Today is the day for Shazam-inspired transparency in open government. First came news about a new SuperPAC iPhone app from MIT Media Lab students that uses audio recognition to identify who's behind online and television political advertisements. A few hours later, a similar app from the Sunlight Foundation called Ad Hawk went live. Ad Hawk enables iPhone and Android owners to identify political ads by sound and uses FEC and FCC data to determine - and display - who spent the money that financed them.

Between the two new mobile applications, citizens now have more ability than ever before to learn which political groups are trying to influence their vote. Both are bonafide examples of how open data, thoughtfully integrated into a smart application, can create more transparency in the political system.

"Sunlight has long provided open data on political spending, but now we're excited to make this work even more accessible for voters, not just journalists," commented Sunlight Foundation spokeswoman Gabriela Schneider, reached via email.

Ad Hawk also flies a bit further into the maelstrom of political advertising than that SuperPAC App. "Our app is also for Android, covers ads for Congressional races (including radio) and goes beyond super PAC ads to include candidate and issue ads, too," commented Schneider.

Here's how Ad Hawk works:

The technology and the backstory behind Ad Hawk are interesting in of themselves. To arrive the "Shazam effect," open government developers at Sunlight Labs adapted open-source "audio fingerprinting" software called Echoprint and connected it the Sunlight Foundation's centralized database of information about political ads.

Ad Hawk is also a rare bird, in terms of its history: the idea originated at a Hacks/Hackers meetup in Philadelphia and initially developed at a Random Hacks of Kindness hackathon in December 2011. Developers at the Sunlight Foundation then brought the project in-house and then to market.

While hackathons don't always hatch sustainable open government apps, in this digitally enhanced political season, Ad Hawk just might have wings.

Today, the Obama Administration announced that nine major utilities and electricity suppliers have committed to using and extending the Green Button to enable some 15 million households to access data about their energy usage. As with the Blue Button for healthcare data, the White House asserts that providing energy consumers with secure access to information about energy usage will increase innovation in the sector and empower citizens with more information.

"This is the kind of innovation that gets me excited," Wilson wrote.

The Green Button is like OAuth for energy data. It is a simple standard that the utilities can implement on one side and web/mobile developers can implement on the other side. And the result is a ton of information sharing about energy consumption and in all likelihood energy savings that result from more informed consumers.

The thinking here, as with Blue Button, which enables veterans (and soon all federal workers) to download their personal health data, is that broad adoption by utilities and engagement with industry will lead to new opportunities for software developers and civic entrepreneurs to serve a new market of millions of consumers who want better tools to analyze and manage their energy data.

Chopra challenged the energy community last September to model the Green Button after the Blue Button. According to the White House, a common standard for the data in Green Button will be further developed in collaboration with a public-private partnership supported by the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.

"Companies are already developing Web and smartphone applications and services for businesses and homeowners that can use Green Button data," Dr. John P. Holdren, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in a White House blog post. "These tools can help consumers choose the most economical rate plan for their energy use patterns; deliver customized energy-efficiency tips; provide easy-to-use tools to size and finance rooftop solar panels; and conduct virtual energy audits that can cut costs for building owners and speed the initiation of retrofits."

"If you've got a smartphone or tablet, you know how clever and convenient some of the apps are, and how they can transform the way you manage your time, your finances, and the way you work," said Tony Earley, PG&E Corporation's Chairman, CEO and President in a prepared statement. "The more apps that are available on the energy side, the more chance our customers will have to find an easy way to similarly manage their energy use."

Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

In service of that goal, the administration announced that Itron, Oracle, and Silver Spring Networks will join Aclara and Tendril in developing Green Button software and a new Apps for Energy contest to try to catalyze the development of new Web and mobile tools.

Open Data and Smart Disclosure

The Green Button is a good example of data for the public good and "smart disclosure," whereby a private company or government institution provides a person with access to his or her own data in open formats.

Smart disclosure is defined by Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs, as a process that "refers to the timely release of complex information and data in standardized, machine-readable formats in ways that enable consumers to make informed decisions."

For instance, the quarterly financial statements of the top public companies in the world are now available online through the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why does it matter? The interactions of citizens with companies or government entities generate a huge amount of economically valuable data. If consumers and regulators had access to that data, they could tap it to make better choices about everything from finance to healthcare to real estate, much in the same way that Web applications like Hipmunk and Zillow let consumers make more informed decisions.

"I'm a big fan of simplicity and open standards to unleash a lot of innovation," wrote Wilson.

APIs and open data aren't always simple concepts for end users. Green Buttons and Blue Buttons are pretty simple concepts that most consumers will understand. I'm hoping we soon see Yellow Buttons, Red Buttons, Purple Buttons, and Orange Buttons too.

Let's get behind these open data initiatives. Let's build them into our apps. And let's pressure our hospitals, utilities, and other institutions to support them. I'm going to reach out to ConEd, the utility in NYC, and find out when they are going to add Green Button support to their consumers data. I hope it is soon.

ConEd doesn't look to be on board with the Green Button quite yet - but they may soon have more incentives to join.

"Last year's 12 percent drop in Veterans homelessness shows the results of President Obama's and the whole administration's commitment to ending Veterans homelessness," said Secretary of House and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, in a prepared statement. "I want to thank Jon Bon Jovi for being a part of that effort and for using competition and innovation to advance the cause of ending homelessness."

The idea here is relatively straightforward: use the open innovation approach that the White House has successfully applied elsewhere federal government to tap into the distributed creativity of the technology community all over the country.

"This contest taps the talent and deep compassion of the Nation's developer community," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, in a prepared statement. "We are asking them to make a free, easy-to-use Web and smartphone app that provides current information about housing, health clinics and food banks."

While "Project REACH" stands for "Real-time Electronic Access for Caregivers and the Homeless (REACH)," it actually aspires to do something more meaningful: give mobile citizens and caregivers the information they need to help a homeless veteran where and when it's needed.

This app "will better connect our nation's homeless to resources that are already available to them in a manner that reaches them where they are," said Aneesh Chopra, the first US chief technology officer, in a conference call today with reporters. Chopra, who left the administration earlier this year, later clarified that he was serving as a volunteer and judge for the challenge.

To say that improving the current state of affairs with homeless veterans is needed would be a gross understatement. "Homelessness for anyone is a national tragedy," said Sean Donovan, secretary of HUD, in today's call. "It's never worse than for our nation's veterans."

