ePolitics: What’s happening right now?

I’d like to give an overview over the whole ePolitics space, from online campaigning to e-participation. Of course, that’s hardly possible, so I’m not even going to try. (If you have such an overview, please share in the comments!) Instead, I’ll just point out some things, projects & news that have struck me as interesting lately.

Pew Internet: The Internet and the 2008 Election The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a new report on The Internet and the 2008 Election (PDF here) which shows that video is gaining traction, and that Americans gather a fair amount of politics-related information online:

A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others. And Barack Obama’s backers have an edge in the online political environment.

In other words: The web is getting more important for political campaigns. Expect more to see during the U.S. elections. Personally, I’m interested in seeing the development from here to the next German federal elections in 2009.

Google: Public Policy Talks Google, too, is getting more and more into politics and how they’re changed by the internet. On their Public Policy Blog and in a corresponding series of talks (YouTube channel) they discuss the first 21st century campaign.

Transparency tools online A whole bunch of tools and web projects aimed at increasing transparency and fostering online dialog is being developed as I’m typing this. Ameritocracy (my review here) is one of them that has already launched, it’s a platform for collaborative fact-checking. Zilino is still in the making (launch probably this summer), but judging from what maker Tim has been telling me, it’s going to be pretty awesome. Zilino is on twitter and of course there’s a blog, too. Same goes for the Partnership for Public Participation (PfPP), that will develop a toolkit for e-participation. Simon has updates on the project’s progress and e-participation in general. (Full disclosure: Simon and I share an office.)

Mashups and other fun projects Different players, different approaches: A YouTube channel covers the role of Social Media and the 2008 US Presidential Election, a Google Maps mashup visualizes the 2008 US Primary Results. All the big players have their extra U.S. election pages, like Pageflakes, YouTube’s YouChoose 08 or Digg’s Digg The Candidates. SexyPolitics is proof that politics can be smart, yet sexy.

What else should be on this list? Please share, I’m curious!