LannyCardow.com

I just posted a quick piece on using location-aware services in politics over at Navigator’s new Comment Blog.

For those of you who haven’t seen our site in a while, check it out — it’s all been redone and should have a relatively steady stream of fresh content. More big news on that coming soon… stay tuned.

LC

I’m not much for the political angle people attach to Earth Day, but I think we can all agree on the value of basic energy conservation.

Here’s a list of 100 things you can do to save energy courtesy of the OPA.

Ryanair, the UK budget airline (with the really budget website), has a fantastic reply to a harsh blog post by Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon.

Gordon’s April 7 piece starts like this:

“You know those lists that detail the world’s favourite brands, the ones usually topped by Google or Apple? You never see Ryanair on those lists, do you? For that matter, you never hear anybody casually mention that they have just flown with Ryanair, and that they really enjoyed it. I am willing to bet my flat and its contents that nobody has ever said the words “Ryanair”, “marvellous” and “service” in the same sentence.”

…and it gets worse (far worse) from there.

So what’s a scorned airline to do?

Respond like this.

“Ryanair is now seeking possession of the ‘flat and contents’ of Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon since her claims that Ryanair passengers have never complimented our industry leading service are clearly false. Unfortunately for Bryony she overlooked the fact that Ryanair is the world’s favourite airline and provides the best on-time, baggage and flight completion performance of any major European airline, while also offering Europe’s guaranteed lowest fares.

“Ryanair will grow to 73 million passengers this year thanks to our industry leading customer service and we look forward to receiving the keys to Bryony’s ‘flat and contents’ in due course”.

Clever, gets their message out, and sure to go viral.

Ryanair’s release puts their customer letters, mission statement (charter) and comments in full view, and makes Gordon’s blog seem downright nasty in comparison.

A great reaction to a negative blog post.

Some of my former IPDI colleagues have been doing some great things lately in Washington and outside the beltway, and I wanted to take a moment to share their good news.

IPDI is a research institute affiliated with The George Washington University’s GSPM school. It specializes in researching where the Internet meets Politics and/or governance. IPDI runs the fantastic Politics Online Conference (POLC) every year which is just getting better and cooler all the time. This year’s POLC looks wonderful – kudos to the organizers so far.