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So far I have looked at two sections of Obama’s policies: an open Internet and his aim for a connected democracy and infrastructure so it comes the turn of the final section: teaching adults and children of the world of technology.

But what does teaching children and adults actually mean?  Let’s first address the children.  The first thing that Obama will put in place is to make teaching Math and Science a priority and although this may not seem like it will affect IT, not only will this have subsequent effects to this industry, but remember that we are talking about technology as a whole, not just IT.  Keep reading for the conclusion of this series.

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Hopefully you all read the first post on President-Elect Obama, technology and the future (if not, it is here) in which I started addressing what Obama’s election means for the world of tech.  Having looked at how Obama will work for an open Internet, I will now delve into Obama’s plans for a connected democracy and infrastructure.

The first thing that Obama has promised to do is to create a more transparent government, a policy that has probably been prompted by the manner in which the Bush administration has been very secretive.  He will attempt to do this by “creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America’s citizens” through the use of technology.  Presumably, this will be done by extensive use of the Internet, as well as other technology such as mobile phones, as shown in the selection of Joe Biden as his second man. 

Continued after the break.

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Barack Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States has spawned a new malware attack.  Scammers wasted no time sending out e-mails with links to a video of the victory speech he gave the night of the election.  The link takes the user to a site called America.gov, and like many malicious spams before it, produces a pop up claiming Adobe Flash must be updated in order for the video to run.  The download is, of course, malware which steals personal info and sends it to a host machine run by the scammers.

Another version of the attack claims to come from a Spanish news site and has a video actually embedded in the e-mail.  Clicking on it prompts a download called “BarackObama.exe” and if run it sets up a direct link between the PC and the scammers.  Experts are particularly worried about this variation as it is not detected by anti-virus software.

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So, the elections are over and Obama has won, but what does this mean for the world of tech?  In the run up to the election, Obama set out his priorities for what he will do in regards to technology if he got into the white house, but how will this affect the average American? 

This is the first of a three part series about how the election of Obama will affect the tech world, which fit in to three categories: open Internet, connected democracy and infrastructure, and teaching children and adults. 

This year saw technology take a very important place in elections with texts, YouTube and television playing massive parts.  But it was also present in the policies that the two candidates put forward and due to the nature of the massive industry it was a big part.  So what are his policies?  Keep reading.

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This cool site, sayhear.org has offered up four numbers to call in, one for each party (sorry, it’s only Republican, Democrat, 3rd Party) and one for non-voters.  Folks are anonymously calling in and leaving a simple message that we can listen in on.  It is unbelievably enlightening to hear what chords have struck with other voters in other parts of the country.

For every bitter non-voter there is a passionate voter.  For every passionate voter there are ones voting out of fear.  It is just amazing to listen to this as it feel almost like voyeurism.  I hear anywhere.

Josh Spear says it best when he says “think twitter + politics + audio.“  The site is as addicting as it is comforting because at the end of today (assuming no court controversies ala 2000) we’ll have to reach across the aisles, across states and across streets.  The site affirms we are all just people who like to get excited about ideas.  And after an ugly slugfest, it is good to know that in this anonymous site, some honesty and reality still exists.

If you could extrapolate this into an exit poll, Obama is winning by a 7 to 1 margin at 4:30 PM on the east coast.

Give a listen: [Sayhear.org] via [Josh Spear, Trendspotting]

• Verizon employees suspended for accessing Obama’s call records
• Obama is a Mac user
• YouTube testing HD video and improved audio

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I came across the chart above thanks to betfair.com.  The chart shows “the most accurate, up-to-the-minute prediction of who will win the U.S. Presidential election based on millions of wagers placed in the world’s largest betting exchange.“  Neat stuff.

But look closer and you see a divergence on September 15th (a Monday).  Something happened on this date that reversed both Obama’s downward trend and McCain’s comeback.

Find out what I theorize this to be and how YouTube has political blood on its hands.

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Sections: Video, Content, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video

Technology is usually not mentioned in the hot-button issues in US politics.  After foreign policy, the economy and personal jabs, there isn’t much time on camera to talk about what many of us care about most (or at least an awful lot).  So, I dug deep into both candidates issue positions and came up with some info you should know before going to the polls.

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Sarah Palin had at least 10 other secret email accounts aside from the one that was hacked into last month, according to an ITS technician who worked with a Palin aide to set them up.  The McCain campaign admits this but, of course, put their own interesting spin on it.

“As a champion of government accountability and transparency, Governor Palin was exercising an abundance of caution to ensure that all state and personal business matters were being kept separate,” said spokesperson Meghan Stapleton. “Governor Palin is committed to serving with the highest regard toward ethics”

Keeping state and personal business separate?  Then why did the hacked account contain family photos, personal correspondence and official state correspondence regarding pending legislation?  That’s the complete opposite of separation.

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As our Doug Berger posted on earlier this month, presidential candidate Barack Obama offered to send you a text message with his VP choice.  You’d be among the first to know, as Obama was leaking this info to you first, instead of the talking heads over at CNN and the like.

So how many gave away their phone number? It is estimated 2.9 million parted ways with that morsel of data.  Shocked?  Astounded?  Me too.  And not just with Obama’s choice of running mates.

Nielsen Mobile makes this estimate and calls it the biggest mobile marketing campaign ever.  So far.

Since younger voters tend to skew toward the ranks of the non-voters, bringing this group to the table could prove huge come this December. Brian McConnell over at Gigom wrote up a thoughtful post on the far reaching effects of thinking outside the networks:

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Imagine a Secretary of Social Networks as part of the Presidents cabinet.  If the impact of the internet on this election continues its current technological fashion, then the winning candidate might just have to add another chair at cabinet meetings as social networks are becoming critical to getting elected.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a survey detailing web usage for the 2008 election. It finds more Americans than ever before are using technology to get informed and get involved and expands on the role of social networks in the Obama campaign as detailed in the June issue of Atlantic Magazine.

46 percent of those surveyed say they’re using the internet, email and cell phones for campaign information and candidate/party/issue advocacy. Obama’s campaign is no doubt sending out memos to field offices at this moment relaying the Pew news that 74 percent of his “wired” supporters rely on the internet for election news, since that represents a target-rich environment for further organization, fundraising and messaging.

John McCain’s campaign isn’t lagging that far behind: in a duel of the presumptive nominees’ supporters, the Pew Project says 56 percent of McCain’s backers are getting news and other political information online compared to Obama’s 65 percent. There is plenty of time for McCain’s braintrust to level the digital playing field.

While the survey’s findings are showing that the internet is helping 28 percent of those polled feel more “personally connected” to the campaigns, even more are concerned that the web provides an powerful echo chamber for negative campaigning and “extreme viewpoints.“ Obama was on the sharp end of several web-based attacks during the primary, forcing his campaign managers to set up fightthesmears.com. If recent history is any indication, that kind of tactic won’t stop the fringes on both sides from using the web to mine the darkest impulses of the electorate.

Read [Pew Internet and American Life Project]

• Obama, technology and the future - Part Three
• Verizon employees suspended for accessing Obama’s call records
• Obama is a Mac user

Sections: Web, Websites