Can’t believe that SXSW is around the corner. Just a year ago we were speechless when we found out we made it into the Startup Accelerator Finals. SXSW was a fantastic experience for us personally and professionally. We officially launched Votifi in Austin and the experience contributed to much of the success we had this past year. 

We’re looking forward to attending SXSW again, this time as Discourse Analytics. Thanks to everyone who voted for our panel on the Panel Picker. Lou will be speaking on a panel called “Latinos y Mobile: The Silver Bullet” on March 8th at 5:30 PM [link]. 

Joining him on the panel are Kety Esquivel (moderator) who is currently a VP at Fenton Communications (@KetyE); Brent Wilkes, National Executive Director for the League of United Latin American Citizens (@BrentWilkes) and Estuardo Rodriguez, a principal at the Raben Group (@EstuardoDC). 

New times call for new methods and as Einstein said you can’t solve the problems of today using the same technology we used to create them.

No where is this more the case than in the Latino community: a highly diverse, highly mobile, highly tech adaptive population. There is no better place to explore these issues than at SXSW.

Today we’re also launching the second installment of our LatinoVoice survey to elicit responses on the impact of technology in the Latino community.

Last year at SXSW, we learned that Latinos saw blogs and Facebook as the best places to interact with others in the community, felt passing the DREAM Act was a top priority, and believed vocational education was the best way to realizing the American Dream.  What will we learn this year?

Take the survey, pass it along to your friends, and help us make the Hispanic voice heard this year at SXSW.

You can follow the conversation on twitter at #mobileLTN. And let us know if you are going to be at SXSW this year. We’d love to meet up. 

Hans Rosling: The River of Myths (by thegatesnotes)

By Nick Davis

There are more reasons to watch the Super Bowl this year but, the very least of these is the actual game. Yes, we’ll watch the usual hilarious and bizarre commercials. We’ll speculate about the average cost of a thirty second commercial and the songs the performers will sing during halftime. But, this year is different. This year there are so many storylines and drama scenes the Superbowl could pass for a TV miniseries. Let’s review what’s already taken place and look forward to what could be on Sunday

We’ll start with the obvious. Brothers Jim and John Harbaugh, head coaches of the 49ers and Ravens respectively, will lead their teams in pursuit of the Lombardi trophy in approximately 24 hours, an event that has been cleverly dubbed the “Super Baugh” and the “Harbowl.” Talk about the ultimate sibling rivalry. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to win this game more than these two brothers. Serious bragging rights are on the line.

What’s even crazier than two sibling head coaches meeting in the Super Bowl is the fact that a Colts fan foresaw the event occurring and found a way to profit. Roy Fox of Indiana, filed for the right to copyright the terms ‘Harbowl’ and ‘HarbaughBowl.’ The NFL got wind of this back in August and bullied the man out of his application fearing confusion and lost revenue. I don’t doubt that Fox regrets giving up his right to the copyright. To add insult to injury, Fox was denied free tickets to Colts games even after dropping the application.

Ravens superstar Ray Lewis has been in the limelight for multiple reasons. Lewis announced he will retire after 17 seasons in the league. He is the last remaining player from the Ravens’ inaugural season back in 1996.  Since announcing his retirement at the end of the regular season, the spotlight has grown brighter and brighter, especially after courageous wins against the likes of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. He is a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame and is looking to go out on top.

However, the iconic linebacker has also caught some flak. One of the more notable instances occurred after the Ravens defeated the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Anna Burns Welker, wife of Patriots receiver Wes Welker, unabashedly criticized Lewis for his role in a murder investigation and fathering six kids with four women. Welker apologized for her comments and it was admirably accepted.

In another case of public figures candidly spouting off whatever comes to their minds, 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver responded quite bluntly to one of comedian Artie Lange’s humorous bowl week interview questions by publicly trashing gay people. Culliver later apologized for his comments labeling them ‘ugly’. You’d think a player on the team of one of America’s most gay-friendly cities would be a little more aware of what’s at stake.  In an amusing twist to the story, Terrell Suggs of the Ravens later stated that neither he nor anyone on his team would have a problem with a gay teammate. It seems the gamesmanship has already begun.

