Posted: 12 Jul 2012 04:00 AM PDT

A brief tweet from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) recently invited you to see her newly-decorated apartment and head-to-toe fashions. The problem? It wasn't her apartment. The link led to the website of a staffer in her press office and was promptly deleted from Twitter fifty-seven seconds later. Looks like someone got their social media accounts mixed up.

That might be the end of the story, except the gaffe lives on through Politwoops, an archive of deleted tweets from U.S. politicians hosted by the Sunlight Foundation.

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How to survive in an open world

Posted: 12 Jul 2012 03:00 AM PDT

According to Don Tapscott's "Four Principles of an Open World" TED talk, we are experiencing one of the most significant times in human history. Through the Internet and other innovations, we are able to collaborate like never before, and that change is having a profound effect on society.

The world is becoming more open, and people are demanding a higher level of truth and transparency from major institutions, like government and corporate structure. As Tapscott explains, these institutions must evolve to adapt to this new "open world" or face failure. The collapse of several powerful banks and the resulting economic struggle is one example he gives to prove that adapting is vital.

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Open education, open source, and the dilemma over e-textbooks

Posted: 11 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Forty years ago, John Holt wondered whether an educational revolution as profound as open education could survive unless it became part of a wider and deeper movement of social change. Until open source and the concept of an open education began to take hold, John Holt's vision of an open education seemed to be a pipe dream.