by Michelle Lentz

Image from Ben at Current TV, via the Twitter Blog

I don’t know about you, but I lost Tuesday to the election. All day I twittered about it and watched either CNN or MSNBC. And Twitter survived.

In fact, Twitter survived election day without a single Fail Whale sighting. Pretty amazing, eh? They’ve actually published the election day stats on their blog.

• - There was a usage increase of 46% from one week earlier
• - Between 7-9 pm PST, updates were up 200% compared to the same time one week earlier.
• - New users on Tuesday were up 40.3% and between 7-9 PST, they were up 96.5% compared to the previous week.
• - Messages per second peaked almost 3x in comparison to the first debate (which was also heavily tweeted).

And now that the election is over, we have the first President to have a Twitter account. Wonder if he/his interns/aides will continue tweeting or if the account will fall silent.

Of course, Twitter also got a shoutout from Stephen Colbert and John Stewart, which was just hilarious.

Considering that no one saw a Fail Whale, my faith in Twitter is restored. Glad to see they’re using all that venture capital money for repairs instead of band-aids.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

I’ve written a couple of posts on how you could track and participate in the election on the Internet. Last night, however, was monumental in a number of ways. Not only did we create a potentially new and different America yesterday, we also impacted the way future elections should be run.

The use of the Web by campaigns, news organizations, interest groups, and just interested parties, was a sign of how much the Internet has affected our daily lives. Whether it was interactive electoral maps on CNN.com or Katie Couric moving from newscast to webcast at 2 am, technology was evident on and off the air.

I was at an election party where we watched Comedy Central and CNN as well as tracked the election via Twitter. Twitter, by the way, was calling states for the respective winner just slightly before the actual news channels it seems. I left a party early and learned of the election being called for Obama by watching my Twitter feed on my phone.

Sarah Perez at Read Write Web has put together a fantastic Flickr slide show on how the Web was used by all of us last evening as we tracked election results.

How did you use the Web throughout the election results last evening?

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Brian Solis

I woke up in a sudden rush to check the news to make sure that it wasn’t a dream, or by some strange turn of events, the circumstances surrounding the 2000 election controversy didn’t reappear for one reason or another.

It wasn’t a dream.

It’s a new day in America.

What a beautiful and historical moment

America has spoken through the votes of millions of people who truly #hope for #change.

According to President-elect Barack Obama, this is our election…and I believe him.

Last night, in Grant Park in Chicago, Barack Obama, standing at the forefront of history in the making, was larger than life.

Allow me to share the spirit from his incredibly moving and inspiring speech so that we can join together around the words, intentions, and ultimately the actions that will support them, in order to make the next four years meaningful.

Barack Obama:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

This is your victory.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.

And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

Let’s remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity. Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too. And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?

What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

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Update: CNET’s Caroline McCarthy has a great post on “10 election tweets worth remembering.”

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by Michelle Lentz

Technology is great, isn’t it? Here are some fun and/or useful things you can do to stay involved in the election process all day long, just like CNN.

Twitter Vote Report: Use Twitter (and other mobile tools) to report on how the vote is really going during this election. The group is urging everyone to use the “hashtag” of #votereport as they do so.They also have a slew of additional hashtags and phone numbers to indicate how long the wait is and if there is a problem. All tracking is done through the currently slow (but probably overloaded) TwitterVoteReport.com and, of course, you can also use search.twitter.com. The main Vote Report page is currently listing a 2 hour wait just down the road from me in Covington, KY. Color me surprised.

VoterStory.org: This is a non-partisan Web site from the Evolve Foundation that lets voters record voting issues. When voters share their story, their issues are sent to a local voter protection organization, who will look into the issue and follow up with the voter via e-mail or phone. There is also a widget that can be embedded in your web site.

Indecision 2008: I wish I’d found this blog back in the primary season. It’s had me in stitches for 3 days now. Run by Comedy Central (those Daily Show folks), the writers will be blogging non-stop today. Comedian Patton Oswalt will be liveblogging the election results, crazy news shows, etc, starting at 7 pm ET tonite. Finally, Meebo has partnered with Comedy Central to integrate chat rooms into the Indecision 2008 site so you can participate in the madness.

Current Diggs the Election: Al Gore is involved in the election again, but this time via his Current TV. Beginning 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, “Current Diggs the Election — Your Election Night Party with Digg, Twitter and Diplo” surfaces the best of the Web to TV with a real-time stream of the most important results, facts and information, creating a comprehensive newsfeed that gives viewers a completely new way to experience election night. For the first time, Digg headlines will be streamed live on TV, featured as part of Current’s multimedia dashboard that includes tweets from Twitter, along with video commentary from 12seconds.tv and Current.com.

Don’t forget to vote!

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

I’m not. I’m voting for Obama but according to a Facebook test I just took, my personality traits are more like McCain voters. I’m still sorting out how I feel about that, other than I have never found myself to be “scrupulous.”