The "Obama administation believes that no one who has fought for our country should ever be invisible to the American people," said Donovan, who noted that while HUD has housed 28,000 veterans and has gotten nearly "nearly 1 in 5 homeless veterans off our nation's streets," more effort is needed.

He's right. Here's your jarring statistic of the day: One out of every six men and women in the United States' homeless shelters are veterans. Veterans are 50 percent, according to the VA, are more likely to fall into homelessness compared to other Americans.

The Project REACH challenge asks developers to create a mobile or Web application that will connect service providers to real-time information about resources for the homeless and others in need. "What if we had the ability, in real-time, drawing on local data, to help the homeless vet?" asked Donovan today. He wants to see information that can help them find a place to sleep, find services or work put in the palms of the hands of anyone, giving ordinary citizens the ability to help homeless veterans.

Instead of offering spare change, in other words, a citizen could try to help connect a homeless veteran with services and providers.

The first five entries to meet the requirements will receive a $10,000 cash prize and the opportunity to test their app at the JBJ Soul Kitchen. The winner will receive a $25,000 prize.

"At the Soul Kitchen we've seen the need for a simple, user-friendly, comprehensive application that connects those in need to resources in their community," said Jon Bon Jovi, legendary rock musician, chairman of the JBJ Soul Foundation and White House Council Member, in a prepared statement. "As we sought out a solution to resolve the disconnect, we found the VA, HUD and HHS to be of like mind. Together we can provide the information about existing services - now we need the bright minds in the developer community to create a platform to tie it all together."

"High Tech, High Compassion"

Empowering people to help one another through mobile technology when they want to do so is more about the right-time Web than real-time. And yes, that should sound familiar.

Community groups and service providers sometime lack the right tools, too, explained W. Scott Gould, deputy secretary of veterans affairs, on the call today. The contest launched today will use Internet and smartphones to help them. The app should use tech to show which community provider has a bed or find an employer with openings, he said.

"It's a high tech, high compassion, low cost solution," said Gould, that "puts the power in the hands of anyone" to use data to help veterans get the help that they need. He wrote more about using technology to help homeless veterans at the White House blog:

Project REACH (Real-Time Electronic Access for Caregivers and the Homeless) challenges applicants to make a free, easy-to-use, and broadly accessible web- and Smartphone app to provide current and up-to-date information about housing and shelter, health clinics, food banks, and other services available to the homeless. It is designed to tap the enormous talent and deep compassion of the nation's developer community to help us deliver vital information to the people who care for the homeless.

People caring for homeless veterans will be able to use this app to look up the location and availability of shelters, free clinics, and other social services - and instantaneously be able to share this critical information with those in need.

Bon Jovi, when asked about whether homeless veterans have smartphones on today's call, told a story about a man at the Soul Kitchen who stayed late into the evening. The staff realized that he didn't have a place to go and turned to the Internet to try to find a place for him. Although they found that it was easy to find local shelters, said Bon Joivthe websites didn't inform them of hours and bed availability.

"People like me, who want to help, sometimes just don't know, real-time, if there are beds available," he said. "Think about the guys like me that have a computer, in the Soul Kitchen, that want to help."

As healthcare blogger Brian Ahier noted this afternoon in sharing his post on Project REACH, this is the sort of opportunity that developers who want to make a major contribution to their communities can be proud to work upon.

New developer challenge: Project REACH to help homeless veteran's bit.ly/zyCyoW Work on stuff that matters! #Gov20

— Brian Ahier (@ahier) March 19, 2012

Improving the ability of citizens to help homeless veterans is a canonical example of working on stuff that matters.

"We will, through our broad and deep network at HUD, make sure that whoever wins this competition, will make sure that app and tech is available to more than 8,000 providers," said Donovan.

If that network Bon Jovi's star power can help draw more attention to the challenge and any eventual services, more of the nation's civic surplus just might get tapped, as more coders find that's there's a new form of public service available to them in the 21st century.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

"We know Americans want the kind of immediate access to government that the Internet can provide - they're connecting with Congress on Facebook, asking President Obama questions over Twitter and can now bring Washington right into their living room using our new Sunlight Roku apps," said Gabriela Schneider, Sunlight's communications director. "We hope to prove to all branches of the federal government that they should make their work available in open formats, because Americans are, indeed, interested in knowing and engaging more with their government."

Word of Mouth

In the weeks since their release, the apps have been downloaded thousands of times without any promotion, suggesting that there is real interest in tracking the events in Washington among the owners of the one million Roku boxes that have been sold to date.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, at last count the White House app is the most popular, with downloads to 6,489 accounts. The Congress app is on 2,800 accounts and the Supreme Court app on 3,016 accounts. The White House app is built around the video and text feeds from WhiteHouse.gov. The congressional app pulls from Sunlight's own real-time API, which any developer can do if they wish. (The code for all of Sunlight's APIs can be found at the Sunlight Labs github page.) The Supreme Court app is limited to audio, due to the prohibition on video recording in the highest court in the land, which it pulls from the Oyez Project.

The release of these apps follows the considerable success of the Sunlight Foundation in releasing apps that help make government more transparent. The Real-Time Congress iPhone app has now been downloaded 24,469 times, according to Sunlight.

The open source Android version of the Congress app, however, has proven to be much more popular, with over 400,000 downloads to date since its release and between 60,000 and 80,000 uses a week, based on the API calls its users have been making.

Open government? There's an app - and an API - for that

The use of these apps, as a whole, highlights both an evolution of open government advocacy and an important trend for non-profits in general to internalize: in 2011, making more open data available using APIs, embeddable media and applications for mobile platforms or appliances enables an organization to reach far beyond a single website. White House and General Service Agency (GSA) officials in charge of the federal .gov review process appear to have internalized the same message, which will be important as the GSA moves forward with its Mobile Gov initiative.

While Washington tends to lag behind the private sector when it comes to technology, some pockets of innovation have emerged. As Steven VanRoekel, the new federal chief information officer, begins his first full week on the job Monday, it's worth noting that during his time at the FCC, he said, "everything should be an API."

If VanRoekel can include moving forward on that vision for open data in the context of his priorities, which include cybersecurity, moving to cloud computing and mobile government, citizens will see more apps that spur better decisions and new businesses.

The Sunlight Foundation's own Sunlight Health app already demonstrates one possible direction. Imagine if liberated financial data were to be baked into more apps in the future.

At the eG8, 20th century ideas clashed with the 21st century economy. The inaugural eG8 forum, held in Paris before the G-8 summit of global leaders, showed that online innovation and freedom of expression still need strong defenders. As Nancy Scola reported at techPresident, at the eG8, civil society groups re-staked their claim to the 'Net.

