CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-23 19:03:34 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

The president was just heckled at National Defense University about hunger strikes at Guantanamo. Feisty lady from Code Pink, identified as Medea Benjamin. He let her speak, and then replied:

"This is part of free speech: you being able to speak, but also you listening, and me being able to speak"-President Obama. Gracious reply.

And then something extraordinary happened. 

President Obama stopped speaking & allowed Code Pink's Medea Benjamin to break in and protest a nationally televised speech, at length and with great passion, until she was escorted out. 

How unexpected. And how quintessentially American.

2013-05-23 18:02:21 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

President Obama has begun delivering a major speech on U.S. counter-terrorism policy. Livestream: http://1.usa.gov/a6JWsN

Context: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/us-acknowledges-killing-4-americans-in-drone-strikes.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&

2013-05-23 15:51:37 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Keep an eye out for the Mobile Language Museum around DC: 
http://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/19450-the-mobile-language-museum

It's the recipient of the April grant from the DC chapter of the awesome Foundation. 

If YOU have an idea that would: 
A) make DC more awesome
B) happen soon
C) benefit from a $1000 boost

then APPLY HERE: http://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/submissions/new

2013-05-23 13:46:41 (19 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Good morning from Washington, DC! Where does today find you -- and what are you working on?

2013-05-23 13:30:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

New open source catalog and list of APIs on Data.gov

I invite you to visit Data.gov to see the new catalog for browsing U.S. open data: http://catalog.data.gov We have combined raw and geospatial data from many sources across the U.S. and presented it through an open source tool, CKAN.

In connection with the U.S. Digital Strategy we have also created a new list of government APIs: http://www.data.gov/developers/page/developer-resources

Find out more at: http://www.data.gov/blog/datagov-launches-new-catalog-and-apis

2013-05-22 23:17:22 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

Twitter is (finally) rolling out dual-factor authentication. If you tweet, this is sweet: more security. 
http://digiphile.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/hi-click-here-to-stop-from-getting-phished-on-twitter/

…and if you haven't turned on dual authentication yet for Google+, there's no time like the present: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036252/how-to-set-up-two-factor-authentication-for-facebook-google-microsoft-and-more.html

2013-05-22 17:20:19 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Los Angeles has a new mayor. Will Eric Garcetti lead the city to more effective digital governance?
http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/22/will-mayor-elect-eric-garcetti-reboot-los-angeles-government-for-the-21st-century/

2013-05-22 16:08:22 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

" Notable findings: http://bit.ly/14uNsCc on race & #privacy in teen social media use"- +danah boyd: http://bit.ly/10LU5LW

2013-05-22 14:49:05 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Interesting feature by George Packer on Silicon Valley and politics:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/27/130527fa_fact_packer (subscription required)

and reply by +Steven B Johnson, who points out that northern California is not, in fact, full of amoral libertarians. 
https://medium.com/the-peer-society/410c644cebe4

The reality, as ever, is more complicated

2013-05-21 03:41:35 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 15 +1s)

Excellent backgrounder on the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma by Madrigal Alexis: http://bit.ly/13DlPUF  Puts the storm in context, layers in statistical data and maps.

2013-05-21 02:21:12 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Duly impressed with this Roku device. It's proving to be quite useful for messing with my parents' Netflix algorithms.

2013-05-21 01:53:18 (13 comments, 15 reshares, 57 +1s)

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away"
Family comes out of storm cellar after May 20th Tornado in Moore Oklahoma

I admire the calmness with which this Oklahoman surveyed the damage around him as he emerged from a storm shelter, finding complete devastation.

At least 51 other people either couldn't find shelter or didn't survive the full force of the vast tornado that touched down in Moore earlier today. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/tornado-oklahoma.html

2013-05-21 01:32:36 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

+Google has a crisismap up for those affected by that terrible tornado in #Oklahoma. 

Also check out https://moore.recovers.org/
http://google.org/crisismap/2013-oklahoma-tornado

2013-05-21 01:30:54 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Hangouts, phone calls and Google Voice

Thanks for all of your feedback on last week's Hangouts launch. I wanted to quickly talk about 1) making/receiving phone calls in Gmail, and 2) Google Voice support more generally.

1) Today's version of Hangouts doesn't yet support outbound calls on the web and in the Chrome extension, but we do support inbound calls to your Google Voice number. We're working hard on supporting both, and outbound/inbound calls will soon be available. In the meantime, you can continue using Google Talk in Gmail.

2) Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly.

