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Obama's "Organizing for America" was an attempt to channel digital political organizing toward an established candidate. It was the first time a mainstream candidate used the internet effectively to organize. But now they're using it to organize while in government... will it continue to work? Perhaps the fact this year's election is still 9 months away is the problem.

The "Digital Economy Bill" has been passed by the Lords and is now expected to be rushed through the Commons before the general elections. Despite criticism by the UK's major telecommunication providers and global internet giants like Google, the government said it was still committed to giving courts the power to block websites which are infringing copyright. The bill is mainly aiming to tackle internet privacy. Some of it's paragraphs however could lead to internet censorship.

The manifesto, further discussion and information regarding the Pirate Party in the UK

Copyright is big news over there right now. This party sprang up during the election, in direct response to the new copyright laws. Given the UK's voting system, they never really had a chance, and managed just over 1000 votes nationally. Still, the important thing is that they tried - yes?

Conservative party in Britain have released their "Technology Manifesto" before the elections. This manifesto supports a new emergence of public access online. It really seems to be too good to be true. It also looks to increase the digital divide between nations when some countries are just trying to catch up.

Dutch political party 'D66' included that internet is a fundamental right in their campaign program. With 54% of their voters for internet as a fundamental right it is now in their political campaign. There will be elections in June to form a new parliament, this can be a critical point in their success.

Hi everyone, here is my first blog post! It discusses 'Give Your Vote', the movement in the UK asking citizens to donate thier votes to people in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ghana.

This article discusses President Obama's views on the iPad, iPhone, Xboxs etc as sources of entertainment, rather than a tool for empowerment. Though i have to find it somewhat ironic, as these platforms could offer new methods of campaigning for his next election!

Back in March, Iranian's took part in the traditional fire festival, held at night time. A trend I've noticed with reporting in mainstream news is the use of a live blog with bloggers taking shifts to report on big events - The Guardian recently did this with the UK election and may do it for the World Cup coming up. To see this level of detail in live reporting in a mainstream news source is great, especially when it's not related to something as boring as sport ;) The reporter has contacts on the ground and also encourages other Iranians who may be reading to send him secure emails with updates from the event. Videos posted on YouTube are also linked to as soon as they're made available.

An interesting article that surrounds the current political unrest in Iran as the anniversary of the 2009 'election' comes around. It's interesting to see how a computer game can be used in political games...