Today is the last day Team Intern will be Team Intern. We say goodbye to Elizabeth Scozzaro and Costa Janos as they venture on to continue their college studies. Over the last two months, we have all grown incredibly close. Every day we met in the first floor kitchen and ate lunch together. We have attended and graduated from Intern Edge, a weekly meeting of Akron area interns to connect us with local leaders and help us to develop as leaders.

We were also able to volunteer at  the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church’s Good Samaritans, a monthly distribution of food to those in need in the local community. Sans Costa Janos, Team Intern also shoveled mulch at the United Way Day of Action at the Lake Anna YMCA.

Helping Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church prepare for their Grecian food festival in September, we prepared filling for numerous items, most of which involved rolling. We were also blessed with enjoying countless doughnuts and treats from Damascus Road, a local coffee shop throughout the summer provided by Joe May and Michael Beckett.

We bonded outside of work as well, meeting up at Akron RubberDucks games, the local double “A” affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and enjoy a relaxing evening on Elizabeth Scozzaro’s aunt’s pontoon boat.

Some of Team Intern will be sticking around for a few more weeks. I finish up on the 19^th, David Trujillo on the 20th, Sophia Avouris on the 21^st, and David Jones back to his normal, year round internship here at State and Federal Communications.

Here is a little bit about each of us.

Elizabeth Scozzaro, a senior marketing and business administration major at Baldwin Wallace University. Also a member of the sorority, Alpha Phi, is best known for making us create a pyramid. Elizabeth Scozzaro spent the summer assisting on projects with Elizabeth Bartz.

Sophia Avouris, the youngest member of Team Intern. Just graduating from high school, Sophia is an incoming freshman to Kent State University and plans to study political science. Sophia worked under Joe May in the Social Media department conducting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) research and Lobby Comply blog posts.

Costa Janos, transferring this year from the University of Kentucky, he is now attending THE Ohio State University as a sophomore studying Finance with a minor in communications. Team Intern never was able to bond with Costa outside of work because of his intensive golf outings. Costa worked with the research department checking primary election dates and tracking legislation.

David Jones, the veteran of the group, studies network administration with Cisco at Stark State College. Has graduated twice from Intern Edge and has at some point helped each intern with an electronic device. David Jones works under Ken Kelewae in the IT department.

David Trujillo, who for a time left us to fulfill his commitment to the Ohio National Guard just rejoined us this past Monday. Trujillo is majoring in public relations and organizational communications with minors in Arabic and creative writing. Oh, and he is studying for the LSATs in September. *exhale* David Trujillo also worked with the research department throughout the summer.

I, Nikos Frazier, am a junior photojournalism major at Kent State University. Team Intern will never forgive me if I don’t add that I drink tea by the gallon and if I am not drinking tea, I am drinking coffee. I have worked under Joe May in the Social Media department researching SEO research, photographing and blogging events attended by State and Federal Communications and lately researching the 2016 presidential Candidates’ social media accounts and usage.

As we all part ways, we will always remember this summer. For most of us this is our first internship. State and Federal Communications has given us incredible opportunities. We have been able to perform numerous community outreach to help give back to Akron. Intern Edge stressed how great Akron is and how we, Millennials, need to comeback and create an even greater Akron. But even if we do not return to Akron, we know now the importance to give back to the community, create a network and help create something great.

So as I try to finish this post in a great way, I am at a loss of words. So I leave everyone with Korean Proverb I learned while visiting Seoul, South Korea this last March, “Aim high in your career, but stay humble in your heart.”

Goodbye Team Intern, and for once more, “Team Intern Unite!”

Campaign finance

“Uneven Political Contributions by Publicly Traded Companies” by Kent Cooper in Roll Call.

“Complaint Filed Over Campaign Directing $1M Donation to Super PAC” by Kent Cooper in Roll Call.

“Campaign finance watchdogs file complaint against Santorum” by Alexandra Jaffe in The Hill.

From the State Legislatures

From NCSL: “Former President Jimmy Carter Captivates State Legislators” in NCSL’s The Thicket.

“State legislators promise voting rights push” by Bill Barrow (Associated Press) in the Athens Banner-Herald.

Florida: “Fla. legislators vote down special session” by The Associated Press in the Miami Herald.

Government Tech and Social Media

“Twitter Can’t Yet Predict Elections” by Stuart Rothenberg in Roll Call.

and for the contrary view…

“A New Study Says Twitter Can Predict US Elections” by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic.

Redistricting

Florida: “Former legislative leaders Pruitt, McKay and Thompson weigh into redistricting fight” by Aaron Deslatte in the Orlando Sentinel.

“Government to regulate Twitter ads” in the Washington Business Journal.

“How to Use Social Media in Government: A Response to Cory Booker” by Joseph Marks in Nextgov.

“Almost 70 Localities Join New York State Open Data Platform” by Miranda Neubauer in TechPresident.

“Like a Dagger to Bloggers’ Hearts, Google Just Killed Google Reader” by Mark Lennihan in Nextgov.

“New GovLoop Report: Unlocking the Power of Government Analytics” by Pat Fiorenza on GovLoop.

“The Tech Arms Race Is On: Democratic National Committee Is Also Hiring” by Sarah Lai Stirland in TechPresident.

“Hadley Dynak: Why I Code for America” by Hadley Dynak on Code for America Blog.

Lobbying

“ALEC Finds New Friends” by Janie Lorber in Roll Call.

Arizona: “Ex-Fiesta Bowl lobbyist takes plea deal in probe” by Craig Harris in the Arizona Republic.