Prior to the forum, organizations concerned with human rights, liberties and civil society released a statement to the eG8 and G8 that advocated "expanding Internet access for all, combating digital censorship and surveillance, limiting online intermediary liability, and upholding principles of net neutrality."

In an impromptu press conference held on the grounds of the eG8 Forum, Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net, journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, former ICANN board member Susan P. Crawford, Jean-François Julliard, director of Reporter Sans Frontiéres, and Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler all made it clear that there was not a consensus about the principles or rules of the road for the Internet.

[EN] La société civile s'en va t'en guerre à l' e-G8 from OWNI on Vimeo.

After the press conference, I talked further with Benkler about the eG8 forum and what the ideas and policies discussed there could mean for citizens. What's at stake for the open Internet today?

It's "what's been at stake for over 15 years: the possibility that a coalition of forces who are afraid of the internet will shut it down," said Benkler. "There is still a very powerful counter argument, one that says both for innovation and for freedom, we need an open Net. Both for growth and welfare, and for democracy and participation, we need to make sure that the Internet remains an open Internet, remains a commons we all share, remains neutral at all layers, the physical layer, at the logical layer, at the data layer, at the content layer - at all of these layers, we must have an open Internet.

"That's still very strong, but it seems more threatened today than it has been for five or six years. We seem to be closer to the risk we were at in the late 90s, than the risk we were at five years ago."

To what extent do politicians need to understand the relationship of politics and an open Internet? "The primary reason we need to support the Net is because it is a foundational part of how we have our democracy," he said.

What's changed? Why is this conversation happening in Paris? "The first critical thing is the shift to mobile broadband and the possibility that in that shift the primary way we will use the net will be one that comes from the tradition of controlled networks," he said. Benkler offers much more reflection in the video embedded below, and comments further on the Arab Spring, Wikileaks and open speech, the threat of cyber security and the forces that are influencing the discussion around Internet policy.

How have economic models shifted from 20th century approaches to capturing value from content to 21st century frameworks? Below is Benkler's answer from the eG8 press conference. For much more, read his seminal book, "Wealth of Networks."

"The critical change produced by the digital network environment is the radical decentralization of the capacity to speak, to create, to innovate, to see together, to socialize, the radical distribution of the poor means of production, computations, communications, storage, sensing, capture human sociality that which gets us together inside the experience, being there on the ground.

"That is true for the first time since the industrial revolution, that people can actually, with the things they own, capture the world and do something that is at the very core of the most advanced economies. Preserving that framework, preserving a framework that is open, free-flowing, flexible, adaptive to change and inviting so that one person's sacrifice in Sidi Bouzid can then be translated throughout the Arab world into a moment of mobilization. That's new, that's what is critical. For over fifteen years now, we have seen two opposing camps around the question of internet policy.

"One camp is the camp of the 20th century incumbents, who are afraid that something will change, who are afraid of the people rising to participate, afraid of the outsiders innovating, and coming from the edges, who aren't authorized by the incumbents to innovate, who don't have to come and say:?'Will you please implement this for me on your network?."

"These are all the companies that we see now as great fifteen years ago, were from the outside. That's where the source of innovation is. And the other model has been?'Let's keep things open, let's keep things flexible, let's keep things flow.' And this opposition between those who say "It's going too fast, slow it down, make it manageable, make it safe' and those who say "It's extraordinary, it's creative, let's open this up, because we're in a process of continuous experimentation, and adaptation, and learning."

"This is an enormous learning moment. That opposition has been there for fifteen years, and occasionally we've seen periods such as in the United States twelve years ago where the approach of shutting things down, making Internet Service Providers have to look upon of what it is that the content of their producers, regulating on software, regulating new services to make sure that they don't make too much of a threat to the incumbent industries win.

"Then there was a long period of lolling in between where we understood the centrality of the commons, where we understood the centrality of what's open, and now what is baffling about this two days is the seeming resurgence of what we saw ten, twelve, fifteen years ago as though we had learned nothing.

"When people yesterday on the panel on IP were talking about if we don't have strong intellectual property the Internet will be just an empty set of tubes and boxes, I heard that fifteen years ago, and maybe, maybe then it was a plausible assumption. Today, it is laughable, except that it seems to have the ear of power. So, I think that what's critical here, is to understand is that there are pathways, like the Hargreaves Report from last week shows a pathway that says: No! I don't have to lock things down, I have to be very careful about locking things down for IP; instead I need to explore ways to open and allow flows. That's the critical opposition.

"Achieving socially desirable and acceptable and legitimate goals while retaining an open fluid free Internet. Versus, being so scared of the new, that you are willing to lock it down, or to try to lock it down and to distort it. That's the opposition on which we all have to be - whether it's about business, and innovation, about social equality and access, or about democracy and participation, whether it's about liberty, equality or fraternity - we all have to be on the same side of the path of retaining an open net."

At the end of the day, did the eG8 matter?

"This conference could matter if the message continues to be as tightly scripted as the organizers seem to make it, and that gets converted into an alignment between the G8, between the various players who are afraid of different kinds of threats from an open Internet," he said.

"My intuition is, my hope, is that there's been enough of a voicing of an opposition, that that core claim that there's consensus, that we need to civilize or slow down or calm the Net, or make it more compliant, that that is very far from the consensus, and if that comes out of this conference, and if that influences that actual debate that says, you know what, the political risk of going to a closed Internet is too great, then it shall have been a useful conference. Otherwise, it's a really threatening one."

Photo by mikiane

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 established the agency last year. Republican lawmakers have been highly critical of the powers given to the new consumer bureau, which they say could stifle growth in the financial industry. They're expected to hold hearings about its future in the coming months. But the CFPB's head, Elizabeth Warren, is wasting no time in getting her agency up and running. Today's launch marks the beginning of a countdown to when many elements of the new bureau go into action on July 21.

The look and feel of the new ConsumerFinance.gov departs from the standard .gov websites online visitors might expect, with a beautiful, clean design organized around the current goals of the agency: reaching out to the public for idea and feedback.

The website is only a first step in implementing its online presence. That said, it's a significant one. If the CFPB is truly going to be a "21st century regulator," it will need the tools and the people to match the title. The first "Startup.gov" in decades has its sights on using crowdsourcing, big data and mobile technology to detect and address consumer fraud before it causes the next great financial crisis.