Finally, as if there weren’t enough stories to follow during the game, Beyonce is bound to receive more attention since we learned she lip synced the national anthem at Obama’s second inauguration. If there wasn’t pressure then, there is now. Beyonce has gone on the defensive saying she was unprepared and lip-syncing is very common.  When asked if she would be singing live during halftime, she responded, “Absolutely.”

By Nick Davis

It’s no secret lately that Republicans are in the public doghouse with regards to the fiscal negotiations that have taken place these past couple of years. It all began in the summer of 2011. Tea party conservatism, after scoring major victories in the 2010 mid term elections, shamelessly threatened to take the federal government into default.  The uncertainty, created by this partisan game of fiscal chicken, led Standard and Poors to downgrade America’s AAA credit rating for the first time in history.

Fast forward two years, and it appears the Republicans are beginning to finally learn how to govern more pragmatically. It’s unfortunate it took fear of a permanent GOP minority to get conservatives to budge from their hardline stances. Reality bites hard, I suppose. But this change in strategy will serve them substantially if they keep it up.

John Boehner and his base have learned the art of realistic and transparent negotiation as evidenced by the House approval of the debt ceiling extension last week. Coupled with this extension and de facto increase in the debt ceiling was a very simple request; that the Senate do its job. Per the Constitution, the House begins the process of enacting revenue and budget bills, but the Senate ‘may propose or concur with Amendments as on other bills.

Some may say that Republicans are weak or naïve to compromise just to get the Democrats to do their job. But as the old saying goes, “You gotta start somewhere.” Conservatives have been losing the PR battle lately.

Right or wrong, Republicans are viewed as the primary cause of the repeat confrontations over budget negotiations. The Senate and the President are expected to approve of this compromise, which means that if Democrats haven’t passed a budget by April 15, the public can tangibly see who failed to hold up their end of the bargain.

Additionally, Republicans have put some of the spotlight and incentive on themselves to find a feasible solution to our exploding debt and government spending. They also agreed to put some of their own skin in the game by withholding their own paychecks if a deal doesn’t get done. At the very least, it will ease the congressional gridlock, if only for a short time. Although, I tend to agree with this blogger that they should also withhold some of their congressional perks, it’s a step in the right direction. In other words, they’ve agreed to a bipartisan solution that’s supposed to be an incentive for a bipartisan solution. Baby steps.

It’s only a matter of time before Americans realize that they won’t be able to tax their way of this situation. As I wrote earlier this month, the New Year deal that was signed weeks ago relieved but a tiny portion of the exploding debt. I likened it to that of a drop of water in a swimming pool.  If tax rates continue to increase, more Americans will feel the effects on their pocketbooks not just the 1%.  Democrats would be responsible for that fiscal pain and the favor should shift back to the right.

It seems that the GOP may have had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment during their party retreat a couple of weeks ago. We have seen a marked difference in their political savvy and negotiation. They’ve even taken the initiative in crafting an immigration reform bill.  Obviously there’s political motive to save their public image with the Latino community; I don’t doubt that. But, it is a testament to their improved worldview.  If something does flourish out of immigration and these fiscal deals, I’m going to point to January 2013 as a turning point for Republicans.

Courtesy of: Online Degrees

Courtesy of @apptentive

In a move that can only be seen as a direct challenge to Politifact’s dominance in the fact-checking space, Washington Post just announced its Truth Teller app

The app parses video for political facts and then determines if the facts are true or false. Some examples are shown in the video above. 

You can play around with the app at TruthTeller.washingtonpost.com

The app was built with a grant from the Knight Foundation, which has been supporting innovative media and information projects. 

Playing around with it, there is some work to be done. It looks like ‘something’ is going on in which real-time audio is transcribed and then the resultant text (which is far from perfectly transcribed) is parsed for sentences that sound like facts, which must then be cross-referenced against a database of facts, and then an evaluation is made whether the utterance is consistent with or in contradiction to the fact. Whatever is happening, it’s impressive.

The experience is still very Beta. We’ll see if the Washington Post continues to enhance the product. 

It would be very interesting if TruthTeller can be switched on, live, during the State of the Union address in February. 

