It looks like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be looking for a new job soon.  But first he’ll have to repair his image.  He might want to look into an SEO campaign from the guys at Banc Media to put a positive scene on his presidency. Though we’re not sure that’s possible.

As political unrest grows in Egypt, I think it’s fair to say the tipping point was the government’s concerted effort to block citizens from using the Internet and disrupting cell phone service.  People will tolerate a lot of abuse, but take away their ability to surf freely, and watch them lash out.  Mubarak, who has survived six assassination attempts, will likely be taken down – not by sniper – but by social media.  The 82-year-old former Lieutenant General for the Egyptian Air Force probably never saw it coming. More →

British political parties are definitely looking to use the Internet more in the run up to next year’s general election, but I’m not sure how welcome a mudslinging appeal on popular streaming music service Spotify is going to be.

Due to Spotify’s immense success, particularly among younger people for whom politics is, generally, a complete turnoff, the Conservative Party will launch chairman Eric Pickles onto the service to attack the Labour Party and then say something along the lines of “hey, we’re really nice people really, vote for us!”.

In fact, his 45 second address will begin:

“With Spotify, you only listen to the stuff you want to hear, right? Well sorry to spoil your day but here’s something you don’t want to hear.”

Yes, Mr Pickles. You.

More →

Communications platform provider Meebo announced that Comedy Central will integrate Meebo Rooms, embedded chat rooms, into Indecision2008.com to host live user commentary during election and post-election television coverage. Comedy Central will promote Meebo on-air during Election Day, November 4, to direct all amateur pundits to Indecision2008.com so they can weigh in with their opinions.

Comedy Central’s Indecision2008.com web site will have extensive coverage of Election Day. Postings will take place all day by the site’s bloggers who will report the latest news on the presidential election as well as the hot races in the House and Senate. The site will also host a Live Chat, powered by Meebo, during the day and throughout the “Indecision 2008: America’s Choice” special, enabling users to connect and discuss the election with other fans. There will also be a Live Blogging Event from 7:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m. ET with comedian Patton Oswalt. In addition, throughout the day, the site will launch exclusive interviews with “The Daily Show” correspondents recollecting their favorite moments covering the campaign over the past year as well as a “Swing State Seminar” with exclusive video series hosted by comedian Kurt Braunohler that outlines the key issues in the most hotly-contested battleground states.

The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com will be offering a comprehensive package for the 2008 elections, including in-depth political news and analysis from the paper’s award-winning political team and groundbreaking news aggregation and video technology.

The Post’s political team will go behind Tuesday night’s results in the races for the White House, Congress and the nation’s statehouses, providing in-depth reporting and analysis on where the country stands after Election 2008. Our correspondents, anchored by veteran political reporter Dan Balz, will report from Washington and around the nation on the history-making contest between Barack Obama and John McCain and tell us where the victor will lead the country beginning in January.

“washingtonpost.com will bring together The Post’s unbeatable political reporting with the innovations we’ve made throughout the year to create a suite of features and products that allow people to customize their election night experience,” said Jim Brady, Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com. “Whether it’s through live video coverage, an interactive election map, or a mobile phone, we will provide the source for users get national and state-by-state election coverage in the format that works for them.”

The coming presidential elections in the US is not only important for Americans. The election also has significant repercussions outside of the US. With this, LiveJournal announced a uniquely global community, US Election 2008, dedicated to the discussion of the Presidential campaign.

The community is for journalists from newspapers outside of the US to gather the views and opinions of Americans regarding the pending Presidential election. The community is intended to facilitate wide-ranging public discussion of important political issues, including reactions of people in the U.S. and abroad to the issues faced by the U.S. Presidential candidates. Participating newspapers include The Independent from the United Kingdom, Gazeta.ru from Russia, and Mint from India. New topics are presented by journalists posting questions or articles for review in this community. Participants then respond to those questions and their views, when necessary, are translated into the language of the publication to represent the views of those living within the United States.

During the October 7 (9:00 pm EDT) ”Town Hall” style Presidential debate in Nashville, community moderators will follow the debate on the US Election 2008 community, seeding questions to the community in real time. The conversation will directly follow the twists and turns of the debate, creating a virtual Town Hall to mirror the debate.

ImpreMedia, the Hispanic news and information company in the US, and MySpace is teaming up to offer Spanish-language coverage of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates. ImpreMedia’s online portal, impre.com, will host live feeds of the Debates and provide simultaneous translation of the debates into Spanish, making the Debates accessible for the first time in Spanish to Spanish-preferred Hispanic voters.