2013-05-20 22:53:08 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

So, Yahoo has upgraded Flickr to 1 terabyte of photo storage. Which is nice. Here's the deets, for those interested: http://blog.flickr.net/2013/05/20/a-better-brighter-flickr/

The redesign is lovely:
http://flickr.com/divergence

Still trying to puzzle out the new terms of service. As far as I can tell, as a "Pro" - something folks can no longer sign up for -- I won't see ads: http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#150470666

If you've read them or the news, please share how this might influence your decisions to use Flickr, sign up or otherwise interact with the service.

2013-05-20 21:13:12 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Last week, Slate published my article on a recent executive order on open data issued by President Obama. Unfortunately, it contained an error, which has since been corrected: 
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/open_data_executive_order_is_the_best_thing_obama_s_done_this_month.html#cx

After an alert reader commented on the article, I responded with a clarification of the history. That didn't address the integrity of the article itself, however, and since the editors had heard from another reader, I sent in a correction.

Unfortunately, I elided a rich and compelling history into a few short sentences and apologize for any misunderstanding that readers of the syndicated version may take away. I regret the error. I ran the correction by Craig Silverman, of Poynter's excellent "Regret the Error" blog, who generally gave high marks to the... more »

2013-05-20 19:50:18 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

A caveat regarding +The White House's recent executive order (which wasn't in my Slate article last week) comes with respect to the inclusion of a warning about the so-called "mosaic effect" in the open data policy.

This effect, which originates in the intelligence world, describes a situation in which multiple pieces of data and information that are meaningless (or at least harmless or unclassified) on their own could be combined and analyzed to discover the identities of people, sensitive locations or other secrets.

That official consideration left journalists and open government advocates worried.
http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/20/open-data-mosaic-effect/

2013-05-20 18:55:12 (3 comments, 6 reshares, 6 +1s)

Alarming.
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/05/conspiracy-commit-journalism-justice-depts-dangerous-new-argument-threatens-basic

2013-05-20 17:46:15 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

New post: New York City is using new technology to understand which homes are at the greatest risk for fires
 http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/20/new-york-city-predictive-data-analytics-fire/

Better governance can save lives.

2013-05-20 15:03:50 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Yahoo buys Tumblr. Keep calm and reblog on? 
http://digiphile.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/yahoo-buys-tumblr-keep-calm-and-reblog-on/

On a personal note, I expect to keep tumbling, though I find WordPress to be a superior blogging platform. That said, my attention is spread across many different social platforms and media organizations, not to mention my inbox and iPhone.

If I’m confronted by too many ads on the Tumblr mobile app, I’m going to spend less time consuming and creating there. I’m sure I’m not alone.

2013-05-20 03:19:15 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 60 +1s)

Post-payphone

Epic long weekend past: 19+ hours of driving & a wedding on Cape Cod.

I loved being (mostly) offline & promise to reply to more email Monday AM.

I noticed this "unwired" pay phone kiosk at a rest stop.

Memory of a communications era long by, where we called answering machines to check messages and returned to an office to see if we had new letters or faxes.

Now, calls and inquiries can follow us everywhere.

The attractions of finding ways to be healthfully "untethered" seems to multiply over time.

2013-05-17 14:29:15 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

NEWS: Russia has withdrawn from the Open Government Partnership: http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/17/russia-withdraws-from-open-government-partnership-too-much-transparency/

"Openness" has its limits. Technocracy is not democracy.

#Opengov #opendata #gov20 #OGP  

2013-05-17 14:29:55 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 15 +1s)

Russia has withdrawn from the Open Government Partnership: http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/17/russia-withdraws-from-open-government-partnership-too-much-transparency/

"Openness" has its limits. Technocracy is not democracy.

#Opengov   #opendata   #gov20   #OGP  

2013-05-17 13:53:58 (20 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Mr. Cook goes to Washington: 
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0C501EE6-277B-4623-9E21-F8553219947D 

A New York Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?pagewanted=all on Apple & taxes seems to have stung.

2013-05-17 03:35:05 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 26 +1s)

Big thumbs up for the new #StarTrek film. Visually stunning. A few plot holes. Great cast, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock & Benedict CumberbatchB. 
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/ #LLAP

2013-05-17 02:37:05 (20 comments, 7 reshares, 85 +1s)

About to get my geek on. Excited. The new Star Trek film looks promising.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/

2013-05-16 20:06:17 (1 comments, 6 reshares, 17 +1s)

+The Economist : "On May 9th +Barack Obama ordered that all data created or collected by America’s federal government must be made available free to the public, unless this would violate privacy, confidentiality or security. “Open and machine-readable”, the president said, is “the new default for government information.”

