and ABC Launch a Tweetable News Show

Twitter has rapidly become an invaluable tool for news outlets: news anchors are using Twitter constantly to ask questions and gather feedback from their audience, while CNN’s Breaking News account is the #2 most followed user on Twitter. But what ABC and Twitter are about to do tops our list for the boldest use of Twitter within traditional media. -Ben Parr

Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos

Official White House photos are now officially in the public domain, thanks to a licensing change made quietly over the weekend by the Obama administration and the photo-sharing site Flickr.

The White House began posting striking photos of President Barack Obama from its official photographer Pete Souza to the Web 2.0 site in early May. The White House chose to license them using the ultra-liberal Creative Commons Attribution license that lets people reuse, reprint and remix the photos just as long as they credit the original photographers. -Ryan Singel

Jose "Above-the-fold" Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post has a heavy piece up on how the "Internet" and its minions are using the 2008 Presidential candidates for better or worse.

Read the full piece here but this is the takeaway graf which is going to have a few consultants in Washington thinking about whether they need to innovate to include a "new" media component:

In many ways, the Web is more effective than television advertising and direct mail, the traditional methods campaigns and independent groups have used to try to define their opponents, political analysts say. It's cheaper, and it spreads information more quickly. But so far, anyway, its potential for affecting a presidential campaign is relatively untested.

Untested? Two words: Money Bomb.

It works. The price is right. And it's here to stay.

Revolution.