A week in e-democracy

A week in e-Democracy: 2012, Twitter election?

2012, Twitter election?
While Mitt Romney won the Florida primary in the U.S., an article of The New York Times explains the importance of Twitter in the way his team is to influence the debate. We learn that the tweets from journalists are particularly monitored, like all subjects of controversy which might affect the candidate. But Twitter is also used as an offensive weapon to criticize the opponent.

Barack Obama dialogue with citizens on Google +
Imagine five people selected from tens of thousands, calling on the President live from the webcam installed in their living room. This is what happened last Monday when five Americans citizens, who participated in an interview with YouTube and Google+ to discuss his State of the Union Address. For this "first online conversation to happen at the White House in real time -- ever" as called by the White House, more than 227,000 people had taken time to participate -- submitting questions for the President to answer or voting for their favorite.

Francois Hollande flour-bombed also on the web
It is the charm of the Internet: its ultra responsive. It did not take 24 hours for the misadventure of the socialist candidate for president turns into a small video game online. He was victim of a flour attack by a woman just as he prepared to make a speech. The incident had raised a lot of questions about the protection of presidential candidates. This did not prevent an Internet user who is a young right activist to create during the night a little online game very simple: flour a maximum time of Francois Hollande in minimum time. A classic in these little games on the net. To play log onto fh-2012.com.

Internet creates wider venue for political threats
The U.S. Secret Service are on alert, estimating the level of invilité against politicians especially high during an election campaign seen as very aggressive, both within the Republican camp than against President Obama. A police sergeant from Arizona has been removed from patrol and assigned to desk duties pending an internal investigation because he appeared in a photo posted on Facebook with weapons and what appears to be a bullet-riddled image of Barack Obama. According to USA Today, if political incivility is nothing new, the Internet is making more of the venom public, and it has changed the nature of incivility by allowing people to spew insults anonymously that can reach millions of people. That is why the Internet threat desk, set up within the secret services since 2000, pays particular attention to identify, among the bluster, the real threats.

The French net-campaign viewed on the other side of the Channel
How our neighbors across the Channel perceive the beginning of the French presidential campaign on internet? UKauthority.com, an online publication that specializes in the use of digital tools in the public sector, provides an interesting overview on the subject, partly inspired by Citizen 2.0.

A week in e-Democracy: the last 100 days

France, USA, Russia ... voters in these three countries are going to the polls this year. Is Internet will play a role i these elections?

The last 100 days
We enter the last hundred days of the electoral campaign for the first round of the French presidential election of April 22. A timing that will take us to June 17 for the second round of parliamentary elections, a long time to explore and analyze all that officials are imagined to mobilize voters online. Reuters published an interesting file (. Pdf, in French) questioning the role that Internet will play in this election.

French Socialist candidate adopts the Obama method
To mark the 100 days of the campaign,  the socialist candidate team sends e-mailing inviting French people to "become a volunteer for Francois Hollande," inspired by the successful campaign of Barack Obama in 2008. During the socialist primary, nearly 700,000 email addresses were collected before being qualified by a team of twenty people, late December. Today, they are asked if they wish to take action closer to their home, going door to door, putting up posters or organizing dinners apartment.

To be a hero of the web will be enough?
Ron Paul, "the young and the Web hero" as the title of an article in the French magazine "L'Express", failed to win the New Hampshire primary, in United States. Those were based on analysis of "AllFacebook.com," which pointed out that data from three different companies highlight this influence of the candidate on the web, to bet on his victory are for their expenses. But with over 20% of the vote in Iowa and in New Hampshire, the Texan remains a phenomenon to follow.

Opening of Putin's website campaign
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched his website campaign for the presidential election of  March 4. Putin2012.ru shows, of course, his biography and his proposals but offers a particular section, "Changing Russia together," where visitors can make their own proposals. It did not take more than a few hours, as reported by The New York Times, for the initiative turns against him, much comment inviting him to step down now.

A global study minimizes social networks influence
A study conducted in 31 countries by KPMG revealed that while 86% of people are connecting regularly on social networks, only one third admits to being influenced in their decisions. However, the study was conducted to measure the influence of advertising on the purchasing activities of users of social networks (. Pdf).

The 5 myths of Arab Spring
The Washington Post publishes a contribution of a professor at Stanford University, Fouad Ajami, who write about "the five myths surrounding the Arab Spring", a year after the revolution in Tunisia. Among them, the idea of ​​"Revolutions Facebook and Twitter." "Mohammed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian street vendorwho set himself ablaze, didn’t have a Facebook page. He had a sense of righteous anger and despair. We should rein in the technophilia: Internet penetration in the Arab world is still modest" Ajami writes, explaining that revolutions took place in a conventional manner. But his interpretation minimizes the crucial role in mobilizing people by sending photos and video during the events. Without Internet, it is likely that these revolutions were crushed without being aware of it, here in occident.

A week in e-Democracy

The year 2012 will be eventful, with a lot of anecdotes and experiences mixing politics and digital in France, in USA and other countries. Hence the idea to summarize weekly news on e-Democracy. The use of technology, from Twitter to social networking, via  location-based networks, web and mobile services will change the way we see the world and to influence the course of events.

The main news that impressed me this week:

 Happy New Year!
Impossible to miss the wishes of candidates for the French presidential election on Dailymotion. From the socialist François Hollande (100,000 views) to centrist François Bayrou (36,500 views), Eva Joly (32,500 views), Corinne Lepage ( (6000 views), Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (8000 views), Dominique de Villepin (25,000 views), Jean-Luc Mélanchon (42,000 views) or Marine Le Pen (46,000 views), spend all styles. The campaign team of the Left Front of Jean-Luc Mélanchon has done a pretty remarkable parody, " the true wishes of politicians . "

Access to the Internet is a Human Right?
No, access to the Internet is not a fundamental right, like freedom of speech and freedom of access to information, write Vinton Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet in an article published in The New York Times . "The Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which to improve the human condition".

These foreign presidents addicted to Twitter
The French magazine "Nouvel Observateur" published an interesting article on the use of Twitter by Heads of State and Government in the world. Furthermore, it was by Twitter that Cristina Fernandez Kirchner ( @ CFKArgentina ) thanked "God and the Argentine people of the blessings received" after his operation and the announcement that she did not have a cancer. This article reminded us that it is through the same channel that Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president had sent a message of support to the argentine president.

The Facebook page of Nicolas Sarkozy comes to life
5 posts in a week is all that over the previous three months. The Facebook page of Nicolas Sarkozy (nearly 494,000 fans to date ) reminds us that we are entering an election year.

Right-wing activists leave Sarkozy
In France, Arnaud Dassier, one of the right "activists" the most active announced his support for the centrist Bayrou. In an interview, he explained his choice by the need to "open the locked political system that prevents the integration of different people, from civil society" and "reconcile the national representation with the forces of the country ". The same week, Pierre de la Coste, Chairman of the club Hyper Republic, published an open letter to his former cabinet colleague, Henri Guaino. He announced that he will vote "for the first and probably last time" for the socialist candidate in the second round of the presidential election if Nicolas Sarkozy is present.

United States also is in campaign
The campaign for the nomination of the Republican candidate who will face Barack Obama, really began with the Iowa caucuses, narrowly won by Mitt Romney. The popularity of the former Massachusetts governor is widely reported on the Internet. His Facebook page has well over 1, 2 million fans, far more than its main competitors. The breakthrough of former Senator Rick Santorum , came second, resulted in an increase in its visibility on the Web, but according to Socialbakers , which analyzed the Facebook candidate, it is Ron Paul who would win the onine electoral battle because he is the most efficient in mobilizing its supporters.