"We have the opportunity to create a brand new consumer agency from the ground up. This agency will put a cop on the beat to enforce the laws on credit cards, mortgages, student loans, prepaid cards, and other kinds of consumer financial products and services," said Warren, who is also an assistant to the President and a special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB, in a statement. "We want to make sure that the American people are with us all the way while we build it."

Warren's full statement on being open for suggestions is below:

Fulfilling the agency's mission won't depend only upon the new ConsumerFinance.gov. Citizens can connect with the CFPB on Facebook and CFPB on Flickr, follow the @CFPB or watch videos on the YouTube channel. The use of Twitter and YouTube accounts appear noteworthy, given that the new ConsumerFinance.gov asks citizens to share suggestion using YouTube and Twitter.

The new website, which staff are quick to caution is "still in beta," also includes Warren's calendar and more information about the bureau, including an animated video narrated by director Ron Howard that presents the CFPB's account of the financial crisis that precipitated the agency's creation.

There's also a draft of the agency's structure, which offers new insight into how the CFPB might cohere internally.

The new website is just that - a website. How the bureau delivers on its mission will depend upon more than its digital assets. The digital outposts that the CFPB has put up around the Internet on social media will only be as successful as the staff operating them.

The CFPB has quietly assembled some of the best new media talent in the federal government, however, and these social media platforms look clearly aligned with the agency's mission to engage citizens and gather feedback. The next step, where the CFPB officially launches, aspire to use data to do much more.

Crowdsourcing for Fraud

As Bill Swindell reported for NextGov last year, the new consumer protection agency plans to use crowdsourcing to detect issues in the market earlier. In a world where studios can use tweets to estimate movie profits or researchers can use Twitter to predict the stock market, it makes sense for government to seriously examine data mining blogs and social networks to pick up the weak signals that predate real problems. Choosing to use such a methodology is applying a lesson from Web 2.0 to Gov 2.0.

This isn’t the first time the federal government has tried to use crowdsourcing for collaborative innovation in open government, certainly, but detecting consumer fraud in a networked world is such a massive challenge that the effort deserves special attention and scrutiny. After today's launch, citizens have many more ways to deliver it. ]]> http://readwrite.com/2011/02/03/new_consumer_protection_agency_launches_consumerfinancegov_crowdsources_fraud_reports http://readwrite.com/2011/02/03/new_consumer_protection_agency_launches_consumerfinancegov_crowdsources_fraud_reports Government Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:00:00 -0800 Alexander Howard Today is the first day of the 112th Congress of the United States of America. One way that the incoming Republican majority will embrace innovation and transparency in the legislative process will be increased use of video and new media. As Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote at ReadWriteWeb, commenting on CNN's report yesterday, Facebook will livestream the opening day of Congress.

In a post on Speaker.gov, the incoming speaker invited people to visit the "Pledge to America" Facebook page to view the transition to a GOP-controlled House and comment on the feed. (The post was originally at GOPLeader.gov before Speaker.gov went live, which created a broken link from the speaker's tweet. Even e-transitions are bumpy at times.)

When reached for further comment, Nick Schaper, the director of new media for the incoming Speaker of the House, explained more about why they're livestreaming the transition and using Facebook.

"Keeping with one of the pillars of House Republicans' Pledge to America, our goal is to make Congress more open and available to the American public," said Schaper in an email. "With over 500 million active users, Facebook is an easy way to effectively reach a large audience for the stream, while also making those that might not know much about the Pledge more aware of the new majority's goals and priorities. Also, Facebook gives viewers the unique ability to discuss this historic event with their friends and others."

Schaper explained that the Speaker's staff is using the LiveStream.com plugin available on Facebook with the standard House of Representatives floor feed available on Capitol Hill to put the feed online. Notably, that also means that citizens and other interested parties don't have to join Facebook, log in or "Like" the page to watch the transition. The feed at Livestream.com/SpeakerBoehner is available on the open Web and can be embedded on any blog or article - including this one.

Livestream.com and Facebook won't be the only options used by the new speaker's office either, according to Schaper. When asked whether the speaker would use Current.tv or UStream or YouTube, Schaper said that "we've never limited ourselves or worked exclusively with any technology partners on efforts such as this. We've used all of the above and I look forward to finding more new tools that can help our members more efficiently connect with those they represent."

Moving closer to House 2.0

The embrace of new technology won't be limited to streaming live from within Facebook. Proposals will range from allowing iPads and smartphones onto the House floor to crowdsourcing budgeting proposals to posting bills online 72 hours before a vote. On this historic moment, the House of Representatives has proposed new rules that will bring one half of the legislative branch closer to the increased government transparency that organizations like the Sunlight Foundation have advocated for years.

The transition also included a virtual passing of the gavel from Representative Nancy Pelosi to Boehner on Twitter, as Twitter's own government liaison, Adam Sharp, noted on Twitter. Speaker.gov was updated to a new version last night, including a blog post that announced the new @SpeakerBoehner account and those of his staff. The post also introduced new accounts on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr, along with the Livestream.com account embedded above.

The YouTube and Flickr accounts were empty last night but Don Seymour wrote at Speaker.gov that "video of Ellie Mae - the job-sniffing GOP bloodhound -Boehner's family reunion, responses to questions from constituents, or one of the Speaker's speeches or interviews" will be uploaded there in the future.

In other words, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is now represented on more online platforms than ever. The White House still leads the federal government as a whole in covering the gamut, with presences on MySpace, Vimeo, iTunes, LinkedIn and even Digg now. (No word on how soon before the President, Speaker or other public officials will be available for question time on Quora.)

As 2011 begins, new media adoption in Washington is no longer novel. As with any set of tools, success shouldn't be measured by media reports or press releases but by the outcomes from their use. The hard work of bipartisan compromise in the House, to the extent it occurs, is unlikely to be publicly visible in 140 characters, though stranger things have happened. Measuring the success of adoption new technology will depend far more upon whether more use of social media, online video and platforms for legislation or citizen engagement lead to greater citizen engagement, accountability, transparency or data-driven policy. Whether that comes to pass will rely on more than putting a transition live online.

Blockade and crowd photos via Charter 97

YouTube

The Neda video in Iran was one of the most politically powerful online videos in history. Look for YouTube to play a role in Belarus as well. While the government of Belarus is reported to have blocked all major social media and opposition media outlets like Charter 97, Belarus Partizan, and Solidarity, videos like the one below are likely to keep going online:

Twitter

The Belarus election is the most recent instance of where online new platforms allow new insight into a country's turmoil. While mainstream media outlets are now covering the story, Twitter provides a real-time stream of news, aggregated with the #electby hashtag on Twitter and, notably, curated by the U.S. State Department's eDiplomacy account, @eDipAtState. Along with retweeting many other accounts with relevant reports and information, @eDipState also shared an official statement: "US Embassy Minsk condemns election-day violence, excessive force by authorities."

