CivicActions

On saturday I attended RootsCampNYC, and unconference dedicated to debriefing on the elections with a decidedly technological flavor. I shot some video with a Samsung SC-210 digital video camera (that I am returning tomorrow because it doesn't play well with Mac despite what the box says.) The video above is a short interview with Sanford Dickert. I've got a few more videos up on YouTube.

On Saturday, dozens of grassroots activists and campaigners as well as technologists and bloggers (some people fit all those labels) will be gathering for RootsCampNYC. CivicActions is a sponsor of the unconference and I'll be there to participate.

The New Organizing Institute planted the seed for this, and a series of RootsCamps around the country as a way to capture the experiences of the 2006 election cycle from the perspective of ground troops and local campaign staff.

Is it about privacy or transparency? Or just colossal failure of judgement? On Monday, AOL admitted making a 2-GB file with the search records of 658,000 people available for public download -- exactly the sort of information the DOJ sought, and failed, to force Google to provide under the guise of protecting children. Recall that AOL, MSN and Yahoo all buckled to the pressure and released the information.

The AOL data represented 1.5% of the search users in May, who were identified by number and not username, but whose vanity searches and map directions give them away. Reportedly, law enforcement officials are scouring the data for potential malfeasance. The Blogosphere was aflame last night.