Conventions

Here’s a rundown from Kate Conger of Techcrunch of some of the more techie ways you can watch the Republican convention: with Twitch’s live stream, with the Twitter-CBS News live-stream, or with the Facebook-ABC News live page.

Online real-time fact checking lives (maybe)! An unemployed journalist named Jarrett Hill noticed that some lines from Melania Trump’s convention speech last night sounded familiar, and a tweet by him nailing her for plagiarizing from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech praising her husband Barack went viral.

Here’s a handy guide from Witness’ Sarah Kerr and Jackie Zammuto with tips for activists on their rights to film protests and/or police during the conventions.

This is civic tech: Claire MIcklin of Chi Hack Night describes how a web tool she built called “My Building Doesn’t Recycle” led the Chicago City Council to draft a new city ordnance which is expected to pass tomorrow.

Google has launched a new search feature that will help people register to vote, Sarah Perez reports for TechCrunch.

Katherine Klosek of the Johns Hopkins Center for Government Excellence (GovEx), writes in the GovEx blog that civic tech isn’t dead, it’s “evolving beyond its initial definition to include new ways for cities to collaborate with community partners.”

Law.com’s Ricci Dipshan reports on how New York City councilman Ben Kallos (and longtime friend of Civic Hall) is working to make the city’s laws more transparent and responsive to public input.

Paul Ford nails why New York City’s tech scene is thriving, and also more civically engaged and less arrogant than San Francisco’s.

Congrats to Erie Meyer, one of the founding members of the U.S. Digital Service (and cofounder of Tech Lady Mafia), who will be a Shorenstein Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School this fall.

Brave new world: The headline on technosociologist Zeynep Tufekci’s latest New York Times online column says it all: “How the Internet Saved Turkey’s Internet-Hating President.”

Information security researcher “the grugq” (his nom de plume) adds lots of detail to that picture, arguing that “cyberpower” crushed the coup. Well, maybe—next time coup plotters will likely move to shut down their country’s internet service when they seek to steal power.

Fast Company’s Mike Elgan reports on how the French turned to Twitter and Facebook in the immediate wake of the truck attack in Nice last week, and not to a new safety alert app promised by the French government. He also points out that Google’s Crisis Response system seems to have been abandoned, in favor of using Google Now cards that are location specific.