In 2010, of course, the online audience doesn't have to rely on government accounts or blog posts to track what's happened. Using Twitter's advanced search, anyone can see geolocated #electby tweets with 500 miles of Belarus. Just click "translate" on the right sidebar to read them in English.

Ushahidi

An instance of Ushahidi, the powerful crowdmapping tool that was originally developing to track elections in Kenya, has been deployed at ElectBy.com.

Global Voices

In 2010, getting the full spectrum of information about international news means going beyond standard online mainstream media outlets or cable news. The Global Voices blogging network is an important collection of views, reports and media from around the world, including a comprehensive review of Belarus presidential Election Day protests and crackdowns.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is also covering the aftermath of the election, including a photo gallery of scenes from the crackdown.

Storify

As Vadim Lavrusik pointed out in his predictions for media in 2011, a new role of journalists in events like the Belarus election is to act as a real-time curator of information, sifting, filtering, vetting and verifying information for a distributed audience. NPR senior social strategist Andy Carvin has been one of the best in the world at this task, as evidenced by his work during the Haitian earthquake. Below, he used Storify to curate images, links, videos and tweets from the Web.

In the interview below, filmed at the NASA Tweetup at the Kennedy Space Center on the eve of Election Day, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley talks about how game mechanics, shaking the hand of a "robonaut" and what has drawn over 4 million people to try the service. "It's not just getting points and winning badges," he said. "It makes your days more interesting."

Can game mechanics increase civic engagement?

"We use game mechanics to encourage people to do things we think they'll be really excited about doing," said Crowley. "It could be traveling to different countries or seeking out new places or new experiences. I don't think of it so much as a game. It's using the mechanics to, you know, influence behavior and try to change behavior a little. And I think that really plays into some of the stuff we're doing with the I Voted Badge.

"One of the things that we're finding is that when people send their Foursquare checkins out to Twitter and to Facebook, it can drive behaviors. If I check into a coffee shop all the time, my friends are going to be like, hey, I want to go to that coffee shop. We're thinking the same thing could happen en masse if you start checking into these polling stations, if you start broadcasting that you voted, it may encourage other friends to go out there and do something."

The question for Foursquare's entree into elections, in other words, is whether the action of voting, checking in and sharing the action will influence other people go to the polls themselves.

Making the Foursquare Voting Mashup

How did the Foursquare Elections voting mashup happen? "We worked with Google on this one," said Crowley.

Google collaborated with Pew on the Voting Information Project, which provides data for about 108,000 polling locations. The Foursquare Elections page used OpenStreetMap to build a custom map for that data, which adds a nifty community-generated aspect to the page. The design firm that coded the elections mashup, JESS3, built the site using HTML5, including the canvas element. That will make it accessible to mobile users on iPhones, Android devices, iPads or BlackBerrys, a near-certain audience in an increasingly mobile electorate.

#IVoted on Facebook, Too

As Election Day goes forward, Foursquare isn't the only service that's encouraging its users to participate in the democratic process by voting. "Facebook is focused on ensuring that all of our users know where they can participate in this year's elections," wrote spokesman Andrew Noyes in a prepared statement.

Facebook users over the age of 18 in the United States will see reminders to vote in their news feeds today, including a link to the Facebook Polling Place Locator. While there's no badge involved, users can click an "I voted" button and see the names and faces of their friends who've also clicked it. Facebook will be tracking the number of people in the United States who clicked the button on its U.S. politics page. According to Noyes, more than 5.4 million Facebook users clicked the "I Voted" button in 2008.

Technology, Privacy and the Future of Social Voting

Something that privacy advocates and voting activists will be paying attention to today is whether #Ivoted will evolve into "#IVoted FOR" as people sharing their choices in a real-time exit poll. As Crowley said in the interview, the data is available for developers to pull through Foursquare's API. A great deal of information is similarly available for developers on Facebook or Twitter's platform. An application that reveals who voted for whom, where and when would certainly be a "killer app" for campaign managers and community organizers but might well cause a few citizens to reconsider their sharing habits.

There's also a larger question about the effect of these technologies on society: Will social networks encouraging people to share their voting behavior lead to more engagement throughout the year? After all, people are citizens 365 days a year, not just every two years on election day.

The early evidence, at least from healthcare, is that sharing can lead to more awareness and promote health. Whether civic health improves, as measured in voter participation, is the sort of outcome that Malcolm Gladwell considered in his provocative New Yorker article on Twitter, Facebook and social activism. By the end of 2010, the answers may be a bit clearer.

Earlier today, David McClure, the associate administrator of the General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, introduced a government social media timeline in a blog post on the new citizen engagement platform, Citizen.apps.gov and called on the American people to send "the important U.S. government milestones you know about by emailing them to us at GovNewMedia@gsa.gov."

Here's what the timeline looks like so far:

If you follow the rapid acceleration in the use of social media by government, you know that the movement to use social media, data, blogs, wikis and online video to make government work better is broadly called "Gov 2.0." Think of it like Web 2.0 for government. There are unquestionably risks and rewards for the use of Web 2.0 technologies by government. The Obama administration, however, has been willing to try to use the Internet in new ways.

For example, did you tweet a question to President Obama in his recent MTV town hall? Did you see the @FCC live tweet the blacked-out Giants-Phillies baseball game yesterday? Did you follow tweets from the Mars Rover or follow @NASA astronauts as they orbit the Earth?

In his post McClure wrote that:

Gov 2.0 is like any social network- it's always changing, can be both difficult and rewarding, and occasionally get pretty hairy. And like Facebook, Gov 2.0 is only as valuable as the time you - and your community - put into it. It's been a rapidly accelerating ride - as more and more interest comes from the White House, and, more importantly, the American public to increase the reach and effectiveness of engaging and communicating with government.

McClure cited milestones like the first government YouTube channel, the redesign of WhiteHouse.gov with open-source software and the use of Twitter by the State and Defense Departments after the Haiti earthquake. Now, the federal government is looking to the American people - yes, you - to contribute more milestones to the timeline via GovNewMedia@gsa.gov. Add a date, provide any sourcing information and keep eye on the evolution of this government social media timeline.

