During the last European Parliament elections in June, almost all different candidates around Europe turned to the Internet to engage voters in their own countries. The European Parliament didn´t want to be left out and launched a 2-2.5 millons euros three month internet campaign with the theme of “If you don´t vote don´t complain.” It was centered around websites like Ucount4EU, which featured information about the election and the roll that EP is playing in the lives of European citizens day to day; Can you hear me? in collaboration with MTV Networks International which focused on young Europeans ; and TellBarroso.eu where the President of the European Comission Durao Barroso asked for opinions about European challenges through an online poll.

From time to time (like, every other day it seems), I get email from a reporter or an academic or a student with questions about the impact of the Internet on the 2008 election, or similar themes. Usually, if I have time, I try to answer those emails (and if I don't do it right away, they often fall by the way side). This morning was no different. A senior majoring in politics at Occidental College wrote saying, "I'm writing my senior thesis on the impact of new media in youth participation in national politics and I would love to get your thoughts to a few questions." But it occurred to me as I was responding to her questions that this was a blog post (or, as Doc Searls likes to say, blogging is just sending emails to the world). So, keeping in mind that these are the quick top-line responses I tend to give when asked these questions, here goes:

Several new projects point to the idea that politicos are coming to understand how much social networks matter in 2008; the world's most famous customer service representative jumps into the wired POTUS debate; the DNC wants to preemptively paint the Republican vice presidential candidate as the next Dick Cheney; the #dontgo uprising enters a second week, and we consider whether this hashtag is becoming a full-fledged movement; and so much more it would take require calling Congress back into session to discuss it all properly.

Buyers of political books on Amazon are clearly divided between people who favor liberal titles vs people who favor conservative titles, with little cross-buying occurring. But a new study of consumer behavior suggests that so-called "influentials" may not matter as much as everyone thinks, and the malleability and gullibility of voters who are easily influenced by others is the more important factor.

Is there any chance that in the pre-Internet age several thousand people would have found themselves in Jena, a tiny speck of a town in central Louisiana, yesterday? The New York Times has estimated that a crowd of about 10,000 gathered to protest the treatment of six young black men arrested for the beating of a white classmate; event organizers pegged it at closer to 50,000. But either estimate makes clear that the gathering was huge. And the fact that a crowd of that size suddenly materialized without much attention being paid to the case by TV and in print media made me wonder: how exactly did so many people knew that they belonged in Jena yesterday?

So, this afternoon I got an email reading, "Howard Dean sent you a message on Facebook." (This is after I decided to accept his friend invitation yesterday.) Well, it wasn't really from Dean. What I did get was an email from the person who is paid to "be" Howard Dean on Facebook, or rather, one of the staffers behind his profile, Stephanie Taylor, the managing editor of Democrats.org. I wish I could say I was disappointed to not hear directly from the Governor, but this is what I expected. Let's parse what she wrote...

[This morning, danah boyd gave a great presentation on how politicians are failing to understand the social dynamics of online social networks. She's posted the "rough unedited crib of the actual talk" on her website, and we're pleased that she's given us permission to post it here as well. The editors.]

Think about the publics that you know, the publics where politics occur. Gatherings like this... conference halls, shopping malls, political rallies, etc. How do politics take place in these spaces? Obviously, speeches are a part of it, but there's more that happens in these publics. At the very simplest level, there's a lot of shaking hands with everyday people. Ideally, there's a lot of listening to people's stories... Always, there's presence. Presence has been a critical component of political discourse because it allows people to connect to and relate with politicians. Through shared presence, politicians are made "real."