The Spanish-language live coverage is also accessible on MyDebates.org, a new website that hosts interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process, including a personalized issue scorecard, polling, reportable national statistics, and live web streaming.

ImpreMedia’s online portal, impre.com, will host live feeds of the Debates and provide simultaneous translation into Spanish, making the Debates accessible to Spanish-preferred Hispanic voters.

Registration of Hispanic voters has grown 50% over the past ten years, according to the 2008 Pew Hispanic Survey, with some 18.2 million Hispanic voters now comprising 9% of the overall US electorate.

MySpace and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced the launch of its toolset for MyDebates.org, a new website that will house interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process, including a personalized issue scorecard, polling, reportable national statistics, live web streaming and much more.

MyDebates.org is part of a landmark partnership between MySpace and the CPD for the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debate series. The partnership marks the first time that the CPD has paired with an Internet property to include online functionality into the event series and traditional debate format.
 
When visiting MyDebates.org, users will be prompted to take an “Issues Quiz” that will assess their stance on 14 issues, including the economy, national security, the environment, same-sex marriage, education and healthcare. Once they’ve taken the quiz, users can see how their values line up with the candidates and view a state-by-state breakdown of how other Americans feel on the issues. Users will also have the option of downloading a personalized application which can be embedded anywhere on the web, for example on a blog, social networking site like MySpace, or another website. The application will provide a summary of the user’s stance on the issues, on-demand playback functionality and issue-based tracking, allowing users to track a candidate’s stance on issues they care about throughout the debate series.
 
The general election debates, a series that includes three separate presidential debates and one debate featuring the candidates running for vice president, will kick off on September 26 with a broadcast on all the major national television networks. Each historic television event captures more than 60 million worldwide viewers and will now include an entirely new audience online able to watch each debate via live web stream.

About.com has launched Election ’08: Behind the Headlines, an editorial special devoted to informing readers about the upcoming 2008 election.

Election ’08: Behind the Headlines features detailed information on each of the presidential candidates, what people can do to participate in the upcoming election and expert opinions on the concerns many voters have raised about Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, among other election topics.

Along with the opinions and perspectives from About.com’s expert political Guides, the site also features Voices on Change, a blog authored by several diverse Guides, including Lahle Wolfe, About.com’s Guide to Women in Business, and LaToya Irby, About.com’s Guide to Credit, who represent the voices of ordinary citizens and what they are seeking from the next president of the United States.

With the election campaign on its last stage, coupled with an economy that is going south uncontrollably, we need all the guide to make an intelligent decision come November.

Majority of people (91 percent) of people with disabilities believe they receive less attention than other minority groups from the presidential candidates, according to a recent poll conducted by Disaboom, the online community for people with disabilities.

In a follow-up poll to gain an understanding of the key political issues of importance to people with disabilities, respondents identified healthcare, unemployment and community support as the key issues they’d like to see addressed by the candidates in the 2008 election.

Disaboom’s most recent poll asked respondents to identify, from a list of nine political issues, their choice of the top issue facing people with disabilities in this election.

(1) 44 percent of respondents identified healthcare as the top issue facing people with disabilities in this election.

(2) 18 percent identified unemployment rate as the top issue.

(3) 10 percent identified community support as the top issue.

Other issues of importance to people with disabilities identified by poll respondents include housing, accessible transportation, gas prices, the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, education and veterans’ issues.

This announcement follows Disaboom’s recent findings that 57 percent of people with disabilities support Barack Obama and 37 percent of people with disabilities support John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

For more information about the political issues of interest to people with disabilities, visit Disaboom’s 2008 Election coverage.

Long the butt of insomnia jokes, C-Span, the cable television non-profit, has launched a new Web site that is actually – well – not boring.

Featuring the typical red, white and blue political look, the Web site manages to integrate YouTube and Qik videos and offer a roundup of relevant Twitter tweets.

There are actually two sites.  One for the DNC and one for the RNC.

Access to major political blogs such as Politico, The National Review, Gawker, etc is available.  You can also search for political blogs based on state.

Live streams (in case you’re having trouble sleeping) are only a click away.

When companies like C-Span and AARP can roll out pretty nice looking Web sites, you start to realize that the Web has been embraced by just about everyone.  Evolve or die.  It’s nice to see there are still a few dinosaurs out there.