Rapid Roundup — September 7, 2007

For those moments that demand more than a Quick Hit but less than a full bowl…of content.

• First off, the Post’s dedicated online politics reporter, Jose Antonio Vargas, has started his own YouTube channel, where he plans to go into detail about how certain stories were reported and why. As he put it in an email, “There’s always been a wall between journalists and their readers. In this new media landscape, that wall, we all know, must come down.” Looking forward to it.
• Next, Neilsen has new numbers on traffic to presidential candidates’ websites. The winners? Obama, Hillary, Ol’ Fred…and me! Tameka Kee with Online Media Daily called about the report, and I was happy to provide some quotes. Interesting angle in her article — the Repubs are spending more to try to draw visitors, but the Dems are still leading in web traffic by a long shot.
• Facebook is the current social networking darling, but not everyone’s pleased with it. See Danah Boyd’s critique, based in part on the experience of artist Baratunde Thurston. Robert Scoble replies. Beware of depending on platforms you can’t control…. Thanks to Beth Kanter for the tip.
• TechPrez has a new feature that should save bloggers a lot of work: they’ll be collecting the best political videos of the week, both citizen-generated and those from the campaigns.
• MoveOn wants you! At least, if you’re interested in online organizing — they’re taking applications for Fellows (of both sexes, presumably) until September 21. Sounds like fun: “Each Fellow will have a one-on-one mentoring relationship with a senior MoveOn staffer. Fellows will have opportunities to launch
  their own projects and work with the team to test new ideas in on- and off-line organizing.” Thanks to Tate Hausman for the tip.
• Finally, Shall We Play A Game? Chevron has an interesting little energy policy online game with a Sim City feel. Pick your mix of energy options and see what happens to YOUR city. Extra credit — look for questionable assumptions in Chevron’s presentation of the tradeoffs involved, and see also some press attention. Note: no option to have Godzilla smash the town (losers). Thanks to Burt Edwards for passing this along.

– cpd