This is a big bang for big data, and will spur a frenzy of activity. Pollution numbers will affect property prices. Restaurant reviews will mention official sanitation ratings. Data from tollbooths could be used to determine prices for nearby billboards. Combining data from multiple sources will yield fresh insights. For example, correlating school data with transport information and tax returns may show that academic performance depends less on income than the amount of time parents spend with their [darling children]."http://ww... more »

2013-05-16 18:56:01 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I keep dipping in & out of App.Net. You? If you're not there & would like to try the service, invites here: http://bit.ly/19zDaRH.

2013-05-16 16:15:09 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 12 +1s)

As press freedom goes, so too does open government and democracy
http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/05/15/press-freedom-open-government-democracy/

As New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote yesterday, “The ability of the press to report freely on its government is a cornerstone of American democracy. That ability is, by any reasonable assessment, under siege. Reporters get their information from sources. They need to be able to protect those sources and sometimes offer them confidentiality. If they can’t be sure about that – and it looks increasingly like they can’t – the sources will dry up. And so will the information.”

The White House, Congress, Department of Justice and the American people cannot afford to let that happen. Information is the life blood of democracy. A free press is core to its gathering and dissemination, as are whistleblowers whotell the na... more »

2013-05-16 15:41:34 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 9 +1s)

Surprise: When +The White House  tweets a link to your story, angry commenters show up, along with a few who read the article and comment on its content.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/open_data_executive_order_is_the_best_thing_obama_s_done_this_month.single.html

I generally view more surface area for ideas and writing as a good thing. 

2013-05-16 14:48:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

The White House is kicking off #WeTheGeeks , a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the U.S.

Our first hangout includes an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country who will discuss the elements of an "all hands on deck" effort to pursue Grand Challenges.

Tune in today at 2pm ET: http://at.wh.gov/l4lUD

2013-05-16 14:25:38 (9 comments, 4 reshares, 42 +1s)

You won't see this cover on newsstands but, thanks to green screen technology, I'm "on the front" of the Washingtonian's special tech issue.
http://www.washingtonian.com/projects/tech-titans/titans.html

I'm humbled to be listed with these folks -- it's quite likely the only time you'll see my name next to +vint cerf !

(#3 on their list of "tech tweeters" in DC isn't bad, either, although once you move past the technology vertical, this metro area is dense with tweets from media and political celebrities. No index for Google+ yet. I'd be #2 in DC, behind +Clay Johnson: http://socialstatistics.com/search/location/Washington%20%20DC)

Many thanks to everyone who has supported me over the years.

2013-05-16 05:05:44 (4 comments, 6 reshares, 30 +1s)

"Everybody gets their own map, every time" 

2013-05-16 03:38:33 (15 comments, 4 reshares, 24 +1s)

I'm now seeing Google+ primarily in 2 columns on my laptop, with exceptions for big photos and videos.

I like it. A lot. My first impressions of the user experience are universally positive. I like the simplified share dialog: photos, video, link, event.

In fact, it's extremely similar to the iPad and iOS apps, which I've been showing to friends for months to explain why Google+ is at least as interesting on a mobile devices as Facebook. Both were made dramatically better with lists but are ultimately defined, just like Twitter, with immediate relevance for a given search. 

Great work, +Google: I'm sure I'll be spending more time here.

2013-05-16 01:51:19 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 42 +1s)

Well, I've made some impression on DC, at least according to the Washingtonian. http://www.washingtonian.com/projects/tech-titans/titans.html

2013-05-15 21:14:06 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

My considered thoughts on +The White House  executive order on open data, collected for Slate. 
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/05/open_data_executive_order_is_the_best_thing_obama_s_done_this_month.single.html

I'll have some more to share over on the open government blog, but for now, I hope this explains why this matters.

#opengov   #opendata   #gov20  

2013-05-15 19:58:38 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

No surprise: new Google+ features introduced today by +Vic Gundotra at #GoogleIO: http://www.fastcompany.com/3009767/most-innovative-companies-2013/tracking-google-innovations-at-google-i-o

Looking good.

2013-05-15 13:27:08 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Increasingly excited to escape DC this weekend for a wedding and 90th birthday party. Morning newsfeed is leaving me shaking my head.

What's good in your world(s)?

2013-05-14 21:34:07 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 10 +1s)

Add terabytes of open data from NASA satellites to cutting edge algorithms, mix in gorgeous visualization and you get...cloudless maps. 
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/05/a-cloudless-atlas/

Mapbox, a scrappy DC-based startup, has developed a business based upon open government data, open source technology and chutzpah. In the process, they're helping to build out OpenStreetMap, the "Wikipedia of maps," and putting the DC Tech scence on the map. (So to speak.)

