Participatory in an Age

Law and Section 2010 ALA Annual Conference Program

Speaker Biographies

Dave Karpf

Dave’s research focuses on the internet and American political associations. He completed his PhD in political science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Dave has held research positions at the University of Virginia and Brown University and will serve as a Visiting Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project in the upcoming year. He will also begin a position as Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers in fall of 2010. Dave’s research has been published in the Journal of Information Technology and , IEEE Intelligent Systems, and the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet's Politics and Technology Review. Furthermore, Dave operates two open datasets - the Blogosphere Authority Index, which tracks the elite political blogosphere, and the Membership Communications Project, which analyzes advocacy group patterns.

Bryce Cullinane

Bryce is currently Deputy Director of The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet (IPDI) at The George Washington University (GW). Before IPDI, he ran the 2010 Politics Online Conference, which hosted 500+ attendees and 100 speakers. Previously Bryce worked in digital engagement for The Graduate School of Political Management at GW. During that time he also founded PoliticsUnder30.org, a source for information about careers in politics, for which he currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. Cullinane holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science and History from SUNY Stony Brook and is completing his Master's Degree in Political Management from GW.

Decker Ngongang

Decker Ngongang is Vice President for Programs at Mobilize.org, where he is responsible for managing Program operations and development. Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing the Millennial Generation to increase civic engagement and political participation. Before coming on staff he was Director of Generation Engage, having started with the organization as a Charlotte grassroots Outreach Coordinator working with local organizations to engage young adults in civic participation. Decker has worked as an editorial columnist for the Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Viewpoint, Creative Loafing, and wrote several book reviews for Pride Magazine. His B.A. is from North Carolina State University, where he studied Political Science and Legal Philosophy. Selected Works

Anstead, Nick (2008). "The Internet and campaign finance in the U.S. and the UK: An institutional comparison." Journal of Information Technology & Politics 5(3): 285-302. Anstead seeks to elucidate the complex relationship of technology and society. To do this, Anstead uses the case study approach, looking at the impact of the Internet on campaign finance in the United States compared to the United Kingdom. He argues that neither technological nor sociological determinism explain the impact of the Internet on online politics. He finds that these countries’ distinct historical, institutional and regulatory environments resulted in divergent roles for Internet fundraising in the respective countries.

Berg, Joshua (2010). "Impact Outside of the Box: Assessing How Digital Video Can Engage and Influence Publics." from http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/files/pdf/Berg_Impact_Outside_of_the_Box.pdf. An overview of the impact that digital video has had on political participation, covering specific instances of successes as well as its disadvantages and pitfalls.

Boulianne, Shelley (2009). "Does Internet Use Affect Engagement? A Meta-Analysis of Research " 26(2): 193-211. This article assesses the hypothesis that Internet use will contribute to declines in civic life. It also assesses whether Internet use has any significant effect on engagement. A meta-analysis approach to current research in this area is used. In total, 38 studies with 166 effects are examined. The meta-data provide strong evidence against the Internet having a negative effect on engagement. However, the meta-data do not establish that Internet use will have a substantial impact on engagement. The effects of Internet use on engagement seem to increase nonmonotonically across time, and the effects are larger when online news is used to measure Internet use, compared to other measures.

Davis, Richard (2009). Typing politics: the role of blogs in American politics. Oxford England; New York, Oxford University Press. Richard Davis provides an assessment of the growing role played by political blogs and their relationship with the mainstream media. Through a detailed content analysis of the most popular political blogs, he shows the degree to which blogs influence the traditional news media. Specifically, he compares the content of these blogs to four leading newspapers noted for their political coverage: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Times. He explains how political journalists at these papers use blogs to inform their reportage and analyzes general attitudes about the role of blogs in journalism.

Davy, Steven (2010). "How Mobile Apps Are Revolutionizing , Transparency." from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/02/how-mobile-apps-are-revolutionizing-elections-transparency0 56.html. New Web 2.0 technologies and their embrace by politicians

Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (2009). "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age." from http://www.knightcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Informing_Communities_Sustaining_Demo cracy_in_the_Digital_Age.pdf. Report about the state of information needs and opportunities for civic engagement of the American public.

Emerging Media Research Council (January 19, 2010). " Use in the Massachusetts 2010 Senate Special . Proprietary Member Briefing." from http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/masensocialmedia0119.pdf. Report about the uses of Social Media in the special election for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Compares the social media use of both major candidates.

Germany, Julie Barko, C. Darr, et al. (2005). The Politics To Go Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics Institute For Politics, Democracy, and the Internet. "If the adaptation of the Internet as a political medium is any indication, mobile technology may have a ways to go before the political world uses it to its best advantage. Nonetheless, the process has already begun, and the next four years will prove a critical time for the political experimentation of mobile technology."

Hasen, Richard L. (2008) Political equality, the Internet, and campaign finance regulation. Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics from http://0-www.bepress.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/forum Hasen appraises the 2008 primary elections and finds reasons for optimism in the quest to make campaigns more egalitarian. Small donor contributions as a percentage of total campaign contributions have increased from the 2004 election. Hasen acknowledges that many factors may be responsible for this increase in small donations, but suggests that the role of the Internet in soliciting small money and enabling cheap speech may be significant

Hindman, Matthew Scott (2009). The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Hindman is skeptical whether recently adopted web technologies further a deepening state of democracy. Through his research findings – including analysis of web pages, links and search results – he demonstrates that electoral process and information is largely controlled by a group of highly educated elites. People get a high percentage of their political information from a small number of web sites. Average citizens’ ability to seek a wide audience through the internet remains an appealing idea. However, Hindman’s research shows that for the most part, this is not happening.

