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Message Digest Volume 28 : Issue 12 : "text" Format Messages in this Issue: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Re: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Re: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Mysterious credit card charge may have hit millions of users Re: How to find out mobile carrier's web-to-sms gateway address? ====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:16:48 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Message-ID: <p06240808c59090975a8a@[10.0.1.6]> The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy A group of Boston geeks helped Barack Obama turn the Web into the ultimate political machine. Will he use it now to reinvent government? By David Talbot | January 8, 2009 On a February night nearly two years ago, a Boston computer programmer named Jascha Franklin-Hodge was entertaining a first date over dinner at Shanti, in Dorchester, when his cellphone rang, displaying a Chicago number. Bolting from his plate of korma and dashing outside, he heard good news from the fledgling Barack Obama campaign. Franklin-Hodge and his squad of Web designers and programmers at Blue State Digital -- a small start-up in a creaky-floored loft office on Congress Street in the Seaport District -- had been hired to build much of Obama for America's digital backbone: the interactive and social-networking features of my.barackobama.com, or MyBO. MyBO would become the hub of the campaign's online efforts to organize supporters, channel their energies effectively, enable them to call millions of voters, and, of course, collect donations. Today President-elect Obama has a new soapbox, change.gov, the official transition website (also built by Blue State Digital). It features such novelties as Cabinet nominees giving YouTube replies to comments posted by average Americans. The extent to which Obama goes on to use the Web -- as a portal to release more government data for public consumption, as an instrument for rallying Americans to advance his agenda, and to bypass traditional media -- is yet to be seen. But his campaign platform promised Obama would use technology to create "a new level of transparency, accountability, and participation." When Obama takes the oath of office nine days from now, his hallmark is likely to be a massive use of the Web. He certainly took online campaigning to a new level. His e-campaign included not only MyBO, of course, but also the powerful leveraging of everything from text-messaging to YouTube video propagation to supporter networks on platforms like Facebook -- and on a scale that dwarfed what was achieved by Hillary Clinton or John McCain (for example, Obama had more than 3.4 million Facebook supporters, six times McCain's number). Of course, that night at Shanti, all that was clear to Franklin-Hodge was that a polished but long-shot junior senator would step to a Springfield, Illinois, lectern nine days later, on February 10, 2007, to announce his candidacy. Franklin-Hodge -- a baritone-voiced MIT dropout, now 29 years old -- had been around this block once before; he was part of a core group of geeks who built the then-novel online apparatus for the Howard Dean campaign. But 2003 was still the Dark Ages for online social networking. The Dean tools for setting up meetings and donating were a little rough. More important, fewer Americans were comfortable using the Internet to form communities and to organize. (In 2003, Facebook didn't exist in its present form but today has more than 40 million American accounts; it seems every other Joe Sixpack has a Facebook profile.) ... http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2009/01/11/the_geeks_behind_obamas_web_strategy/ ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 2009 15:59:43 -0500 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Message-ID: <gkgavv$4ur$1@panix2.panix.com> Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: > >On a February night nearly two years ago, a Boston computer >programmer named Jascha Franklin-Hodge was entertaining a first date >over dinner at Shanti, in Dorchester, when his cellphone rang, >displaying a Chicago number. Bolting from his plate of korma and >dashing outside, he heard good news from the fledgling Barack Obama >campaign. Franklin-Hodge and his squad of Web designers and >programmers at Blue State Digital -- a small start-up in a >creaky-floored loft office on Congress Street in the Seaport District >-- had been hired to build much of Obama for America's digital >backbone: the interactive and social-networking features of >my.barackobama.com, or MyBO. My only experience with Blue State Digital is that they seem remarkably clue resistant. Throughout the campaign they were running an open mailing list server... anybody could join anyone else up on their mailing list, and lots of people did. Telephone calls to the folks at Blue State resulted in total disbelief that this was a problem. Mailing list confirmation became standard a decade or so ago, when Internet use ballooned and sites were no longer really able to keep track of their users or keep reasonable control over them. To run a mailing list without confirmation today is like walking into a bar with a KICK ME sign on your back. I certainly hope that these people are not going to be giving any advice to Mr. Obama about the future growth of the internet or about networking policies. If they are, we can all just go home now. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ***** Moderator's Note ***** Scott, I think they will be giving President Obama a lot of advice: after all, they are, by definition, the experts now. They helped him get elected, so everything that they do or say is now assumed to come from the oracle at Delphi. Let's remember that most of our "leaders" don't know that supermarkets have scanners, let alone that there is a medium of mass communication outside of TV and Radio and newsprint. Those who run America, and who will be telling Barack Obama what is best for us all, will fall over themselves trying to sign up Blue State Digital to deliver their message to the unwashed masses, and whatever those guys want, they get. This is the great American success story: a kid drops out of college, spends all his time trying to find a niche market for his particular talent, and succeeds beyond his wildest dreams. It worked for Bill Gates. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:47:58 -0800 From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: The Geeks Behind Obama's Web Strategy Message-ID: <_HPal.10881$D32.643@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com> Scott Dorsey wrote: > Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: >> On a February night nearly two years ago, a Boston computer >> programmer named Jascha Franklin-Hodge was entertaining a first date >> over dinner at Shanti, in Dorchester, when his cellphone rang, >> displaying a Chicago number. Bolting from his plate of korma and >> dashing outside, he heard good news from the fledgling Barack Obama >> campaign. Franklin-Hodge and his squad of Web designers and >> programmers at Blue State Digital -- a small start-up in a >> creaky-floored loft office on Congress Street in the Seaport District >> -- had been hired to build much of Obama for America's digital >> backbone: the interactive and social-networking features of >> my.barackobama.com, or MyBO. > > My only experience with Blue State Digital is that they seem remarkably > clue resistant. Throughout the campaign they were running an open mailing > list server... anybody could join anyone else up on their mailing list, and > lots of people did. Telephone calls to the folks at Blue State resulted in > total disbelief that this was a problem. > > Mailing list confirmation became standard a decade or so ago, when Internet > use ballooned and sites were no longer really able to keep track of their > users or keep reasonable control over them. To run a mailing list without > confirmation today is like walking into a bar with a KICK ME sign on your > back. > > I certainly hope that these people are not going to be giving any advice > to Mr. Obama about the future growth of the internet or about networking > policies. If they are, we can all just go home now. > --scott I would guess that the IT people who work at the Whitehouse as well as the IT people in charge of communications would clue them. Years ago when I worked for the phone company, the president would fly to the west coast and Looking Glass would follow and sit at March AFB, we tied the plane into the public network through secure systems, and those people were aware of everything. -- The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:00:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Mysterious credit card charge may have hit millions of users Message-ID: <p0624080dc5909a99b315@[10.0.1.6]> http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2009/01/11/mysterious_credit_card_charge_may_have_hit_millions_of_users/ CONSUMER ALERT Mysterious credit card charge may have hit millions of users By Mitch Lipka, Globe Correspondent | January 11, 2009 The Boston Globe Several Internet complaint boards are filled with comments from credit card customers from coast to coast who have noticed a mysterious charge for about 25 cents on their statements. The charge shows up on statements as coming from "Adele Services" in Melville, N.Y. There is no business by that name listed in Melville, or registered to any business anywhere in New York, for that matter. Two theories of what is going on have advanced on message boards and among consumer advocates: Someone is trying to find out whether an illegally obtained credit card number will work before making a bigger charge, or they're trying to rip off tiny amounts from tons of people. The latter theory has more credibility at the moment. The Better Business Bureau in Louisville reports that, at least so far, those who have been hit with the small charge have yet to get slammed with a bigger charge. The bureau speculates that the number of possible victims could be in the millions. It's not clear how the numbers got in the hands of the people making the charge, but consumer advocates say it is most likely through either a data theft or someone using a computer to generate numbers. Former Massachusetts assistant attorney general Edgar Dworsky, who runs ConsumerWorld.org, said the scam reminded him of an old adage: "It's easier to steal $1 from a million people than $1 million from one person," he said. Most people, Dworsky said, are likely to overlook or ignore the small charge. "Isn't that the perfect scam, when the victim doesn't even know something has been taken?" he said. Take a look at your credit card statements, and if the charge is there, don't let it slide. It's what the thieves want you to do. Instead, file a dispute with your credit card company, and lodge complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) - which is run by the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Federal law enforcement officials tend to react when the complaints reach a certain volume. HAVE A CONSUMER QUESTION? E-mail your questions to consumer@globe.com. © Copyright The New York Times Company ***** Moderator's Note ***** The first wave has started: after this, the deluge. The banking system we all depend on is, as I have said before, totally incapable of verifying customer or merchant identities without face-to-face meetings. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator P.S. I have yet to see an adage that _wasn't_ old. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:06:46 -0800 (PST) From: John <linwh348@hotmail.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: How to find out mobile carrier's web-to-sms gateway address? Message-ID: <9aa6551d-ffc1-4de4-908f-4ddc02a5e480@l33g2000pri.googlegroups.com> On 1/7/09 tlvp <PmUiRsGcE.TtHlEv...@att.net> wrote: > On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:38:31 -0500, steven acer <dudest...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Is there anyway to find the e-mail-to-SMS gatewaya mobile carrier > > uses to route email as SMS messages? I am talking about any carrier: I > > found some lists on the internet, but they don't cover all the countries. > > (http://www.mutube.com/projects/open-email-to-sms/gateway-list/) > > > If I can sendsmsmessages from a web interface my carrier provides > > this means that this carrier has agatewayof the ones I am talking > > about. I need a way to find these addresses regardless of the carrier > > and the country. > > And I'd particularly welcome such data for the Polish providers Idea, > Plus, Era, and Orange. Even better would be the added information, which > 3-digit cellular prefixes are proprietary to which of these various > providers. > > Thanks, and cheers, -- tlvp Let me try and answer your questions. Do you need to receive SMS? If you need to receive SMS, you will need to host your own GSM device or modem so that people can send you SMS. If not, you can just use internet SMS gateways like clickatell to do the work, and post to them by HTTP, XML or email. The cost is about 6-8 cents per SMS. There are cheaper services, but not always reliable. If you need to host your own GSM device, you can use software like http://www.kannel.org (GPL Open Source) or http://visualtron.com/enterprise/sms-gateway. Regards. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. 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