'Some 20-year old'

"I don't tweet on a regular basis. I think there is an official president's tweet [profile] but some 20-year-old is doing a lot of the tweeting..."

- President Barack Obama

President Obama came clean on his Twitter habits during an appearance on the daytime talk show 'The View' last week.

Full story via The Hill's 'Hillicon Valley' blog

Who said you can't make money writing online?

$30,000,000

"If you had to declare a winner among Internet media companies today, the victor easily would be Arianna Huffington. Her site, The Huffington Post, attracted 24.3 million unique visitors last month, five times as much traffic as many new-media rivals, more than The Washington Post and USA Today, and nearly as many as The New York Times. HuffPo's revenue this year will be about $30 million-peanuts compared with the old-media dinosaurs, but way better than most digital competitors. And HuffPo has finally started to eke out a profit."

To see the rest of the Newsweek profile of Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and the media empire she's built on the web, click here.

What governments can learn from emerging markets
(govfresh) "Many governments are facing a perfect storm: smaller budgets, less staff, higher citizen expectations, retiring baby boomers, legacy systems and broken processes among other obstacles."

Full Story

CA Gov candidate Meg Whitman runs poll/ad on Facebook
(TechPresident) "When last quarter wrapped, California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman (R) was reported to have spent on web development IT a full seven times what her challenger Jerry Brown (D) spent on his entire campaign. The Whitman campaign was unapologetic. A spokesperson told the local paper that Whitman's Silicon Valley-based campaign "will use every tool at our disposal" in Whitman's bid to replace the term-limited Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Full Story

White House Launches Daily Email Newsletter
(WH.gov) "The Daily Snapshot is a quick look at what's happening each day with President Obama. It includes the President and Vice President's daily schedules, a look at what's hot on the White House blog, the Photo of the Day and other important updates."

Sign up here

The unemployed, organizing online
(Washington Independent) "Sometime this spring, Republicans turned against unemployment. In Nevada, Sharron Angle (R), the candidate facing incumbent Sen. Harry Reid (D), told local reporters, "You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job." (Untrue.) Angle also called the unemployed 'spoiled.'"

Full Story

ProPublica crowdsources opinions on BP spill response
(ProPublica) "Readers, we need your help. It's time to examine the massive claims operation set up by BP for damages from the Gulf oil spill."

Full Story

Barack Obama turned website pitchman

"It's not every day that the President takes time out of his schedule to record a video about a website. But that's just what happened with HealthCare.gov, the new consumer-oriented website from the Department of Health and Human Services."

Watch the video here

Retired CIA chief downplays cyberwar with China
(The Hill) "Retired CIA chief Michael Hayden downplayed the notion that the U.S. is in a raging "cyberwar" with China during a speech on Thursday at the Black Hat technology security conference in Las Vegas."

Full Story

A discussion with Australian Senator Kate Lundy
(govfresh) "In Discussion with Sen. Kate Lundy: The G2R crew talks with Sen. Lundy about Australia's recent Declaration of Open Government, the AU Government 2.0 Taskforce, public sphere discussions around open government, the National Broadband Network (delivery of a fiber at 100Mbps to over 90 percent of Australians, with rural areas getting 12Mbps via wireless or satellite), and the controversy over a proposed Internet filter in Australia."

Full Story
Editorial note: Sen. Lundy is also nominated to be one of 2010's Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.

Man arrested for insulting Lebanese President on Facebook
(Telegraph) "Ahmad Shuman was detained shortly after he arrived in Beirut's international airport on a flight from Kiev.
According to prosecutors, Mr Shuman committed "libel, slander and defamation" when he and three friends set up a page on the social networking website to criticise President Sleiman."

Full Story

US turns up the heat on 'Internet Imam'
(NPR) "Last month, a handful of lawyers in the U.S. got a series of unexpected phone calls from Yemen. They came from an accomplished Yemeni academic and former government official, Dr. Nasser al-Awlaki. He is the father of al-Qaida's most famous cleric, the Internet imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been linked to both the Fort Hood shootings and an attempted bombing on a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day."

Full Story

Bringing social media to the European Parliament
(Waltzing Matilda) "For the past few months Waltzing Matilda has followed European Parliament's social media activities with great interest. As a forerunner in this field their use of social media can serve as inspiration and encouragement for other EU institutions."

Full Story

Vote Now For Top 10 In Politics & Internet

PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum are proud to announce the list for nominations of the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. For the eleventh year in a row, PoliticsOnline subscribers and visitors from around the world are invited to help select the top 10 individuals, organizations and companies having the greatest impact on the way the Internet is changing politics.

This prestigious award seeks to recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online. This year marked another tough year in choosing the top finalists. The integration of politics and the Internet are reflected in this year's diverse, international nominees.

The winners will be invited as honored guests to the 11th World eDemocracy Forum October 13-15,2010, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, (Paris, France), where they will take part in an awards ceremony and other special programs throughout the two-day forum.

Please click below, review the nominations and then select one who has had the greatest influence on the world of ePolitics in 2010.