Signal Patterns, developers of scientific-based social web applications “that characterize and connect people in meaningful ways,” released a new application, called Election Patterns, that matches personality traits to voting patterns. You can take the survey on Facebook and get your answers quickly.

The Election Patterns application reveals the personality traits and voting preferences of voters, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, and shows each voter how they compare to composite groups of other voters. For example, a user’s personality traits could reveal that he or she is actually more like McCain voters and yet the user is voting for Obama or vice versa. Users can also compare their specific personality traits to see if they are similar or different in being realistic, introspective, creative, scrupulous, or astute, just to name a few traits, when compared to Obama and McCain voters, or more general, other Republicans and Democrats.

How does it work? At the core of the Election Patterns survey is the trait-based “Big Five” personality theory with an in-depth 45-score psychological assessment algorithm. The application shows how personality traits relate to political, and in particular, candidate preferences. I’m still not sure I buy it.

Past research says that people are most likely to vote for the candidate with whom they most relate to – the candidate most like themselves.

At the end of the survey, you can choose to have your election patterns anonymously submitted. Those results will be aggregated with others and, over the next three weeks, Signal Patterns, will issue Election Patterns qualitative findings, such as:

What issues are most important to Democratic voters?
What are the personality traits of an Undecided voter?
How do Obama and McCain Voters’ personalities differ by age and gender?
Which group of voters are more creative, level-headed and intellectual, McCain voters or Obama voters?
How are the voters in Pennsylvania different from those in Ohio?

As with any Facebook app, you can add a personalized Election Patterns badge for display on your Facebook profile page or blog. Based on my results, I’m passing on that option. If anything, it’s an interesting little quiz that takes less than 5 minutes of your time and does not seem to automatically install anything on your profile page, which I appreciate.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

Every four years I’m amazed at how many people are not registered to vote. This landed in my inbox today, so I thought I’d share – doing my part to tell at least 5 of you to register. Hopefully you already are. If not, the deadline is most likely days away in your state. You can find out more from this helpful Google page.

Of course, it’s not that celebrities will really make you want to vote, but Sarah Silverman, Courtney Cox, and some others are kind of funny in this. It’s also almost 5 minutes long, so really, I hope you’re registered to vote.

You can visit the 5 friends MySpace page in case the video and this blog just don’t get along.
Register to vote!

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

That’s a rather high-falutin’ title for this post, really, especially when you consider it’s following Bacon Man.

That said, we all know the Web is playing a bigger role than ever in this year’s Presidential election. Although I’m trying not to get to emotionally involved in the election this year (that didn’t work out for me 4 years ago), I have been playing with a few web sites out there. Interestingly, a lot of the sites are through Google.

Google Maps Election Gallery: I’ve made my own Google maps before, usually of wineries. This takes that interactivity to a new level. There is a collection of maps, including Obama’s life journey, McCain’s life journey, locations of election-related Tweets, primary results, fundraising, and so forth.

Google Maps Voting Locations: This little widget is incomplete as of yet. By mid-October, the folks at Google will have loaded all the relevant information and let you know where your polling booth is located. Right now it will provide you with voter registration information.

Google Mobile Election Info: When you’re on the go and you just have to know the latest, you can check out Google Mobile’s Election page, specifically set up for mobile browsers. (http://m.google.com/elections) The site provides search results for both Obama and McCain, as well as mobile maps, YouTube, and more.

Google PowerReader: This use of Google Reader is an almost overpowering amount of information from the top political journalists and the campaigns themselves.

Electoral-Vote.com: Yep, a non-Google site. I can’t decide if this is a new site or the same one I followed, almost religiously, back in 2004. The site keeps you abreast of, well, a little bit of everything. You can see red states, blue states, and almost red and almost blue states as well as follow Senate and House races. Posts at the bottom, from the Votemaster, keep you up to date on just about everything happening politically.

Twitter Debate Graph: I find this fascinating. Twitter has created a graph of the spike in tweets during specific times in the recent Presidential debate.

Also a strange source of endless fascination, the Twitter Election 2008 site, showing a constant stream of tweets containing keywords such as election, Palin, Obama, McCain, Biden, and more.

Of course, I haven’t covered all the helpful sites out there, and I haven’t begun to mention the countless (countless!) political bloggers out there. What sites are you using to help track the election?

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

I bring this up not because of the political leanings, but because of the charity. I run a charity myself, so I’m sensitive to when others are trying to raise money.

If you think you’ll find yourself watching Obama’s speech tonight, for whatever reason, then have a go at Obama Bingo. It’s a simple and good concept.

1. Pay $10 to play.

2. Pick a charity from the list.

3. Download a special card with a list of randomly generated keywords. The keywords come from a special list of words used frequently in past Obama speeches.

4. The winner – the person who gets Bingo – has a majority of the fund donated to charit

The folks behind Obama-Bingo are donating 75% of the collected fees to the chosen charity. The remaining 25% will cover cover credit card fees, web development and hosting fees. And on the off chance that no one gets BINGO, the collected funds will be distributed equally among all 581 of the charities on their list.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.