Cell phone Companies Brace For Onslaught On Inauguration Day
"It'll be like everyone leaving the beach at the same time after the Fourth of July, all roads will come to a standstill." - Joe Farren, talking about the expected logjam on cellphones during the Inaugural Address. Mr. Farren is a spokesman for CTIA -- The Wireless Association, a nonprofit organization that represents wireless carriers.
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Shoe-throwing Video Game Sells on eBay in Four Days
$7,818 is how much a british media company paid on ebay for 28 year old Alex Tew's internet video game "sockandawe " that allows users to try their hand at hitting U.S. President George Bush's head with a shoe.
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For the Web, Change All Sides Can Believe In
(The Washington Post) President-elect Barack Obama's call to bring high-speed Internet to all Americans has set off a scramble among service providers for a piece of the action. Building out networks to rural and underserved urban areas -- with possible help from the economic stimulus plan being crafted by Congress -- could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and enrich telecom, wireless and cable companies whose businesses have suffered as households tighten spending.
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Google Censors Political-Donation Transparency Ads
(CNet) Should members of the public be able to pay for Web advertisements detailing which companies have donated to politicians? While this seems like a great way to promote transparency in politics, Google forbids the practice--we are free to name the politicians who take money but cannot name the companies that give it.
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Mr. Obama's Internet Agenda
(NYTimes) President-elect Barack Obama recently announced an ambitious plan to build up the nation's Internet infrastructure as part of his proposed economic stimulus package. Upgrading the Internet is a particularly smart kind of stimulus, one that would spread knowledge, promote entrepreneurship and make this country more competitive globally.
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Interest Groups, Bloggers Remind Obama They're Watching
(WSJ) With President-elect Barack Obama's transition team sprinting to the end of the cabinet- appointment process, anticipation is rising among public interest groups, unions and lefty bloggers about who Obama will name for posts at independent agencies that oversee Internet and media issues, such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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U.S. Not Ready for Cyber Attack
(Reuters) The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said on Thursday after participating in a two-day "cyberwar" simulation.
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RNC Pushing Hard on Obama-Blago Connection
(The Washington Post) As the Republican National Committee continues its attempt to tie disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich to President-elect Barack Obama, more high-profile GOPers are rebelling against the strategy. Newt Gingrich (Ga.), the former Speaker of the House and a potential candidate for president in 2012, wrote a letter to RNC Chair Mike Duncan on Tuesday condemning the Web video circulated by national Republicans over the weekend that sought to link Obama to Blagojevich.
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Iraqi Journalist Throws His Shoes President Bush
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, a 28 year old correspondent for independent Iraqi television station Al Baghdadia, shouted in Arabic, "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." and then proceeded to throw two shoes at President Bush's head.

Estonia to Vote by Mobile Phone in 2011
(AP) Parliament has approved a law making Estonia the first country to allow voting by mobile phone. Lawmakers approved a measure Thursday allowing citizens to vote by mobile phone in the next parliamentary elections in 2011. Estonians were allowed to cast Internet ballots in last year's parliamentary vote.
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Iran's Bloggers Thrive Despite Blocks
(BBC) Iran has one of the most vibrant blogging communities in the world - despite government boasts that it blocks five million websites. Day-by-day there is an intriguing cyber-war, as the government wrestles for control of the internet, and Iran's bloggers wrestle it back. Iran hosts around 65,000 bloggers, and has around 22 million internet users. Not bad for a country in which some remote areas do not yet have mains electricity.
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Free expression grows in China (just don't talk politics)
(Christian Science Monitor) Sitting at a laptop in his sunlit study, a pair of studded massage rollers beneath his stockinged feet, Hu Xingdou knows that the most outspoken pieces he writes will never make it further than his hard drive. But like thousands of other scholars, activists, and ordinary citizens in China, the owlish Professor Hu also knows that each critical political opinion he dares to publish - mostly on his website - pushes the door of government tolerance open a little wider.
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With Olympics over, China re-blocks some Web sites

Israeli Election Hopefuls Seek the Obama Touch
(AP) The star of Israel's election campaign seems to be Barack Obama. A religious party has translated "yes we can" into Hebrew. Front-runner Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's Web page looks a lot like Obama's, and a candidate for Parliament has his own version of an "Obama-girl" Internet ad.
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Technology and Government Transparency
By: Mark D. Drapeau

Dr. Mark Drapeau is a biological scientist, government consultant, and regular contributor to Mashable.com and other venues. These views are his own and do not represent the official views of any organization.

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Since Barack Obama was elected, many people have called for a more open, transparent government. Through my work in Washington, DC on the interaction between government and emerging social technologies, I have heard phrases like "government with the people," "participatory democracy," and "user- generated government" tossed around. Additionally, many in the new media intelligentsia have called for the new Obama administration to use social tools like Twitter for governance, as they did for campaigning, for example with Twitter but also other social technologies like Facebook and even herculean mobile phone text messaging.

It's started. Some of the Obama transition team's experimental initiatives like "Seat at the Table" are innovative, putting aside the issue of people without Internet access effectively not having a seat reserved for them. On the surface, this is a very inclusive approach to the transition period leading to eventual governance in January 2009. It is still very soon after the election, the transition team is very busy and mostly in 'receive' mode, and the inauguration hasn't yet occurred.

Ultimately, the extent to which the Obama administration uses social tools to govern the United States remains to be seen; whether they are making use of social tools during the current transition period is unclear. Regarding the future, elites in the social networking tech community have opinions that range from hopeful, to thoughtful, to activist, to critical, to impatient.

Here, I explore using a specific example where the responsibility for "participatory democracy" lies. In a social technology empowered world, where does the government stop and the private citizen begin?

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