By Ian Rosoff

Second term presidents tend to show their true colors. George Bush used his second term to push through conservative legislation. He used executive orders and aggressively crafted foreign policy that showed little regard for his own popularity. President Obama is now faced with a few key political choices. Will he try and go after guns or tackle immigration? Will he be progressive and be met with Republican resistance?

 From a democrat’s perspective the President has to balance achieving progressive goals while also maintaining popularity and expanding the Party. That’s why I hope the President makes the first year of his second term about immigration. If the President can get immigration reform passed he will not only help the economy and the country, but will potentially vastly expand the Party. Securing the Latino vote will be crucial moving forward and if Democrats can win that fight it will pay large dividends down the line.

 While I applauded the Presidents willingness to compromise during his first term especially on health care, Progressives were left upset with the abandonment of the public option, and Republicans still hated the bill and pledged to repeal the legislation if they won the White House. I don’t think the President can get away with trying to pass new legislation that won’t please the base in his second term. He needs to try and build momentum moving into the midterms and then into the next presidential cycle.

 I want the President to declare war on the GOP. It sounds cynical, but from a strategic perspective there is nothing to be gained from the President trying to accomplish anything meaningful while the Republicans control the House. The Speaker is too obstinate. That’s why I like immigration because Republicans look bad holding it up and if they pass reform it’s a win for Obama in the eyes of Latinos. The President should ask Democrats in the House and Senate for a bill offering full or partial amnesty and watch as the Democratic Party swells.

 The worry is the President may take on gun control or another big issue or will make a compromise that hurts enthusiasm in the base and energizes the right. The idealist in me would love to see the President introduce and pass desperately needed gun legislation, but the NRA gets Republicans elected and they won’t back down while the Second Amendment gives them political cover. Guns won’t get solved until the Democrats hold both the House and Senate, and the only way that will happen is if President is smart and stomps on the GOP’s neck while they are leaderless and vulnerable. 

 Of course, the President will probably move on guns now, and I hope it’s not too early. He moved too soon on healthcare, and while he did get legislation passed, it came at the cost of all his political capital.  Today’s political world is hard because the country is demanding urgent action, but patience will probably win elections.

By Nick Davis

What do you hear most when you’re having a discussion about the political culture of America? I know, I am just one person but I frequently hear, “I wish Republicans and Democrats, the President and Congress, could just get along!” Amen! And honestly, who doesn’t support such sentiment? I find it extremely hard to believe that either party has all the right answers for solving America’s challenges moving forward. Based on this notion, compromise should be an obvious and inevitable solution.

A major theme of President Obama’s reelection campaign was to follow through with the promises made back in 2008. Among those promises includes tackling immigration reform, addressing climate change and pushing forward with a renewed energy policy that relies less on oil and more on renewable resources.

Obama addressed all of these issues in his 2^nd inaugural address. However, one thing that has been absent from this President’s mantra is the ‘Hope and Change’ that was proudly advocated in 2008. His image as the ‘great negotiator’ hasn’t materialized and according to his inaugural address, it doesn’t sound like we’ll see it this term either.

Now, I’m not completely blind to the fact that Republicans control the House, and at times, it seems the GOP appears more willing to block the President at every turn rather than find solutions and compromise. Mitch McConnell himself famously said that Republicans would make Obama a ‘one-term president.’ This type of attitude is shameful no doubt.

However, my esteemed counterpart Ian would have you believe the Republican Party is weak and vulnerable and without a strong leader and he would be correct to an extent. But, all this talk of the GOP being down is only temporary. They aren’t going anywhere and I haven’t heard a compelling argument yet as to why or how they will fade into a permanent minority.  America will never be a one party system and it serves both parties to work together.

Compromise is good for Americans, but the President should also see some individualized benefit from such actions.  At some point, Obama will have to take responsibility for the gridlock in Washington. After all, the buck does stop at his desk. You will see I do agree with Ian that Obama spent quite a bit of his political capital with various pieces of legislation including the landmark Affordable Care Act. That is the very reason he needs to compromise.

As much as people like to praise Obama’s potentially game changing inauguration speech, he still has to deal with a Republican House. The GOP can keep control through the 2014 midterm elections as long as they stay the course.  Unless, Obama plans on governing through executive order for the next four years, he must foster positive relationships with GOP leadership.