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Today, the Republican National Committee is electing a new Chair at their winter meetings.  The Chair is elected through a series of secret ballots, the results of which are announced to the folks attending the meetings. This kind of event is made for Twitter, as tons of people in the room as posting results in real time.  It has been fascinating to watch today. At this point the sixth ballot is about to be cast and the race is  down to Dawson and Steele.  Below are some Twitter accounts to follow to get updates in real time:

• anamariecox (Anna Marie Cox)
• TheHyperFix (Chris Cizilla)
• PatrickRuffini (Patrick Ruffini)
• katieharbath (Katie Harbath)
• mkhammer (Mary Katherine Hamm)

You can also check out the #rnchair hashtag for an aggregation of the various conversations about the race that are going on. You should also follow @bivings while you are at it.  Update: Michael Steele won.

Last week a project we work on, the Pickens Plan, won a Reed Award for best use of social networking technology.  The Reed Award is put on by Campaign & Elections’ Politics Magazine and recognizes excellence in political communication.  The award was given in recognition of Push.PickensPlan.com, a Ning-based social network that has attracted around 200,000 members who support the principles of the Pickens Plan. 

Along with My.BarackObama.com, Push.PickensPlan.com is one of the first social action networks, which, put simply, are social networks focused on achieving political or legislative goals.  We’ll be writing more about this trend in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. 

Dear Evite,

We're breaking up.  It's not me; it's you.  And I've found someone better.  Her name is Socializr.

Best of luck in future projects,

J. W.

If only it were that simple to get Evite out of my life. Unfortunately, 99% of my friends still insist on using it, despite its numerous flaws.  In 2007, Time Magazine renounced Evite as one of the 5 Worst Websites.  Following that up, Wired Magazine blasted the site in an article titled Why Things Suck: Evite.  There are even sites dedicated to how awful of a service Evite runs, and yet it still remains wildly popular.  I'm far from the first person to write about this phenomenon, but I'm here to recommend what I have found to be a far better product: Socializr. 

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[NOTE: Several of the comic strips presents in Least I Could Do contain suggestive dialogue and occasional course language.  Please read at your own discretion.]

Webcomics normally contain several elements:  tech humor, poorly drawn animation, infrequent updates, and ad-riddled layouts.  To top it off, many of these sites contain poor code and shoddy design (which is ironic considering that the very same comics mock bad tech users).  Thankfully, none of these elements are present in Least I Could Do (LICD), a web comic that proves the diligence of formal newspaper comics can translate to the world of the Internet.

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The Bivings Group is proud to announce the release of our first Wordpress plugin, Comments Vote, which is available for download on Wordpress.org.

This plug-in enables users of the website to vote comments up or down, in a style similar to Digg.com. The running vote tally can be displayed next to the comment, as a positive or negative number.  The screenshot to the right shows what this looks like. 

In addition, administrators have the ability to set a threshold at which comments are automatically collapsed, meaning users won’t see them unless they specifically opt to.  This feature will make Comment Vote useful plugin for webmasters looking to have their community help them police their comment section for spam, trolls and general unpleasantness.

This release is most definitely a first iteration.  We have plans to make improvements to the user interface of the plugin, with the goal of giving administrators more control of how the buttons/votes are displayed.  We also want the collapsing of comments to work most smoothly.

Comments Vote was original written as a custom plugin for a client project we were working on. It has been cleaned up and made release-worthy by John Bafford, our Director of Programming Services.

This plugin is installed on this blog, so please test out in the comments.  Please leave comments if you have suggestions or find bugs.

• Download Comments Vote (zip file)
• Comments Vote page on Wordpress.org

Digital cameras have removed the need for film, meaning there really isn’t any additional cost associated with taking a bunch of photos.  The result is that people with digital cameras are pretty much taking pictures all the time and amassing huge photo libraries.  But what do you do with all those photos? 

Animoto is an easy-to-use slide show creation tool that gives people a compelling way to repackage all those photos they’ve been taking.  Animoto allows you to create a custom slide show (see sample above) in two very simple steps:

1. Upload the photos you want to use.  You can also simply get Animoto to pull photos you’ve already uploaded to sites like Flickr.
2. Upload accompanying music from your personal collection, or choose from the library of music Animoto maintains.

The resulting slideshows are really well done, as Animoto’s software automatically synchs the way the photos fade in and out to the rhythm of the music you upload.  I created a few tests and it took all of five minutes, with terrific results.

Animoto allows users to create short, 30 second slideshows for free but charges if you want to create longer videos.  For personal use, Animoto costs $3 per video or $30 for a full year of use.  Animoto also offers business accounts that run $249 a year and include value-added features such as DVD quality outputs and customized buttons.  It also has a pretty awesome iPhone application.

I’m really impressed with this service.  Give it a try.

The first Monday after the New Year brings many of us back to reality after a fleeting period of mental freedom (barring any drama with the in-laws, of course). This time of year many choose to reflect on the previous 52 weeks, and determine what kinds of lifestyle changes will make the next year (in our case, 2009) less lackluster. Instead of boring you with non-existent plans to visit the gym with increased frequency, or a false promise to cook at home more, I've decided to share my list of ways I would like — and have already begun — to change my internet habits.

Online Products Getting the Axe

• Flickr. With more and more of my friends making use of Facebook's photo albums, I have been using Flickr less and less. While I realize there's still a place for the artsy photostream, Flickr, once a mainstay of my daily online repertoire, is largely absent from my browser's address bar.
• Firefox. Nothing personal to Mozilla, and I still run it on my Ubuntu and FreeBSD boxes. But when it comes to my business-centered Windows machine, I have abandoned this once-touted browser champion for Google Chrome. Now out of beta, the UI is slick and it uses far less system resources than the now pudgy Firefox. Disclaimer: I am also a self-proclaimed Google fanboy.
• Technorati. I still view Technorati via RSS, as their headlines are worth a look. However, I used to use this service mainly as a blog search tool, and Google Blog search has simply surpassed it.
• Twitter. After Facebook implemented and revamped its status updates, Twitter doesn't quite have the same sheen it once had. In addition, most aggregate services implement with the Twitter platform if you really need to stay afloat on any crucial Tweets. Not to mention its non-impressive growth over the last few months.

Online Products I Use More, or Have Begun Using

Excluding the mainstays such as Gmail and Facebook, here are some products I've made some room for as we transition into 2009.

• Google Reader. While I did not begin using this recently, the revamp of its design and new features have really set this reader further away from the pack than I had imagined.
• FriendFeed. Upon launch, I was adamently opposed to FriendFeed. After some time to work out kinks and to catch on in popularity (and by nature, functionality), I have found some good news leads and websites through this service. I joined FriendFeed to show how pointless it was, and now it saves me time by aggregating all sorts of websites I'd rather not visit primarily.
• Hulu. I only really watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and it's available on Hulu. As are all of the archived episodes of Arrested Development. I watch more Hulu than television by a long shot. Where else can I stream forgotten films of the 80's and 90's for free with (very) limited commercial interruption in 480p?
• Truphone. I make a few calls internationally every now and then, and while Skype is great, without a truly mobile Skype phone available in the United States this service is truly discount calling on the go.

I'm excited to see the innovation that will come with 2009, and hopefully this list will expand itself with better offerings as the year progresses. What kinds of digital changes do you plan to make in the New Year?