InTheCapital

 By Carl Pierre / @carlpierre

Keeping in the spirit of IntheCapital traveling via airplane to visit our Bostinno teammates in Boston today, I have put up an interesting infograph that shows the best airports to work out of for those who live out of their suitcases and whose office’s wi-fi speed depends on what airport they are currently living/working in. 

Some interesting things I noticed…

• Cleveland Rocks - and no, I’m not just quoting Drew Carrey’s opening theme song. Cleveland has a download rate of 8.01 mbps, and an upload rate of 6.68 mpbs. And the craziest part about it is…the Wi-Fi is FREE. Yeah, not too shabby Cleveland. 
• Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood - What a hub to do work out of, 11.02 mpbs download rate and a 7.25 mpbs upload rate, it beats Cleveland! Only problem is…who would actually willingly travel there?
• Southwest is bringing the Tech heat - Southwest airports have the best Tech amenities, wouldn’t have called that one. Congrats on ousting VirginAmerica and JetBlue, those would have been my first choices.
• Only about a third of the planes in the fleets of the ten U.S. carriers have Wi-Fi on board. - this is a rather distressing statistic considering most trains have Wi-Fi. Get with it airlines, some people have deadlines even if they’re traveling!
• Average number of outlets for the US airports is about 5.5 per gate. - an abysmal figure considering EVERYBODY has an electrical device in need of charging at every gate.

Enjoy the infograph folks!

[infograph via venturebeat]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

It’s still David versus Goliath, but maybe not for too long. The tech industry may be getting a seat at the table in the coming years…and believe me, they’re paying for it. According to government records recently released, Facebook is projected to have spent well over $1 million in lobbying dollars.  Here is a short wrap from AllFacebook:

While the 2011 lobbying figures will be reported later this month, estimates put the last year’s lobbying budget at $1.35 million.

Papers filed with the U.S. government Friday reveal that Facebook spent $440,000 on lobbying in the last quarter of 2011, up 30 percent from the same period a year ago and a whopping 85 percent increase over the $38,117 spent in 2009.

It certainly would seem like tech companies are trying to buy their way into the conversation in DC—Google is reported to have spent $3.76 million in the last quarter of 2011 alone.

But don’t get too excited. Here’s a quote from a great TheVerge.com article on SOPA that explains the power of certain lobbies in Washington like, oh, say the MPAA: 

Chris Dodd, who served as a senator for thirty years, is now the Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. As a senator, Dodd swore he’d never take money from lobbyists, but he now reaps a $1.5 million base salary and a $100 million lobbying budget. Lobbying is one art form the entertainment industry doesn’t mind investing heavily in: SOPA’s 32 co-sponsors received four times more in campaign contributions from the entertainment industry than from the tech industry.

Facebook is becoming an increasingly political tool for lawmakers and candidates alike. Companies like Socialitical are helping candidates chart and utilize Facebook advertisements to reach optimal audiences and demographics. Similar services are in place for companies like Twitter and Google as well.  

Wait, maybe do get a little excited…maybe…

If the rumblings of a Facebook IPO this Spring are true and the projections aren’t totally off, Zuck and company could stand to raise $10 billion and have a staggering $100 billion valuation. Call us crazy, but we think that $100 billion wouldn’t just buy a seat at the table…it could buy the table itself, which it could then destroy and remake again…out of gold. 

Then again, it remains unclear how the last week’s SOPA drama will change the way the industry works with Washington. Will they try to simply utilize the grassroots power of the internet? Or will they try to buy their influence like the other juggernauts and make their mark as bloodthirsty digital powerjunkies? 

Times are a changing in Washington. It stands to be a slow burn, but this much is clear: we want a front row seat for this show.

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Marci Harris and PopVox couldn’t have chosen a better time to get involved with Congress. Seriously. 

In case you haven’t been watching the bizarre kabuki going on between lawmakers and the rest of the world, we’ll fill you in real quick: According to the Washington Post-ABC News approval of Congress is at 13 percent. A record low. A Gallup poll from December clocked congressional approval at 11 percent, also a record low. In fact, Congress’ relationship with the American public has been so toxic that many are surprised the figures aren’t lower. Seriously, who approves of these guys? With frustrations and the stakes at an all-time high, DC-based PopVox looks like an increasingly invaluable tool.

PopVox, for those who don’t know, is a startup website designed to foster more effective and open communication between citizens and Congress. Just writing that phrase makes PopVox sound like an exercise in frustration, but Marci Harris, co-founder and CEO, and her team have had great success during a tumultuous time in politics where activism appears on the rise. We caught up with Marci Harris over the phone to learn a little more about the company and learned a lot about the country in the process.

