Miscellaneous

Cities, states pass resolutions against corporate personhood

Several cities and states are passing resolutions against corporate personhood. The resolutions are the result of Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which gave corporations the same first amendment rights as individuals and thereby opening the floodgates for money in politics in the US. Cities and states with rules governing political contributionsRead… Read more »

More DC Area Big Data User Groups

Last week we made mention of the Washington DC Area Hadoop Users Group (HUG). This is a great group of community minded people who meet to exchange lessons learned and dialog on interested technologies. There are others groups in the DC area that work similar topics and we learned more about them in replies toRead… Read more »

From the Apache Software Foundation Blog: The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache Hadoop™ v1.0

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an all-volunteer group of developers, stewards and incubators of technology. They bring us many of the technologies powering our enterprises and consumer solutions and are continuing to innovate in ways that are absolutely amazing and enjoyable to try to track. One of the greatest projects at the ASF isRead… Read more »

Jan 9 Event on Teaching America: The Case for Civic Education

Hosted by the Brookings Institution Monday, January 09, 2012 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM “Congressional approval ratings stand at an all-time low and grassroots movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are mobilizing citizens to engage in the democratic process and push for change. But do America’s young people have the toolsRead… Read more »

U.S. Bankrupcy Court Uses Online Chat

Pretty cool to see the #1 county in the nation (U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada) for bankrupcy filing using online chats as a way to coordinate with their constitutents. I’m a big fan of this approach. Do others like it? http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/court-websites-use-online-chat-connect-public/2012-01-03?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal Favorite

Nothing about Iowa, only today’s political law links

ROEMER SEEKS PUBLIC FUNDS. News here. “The Federal Election Commission has only received one request for primary season matching funds, so far. It is from Buddy Roemer, who is simultaneously seeking the Republican nomination and the Americans Elect nomination.” OBAMA AMENDING. Politico. “It adjusted downward its contribution and cash-on-hand figures by a few thousand dollars,Read… Read more »