There’s a write-up by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of my 140 Character Conference panel “Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time” on the Wall Street Journal’s website. She focuses on the theme of our panel, that there are ways social media can be used to increase and protect voter participation. The use of Twitter as a vote-monitoring tool might have gained the most attention during the dramatic protests in Iran last year, but election experts in the U.S. say there are plenty of ways to use the service to improve voting in this country as well. A fast-moving service such as Twitter can be the best way to get information about what is going on during elections, because it’s easier to access and doesn’t get tied up the way phone lines can, said California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. She said she has used the service to monitor what is happening in her state during elections, whether it’s a potential election-law problem or something less dire, such as the status of lines. “With 24,000 polling places, somebody is going to oversleep and forget the key” — and Twitter can help get out the message that these inevitable problems shouldn’t discourage people from voting, Ms. Bowen said at a Twitter confab called the 140 Character Conference, which gets its name from the number of characters allowed in tweets. “This is something we can do without running to the lawyers on election day,” said Nancy Scola, an associate editor at techPresident, a blog that focuses on how campaigns are using the Web. “A lot of problems can be solved by people making noise” and can be resolved by open communication rather than election lawsuits, she said. For the complete article, click here. For the video of our panel, click here. Photo of WSJ via CAIVP on Flickr.

There’s a write-up by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of my 140 Character Conference panel “Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time” on the Wall Street Journal’s website. She focuses on the theme of our panel, that there are ways social media can be used to increase and protect voter participation.

The use of Twitter as a vote-monitoring tool might have gained the most attention during the dramatic protests in Iran last year, but election experts in the U.S. say there are plenty of ways to use the service to improve voting in this country as well.

A fast-moving service such as Twitter can be the best way to get information about what is going on during elections, because it’s easier to access and doesn’t get tied up the way phone lines can, said California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. She said she has used the service to monitor what is happening in her state during elections, whether it’s a potential election-law problem or something less dire, such as the status of lines. “With 24,000 polling places, somebody is going to oversleep and forget the key” — and Twitter can help get out the message that these inevitable problems shouldn’t discourage people from voting, Ms. Bowen said at a Twitter confab called the 140 Character Conference, which gets its name from the number of characters allowed in tweets.

“This is something we can do without running to the lawyers on election day,” said Nancy Scola, an associate editor at techPresident, a blog that focuses on how campaigns are using the Web. “A lot of problems can be solved by people making noise” and can be resolved by open communication rather than election lawsuits, she said.

For the complete article, click here.

For the video of our panel, click here.

Photo of WSJ via CAIVP on Flickr.

Here’s the video of my 140 Characters Conference panel Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time, featuring Joe Trippi, CA Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Nancy Scola, and Steve Grove.

Thanks to (pictured L-R backstage at the 92nd Street Y in NYC) Joe Trippi, CA Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Nancy Scola, and Steve Grove  for being a part of my 140 Characters Conference panel Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time. If you want to find out more about the work we do at Why Tuesday? and how you can get involved, click here.

Thanks to (pictured L-R backstage at the 92nd Street Y in NYC) Joe Trippi, CA Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Nancy Scola, and Steve Grove  for being a part of my 140 Characters Conference panel Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time. If you want to find out more about the work we do at Why Tuesday? and how you can get involved, click here.


Tomorrow at 10AM at the 92nd Street Y in New York City come to my 140 Characters Conference panel Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time.  I’ll be moderating with my Executive Director of Why Tuesday? hat on and we’ll be talking about how technology has a role to play in election reform. The panelists will be: Joe Trippi, social media, business and political consultant; Former Howard Dean campaign manager; author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State Nancy Scola, associate editor at Tech President; creator of Twitter Vote Report Steve Grove, head of YouTube news and politics For the complete conference schedule which includes some awesome speakers and big names, click here.

Tomorrow at 10AM at the 92nd Street Y in New York City come to my 140 Characters Conference panel Fixing Our Voting System One Tweet At A Time. 

I’ll be moderating with my Executive Director of Why Tuesday? hat on and we’ll be talking about how technology has a role to play in election reform. The panelists will be:

  • Joe Trippi, social media, business and political consultant; Former Howard Dean campaign manager; author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
  • Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State
  • Nancy Scola, associate editor at Tech President; creator of Twitter Vote Report
  • Steve Grove, head of YouTube news and politics

For the complete conference schedule which includes some awesome speakers and big names, click here.

Join me Tuesday 10/27 for the 140 Characters Conference at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The panel I’m speaking on (at 3:35PM) is Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb, and my co-panelists are blogger @maegancarberry, Causecast founder @sirgutz, Variety’s Editor at Large @tedstew and @wendynuale from Participant Media. Follow me on Twitter at @jacobsoboroff, @whytuesday and @amcnews.

Join me Tuesday 10/27 for the 140 Characters Conference at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.

The panel I’m speaking on (at 3:35PM) is Hollywood Politics: The Making of a Twitter Cause Celeb, and my co-panelists are blogger @maegancarberry, Causecast founder @sirgutz, Variety’s Editor at Large @tedstew and @wendynuale from Participant Media.

Follow me on Twitter at @jacobsoboroff, @whytuesday and @amcnews.