A new 311 smart phone app for Salt Lake City, Utah allows a citizen to take a geo-coded picture with his or her smartphone and enter more detailed information about the problem. In response to the citizen’s entry, a real-time case is created that’s sent directly to the staff person who will handle the situation.

According to this article on GovTech, the app called Salt Lake City 311 transmits the request to the city’s GIS database, which then provides an address match for the city responder to answer the notification personally, with no middleman in between.

This app streamlines the process of fieldworkers responding to calls, as well as creating a convenient and easy way for everyday citizens to report problems.

This kind of 311 app is something that is likely to be seen in many other municipalities across the nation in the near future.

The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission has named Holly LaBerge as its new Executive Secretary.

LaBerge, a former Budget Analyst for the House Budget Office and Director of Government Relations for the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, beat out Jerry R. Presley, a former lobbyist, government official, and private consultant, for the position.

The commission interviewed each candidate at its meeting Friday before meeting in private to make a decision.

LaBerge takes over for Stacey Kalberman, who left the commission over disputes concerning the agency’s budget and her request for subpoenas to investigate Governor Nathan Deal’s campaign.

We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for:

Sterling Heights, Michigan

Lafayette, Louisiana

Join the multitudes of people today who are taking part in the 4th Annual Power IT Down Day. Just shut down your computer at the end of the work day today, and over the course of the weekend, the energy saved by the these thousands of computers will save thousands of costly kilowatt hours.

This week’s Highlighted Site Of The Week is supporting the cause of Power IT Down. It is a time of increasing frugality, where everyone is looking at cutting costs and saving money. To show that huge benefits  can be received by this minimal effort, Power IT Down’s sponsors (Citrix, HP, Intel, and GTSI) will donate the sum of money saved–which last year amounted to $60,000–to Wounded Warrior Project. It would be one of the easiest contributions you ever made!

As I’m writing this blog post, 10,000 people have already signed up to Power IT Down and 43,000 kilowatt hours have already been saved.

While turning off one computer doesn’t seem like much, by joining together, much can be accomplished.

To learn more about Power IT Down, you can like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and read this article from GovLoop.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Andrea McNamara Doyle has been selected to be the new director of the Washington Public Disclosure Commission.

Doyle, who has previous experience as a government manager and legislative staff attorney, was chosen from 71 applicants after a several month search.

She will replace interim director Doug Ellis who is retiring from the agency later this year.

Another example of mock Twitter accounts similar to the ones discussed in yesterday’s blog post popped up today.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a strategist for Mitt Romney and Senator Scott Brown, admitted in an email to the Boston Globe that he was the one responsible for the mock Twitter account @CrazyKhazei which produces satirical tweets at the expense of Brown’s 2012 opponent, Alan Khazei.

An example of a tweet posted on this Twitter account read:

Hiring my brother at my charity was not a conflict of interest. It was an act of kindness.

Unlike many political figures who have been targeted by fake Twitter profiles and don’t seem to be especially bothered by the account, the Khazei campaign reacted angrily to the allegations, calling on Brown to denounce the tactics, close the Twitter account, and apologize.

Read more about this in the article posted by TheHill, “Brown adviser admits to running Twitter account mocking Democratic opponent“.

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

• The Environmental Protection Agency is challenging the public to help develop apps that utilize EPA data in unique ways in their Apps for the Environment challenge, with a deadline of September 16th. EPA App Challenge Article
• The Government Business Council is looking for input from the public concerning mobile phone apps and how they could be used in the federal government and corresponding agencies. Mobile apps are changing government: Tell us how
• Are you social media savvy? The Obama re-election campaign is hiring “social media copywriters”. Obama Campaign Seeking Social Media Staffers
• A former advisor for President Obama suggested that the real key to open government is for governments to compete for openness. Using Technology to Open Government Should Be a Competition

I hope you find these interesting. Enjoy!

The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will not give a penny in campaign contributions to incumbents until Congress comes up with a long-term solution to the debt problem. According to the article, 100 other heads of corporations have joined him in that pledge.

Schultz also made a plea to business leaders to start hiring again.

In “Starbucks CEO: Pledge to Halt Campaign Donations Gains Steam,” Julie Jargon names a few of the other CEOs following Schultz in the promise.

Could a movement be brewing?

According to an article on the LasVegasSun, mock Twitter accounts are being created for the sole purpose of impersonating political figures. Some creators are looking to entertain, while others have a more ambitious goal of influencing the outcome of an election.

One prominent example @BPGlobalPR, a satirical mock account that was created soon after the BP oil spill, has accumulated thousands more followers than the actual BP Corporate Twitter page.

Many political figures in Nevada such as U.S. Rep. Dina Titus and Republican congressional candidate Mark Amodei have also been victims of less prominent mock Twitter accounts that focus on topics such as Rep. Dina’s accent and Amodei being lazy.

Most targeted politicians don’t seem too bothered by their Twitter alter-egos, but Tracy Viselli, a social media expert advises that if these alter-egos accumulate more followers than the candidate’s offical page to consider possibly acknowledging and engaging the impersonator, but do so carefully.

Read the full article by Anjeanette Damon, “Fake Twitter accounts force their way onto political landscape“.

The Federal Election Commission has entered into a Stipulated Order and Consent Judgment with the National Defense PAC (NDPAC) agreeing not to enforce some provisions of law regarding contribution limits for political committees and candidates.

These provisions, 2 U.S.C. §§ 441a(a)(1)(c) and 441a(a)(3), were ruled unenforceable by the District Court in a prior decision, Carey v. FEC. Prior to the District Court’s decision, the FEC had been unable to issue a binding resolution for an earlier NDPAC advisory opinion request.

As a single committee, the NDPAC may now contribute directly to candidates and political committees, and make independent expenditures, separating the funds only by using two separate bank accounts. It must maintain the statutory limits on the solicitation of funds used for direct contributions while it may simultaneously seek unlimited funds for use in their independent expenditures. While the Stipulated Order and Consent Judgment specifically regards the FEC withholding enforcement of the law as it applies to NDPAC, it does not address other PACs utilizing the same procedures for solicitation and separation of funds.

This post updates a previous article by George Ticoras, “One PAC is Enough” from June 15, 2011.

Social media has become such a huge part of our culture that terms such as “retweet” and “cyberbullying” have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

According to a blog post by Oxford Dictionaries , every quarter they update the current English dictionary in Oxford Dictionaries Online with new words and meanings that have made it into common usage. With over 750 million Facebook users and over 200 million Twitter members, its no surprise that such social media specific terms are considered relevant to every day conversation.

As defined by the OED, a retweet is:

Pronunciation:/riːˈtwiːt/

verb [with object]: (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user)

noun: a reposted or forwarded message on Twitter

“Retweet” is not the first nor likely the last social media term to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Governor Nathan Deal has appointed B. Chan Caudell to replace Josh Belinfante as a member of the State Ethics Commission.

Caudell is an attorney and former commissioner of Habersham County, Georgia. He also serves on the board of directors for North Georgia Technical College and is vice chair of Common Cause Georgia as well as the State Bar of Georgia advisory committee that reviews legislation.

Belinfante resigned last week, stating he was looking into running for state senate.

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For the latest information on campaign finance requirements in Michigan, the state’s Bureau of Elections now has a Twitter account to keep you informed. The Twitter feed will include information about reporting deadlines, electronic filing updates, and announcements regarding training sessions. You can follow the Twitter account at @MichCFR.

According to a Michigan Department of State press release, “Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced today that the Bureau of Elections is launching a Twitter account to alert candidates, committees and those interested in campaign finance of reports detailing campaign contributions and expenditures.”

For another way to receive the latest information, the release also mentions that the Secretary of State also has a Facebook presence.