Spot-On: Hot Spots

We can't take credit for this. It's not like he's running a major American newspaper or anything. But Spot-on's Facebook Field organizer Greg Dewar has just gotten a head-turn award for his San Francisco blog.

The N Judah Chronicles, Greg's take on San Francisco's muni system - that's how we get up and down the hills, when it works as it should which as Greg will tell you is not as often as he and lots of others would like - has been rated "Best Local Blog" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. We agree! It's today's HotSpot.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 5:46 PM | Permalink

Before Sen. Clinton stepped aside, there was a lot of heated talk about this year's Democratic Convention being just like Chicago in 1968. It was a little bit of wishful thinking - floor fight! floor fight! - but also a reminder of just how contentious the gathering was, in and outside the hall.

Well, Pacifica Radio, a place where the '60's ain't gonna die, has set up a site to remind us about all the fun. It's today's HotSpot just in case you wanna draw some comparisons of your own.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 9:26 AM | Permalink

There's something about the Internet that makes people want to organize everything.

That's one way to explain the very helpful list complied by Harry Knopp. He's put together a website listing all of the news outlets in the state with an eye toward replicating the service that Matt Drudge provides, and dubbed it the California Media Guide.

It's the seventh such effort by Knopp and his USAMediaGuide and it's today's HotSpot.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 5:00 AM | Permalink

Technology and politics is getting a better name for itself all the time. The two go together like, oh, chocolate and peanutbutter.

That's why there's no shortage of ideas about how to use today's tools for tomorrow's ends. Today's HotSpot offers a look at a bunch of those ideas and suggestions compiled in Rebooting America, a collection of essays by folks who work with for and alongside the Personal Democracy Forum in its efforts to get politicians to embrace the web.

Edited by the wonderful Allison H. Fine, you can buy a copy here.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 1:25 AM | Permalink

Spot-on's getting a little, well, actually a lot, tired of reading about our own Christopher Brauchli's son.

But today the folks at Slate.com have offered up an excuse to link to yet another mention of Marcus Brauchli's being named executive editor of The Washington Post, Slate's mothership. It's a link to Marcus uttering his own name. And his boss getting it wrong.

How do you pronounce "Brauchli"? Well, they're Swiss so it's kinda German, not Italian. But listen to today's HotSpot and learn.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 2:32 PM | Permalink

Come along, let's all get wonky.

Okay, so maybe you don't have the overwhelming need to read the latest from Mathematica Policy Research and the Aspen Institute. Then again, maybe you do. For you - and your curiosity - the Internet as employed by the Center for Government Studies, a nonprofit working to create better public policy, is here to help.

CGS has created an archive of public policy documents with the simple name, Policy Archive. And while it maybe dull, you never know when you're going to need to need thorough background in a topic only a wonk could love.

Data. Info. Background. Whatever you wanna call it. It's today's HotSpot.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 4:26 AM | Permalink

We here at Spot-on will happily confess to really liking paper. It's why we have this funky typewriter typeface.

And now, we have company on the web. Take a look at Kiosko, a Spanish site that offers up news from around the world taking advantages of that good old-fashioned newsstand format.

Why paper? Something tell us the folks at Kiosko would say that what goes on the front page of a major daily tell you a lot about what that paper's readers think important. See the world - on a screen. It's today's HotSpot.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 4:56 AM | Permalink

There's a lot to be said for the power of the Internet when it comes to fundraising. Just ask Barack Obama.

But there's just as much to be said about the potential power that the Internet has for disclosing campaign contributions. Ask the folks at MAPlight. The MAP stands for "money and politics."

Their recent contribution: A look at which members of the U.S. House got telecom money and how they voted on the FISA bill approved last month. Answers, in brief: A lot and in favor.

The Senate vote on this legislation is scheduled for later this summer and, with luck, MAPlight will be on the job again.

Posted by Chris Nolan at 4:18 AM | Permalink