2013-05-14 16:29:28 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)

Great article from +Kate Crawford on overreaching claims for big data. Glad to say that neither I nor my co-chairs for Strata +Alistair Croll and +Kaitlin Thaney espouse these myths. We try to deliver a view that combines the promise with the caveats.

Of course, it's human nature to want a silver bullet, and the media machine falls over itself to try and give us one.

2013-05-14 16:27:53 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

Scrutiny of newly-formed nonprofits by the IRS before granting exempt status is fairly common. In the late 1990s, there were a raft of Internet-related nonprofits, some of dubious nature, and any new nonprofit in that area could count on an extended decision process and extra scrutiny. 

What is much harder to understand is the huge resistance by the IRS and by their overseers in the Department of the Treasury and the administration to release of the e-file data from the Form 990. E-filing is something done mostly by large nonprofits: those with over $10 million in assets are required to e-file, any nonprofit below that level has the option to e-file but is not required to do so. When we met with senior IRS officials to ask for release of the e-file data, one of their main reasons for not letting us have this data is that the large nonprofits would complain if their public filings became more... more »

2013-05-14 16:27:33 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Currently making me laugh: http://gizoogle.net/index.php?search=Digiphile+&se=Gizoogle+Dis+Shiznit

Be warned: expect the same obscenity you'd hear listening to gangster rap.

2013-05-14 02:22:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Timely read. I just downloaded D.B. Grady & Marc Ambinder's book on government secrecy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B0H9S1E/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B0H9S1E&linkCode=as2&tag=httpdigiphile-20  #AffiliateLink

2013-05-14 00:35:23 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

Fun Easter egg, +Google. Click the image tab for the search below for some retro gaming fun: https://www.google.com/search?q=atari+breakout

2013-05-13 23:06:30 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

The experience of the "Star Wars" kid over the last decade is a cautionary tale of being "Internet infamous" http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/10-years-later-star-wars-kid-speaks-231310357.html 

Ghyslain Raza was a 14 year-old kid who liked Star Wars and liked to make videos. His classmates posted one of those videos without his permission. It went viral. He was then harassed online and offline, eventually changed schools, and suffered from depression severe enough to spend time in a juvenile psychiatric ward.

A decade later, what happened to Raza could happen to any young person near a smartphone-toting peer, though with far more velocity and potential spread to the connected public. I hope his choice to speak out -- which can't be easy -- will result in better support mechanisms for the children who will inevitably follow him.

2013-05-14 00:11:15 (6 comments, 4 reshares, 9 +1s)

Associated Press: "The Justice Department has secretly obtained 2 months of telephone records of journalists for the AP"
http://usat.ly/YREdgn

The DoJ appears to have been chasing leaks about a thwarted Al-Qaida plot http://yhoo.it/ISWrzQ

"We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news."-Gary Pruitt, AP CEO
http://www.ap.org/Images/Letter-to-Eric-Holder_tcm28-12896.pdf

2013-05-13 17:06:40 (5 comments, 3 reshares, 6 +1s)

"Welcome to farming in the age of patented, genetically modified organisms"- +David Kravets http://bit.ly/18G0MXg 

SCOTUS ruled in favor of Monsanto.

2013-05-20 03:36:36 (24 comments, 6 reshares, 15 +1s)

500M Google+ accounts, 190 million active users… but brands and corporations aren't posting here, citing low engagement
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/12/net-us-google-social-idUSBRE94B04W20130512

The stats here aren't pretty: 

"An informal survey by Reuters showed that of the 100 most valuable global brands in 2012 ranked by Millward Brown, a media research firm owned by ad giant WPP, 72 have a presence on Google+, compared with 87 on Facebook.

However, roughly 40 percent of the brands with pages on Google+ have either never posted any content, or do so infrequently. Seventeen brands, including Nike and Pepsi, had not posted to their Google+ page in more than a week."

Why? The data they see on use and their perception of that use.

"The average U.S. visitor to Google+ spent 6 minutes 47 seconds on thesi... more »

2013-05-13 00:20:54 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

If I'd published 8 recipes in a pamphlet 2 decades ago, I'd be lucky to have 8 readers. 4 years later, 41,874 views: http://gourmetrecipes.wordpress.com

The ability of the Internet to connect us to our passions -- and to one another -- never ceases to amaze me.

2013-05-13 03:21:12 (5 comments, 13 reshares, 22 +1s)

David Bowie's "Space Oddity"....adapted and sung by an astronaut in space. It's not hard to see the Earth floating by as Commander +Chris Hadfield  sings and be a bit awed.