UPDATE: An alert reader in Washington pointed out that Uncle Sam's timeline probably won't end up including any official recognition of government surveillance of social media use in all contexts. For instance, thanks to the EFF's FOIA requests, we know that DHS monitored social media during Obama's inauguration. While it certainly makes sense for @FEMA or the @LAFD or the @Boston_Police to be monitoring social media channels during crises, government agencies haven't always been completely forthcoming about what they're monitoring, how they're doing it or why. That's why ECPA reform and digital due process matter.

Given national security concerns, protecting some sources and methods shouldn't surprise anyone. If we take it as a given that government will be using social media during crises, elections or for greater transparency, however, it's important that everyone involved know who's really listening.

Will it matter? In a news environment that has been irrevocably disrupted by the Internet, the role of broadcast news anchors has evolved out of necessity. Their ability to focus international awareness on the key issues of our time remains unparalleled, but the attention span and consumption habits of their audience has changed.

And so the question becomes: How will one of the nation's most familiar faces and sources for news will adapt, adopt and become adept in the context of a news cycle that refreshes as often as a click on a Web browser? By the time Couric presents the 22 minutes of news as CBS's anchor each evening, the Web has long since digested, analyzed and commented upon each item. There are few scoops by 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

The network evening newscasts still matter. "I've spent my whole career trying to ask important questions, listening, asking followup questions," said Couric during her conversation with Tim O'Reilly. Her evening news show still receives millions of viewers every night.

The networks are responding to the challenges posed by the shift online after years of false starts. You can already see, for instance, how the PBS Newshour has shifted to a new format. The Newshour integrates updates social media and a blog posts through out the day with the traditional hour of news in the evening. A digital correspondent, Hari Sreenivasan, breaks down what's available online to Newhour viewers on air. Couric has joined Twitter, distributed video podcasts in iTunes, published Web-first video to CBSNews.com and launched an iPhone app. Below, Couric talks about using social media:

The New News, Digital Literacy and Filter Bubbles

Perhaps because of those efforts, Couric chose not to frame new and old media as oppositional in delivering relevant information to citizens. "New and old media can coexist and the two can add up to a richer product," she said. "Stories bubble up. They start to incubate on the Web," said Couric, alluding to the reality of newsrooms on using the Internet as barometer for news.

It's in the self interest of those same networks to support a more educated citizenry with greater digital literacy. "Be an educated consumer" when buying into the media, said Couric. That extends to actively seeking and engaging with views and perspectives that do not mesh comfortably with our own, a phenomenon that Eli Pariser described at PDF earlier this year as the "filter bubble." Living in an information bubble with like-minded people is both "limiting and dangerous to a democracy," said Couric.

That's one reason that the Knight Commission was created, and why the information needs of this democracy must be considered as technology continues to evolve as a means of collaborative news gathering, sharing and analysis.

Katie Couric speaking at Web 2.0 Expo NY 2010. Photo by James Duncan Davidson.

In that context, she quoted one of the sages of Washington, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who famously said that "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." To say that there is some dispute over different versions of reality in Washington today would be a grand understatement, given the truthiness that's endemic to many conversations.

What she needs, along with the rest of the press corps and the citizenry they serve, are better filters for getting to the news that matters, separating signal from noise. "I'd love to find a way to better consume all the info coming my way," she said. "Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in a tsunami of news."

I know the feeling. That's why learning how to focus is crucial, and embracing selectivity alongside critical thinking are useful skills in modern life, as Clay Johnson has pointed out at InfoVegan.com. His recommendations for dealing with information overload include consuming information consciously, practicing "attention fitness," and breathing to avoid email apnea.

As Couric and the other anchors embrace these new tools, their ability to develop those skills in order to be educated on what matters is the best bet for them to be on top of what they need to share with to the rest of world. That's why I asked her about her own "information diet," drawing from the fascinating profiles of media diets that the Atlantic has been posting this year.

So What Does She Read?

"I love The Economist because it gives a very unbiased, across the pond view," said Couric. She also listed off The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today in print, and online destinations like the Drudge Report, the Huffington Post and (surprise) CBSNews.com. Like me, she has "stacks of New Yorkers" in the house, along with The Atlantic.

The open question for Couric will be in whether she can leverage new media to reach new audiences and break through the information overload. Her questions to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin were unquestionably a factor in the 2008 election. The network anchors will continue to play a role in holding policy makers and presidential candidates accountable, because of their access. But the days of towering figures like Cronkite, Brinkley, Chancellor, Brokaw or Jennings letting the nation know "the way it is" are over. They are undoubtedly a major element of shaping an ever-evolving global conversation but no longer control it nor define it.

If there's one take-away from Couric's time at Web 2.0, it's that we now all to some degree have a shared responsibility to get the facts right. Here's hoping that in the service of our collective intelligence that we all do.

Here's the story. Last week, Boston-based IBM consultant Eric Andersen (and Foursquare super-user) caught my notice with a simple tweet:

And guess what? Dennis Crowley, the founder of Foursquare, was listening:

I replied: "Given how you research game theory & social media, I'd posit it's you reading minds."

Dennis wasn't the only person with his ears on, either. Twitter VP Katie Stanton chimed in:

Uber-blogger and director of Expert Labs Anil Dash was listening as well:

I remained focusing on voting: "While the volunteerism Anil Dash mentioned is important, I'm especially curious about game mechanics with young people in elections."

Dens replied to all of us:

Katie had a suggestion:

And agreed with Crowley:

He mused about a specific mechanism for Foursquare:

And Dash made another good point:

I agreed with him on that, since that's an important note on the accessibility of venues. He also reminded me of his post on Ability Maps, #Deaf Mayors and $1000 Strollers, where he made an intriguing suggestion about location-based services:

Let users of a service like Foursquare log in to a site and identify themselves by any accessibility concerns that they have. A user could log in with his social network identity, check a box that says he's visually impaired or has difficulty climbing stairs, and then give the site permission to log his check-ins to various venues. The terms of service could specify that no individual information would ever be shared, only aggregated data. Once a few users had signed in and check-ins started to be recorded, it'd be possible to ask "Which venues in this area are popular amongst people who've identified themselves as blind?" If there's a restaurant with a disproportionate number of check-ins from blind diners, then odds are, they're doing a decent job of accommodation. Found a theme park that's popular with patrons who use a wheelchair? It'll probably be suitable for other folks on wheels, too.

