As technology advances, laws, and regulations will have to evolve with it. The concept of privacy becomes very hazy when you are trying to decide if you can track a mobile device belonging to someone who is suspected of a crime. Even today with the new scanning technology utilized by airports which effectively shows images of naked people and has always been surrounded by controversy is used to ensure the safety of airline passengers.

Where can the line be drawn between what is acceptable to ensure the safety of the citizens of the United States and what is a gross violation of personal privacy?

There are also already problems concerning disclosure for online ads on websites such as Facebook and Google. While states such as California and Maryland are among the minority to even take a step in the direction of regulating such political ads, the FEC has disallowed such campaign contributions at the federal level.

Technology is advancing at an incredible rate, and many advancements come with both positive and negative applications.

Learn more in How technology will test the Constitution by Joseph Marks. Here is a video summary from the Brookings Institution Constitution 3.0 event on December 13, 2011.

As defined by Twitter, the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It helps categorize topics and create an interactive conversation about that topic among all Twitter users.

A post by Gilad Lotan on Social Flow provides great insight into what characteristics the “Twitterverse” associates with the GOP presidential candidates.

Hashtags like #GOP and #teaparty are used roughly equally when talking about all GOP candidates, but hashtags such as #gayrights, #flipflop, and #jobs are associated more with Mitt Romney, while #palestine, #immigration, and #abortion are better associated with Newt Gingrich.

Even though less than 10% of the nation is active on Twitter, these associations offer much insight into the public perception of events and the GOP candidates.

For those of you who may have missed some of today’s relevant social media articles, here are a few for you to check out!

President Barack Obama, who has been characterized as anti-business by his political opponents, has received more in campaign contributions from business executives this year than any Republican presidential candidate. Obama Backers Make President Top Fundraiser From Business.

The Facebook political team commend Newt Gingrich for using WayIn, a polling application, as well as providing a tab that enables potential volunteers to find campaign-related events. Gingrich Savvy On Facebook, Says Company’s Political Team.

The pros and cons of apps vs. mobile-enabled websites are discussed. It’s apps vs. mobile-enabled websites in GSA smackdown

Enjoy!

Their profile and first tweet say “Updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team, tracking creative & effective uses of Twitter for civic engagement…Welcome to @gov! Stay tuned for best practices, case studies and other updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team…”

With a big presidential election year ahead of us, I wonder if they intend to keep track of the use of Twitter in political campaigns. We should keep an eye on the official Twitter blog for more information.

Governing broke this news in “Twitter Launches @Gov Account for Tracking Civic Engagement” by Dylan Scott.

Our Highlighted Site of the Week is Gov 2.0 Radio, hosted on blogtalkradio. Produced by Adriel Hampton, Government 2.0 covers topics such as government transparency, open data, citizen engagement, social media, and much more. You can enjoy streaming the dozens of radio programs at any time.

Stay on top of the latest Gov 2.0  announcements by following them at Gov 2.0 Radio Twitter and at their Citizen 2.0 Facebook.

According to his blog, Adriel Hampton: Wired to Share, Adriel has worked as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and is a journalist and gov 2.0 strategist.

Political ads are not only optimized for mobile devices, now they target their markets precisely: “Political advertisements go mobile for 2012 elections” by Emily Shultheis from Politico.

The White House’s We the People online petition project has brought surprising results – more petitions were submitted about animal rights and legalizing marijuana and fewer were about education, the economy, and foreign affairs. Read Nextgov’s “We the People draws a curious crowd” by Joseph Marks. Here is Nextgov’s summary of the results.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has received more grief than it was worth over a disparaging tweet: “Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback apologizes to teen after she refuses to apologize to him” by Melissa Bell in the Washington Post.

Social media has been seen as a catalyst for change  in world events in the past few years. It remains to be seen what role it will play in our presidential elections in the upcoming year. As groups and individuals use social media strategies for promoting candidates and causes, they will want to be able to measure their efforts. This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is VoterTide, which sets out to do just that.

PACs and lobbyists take note:

“Whether you’re a candidate, consultant, fundraiser, lobbyist, or media professional, you have no choice but to follow the conversation online. VoterTide Pro makes it easy with comprehensive, easy-to-read metrics that put the data at your fingertips.”

If you are using any of the forms of social media in support of a candidate, VoterTide can measure the comments, retweets, and the buzz that result and put the data  into their political context. You can also keep track of your opponents!

VoterTide claims to revolutionize the way political polling is conducted. All of the information you need to track the conversations surrounding your candidates and issues would be available on a social media monitoring dashboard.

According to the site: “You go to the boards for your candidate – tweeting, sharing links on Facebook, posting YouTube videos, and doing all you can to persuade your friends to vote for the one who you know is best. But do your efforts matter? At VoterTide, we show you that they do. You may not have the resources to contribute big bucks, but you do have the power to Rise the Tide in your candidate’s favor.”

I have not been able to determine whether there is a free version of VoterTide, but there is VoterTide Pro for a fee, and the site offers a free demo. Take a look. I think we’ll be seeing many more services targeting this need in the near future.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Anonymous and unsolicited text messages are being sent against democratic candidates in Virginia. Here is the Washington Post article “Anti-Democratic text messages in Northern Va. prompt lawsuit, complaints” by Anita Kumar.

Government Technology discusses the tension between the demands of government transparency and the realities of state bugdet constraints in “Transparency Demands Cost Governments Money” by Sarah Rich.

NCSL has updated their 2012 Legislative Session Calendar.

Judicial races are getting expensive. PoliticsPA.com posted “Pa. Rated as Second Costliest Judicial Elections; Candidates Weigh in” by Sari Heidenreich. Here is the recent study by the Brennan Center For Justice, “The New Politics of Judicial Elections: 2009-10” that ranks judicial elections in the states.

