New York Times: Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data. The Times look at Many Eyes, site was created by scientists at the Watson Research Center of I.B.M. in Cambridge, Mass.

Above is a visualization of Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, and below is a visualization of Obama's remarks there about Sen. John McCain.

I interviewed ManyEyes' co-creator, Fernanda B. Viégas, in July: here's our video interview.

Interesting. Here's a video explaining Viewzi, the visual search engine that organizes relevant images on the Web from sources like Amazon and Flickr. A handful of searches I conducted weren't particularly impressive, but it's still early and YMMV.

Air America Radio host (and soon to be MSNBC host) Rachel Maddow — my favorite cable journalist —  interviews Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Democratic National Convention about how the Internet is changing politics. There's also a Flickr photo set here. Thanks to Steve Rhodes for the pointer.

Some interesting posts about the future of where the social media revolution is heading:

One of the kings of the field, Shel Israel, at Global Conversations: The Future of Social Media.

I think the master trend is that social media technology will be continuously refined so that people will be able to behave and interact online as they do in everyday life.

Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer: The Future of Social Media: Hope or Hype?

Aaron Uhrmacher at Mashable: How to Find Statistics on Social Media. Or, more precisely, how to sell your company on a social media campaign.

Ayelet Noff at Blonde 2.0: Create Your Personalized Music Video Channel With MeeVideo.

MeeMix,
the personalized internet radio community that allows users to create
personalized music stations and music video channels, has just
announced the launch of MeeVideo, its new personalized music video channel application on Facebook.

Guest writer Megan O’Neill at Blonde 2.0: Top 10 Tips for Social Networking Success.

MoveOn.org has been researching John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, over the past 24 hours. Here's what they've found:

• She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year
  and a
  half ago. Her previous office was mayor of
  Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing
  abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president  in 2000. ³
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
• She's
  doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's
  "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil
  drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush
  administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was
  worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday,
  when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷

I'm listening to Palin give a speech now (Saturday) on CNN. She just claimed she's been opposed to the infamous Alaska "bridge to nowhere." MoveOn forgot to mention that Palin supported the bridge as little as two years ago, when the political winds began to shift.

The New Republic: Did Palin Really Fight The “Bridge To Nowhere”?

Media Matters for America: Wall Street Journal reported that Palin "highlighted her opposition" to "that bridge to nowhere" -- but not her previous reported support for it

Washington Monthly: Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere

Sorry, Gov. Palin, you don't get a free pass just because you've raised five kids.

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=7

7. "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-7671297-.BoUhtx&t=8

Earlier today I made note of the San Jose Mercury News piece on the fast-changing entry on Sarah Palin in Wikipedia yesterday.

Well, now it appears that one of the citizen editors on the entry was ... a member of Sarah Palin's family.

From the DailyKos: Sarah Palin scrubs her own Wikipedia entry?

This is a breaking story from
NPR:  Sarah Palin may have scrubbed her own Wikipedia entry shortly
before her nomination leaked this morning.

Here is the audio from NPR.

Here's a transcript of some of the highlights from NPR for anyone who can't get the audio.

Just 15 minutes after rumor of her selection broke, a Wikipedia
editor discovered something interesting.  Yesterday, thirty mostly
favorable changes were made to Palin's Wikipedia biography.

The user making the changes was "Young Trigg." Trig happens to be the name of Sarah Palin's son.

The changes, all from a single source, included the addition of a quotation calling Palin "a politician of eye-popping integrity."
The edits diminished a reference to Palin's participation in a beauty
pageant and minimized a section about a controversy over whether Palin
used her influence to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.

If true... wow.  Do these people know ANYTHING about the internets?
This woman would have to be incredibly naive not to know that
tampering with your own wikipedia entry is a no-go and will always get
you found out.  Um... especially with "Young Trigg" as your username.

Now... can someone with some Wiki savvy do some detective work to see
what other mischief "Young Trigg" has been up to with his/her account?

Update:  Thanks to Terre, here's a cached version from August 21.

Update 2:  Thanks to dmsilev.  Here's a list of all Young Trigg's contributions

"Young Trigg apparently just registered yesterday and is a
"single-purpose user."  In other words, its only contributions are on
one topic:  Sarah Palin. ...

Update 7: Someone at Wikipedia has put up a pretty good "before and after" shot of the edits made over the ~5-hour period in which "Young Trigg" was messing with the entry.

Fascinating. The citizens' posse is on the case.