September 2008 – User Is Content

DifficultDebate.com

It's great to see people taking the issues and statements the candidates have made seriously. Andrew Allemann of DomainNameWire.com took the time to track down the Obama and McCain policy statements and put together some hard questions for each of them.

From DifficultDebate.com

The 2008 election for President of the United States has nothing to do with who's wearing a flagpin and lipstick on a pig, but that's what the media is focusing on. Sadly, that's what the campaigns seem to focus on too.

This web site is dedicated to asking the difficult questions of our candidates. They're specific. They can't be dodged. And they aren't based on heresay.

The basis for these questions are the candidates' own plans. Not rumors. I read through the plans on each site and had questions about many of the candidates' stances and how they specifically plan to accomplish them.

Some of these may be easy to answer, but they certainly aren't explained well on the candidates' web sites.

I'm an independent and undecided voter who likes some of what each candidate has to say. But I'm not getting the answers I need from the mainstream press.

> See Difficult Questions for Barack Obama

> See Difficult Questions for John McCain

Google Mapping Public Transit (And Giving Directions!)

From WorldChanging.com

this article was written by Jeremy Faludi in June 2007. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective.

Google Transit was already the best thing that ever happened to online public transit trip planning, and now it's grown to a whole new level. Even better, it's starting to be incorporated into the default Google Maps and Google Earth. The new features and the integration into normal map queries will make public transit more accessible and easier for everyone to understand; and in doing so, it will certainly increase transit ridership and reduce driving.

One of the big barriers to public transit use is the knowledge required to use the system: where to wait, when to wait, where to transfer, how much to pay, etc. Some readers may remember that two years ago we helped cause Google Transit to happen, but it's taken off far beyond what we had suggested, and they keep getting better. What's more, they're doing it at no charge to the transit agencies (a perpetually under-funded sector of local governments). More cities are coming on board, as well; if you live in one of the eleven cities now participating, enjoy! If you live elsewhere, consider writing to your local transit agency and telling them to join the 21st century. (ahem… San Francisco, right in Google's back yard, no excuse… ahem.)

What are these tools? In addition to being able to type in your route and get comprehensive directions (including walking to stations, showing the bus or train route, walking directions between stations, how much it costs, etc.), you can plan trips by departure or arrival time and see when the next couple buses come if you miss the one you're aiming for. Now, if you zoom in enough on any Google map in the right city, all the transit stops appear, with different icons for bus, light rail, etc.; click on a bus stop and up pops a list of the buses or trains that stop there; click on the bus number, and up pops the timetable for the next several buses stopping there.

Here's a summary of the new features, with screenshots, right from the horse's mouth–Thomas Sly, a business development manager on the project. (Note the screenshots are small for bandwidth reasons; for real-size ones, give it a spin yourself on the real site.)

Read the rest of the article.

MAPLight.org $$$>Legislators>How They Voted

From WorldChanging.com

This article was written by Micki Krimmel in June 2007. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective.

I first learned about MAPLight.org at the recent NetSquared Conference. As I wrote last week, the conference attendees chose MAPLight as the winner of the first prize NetSquared Innovation Award. In a crowd of extremely well-deserving projects, MAPLight stood out as an organization applying the best of Web 2.0 technology and standards to create a vital tool for transparency in democracy.

MAPLight.org brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics. We currently cover the California Legislature and U.S. Congress.

Maplight has been receiving a fair amount of attention lately and the $25k prize will help them take their project to the next level, providing the funds for them to create customized widgets for bloggers and nonprofit organizations to share up to date information on their websites automatically. MAPLight is also working to expand their service to other states, with New York next on the list.

I chatted with Sean Tanner, Maplight's Research Manager via email to get a little more insight into Maplight's mission and future particularly as America turns its attention to the next Presidential election. As Research Manager, Sean coordinates the MAPLight.org database and research internship program. He is also the chair of the Young Advocates, a group of young professionals who support the work of Human Rights Watch.

Micki Krimmel: Can you tell me a little bit about the mission of MAPLight and its origins?
Read the rest of the article.