Anderson@Large

Social Media and Political Engagement

Coding is Cool

If Walls Could Talk

A lot of folks wish walls could talk. Well, now there’s an app for that -- Vizy, a new form of social powered by geo-storing.

But be careful what you wish for.

Voter Protection 2.0

I am in New York City for Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference that focuses on the intersection of technology, civic engagement, politics and government. I’m attending as one of nine Tumblr Fellows.

As the chief evangelist for the Cost of Freedom Project, a citizen-led initiative that’s powered by we the people, I’m particularly interested in the “We Government” breakout track. Speakers will present ideas and tips on “the variety of ways the people and their governments are using data to make civic life smarter and more responsive to public needs.”

With the voter suppression schemes in place across the country, voting rights advocates must work harder and smarter to remove barriers to the ballot box and ensure all votes are counted.

During a recent broadcast of “Hour of Power,” Al Sharpton said:

This is not a normal election. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.

That’s true. But we do know that True the Vote will be out in force challenging voters’ eligibility and causing confusion at the polls. They’re crowdsourcing voter suppression; we must crowdsource voter protection.

Yo! Philly Votes will aggregate, visualize and contextualize multiple sources of real-time Election Day incident reports so that problems can be addressed and corrected in real time. We’re leveraging the power of Web 2.0 to fight Voter Suppression 2.0.

Personal Democracy Forum 2012

The annual Personal Democracy Forum is “the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology's impact on politics and government.” PDF brings together thought leaders, influencers, technologists, activists, academics and good-government types.

In 2009, I attended PDF as a Google Fellow. Yesterday, I received notice that was awarded a Tumblr Fellowship to attend PDF 2012.

I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it.

Happy Valentine's Day

If you love democracy, please view the livestream of a panel discussion on social media and voter ID TODAY from 3pm to 5pm EST. I will demo the Cost of Freedom App. You can join the conversation via Twitter using the hashtag #CAPVoterID.

For info about the Cost of Freedom Project, visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.