Harris, like many on PopVox’s team was a former staffer on the Hill (formerly the Tax, Trade, and Health Counsel to Rep. Pete Stark), who couldn’t help but notice the flaws in the system of congressional communications. “One night I was at a dinner party with a few friends, talking with our co-founder, complaining about being a staffer and all the outside input and information that we had to deal with…we had a joint complaint session and I said I was actually thinking about a website that would make the information easier to get to…she and our friends said, ‘Well, do it!’

Harris left the Hill shortly after the healthcare battle ended in 2010 to found PopVox. The site soft-launched the day before election day 2010 and the team tinkered around, making improvements in the lame duck session, finally launching their beta release in January 2011 as the 112th Congress was sworn in. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Most users come to PopVox to make their voice heard on a particular bill, but as Harris notes, people usually don’t stop there. “You come in because you are really angry at a specific issue but as you look around you see other bills that are interesting.”

While Harris and company could be taking advantage of the caustic environment between lawmakers and the American people, PopVox has no such aspirations. Instead, we found PopVox’s goals ambitious, refreshing, and generally just good for American democracy. In short, PopVox isn’t looking to further divide an already fractured nation, adding to the din of a disaffected populous, but instead to foster transparency, educate, and ultimately get some results. Harris notes to us that many of PopVox’s 70,000-plus users are engaging actively and learning interesting things about themselves in the process.

We just introduced a new feature called Congress Match (which allows the user to see how well a Representative lines up with your own personal views). We’ve gotten super positive feedback…and what is interesting is how much they are saying, ‘this guy agreed with me but i realize he doesn’t…it’s surprising how people’s perceptions didn’t align with where the representatives really were.

If used properly, PopVox can be a very powerful tool, one that could even help change the tone in Washington. “With almost every bill that comes in front of Congress… you like some, don’t like others…there is a moderating influence on PopVox because everything is available and you are asked to weigh in on things…it can help constituents to see how hard this job can be.” Now, that might sound like Harris is on Congress’ side. She’s not.

Both PopVox and Harris refuse to editorialize and remain fiercely non-partisan. In fact, PopVox remains neutral almost to a fault. “One of the biggest requests from users is, ‘can’t you put this in english?’ But there is almost no way you can provide analysis of legislation and do so in a neutral way. The language in these bills is so charged,” Harris notes. PopVox leaves the editorializing to it’s users and instead focuses on results.

While Harris and her team have absolutely zero desire to capitalize on the contentious political atmosphere in Washington, it would be naive to say it hasn’t been good for business. POLITICO recently dubbed the 112th Congress the ‘worst ever’, and civic activism appears to be at an all time high, judging by recent demonstrations from Tea Party activists, Occupiers, and most recently, advocates of a free internet. It would appear there has never been a better time to be the conduit for discussion between lawmakers and the American people. 

Speaking with Harris, you could hear the excitement in her voice as turned toward the recent online movement to stop anti-piracy legislation. Given what we’ve seen transpire with online activism in just the past week, we can’t blame her. “I think this is a sea change…SOPA is evidence of what is happening,” Harris remarked. “It’s an awakening that starts to really change the calculus of a legislative campaign. Lobbyists are starting to realize that they can’t just focus on staffers and are learning they need to talk to grassroots folks and communications people. A case needs to be made to the general public.”

The resounding efforts of last week’s protests to stop SOPA/PIPA are a part of a sweeping trend in not only America, but throughout our increasingly connected world. Taking a stand is becoming more and more common. Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ was The Protestor. No longer is activism a boring, lofty practice reserved for peace-nicks or war hawks. Platforms like PopVox allow you to be an armchair activist, and as the results show, people are being heard. Just as powerful as the tools that allow your voice to be heard is the recognition that normal people are capable of creating positive change. Last week was a stark example of how ordinary Joes can get things done, which makes PopVox a scary-useful tool for democracy. Keep your eyes on Marci Harris and PopVox, folks and hold on to your hats.

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

President Obama knows what the kids like. He fist-bumps, says things like, ‘nah, we straight’, and he loves him some internets. Obama has always jumped on the social media bandwagon to get his message out and connect with the voters and on Jan 30th he plans to take YouTube questions in a Google + hangout. That’s right, hangin’ loose with Barack. Video below:

Mashable first reported the news on the Executive hang:

People can submit questions about any topic via video or text using YouTube’s Moderator tool, and Obama will answer the top-voted ones. YouTube also will invite a select few to join the Google+ Hangout, which will come on the heels of Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Viewers can watch the Hangout on the White House’s website, Google+ page (which launched Jan. 20 and now has more than 17,000 followers) or YouTubechannel.

