Politics 2.0 is Closer Than You Think

Two pieces of news just sort of jumped out at me today:

(1) Dick DeVos, who is running for Governer in Michigan, just announced the winner of a video contest they were running on their website.  The DeVos campaign invited site visitors to make their own political ads in support of DeVos,...

A Shakespearian Second Life

Virtual gaming fever has hit the MacArthur Foundation, resulting in the philanthropic organization awarding Indiana University professor Edward Castronova a $240,000 grant to build a Second Life -esque virtual world fashioned after the plays of Shakespeare. The project, entitled "Arden: The World of Shakespeare," is meant to let Castronova and his research team delve into online behaviors by conducting ongoing social experiments online....

Politicians Invade Facebook

Personal Democracy has a great blog entry regarding a recent study on the use of Facebook by candidates for political office.

Here are some key stats Personal Democracy highlighted:

(1) "36 or 25% of candidates for U.S. Senate have posted their own profiles: 17 Democrats, 11 Republicans,...

The LA Times’ Tries to Get Healthy

Recently word got out that the Los Angeles Times is using it's own investigative reporters to help chart the future of the newspaper both online and in print.   According to the New York Times, the LA Times "is dedicating three investigative reporters and half a dozen editors to find ideas, at home and abroad,...

Media moves into Second Life

Reuters now has a virtual news bureau over in Second Life. Tech reporter Adam Pasick (whose byline is his SL name 'Adam Reuters') is now wiring in stories about the goings-on in Second Life. Pasick kicked off his new appointment by sending in a smashing story about how the SL's massive virtual economy there is giving some policymakers something to think about....