Dialing 311 has changed the way citizens around the U.S. and Canada interact with their local governments by making it easy to call in with questions or complaints.

These days, city and county officials are upping the ante by making it possible for residents not just to send queries down the line, but to see what their fellow residents are reporting too.

The result? Community mobilization, faster resolution of problems, and even the occasional good Samaritan solution.

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, April 1 as Ben Berkowitz, Founder/CEO, SeeClickFix shows us how technology is "peeling back the layers of bureaucracy," one pothole at a time.

Thursday, April 1st at the PdF Network
Your Town, Online: The Future of Internet Community Reporting
1-2 p.m. Eastern

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There was a time (2007, to be exact) when "eyes rolled when Scott Goodstein rolled out the [Obama] campaign's text-messaging program."

Eyes weren't rolling when the campaign gathered more than a million contacts by announcing its vice presidential pick by text-message.

Today, we consider mobile politicking a critical element of any campaigner's digital toolkit.

You don't have to reach the size or scope of the Obama campaign to launch an effective mobile effort -- but you do need to know how to leverage existing and upcoming tools, including text messaging, downloads, interactive voice response communication, mobile websites, iPhone apps, and more, for your cause.

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, December 17 to hear from Scott Goodstein, CEO, Revolution Messaging (and former External Online Director for Obama for America) about what lessons the Obama campaign has to offer for the future of mobile politicking.

Please note that this call will not be archived as a podcast, so make sure to join us on Thursday!

Thursday, Dec 17th at the PdF Network
Learning from the Obama Campaign About the Future of Mobile Politicking
1-2 p.m. EST

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in conjunction with the office of special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, is about five days into an experiment mobile phones to build civil society in Pakistan. Working with three local cell phone companies and a U.S.-based mobile vendor, the State Department has set up in Pakistan what it is calling Humari Awaz. That's "Our Voice" in what seems to be Urdu. Here, in brief, is how it works: Pakistanis text in keywords to the network via the short code 7111, and those phrases are used to spontaneously create texting-based social lists -- around the day's price for cotton, the latest cricket scores, a community radio station's fan base, or perhaps the desire for less extremist political leadership.

The State Department is covering the cost of the first 24 million texts to Humari Awaz. How long that reserve will last remains to be seen. Less than a week in, and more than half a million SMS messages have been sent over the State-sponsored mobile network thus far. Visit ProPakistani for a taste of some of the suspicions and concerns the plan is raising in that country.

The Humari Awaz project is part of the Clinton State Department's push toward what it calls "21st century statecraft." In related news, Secretary Clinton recently announced while in Morocco that State was launching a "Civil Society 2.0" initiative, centered around providing education and training on the building blocks of digital literacy -- building a website, working with text messages, blogging, using a social network to create social change, and more. Clinton also announced $5 million in CS2.0 monies to be dedicated to "bolster[ing] the new media and networking capabilities of civil society organizations and promot[ing] online learning" in the Middle East and North Africa.

"If the [Republican] party does not figure out a way to appeal to Latino voters, it will become increasingly difficult, and maybe impossible, to ever again win a national election," said Chief McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt in the days following the 2008 election.

Democrats agree -- some even call the White House's mission to reach out to Latinos a "near obsession."

And with good reason: Latinos in the U.S. are growing in number and voice. Between the 2004 and 2008 elections, Latino eligible voters more than quadrupled in number compared to the general population, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

You can certainly find many of these voters watching Univision, but that's not the only place to earn their support. Latinos are using mobile technology, social networks and online content in their own way -- and it's up to you to reach them.

Thursday, Nov 5th at the PdF Network
How to Harness Changes in Latino Participation Online
1-2 p.m. EST

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Join the PdF Network on Thursday, November 5 to hear from Kety Esquivel, New Media Manager for NCLR (National Council of La Raza), about how to harness changes in Latino participation online to boost support and engagement for your own cause.

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This Thursday, the PdF Network conference call will feature an in-depth conversation with Jacob Colker on the topic of "Mobile Volunteers: How to Harness Microvolunteering for Your Cause." Click here to RSVP.

Got some spare time? Don't want to waste it playing Solitaire and instead put it to better use? If you're reading this blog post on an iPhone, or have one, stop right now and go download the Extraordinaries new app, "Be Extra." Or, check out this (very) beta web interface, which offers the same user experience.

For the very first time in the recorded history of all of humanity, the 2008 election saw adult Americans who went online to engage in the political process outnumber those who didn't. Pew's Internet & American Life Project has a new report out that finds a full 55% of American grown-ups got on the Internet to get news about politics or the campaign (60% of adult Americans did this in '08), talk about politics with others (38%), or use specific tools -- i.e. Twitter, IM, email -- to send or receive messages about politics (59%).

One finding that jumps out from the Pew report is that Americans are trending towards relying upon sites for news and commentary that share their political perspective. In 2004, 26% of people who go online for politics reported that most of the sites they visit are in line with their political point of view, rather than a neutral source. In 2008, that moved up seven notches to 33%. The numbers are more striking for younger folk. In 2004, 22% of online users between the ages of 18 and 24 reported that a majority of the sites they visited shared their point of view. This cycle, that nearly doubled to 43%.

But that doesn't necessarily mean we're all wallowing in a pit of likemindedness. It might, instead, just mark the fact that we're consuming news for more sources. Even if I obsessively read the (objectively non-partisan) New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post online everyday, I'd only have to hit four ideological blogs in a day to make "most" of my sources slanted ones.

Here's another statistic from the Pew report that might catch your attention: supporters of John McCain were more likely than supporters of Barack Obama to be Internet users, 83% to 76%. Pew attributes that to the finding that Republicans tend to be wealthier and more highly educated than Democrats -- both strong predictors of Internet use.

The full report is here.

We kick off our on-the-ground coverage of the just-begun Democratic National Convention in Denver with a look at the Big Tent, a glance at how bloggers are reacting to the event's corporate sponsorship, what gear the new media folks are packing, and much more.

Mark Pesce, who closed out the second morning of plenary talks at PdF2008, has posted the text of his talk on "Hyperpolitics (American Sytle)." Dig in!