So will Foursquare roll out anything like what Dash described? Or integrate the service into elections? Well, the story got more interesting Friday. As noted in ReadWriteWeb's post on a "Recommendation Engine," Foursquare announced a partnership with CNN, which will give a "healthy eater" badge to anyone who checks-in at one of 10,000 farmers markets.

Might civic badges be next? Keep on eye on Dennis' feed. And in the meantime, watch Gowalla. As my interview with the Gowalla co-founder Josh Williams on social media for citizen engagement at today's AMP Summit showed, that location-based social network already has moved into this space.

Will Fourquare match Gowalla's moves, sending a million updates that "I voted!" into Twitter in November? Stay tuned. If the companies decide to compete around catalyzing civic engagement in millennials, it could be a win-win for the grown members of the services and for the country.

In August, senior government officials and private sector enjoyed a preview of Challenge.gov at the Newseum at the second annual Fedscoop forum on reducing the cost of government. Challenge.gov is already live to federal employees for exploration and contribution. The next step for the site, where the Americans are invited to share, vote and contribute ideas, is likely to happen this September, potentially as soon as next week at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, when federal CIO Vivek Kundra and U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra speak about closing the innovation gap.

In the interview below, Bev Godwin and Brandon Kessler explain what Challenge.gov is and what it might do. Godwin is director of new media and citizen engagement at U.S. General Services Administration. Kessler is the founder of ChallengePost, the platform that Challenge.gov is built upon.

ChallengePost is also the foundation for First Lady Michelle Obama's Apps For Healthy Kids contest site. As Kessler points out, that contest now has over 40,000 supporters and around 100 apps that Kessler estimated are worth over $5 million dollars, in exchange for $60k in prizes. Aggregating challenges at Challenge.gov could generate online activity, like eBay did for auctions or YouTube for video, said Kessler.

Does building Challenge.gov make sense? "It goes to the question of how visible [networks like these] are," said Dr. Jeffrey Davis, director of space life sciences at NASA. "The more networked they are, the more visibility there is. It's important to have platforms interconnected."

Another issue is whether people are aware of challenges or contest, or can find them through search. "Finding challenges is very difficult, said Dean Halstead, collaborative visualization architect for government at Microsoft Federal. If you search for 'health challenge,' you don't find much on Twitter or Google. Regardless of how much you centralize, the word won't get out. You need multiple mechanisms. Challenge.gov is just the first of many steps."

What are Challenges Useful For?

Crowdsourcing has been receiving high-level attention in D.C. in recent years as case studies in the private sector accumulate. A recent Senate hearing featured testimony on the potential of crowdsourcing and other technical innovation, like transparency and data mining to reduce fraud.

"The power of crowdsourcing a solution should never be underestimated," said Michael Donovan, chief technologist for strategic capabilities at HP Enterprise Services. "If people can start to see solutions, then a community can help and be part of the solution. It's not government or companies doing something to you - you're part of the solution that contributed to that end result. At the end of the day, you feel ownership."

There are some challenges with challenges, however, in how they are architected, implemented and managed. "How do you put a value on something that's being invented?" asked Godwin, pointing to the "L Prize" competition to invent a better lightbulb sponsored by the Department of Energy.

As she observed, to date only DARPA, NASA and the Department of Energy have been cleared to run challenges, although other agencies will follow. That ability was made substantially easier thanks to a memo issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy earlier this year that provided "Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government." [PDF]

To make a challenge work, "You need to go back to portfolio mapping," said Davis. "You need to fit the challenge to a category." Davis suggested analyzing whether a challenge was something that fit internal expertise. If not, then expose that to the public, and build consortia. "If you do that process first, you can analyze problems first," he said.

Whether contests can improve government performance (or not) has come under criticism from members of Congress and a public concerned about the use of taxpayer funds.

When asked about results by Godwin, Davis noted that even if government agencies leverage internal resources, there will always be gaps in the portfolio. "The speed and relative costs of the challenges are effective," he said. "TopCoder was open for 10 days. Most are open for 60 days. Those are fast results, certainly more so that standard procurement for a given problem."

After portfolio mapping, said Davis, the "hardest part is getting acceptance of the tool. We did pilot projects and now have results that are the best source of internal education we might have."

The kind of output a given challenge requires also matters. When it comes to data analysis - using, for instance, Data.gov or data catalogs - apps are more common, said Kessler. For experiences and ideas, video are more common, like the Social Security open government contest. "Challenges could be used to replace certain kinds of procurement," said Kessler, pointing to logo or website design, naming an initiative or even a certain space station module.

Being specific about what the crowdsourcer is asking is also important, as NYU professor Clay Shirky's talk on redefining politics at PDF 2010 highlighted. His analysis of how Change.gov could have used crowdsourcing more effectively by categorizing submissions is of particular relevance.

Can Contests and Crowds Lead to Better Policy?

After some of these contests close the next questions will often not be driven by legal or technological challenges. Instead, the results will have to be used to drive acquisition, civic empowerment or even more data-driven policy.

"How can we challenge the public not just to drive awareness but drive action?" asked Halstead, pointing to the Apps For Climate Change a Canadian government contest. "Inside Microsoft, we have 'Think Week,' where we propose and think about different problems, solutions and how to solve them, which we submit to the community at large," said Halstead.

Halstead also noted that Microsoft has been working with Republicans in the House on AmericaSpeakingOut.com, which was built on the TownHall platform. To date, said Halstead, over 500,000 people have given feedback on how they think the country could be improved. In other words, trying to crowdsource feedback for contests, challenges and policy is an experiment that's being carried out on both sides of the aisle.

The framers of the United States constitution built republican ideals of representative government into the nation's laws - its operating system, as Carl Malamud has put it - for good reason. What even Jefferson and Hamilton never anticipated was the possibility of real-time online platforms that allow engaged citizens to submit and vote upon ideas. Whether such systems bring better government in the 21st Century may be the greatest challenge that the launch of Challenge.gov will answer.

Guest author Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) will be reporting live from the upcoming Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 7-8.

That information exchange is far from limited to activity within the continental United States, given the success of Hugo Chavez on Twitter or the more than 35 verified world leaders on the service. That group now includes Dmitry Medvedev and @KremlinRussia, which joined Twitter in late June. "It's great to to have the President of Russia using it," said Garrett, who was present for the visit.

Looking ahead, Garrett anticipates more activity around the 2010 midterm election in the United States, though he didn't provide specific details. "I think the 2008 Election was the first organized effort into doing something for elections. Our work on the World Cup was an outgrowth of that effort."