Photo of texting by Alton on Wikipedia.

Here is a brief survey of articles:

USA Today offers “Social media companies ‘friend’ politics” by Fredreka Schouten.

In the Washington Post’s Capitol Business we find “LightSquared adds lobbyists from four firms to roster” by Catherine Ho.

ReadWriteWeb.com posted “Who Are The Top Tech Lobbying Firms?” by David Strom. Last year, the top three were: Microsoft, HP, and Google. Strom claims Google employs 25 different lobbying firms.

AllFacebook.com posted “Facebook Spends Record Amounts On Lobbying, But Not As Much As Google Does”

Bloomberg’s Businessweek published “Google’s 3Q lobbying bill rises to $2.4 million” by the Associated Press.

• NCSL has updated their 50 state chart of state ethics commission information, with its interactive map, list of contact information, and detailed profiles.

• Politico published “Political advertising data may go online” by Brooks Boliek. According to the article, “The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote Thursday on a notice of proposed rule making that could require broadcasters to post information about political ads and other data on the Internet.”

• Arizona’s clean elections program made the news yet again. “The Arizona Legislature may have to go back to the drawing board if it wants voters in 2012 to kill the state’s public-funded Clean Elections campaign-finance program,” reports the Arizona Republic in “Judge rejects Arizona campaign finance measure” by Alia Beard Rau.

• Read what the feds are tweeting right this moment on “The Feed” by Nextgov.

• Politico offers today “Ex-FEC chief: Lift money limits” by Dave Levinthal, where he begins by quoting former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner: “The United States should take a cue from the Commonwealth of Virginia — or the Cayman Islands, for that matter — and simply do away with limits on campaign contributions.”

• Remember “We the People,” the White House’s new online channel to offer your own petitions for better government? TechPresident gives us an update on whether the platform is living up to its promise to be a true place of genuine communication with the White House. Here is the blog post: “White House Begins Responses to ‘We the People‘” by Nick Judd.

Montana Commissioner of Political Practices David Gallik is now working on clarifying the rules for using social media in political campaigns. A few complaints have emerged in Montana over  the use of email and social media in campaigns, and the commissioner  recognizes the existing laws were crafted primarily for campaigns using print media, television, and radio.

In the Missoulian article “Montana political practices office to address social media campaign complaints,” journalist Keila Szpaller spoke with Gallik about what comes next for the state. The article also explores how the use of social media in political campaigns, and its regulation, can bring into focus the tension between personal privacy and the demands of an open democratic process.

Yesterday, techPresident published “New Obama for America Page is a Jungle Gym for Donation Data” by Nick Judd.

Everyone has been talking about the new role social media is playing in the 2012 presidential campaigns. But I think Judd brings up an often missed point: The importance of social media’s role is not so much to be found in the social networks themselves, but in the vast amount of information the campaigns have about each of us, and how they are using that information on social media. Judd writes about campaigns “micro-targeting” potential political campaign donors with personalized messages geared toward attracting the most money.

The article showcases the Obama 2012 campaign website, which boasts its one million donors. The site allows you to drill down into a great deal of information about the contributions. The aim of the site is that the visitor will come to the conclusion that the donors are broad-based and grassroots.

Have any of our readers seen any similar examples on other campaign websites? Please share it on Lobby Comply!

Who can possibly top New York City? This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is the city government’s NYC Digital. Their statistics are staggering: a four million digital audience, 202 million pageviews of NYC.gov in 2010, 52 agencies represented, 4000 points of engagement, 98% residential broadband access, 200 social media channels, and – as they are proud to say – it is all because they have one plan for New York City’s digital future.

According to the site: “New York City is one of the world’s leading digital metropolises. As Part I: State of the Digital City illustrates, New York City government engages over 25 million people a year through more than 200 digital channels including NYC.gov, mobile applications, and social media.”

They work hard to promote civic engagement, encourage new business startups with their Business Solutions Centers, and host hackathons where they provide city data to programmers so they can write cutting edge web and mobile applications to help the city. For those involved in government relations, their Lobbying Bureau page has many links in its helpful FAQ list.

The hundreds of NYC Social Media Sites range from the mayor’s office Twitter feed and Children’s Services’ Facebook, to the Departments of Aging,  Buildings, Business, Community Affairs, Education, and many more. Take a look at their 21 Mobile Apps, where you can have information about the road conditions, sports events, Department of Health updates, directions for getting around the city, sanitation department info, and the latest news from the mayor’s office sent directly to your mobile phone.

NYC Digital is as big as the city itself and just as humbling, I must say. Have a terrific weekend, everyone!

Photo of the New York City skyline at night by Francisco Diez on Wikipedia.

Lobbyists are prominently mentioned in this Wall Street Journal piece, “Washington Area Is Tops in Income” by Elizabeth Williamson.

NCSL published “Social media tools can pose ethical problems for lawmakers,” by Judy Nadler. The article explores the ethical considerations lawmakers face when using social media tools. The article raises the question about the types of relationships that are established on a network like Facebook by citing the example of someone running for office: “A ‘push’ was organized to add key lobbyists, government contractors and others as ‘friends.'” Nadler discusses government-using-social-media issues such as transparency, playing favorites, and the obligation officeholders have to choose the words they use online carefully.

The Fierce Government IT article, “‘Snapshots cannot accurately archive gov 2.0 content, says Navy official” by Molly Bernhart Walker, discusses the challenges posed by the need to keep a record of government presence in social media platforms.

From Federal Computer Week: A recent survey takes a look at mobile device trends in “Government workers using mobile to access social media, survey shows” by Alice Lipowicz.