Karpf, David (2010). "Macaca Moments Revisited… Electoral Panopticon or Netroots Mobilization?" Journal of Information Technology and Politics 7(2): n/a "This paper offers a pair of case studies on the 2006 Virginia Senate race (Allen v Webb) and the 2008 MN-06 House race (Bachmann v Tinklenberg) to make the argument that so-called “Macaca Moments” have more to do with netroots political mobilization than with the environment provided by YouTube." (author annotation)

Maguire, Miles (2008). "Online Debates in Oshkosh: Using the Blog to Promote an Engaged Electorate." Journal of Information Technology & Politics 5(3): 327-341. Case study on a community using blogs to stimulate community involvement and debate in local elections

Mobilize.org / Decker Ngongang VP of Programs at Mobilize.org (2010). Mobilizer's Guidebook. Step-by-step guide to becoming an effective leader and advocate for your cause.

Nelson, Candice J., Ed. (2010). Campaigns and Elections American Style. Boulder, CO, Westview Press. This book is a comprehensive look at politics in the United States. It will be valuable to the student, faculty member, and political practitioner. Alan Rosenblatt’s chapter, “Dimensions of Campaigns in the Age of Digital Networks” is particularly appealing for the breadth of issues he covers in a short number of pages. David Dulio’s “Madness in Michigan” offers a comprehensive view and fun read of Michigan’s role in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Panagopoulos, Costas and Daniel Bergan (2009). Clicking for Cash: Campaigns, Donors, and the Emergence of Online Fundraising. Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications. C. Panagopoulos. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press: 127-140. Panagopoulos and Bergan present data from the Small Donors Survey conducted by two organizations: the Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet and the Campaign Finance Institute. The survey results provide insights into the demographic characteristics of online and offline donors to the 2004 presidential campaign. A surprising finding from this random sample of large and small donors is that the median contribution of online donors was larger than that of offline donors. The survey also revealed that online donors in the 2004 presidential campaign were already active politically, failing to provide support to the notion that the Internet would attract otherwise inactive voters.

Perlmutter, David (2008). "Political Blogging and Campaign 2008." The International Journal of Press/Politics 13(2): 160-170. A spirited roundtable discussion early in Campaign 2008 about the political blogosphere at the time. The participants include people from the New York Times, Daily Kos, and TownHall.com. An interesting look at the psychology of bloggers themselves, and an examination of the diary-like characteristics of even the most partisan political blogs.

Pirch, Kevin A. (2008). "Bloggers at the Gates: Ned Lamont, Blogs, and the Rise of Insurgent Candidates." Social Science Computer Review 26(3): 275-287. This article focuses on the 2006 Senate Election in Connecticut and some of its unusual aspects. Incumbent Joe Lieberman was the expected favorite, but given Lieberman’s support of President Bush on issues related to the War on Terrorism, emotions were high. Business leader Ned Lamont became the competing candidate and took advantage of popular liberal web sites such as DailyKos and MyDD to enhance his presence. Though Lieberman won the General Election, this article is a worthy read for seeing the possibilities technology can bring to the candidates and voters.

Rohlinger, Deana A. and Jordan Brown (2009). "Democracy, Action, and the Internet after 9/11." American Behavioral Scientist 53(1): 133-150. Drawing on interview data with members of the Internet-based group MoveOn.org and participant observation data collected at MoveOn events, the authors argue that the Internet provides citizens an opportunity to lodge democratic challenges against the state during hostile political climates.

Wagner, Kevin M. and Jason Gainous (2009). "Electronic Grassroots: Does Online Campaigning Work?" The Journal of Legislative Studies 15(4): 502-520. This study explores the connections between a candidate’s web presence and congressional election success. The authors’ literature review explores how this issue has been studied in the past. Addressing the article’s thesis, “Does online campaigning work”, the authors say yes, but it is also important to look at the web in the context of more traditional campaigning components.

Weintraub, Ellen L. and Jason K. Levine (2009). "Campaign Finance and the 2008 Elections: How Small Change(s) Can Really Add Up." St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary 24(2): 461-478. This article, written by Federal Election Commissioner, Ellen Weintraub, and her Counsel/Executive Assistant, Jason K. Levine, analyzes the role of race, gender, and media (and more specifically, the Internet) on campaign finance in the 2008 election. Weintraub and Levine assert that the Internet is an attractive medium for fundraising not just because of ease and cost effectiveness, but also because it limits the opportunity for improper influencing of candidates and potentially results in a donor population more reflective of the general population. Weintraub and Levine predict that despite the increasing role of the Internet in campaign finance, additional regulation of online fundraising will be unwarranted.

A special thanks to the Library Instruction Committee who compiled this pathfinder/bibliography. The Library Instruction Committee is comprised of Rebecca Ohm (chair), Rosalind Fielder, John Hernandez, Carol Spector, and Elizabeth White. Brett Cloyd also made significant contributions to this document.