1–John McCain Votes to Filibuster Minimum Wage Hike.
2–McCain housing policy shaped by lobbyist
4–McCain blasts Obama’s and Clinton’s attacks on NAFTA
5–McCain in NH: Would Be “Fine” To Keep Troops in Iraq for “A Hundred Years”
6–McCain Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion
7–Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition
8–McCain says overturn the law that legalized abortion
9–McCain Defends Bush’s Iraq Strategy
Vote to Promote
Most hard-core web users have either seen or used sites like Digg and Reddit at one time or another. These popular news aggregation services use the vote-to-promote model to push interesting user submitted links to the front of their pages. Users then vote on these submissions and the links with the most votes float to the top.
The model first gained traction with the launch of Digg in 2004. Many other sites are trying to repeat Digg’s success by launching similar websites in specific niches. You can find vote-to-promote in Mixx, Reddit, Shoutwire, Blinklist and VideoSift. The USA Today has adopted the model for use in their articles, an interesting approach to bringing more popular news to the forefront of their website.
Del.icio.us and Magnolia, both social bookmarking services, take a different approach to the vote-to-promote model. These sites allow users to share bookmarked links with other users, promoting further discovery of interesting news while adding more bookmarks to the service. The number of times a specific link is bookmarked the more popular it becomes as people implicitly vote for that link.
Websites can now roll their own vote-to-promote applications though Pligg’s and Reddit’s opensource software. Reddit, who opensourced their code earlier this week, has a slim advantage over Pligg as the technology is more familiar among web-heads.
Interestingly, Care 2 was the only site in the nonprofit sector that I found to use this technology. Idealist could gain from implementing the Reddit-based code by allowing our users and organizations to promote links related to their work. Sharing and promoting their ideas with this technology is a great way to advance dialogue and allow for more people to participate in the conversation.
The vote-to-promote model is an interesting way to aggregate fresh content though it does have its flaws. As the technology matures and developers tweak the underlying source code, websites and services will continue to find novel uses for this idea.
From: [Redacted]
To: [Redacted]
Subject: WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?There are many things people do not know about BARACK OBAMA. It is every American’s duty to read this message and pass it along to all of their friends and loved ones.
Barack Obama wears a FLAG PIN at all times. Even in the shower.
Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag. He also ends every sentence by saying, “WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.” Click here for video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.
A tape exists of Michelle Obama saying the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE at a conference on PATRIOTISM.
Every weekend, Barack and Michelle take their daughters HUNTING.
Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.
Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It’s upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.
There’s only one artist on Barack Obama’s iPod: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.
Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.
Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.
Barack Obama’s new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.
Barack Obama’s skin is the color of AMERICAN SOIL.
Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT.
Barack Obama says that Americans cling to GUNS and RELIGION because they are AWESOME.
QUEENS, NY- The 2nd Annual Friends & RPCVs of Guyana Fundraiser, (http://guyfrog.org) will be held on Friday, July 18th at 8:00 pm to Midnight. The fundraiser will be hosted at Liberty Express Restaurant & Bar, 120-12 Liberty Ave, South Richmond Hill, Queens, NY. A raffle will be held during the event, which will include prizes with all proceeds going to the organization. The event will be featuring reggae, soca and chutney music from DJ Sparber.
Friends and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Guyana (FROG) was created in 2007 as a non-profit organization that connected former RPCVs with each other, with the greater development community and with new opportunities. To date, over 470 Volunteers have assisted in the areas of health, education, community development and information technology in the small South American country. Today, FROG strives to build on the work done while Volunteers and continue helping Guyana.
“As a majority of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers will tell you, the desire to continue working towards the development of those in need remains strong long after their service is complete,” says FROG Chairman Timothy Delaney, RPCV Guyana 2003-2006. This desire can especially be seen in the many men and women who had the opportunity to live and work in Guyana through Peace Corps.
Earnings from the event will help the organization fund projects in Guyana through groups such as Peace Corps, volunteer agencies, Guyanese non-profits, and other organizations working towards development in Guyana. At this time FROG depends entirely on funding from events such as this one, and other grassroots sources.
Ethical Consumerism (hearts) Social Shopping
Recently I was reminded of an article by activist and author George Monbiot from a year ago. He argued that “green consumerism” is pointless when trying to affect environmental and social change but that political participation is the most effective course of action.
If [green consumerism] merely swapped the damaging goods we buy for less damaging ones, I would champion it. But two parallel markets are developing: one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first… It is easy to picture a situation in which the whole world religiously buys green products, and its carbon emissions continue to soar.
I agree that political action is a necessary to drag industries and outdated ideas into the present, but we can’t entirely discount consumer action. Effectively and permanently distributing consumer buying power through organized group purchasing of ethical products based on an information system of corporate social responsibility and Leed-like ratings, consumers can affect the impact they seek.
There are a number of tools consumers can use now to inform their purchasing decisions and coordinate purchasing -
eSwarm brings groups buyers and sellers together to lower the cost of goods and services. The idea is that the larger the group purchasing a particular good, the more attractive it will be to the seller to lower the cost. The concept is similar to Tuangou, a shopping strategy originating in the People’s Republic of China.
http://eswarm.com/
Greener One is developing a LEED-like rating system for consumer products that is crowdsourced by the community. The system will arm consumers with the knowledge needed to aid in “green consumerism” purchasing decisions.
http://www.greenerone.com/
KnowMore.org uses wiki technology to expose corporate abuse and enable shareholders to hold unethical companies more accountable. They also offer a Firefox extension that alerts consumers when they’ve visited a website of an unethical company. Alonovo is a similar service that allows consumers to set values on 40 different criteria that reflects their views. Products are then recommended through Amazon.com.
http://www.knowmore.org/
These mobile applications allow consumers to make informed decisions before purchasing a product through their iPhone or phones on the Google Android mobile platform. Consumers use their camera phones to read bar codes and EZcodes and are instantly linked to data relevant to the product.
http://scan.jsharkey.org/
http://scanlife.com/
The potential these technologies have when used together is profound and factoring in the proliferation of mobile technology and seamless social network integration for knowledge sharing and coordination, change isn’t a possibility, it’s an inevitability.
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