Obama’s online community events have done notoriously well. In 2011, Obama received 140,000 questions during a YouTube question session, His Twitter town hall this summer attracted over 90,000 tweets and 61,000 questions, too…which is…a lot. 

It’s important to note is how much the current administration is doubling down on social media initiatives in the past year. This is his first interaction with Google +, which he joined only recently, but he’s held events with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and even joined Instagram recently. Obama will definitely not be the only candidate to engage heavily on social media this year, but it appears he might be the first one to do it in new and interesting ways. 

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Job creation. We need it and small companies founded by entrepreneurs are the ones that can help. That is the central thesis of former AOL founder, Steve Case’s op-ed out today in the Washington Post. 

Case notes that startups are down over the past five years, as well as the number of IPOs. More important, the U.S. is in danger of falling behind as innovation and entrepreneurship continues it’s boom overseas. According to Case:

 Companies that are trying to expand have found that accessing capital and securing talent have become more challenging. Meanwhile, as the American entrepreneurial engine slows, the pace has picked up around the world. Indeed, globalization has affected not just manufacturing and services but also entrepreneurship.

Reading Case this morning gave us some reason for optimism and that optimism comes from an odd place…Congress. 

Turns out that folks on both sides of the aisle agree with Case that entrepreneurship needs to be a bigger priority. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, too and have introduced two bills in the House and Senate: the Startup Act and AGREE.

The bills are important as they will help lessen tax burdens on startups, make it easier for high-growth, mid-size companies to IPO, and allow crowdfunding, where average investors can band together and give early stage companies access to capital. The bills are backed by bipartisan support and we at InTheCapital will be following their progress in the House and Senate for you. 

Case’s op-ed made us think more on the gargantuan story in the New York Times this weekend, regarding Apple’s manufacturing jobs in China and the grim prospect for growing the middle class through big tech companies. American manufacturing simply can’t compete with scale, organization, and pay model that exists in Chinese manufacturing. Here’s a good example from the article:

Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

If nothing else, the Times article illustrates that the old manufacturing model is not the answer—we have to look elsewhere. Case notes that entrepreneurs grow jobs. He pulls up research to indicate that, ”firms less than five years old have produced 40 million American jobs over the past three decades — accounting for all of the net new jobs created in that period.” 

Startups, whether they be a service or goods producers, are smaller-scale and can create and keep jobs inside the United States, without having to scurry overseas to cheaper labor and increased ‘flexibility’, which reads to us as ‘less-stringent labor laws’. 

The true challenge, which both AGREE and the Startup Act look to address, is to reverse the outsourcing trend and bring innovators to America. Case notes touchy immigration policy that would need to be amended to bring the best and brightest to our shores. “If we want to create a new wave of Googles and Intels — firms that were co-founded by immigrant entrepreneurs — Congress should pass bipartisan legislation modifying the barriers to high-skilled immigration,” Case notes in the piece today.

The road to economic recovery is long and rocky for sure, but a path exists. America is a country built on the backs of innovators and fresh ideas. If we can follow Case’s lead and lobby Congress to allow innovators a smoother path to success, great things can happen. Traditional models like manufacturing will continue to be an important pillar of economic strength, but the tide does appear to be shifting. Let’s capitalize on new ideas and new talent to help usher in the next generation of economic growth and breed a culture of sustainable success in innovation.

[Lead image by amystarrallen.com]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Political nerds, it’s time to swoon. Gone are the days of hurriedly rushing back to the office or the comfort of your nerdy, spreadsheet-laden den of nerddom to catch the floor discussion of HR 3783, affectionately known as, “The Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act” on CSPAN.  Now, you can do your nerding out anywhere, thanks to the DC-based company, FedNet.

They’re launching in grand style, too with an historic first-ever mobile livestream of the State of The Union address this Tuesday night. FedNet, is not new to this game either—they’ve been broadcasting Congressional coverage since the mid ’90s, putting the State of The Union address online since 1997 (56k days, my friends). 

But FedNet is moving into new territory today, with the launch of VUGUV (we’re not sure if you’re supposed to pronounce that out or not), which according to their press release is “is the first committed mobile-only public affairs network providing streaming video of Congress and Washington, DC based events. Available on wireless devices – smartphones and tablets – FREE to viewers.” That’s right, wonks. Commence drooling.