Campaign Finance

“Appeals court upholds Illinois campaign disclosure law” by Nate Raymond (Reuters) in the Chicago Tribune.

Minnesota: “Minnesota to keep enforcing campaign disclosure law; federal judge called part of it ‘onerous’” by Martiga Lohn (Associated Press) in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“Nonstop Fundraising Stretch Starts” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Rahm Emanuel suspends super PAC fundraising” by Kenneth P. Vogel in Politico.

“Shop Talk: Celebrating Campaign Women” by Kyle Trygstad in Roll Call.

“Look-alike sites funnel big money to mystery PAC” by Shaqne Goldmacher in NextGov.

“Corporate Contributions and Disclosure” editorial in the New York Times.

Social Media

“Twitter adopts new targeting method for advertisers” by Steve Friess in Politico.

“Cementing social media’s place in the campaign world” in Campaigns & Elections.

“Social-Media Insights Inspired By Barack Obama, America’s First Truly Social President” by Amber Mac in Fast Company.

“Nine Tech Tips for Starting a New Government Job” by Mark Micheli in Government Executive.

“Social Media Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Government Career” by Mark Malseed in OhMyGov!

“Twitter, Facebook now tools for Big Brother” by David Saleh Rauf in Politico.

“Blending Governance and Twitter” by Chrystia Freeland in The New York Times.

“Social media as election predictor? Not so fast” by Puja Murgai on Politico.

“A Road Map Emerges for State Digital Preservation” by Noelle Knell in Government Technology.

“Louisville government rated among top 10 social media cities” by Thomas McAdam in the Louisville City Hall Examiner.

This articles talks about the trend toward tagging objects in the physical world in order to track it all with the internet and mobile devices: “Internet of Things Comes to Government” from Government Technology.

How does your state measure up in providing high speed internet access? “States Race to Improve Broadband Speeds” by Mike Maciag in Government Technology.

The State Department held a social media contest where the participants were given the task of finding fake jewel thieves. MIT’s Team Crowdscanner was the winner: “MIT team thinks outside the box to snag social media prize” by Andrew Lapin in Nextgov.

Here is a Govloop discussion “What Are Your Tech Needs for Teleworking?” posted by Pat Fiorenza.

“Can social media predict election outcomes?” by Jon Swartz in USA Today.

“Twitter and The Countdown To Super Tuesday” by Shea Bennett on All Twitter.

“Romney to Win Republican Nomination, Facebook Says” by Kate Knibbs in Mobiledia.

“Facebook users not talking about Rick Santorum (infographic)” by Emil Protalinski on ZDNet.

“Will Romney’s Facebook fans help win Super Tuesday?” by Athima Chansanchai on MSNBC’s Digital Life.

“Santorum’s Facebook Fans Silent Before Super Tuesday” by Jennifer Moire on All Facebook.

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.

More about U.S. Congress and Twitter from techPresident: “New Survey Finds Republicans Tweet More Often, But to Whom?”

Definitely worth a look:  Campaigns and Elections magazine is hosting the 2011 CampaignTech Conference November 10-11 in Washington D.C. “Explore the craft of digital politics and advocacy in the changing landscape of the political online world.” The conference boasts an impressive speaker list. Here is the registration information and their blog. (Thank you, George Ticoras for pointing this one out to me.)

From Luke Fretwell on govfresh: “NAGW honors top government websites.” Here is the National Association of Government Webmasters 2011 Pinnacle Award site. I am excited to say an Ohio city received an award – the City of Montgomery, Ohio won in the “population less than 50,000” category!

You can now see all of the Tennessee governor’s proclamations on the Secretary of State’s website. Here is an article from the Tennessean about the news.

From Federal News Radio: The article “GSA launches YouTube-inspired contest for how-to videos” offers exciting news. It says, “The General Services Administration is giving away $5,000 dollars to social media mavens, who create videos to help people understand federal benefits and services.”

Today, we get two views of the U.S. Congress and its use of Twitter.

Politico published “Survey: Congress uses Twitter more than millennials” by Tim Mak, which says members of Congress have taken to using Twitter more than American people between the ages of 18 and 29. They say 81% of Congress uses Twitter, while 75% of millennials have adopted its use.

An Associated Press survey, which provided those figures, made the comment that in their estimation, members of Congress could better use the social media platform as an opportunity for genuine interaction with that demographic and less as a social media megaphone for their messages.

Politico today reports that Twitter will be offering the opportunity for political campaigns to run ads on it social network.

The article, “Twitter to launch political advertising” by Ben Smith, says Twitter has had five years of observing online behavior. Like Google with its ads, Twitter wishes to cash in on what should be a great money-maker.

As for the issue of disclosure, Smith spoke with Twitter’s government liaison Adam Sharp, who said disclosure statements probably are not legally necessary for their ads. But Twitter will offer the ability to show “paid for by” information via a mouse-over on the paid Tweet.

It will be interesting to see if any regulation springs from this new development.

Here is an interesting article on Law Technology News (Law.com) that surveys the landscape of government agencies and their use of Twitter.

You’ll find the Twitter handles of many government agencies and more than a dozen examples of government tweets.

The article is called “Your Government, on Twitter” by Jesse Londin.

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.

Scott Wong from Politico reports how Twitter is responding to concerns on Capitol Hill that the Twitter accounts of legislators are vulnerable to hacking.

A representative from Twitter is sending them advice on how to keep their accounts secure.

Here is the article called “Twitter e-mails Congress safety tips.”