There's a lot of work that underlies that work, he explained, but the service shouldn't be judged upon Twitter.com features alone. "What people who understand Twitter know is that we're not a simple service on a website," he said. "We're a diverse ecosystem of users, developers and communities."

Information Utility, not Social Network

Twitter's spokesman emphasized that, despite being virtually synonymous with social media, there is an informational aspect of the service. That's not entirely in-line with how all branches of government are using it, of course. For instance, a recent study suggests that while Republicans use Twitter for outreach, Democrats use it for transparency.

"It's in our best interest to be read. Twitter is not a social network, it's an information network," he said, reiterating a familiar contention from Twitter HQ. "People assume social media is about connecting with family or friends. Microblogging, specifically, puts emphasis on creating content. We want people to focus on consumption of content."

That perspective may extend to innovative government use cases as well. "It would be awesome to have a Canadian bot that says when it's ok to travel," said Garrett. "For a small subset of users, that's incredibly useful. There's an expanding Internet of things online now."

Garrett looks to Twitter's developer community to build out that ecosystem of applications for government as they learn morem about requirements for sharing. "We have a huge group of developers. It's in our best interest for them to understand how to work best with verticals. Government is one one of them. That's why at the Chirp Conference, we had a part largely focused on government alone."

He also pointed to an opportunity to provide utility for the vertical: "Analytics is a space that would be extremely helpful, particularly for the purpose of relevance and discovery. We get so many requests that we can't fill them."

Initial Focus: Washington

"We want to start in D.C. and expand from there," said Garrett, "but it's not just D.C. We hope to be helpful globally.

Garrett acknowledged that Twitter realizes that they're starting late in this space. "We hope to evolve as a service and a company," he said. "We will be spending a lot of time talking to developers about Annotations. It will be wise to have someone in Washington who can talk about Places and Annotations and how they can be used in government applications."

So why hire a government liaison in Washington, specifically? "If we don't have someone there, they will be left reading CNET or paying an outside consultant," said Garrett. "We're looking to have someone there to listen and understand what people are doing, so we can advance what we're doing now."

Policy will be a separate role, said Garrett. "We're all bootstrapping sales - still testing monetization capabilities. We're not doing that to create or rewrite sales opportunities. We're experimenting because we want highly influential, relevant dialogue between active people that flows."

Guest author Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) will be reporting live from the upcoming Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 7-8.

The new app (iTunes link) won't provide avid Twitter users access to their archived tweets just yet, unfortunately, nor will it enable mobile users to go deep into the digitized archives of the world's largest library, but it will extend the award-winning virtual experience to tens of millions of mobile users.

The app is only the latest of numerous digital initiatives at the Library of Congress, including steps to preserve digital maps, teaming up with Flickr or agreements with other Web 2.0 services.

Three Library of Congress staff designed the app working part-time, said Matt Raymond, director of communications for the Library of Congress, in an email interview. "Doing it in-house makes a cost approximation quite difficult," he said.

When users download the free app, they can take a virtual tour of the library and its collections. The app joins the efforts the Library of Congress has already made at myLOC.gov, where users can collect historical artifacts in a customized page.

Each section of the app has tabs for video, audio, pictures and related links to external sites. My iPhone 4 was able to quickly download and play a beautiful video short on Thomas Jefferson after an easy install and sync.

While the offerings on the Library of Congress are limited, relative to the immense collections housed in the main archives, students and curious citizens now have a lightweight, free options to learn more about their nation's history. The release of the app won't change the nature of fair use in the United States but it will enlighten an increasingly mobile population.

Raymond said that they are looking at other mobile platforms for the app but have no plans at this time to port it over. Although Raymond said that it's unlikely that Library of Congress will add more resources to the app, they're working on other applications that will feature additional resources. "The wealth of digital content in the Library and the accelerating growth in the mobile Web suggest a need to continue exploring these areas," he said.

Guest author Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) will be reporting live from the upcoming Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 7-8.

The FCC's new apps allow users to test the speed of mobile broadband services and report deadzones where mobile broadband is not available. The FCC iPhone app is a free download from iTunes or the Android marketplace.

"Transparency empowers consumers, promotes innovation and investment, and encourages competition," said chairman Julius Genachowski in a press release. "The FCC's new digital tools will arm users with real-time information about their broadband connection and the agency with useful data about service across the country. By informing consumers about their broadband service quality, these tools help eliminate confusion and make the market work more effectively."

The Consumer Broadband Test and the Broadband Dead Zone Report are also available as fixed applications at Broadband.gov. According to the FCC, the Ookla, Inc. Speed Test and the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) running on the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform are used to power the app.

On the night of March 13th, the FCC tweeted that over 80,000 tests had been registered using the Broadband Speed Test. It was unclear how many tests were through Broadband.gov or the apps.

In the future, the FCC says it will making additional broadband testing applications available for consumer use. Consumers can also submit availability information by e-mail to fccinfo@fcc.gov. And, perhaps taking a page from Google's playbook, this application is in beta. According to the Consumer Broadband Test information page, "this beta version is the FCC's first attempt at providing Americans with real-time information about their broadband connection quality."

I ran a quick test on my home cable Internet connection.

My downlink isn't quite fiber optic speed, but I found it close to existing tools. The test depends upon Java, though many users are likely to have that installed at this point.

I tried out the mobile app as well, which used the GPS in my iPhone to discover my location. According to the FCC mobile broadband testing app, I'm getting 1.42 Mbps download speed from AT&T 3G here on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., and .11 Mbps upload. My connection certainly beats GPRS, if not a Clearwire 4G connection — or my Wi-Fi.

Privacy Concerns?

The FCC states that it's "committed to protecting the personal privacy of consumers utilizing these tools, and will not publicly release any individual personal information gathered." It's posted a privacy statement to that effect.

Crowdsourcing Citizen Reporting

The larger context of the release of the FCC mobile broadband testing app is worth noting. The FCC will release its National Broadband Plan this week.

Part of that plan will certainly incorporate assessing where broadband service exists, how robust it is and how closely service matches advertised rates. An executive summary of the National Broadband plan is embedded below:

This kind of data collected by the FCC's broadband tests could serve in much the same vein as the FTC's consumer complaint assistant works at FTComplaintassistant.gov. By releasing the apps and test at Broadband.gov, the FCC has given citizens a tool to report service quality and availability around the country. Equipped with that data, commissioners may be able to make policy decisions informed by data as they roll out the national broadband plan.

Guest author Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) will be reporting live from the upcoming Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 7-8.