VUGUV will be broadcast on iPhones, iPads, Androids, Microsoft and Blackberries for the low, low cost of absolutely nothing. If you live and breathe politics, this is a pretty big deal. Here’s what FedNet President, Keith Carney had to say about it:

“For 20 years FedNet has been providing the most advanced, comprehensive coverage of Congress. Now with the launch of our new product, VUGUV, anyone with a smart device can now watch Congress - wherever they are. Anytime. Anywhere. No cables required.”

This could be an enormous tool for bloggers and broadcasters everywhere—real-time looks into congress from an iPad or Blackberry from anywhere. It seems like FedNet is finally bringing an antiquated Congress into the 21st century. Bravo.

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

We will be updating this post with reactions as they appear…

It would appear, ladies and gentlemen, that the internet truly has won. That’s right, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the leading advocate and sponsor of the Stop Online Privacy Act, has agreed to pull the legislation from the House. This comes just hours after Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) tweeted that he was delaying the PIPA vote in the Senate. Here are the sweet, sweet words of retreat, straight from the horse’s mouth:

I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.

Ka-boom.

The Reaction…

Overwhelmingly positive. Even ‘he who must not be named’ is on board:

Hacker collective, Anonymous celebrated the win, but cautioned that the fight is still on-going:

Facebook said on their Washington DC page that they were relieved:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), staunch opponent of the bill was in good spirits, receiving kudos from the online community:

How it Happened…

On Wednesday millions of people took to the internet in protest, and their voice was heard by Congress, many of whom took to Twitter to ‘re-examine’ the bill (via Twitter’s Adam Sharp’s Storify):

The result looked a little like this (via ProPublica’s SopaOpera):

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Hey, so wanna be the Managing Editor of the Washington Post? How about a Senior Editor at Rolling Stone? Your chances are better this afternoon than they were last night as the WSJ and BuzzFeed make some monster acquisitions.

This morning BuzzFeed, which has been acquiring high quality talent like nobody’s business, scooped up Doree Shafrir of Rolling Stone to head up culture coverage at BuzzFeed, adding to their list of impressive journalists . BuzzFeed can afford her, too, given their $15.5 million round they raised earlier this January.

A Snippet of the Press Release:

“I’m excited to join the editorial talent that is converging at BuzzFeed,” said Ms. Shafrir. “The site has very quickly become THE place for a new breed of political writer and reporter to work at and I am excited to work with Ben and Scott to continue this momentum in new culture-based verticals.”

We’ve found ourselves mentioning BuzzFeed more and more since mid-December, as they seem to be taking every necessary step to assure they are a complete and total powerhouse in 2012. Without question, it appears BuzzFeed is at least poised to demonstrate a new model for online journalism this year—social sharing blended with a solid, hyper-updated editorial component. BuzzFeed has already gotten a few serious newsy scoops, like McCain’s endorsement of Mitt Romney, while also beating the competition to posts on viral campaign videos and photos. Our projection: With hires like Shafrir, BuzzFeed will only continue to scoop, and out-entertain their rivals as they bleed into more content verticals.

Also, a Washington Post shocker: Post Managing Editor, Raju Narisetti will head back to the Wall Street Journal as managing editor of their Digital Network. This is a huge amount of responsibility which includes (according to MediaPost.com) overseeing “WSJ.com, SmartMoney.com, MarketWatch and the Chinese, Japanese and German-language editions of WSJ.com. Narisetti will also become a deputy managing editor of the paper.”

A Snippet of the Post’s press release demonstrating Raju’s success:

The evidence is in the numbers: The Post’s online traffic has risen sharply in the last two years, with our page views in December up 45% from a year earlier, the number of visitors to our site up 14%, and the time each visitor spends on our site more than double what it was a year ago (according to comScore) – making 2011 our best year ever. We are a leader in the use of social media for delivering news and drawing readers to our site. Our video traffic has tripled in the last two years and our mobile visits doubled in the last year.

At the Post, Narisetti was in charge of striking a balance between their well-established online presence and the print edition, finding ways to drive readership, monetize the digtial content and re-think longterm strategy. Narisetti has some deep roots at the Journal, having worked there for 13 years. Narisetti will be in a better place at the WSJ as they have an established web presence as well as a pay wall that monetizes their content. With a structure in place, Narisetti has room to explore innovative ways to engage readers and build the Wall Street Journal’s digitial community for the foreseeable future. Plus, he’s got loads of responsibility over many successful online properties. This is a big move, and if you care about the future of online, paywall-based journalism, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on what Raju Narisetti is up to in the coming months.

[Lead image via ccconsultingllc.com]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

We were watching the debate and began salivating when a question from the ‘world wide web’ mentioned SOPA. Here are the answers as hastily transcribed while watching.

Gingrich: