Ah, the great city of Philadelphia: home to many exciting things including Independence Hall,  the National Constitution Center, cheese steaks, the Phillies, and, starting in just a few days,  APSA’s Teaching and Learning Conference.

Soomo will be there!  You’ll be able to find us in the exhibit hall, of course, and we also will be presenting. David Lindrum is co-presenting a paper with Dr. Jocelyn Evans of the University of West Florida titled “Examining the Content and Perspective of Introductory Texts in American Politics” during session B of the Core Curriculum/General Education track.

Soomo is also participating in a workshop with Professor Tressa Tabares of American River College titled “The Promise, Peril and Practicalities of Web Assignments: Specific Implementation Strategies.” The workshop has been scheduled for Friday, February 5, from 3:45-4:45 pm in the Claypoole Room and for Saturday, February 6, from 3:30pm-4:45 pm.

But wait, there’s more!

Soomo is not only exhibiting and presenting. We also are  co-sponsoring TLC’s opening reception with CQ Press on Friday evening at 6:00 pm. We look forward to meeting you there. Safe travels to Philly!

Traveling to any academic conferences, or planning on heading South for warmer temperatures? Either way, we at Soomo would like to pass along some tips on free political entertainment in the form of podcasts and Apps. (It’s amazing what you can download from iTunes…but don’t take our word for it: go exploring.)

The Young Turks, won the 2009 Podcast Award in the “political” category. The podcast describes itself as a “revolutionary show” discussing anything from “politics .. entertainment .. pop culture .. and sports.” More so, they claim that the “revolutionary” aspect of the talk show is the fact that they dare to be “honest with people.” One of the great aspects of this program is that not only can you download it for FREE on i-Tunes,  but you can also watch it on You Tube. The writers/hosts of the show delve deep into current issues and offer bits of information for you to chew on.

In the mood for something a bit less frothy? The “ying” to The Young Turks’ “yang,” is The Federalist Society, winner of the 2009 Bradley Prize. The Society consists of conservatives and libertarians, who are “committed to the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, [and] that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution …”. The Society takes current events and applies legal theory while weighing the pros and cons on topics such as monopolization, international law, affirmative action, voting rights, civil liberties, and so on. Again, this is all completely and totally FREE! To watch a video that provides a brief overview of the organization, click here and scroll down.

And finally a great, FREE App is called Real Time Congress, from the Sunlight Foundation. This App brings to your “fingertips,” the nation’s legislative process, and provides timely “floor updates,” incorporates the daily schedule, news and decisions of both the House and the Senate. A great way to maintain your New Year’s resolution of becoming more politically involved!

So, happy podcasting.

Soomo is rolling out a three-part series of original documentaries examining health care reform. I blogged about the first episode, which examines the debate over whether health care is a right or a privilege, here. Episode Two focuses on congressional battles over comparative effectiveness research, as well as the role of the bureaucracy in implementing legislation. Click below to view the video– and please share your comments with us!

Health Care Reform – Episode 2 from Soomo Publishing on Vimeo.

Sometime before June of this year the United Kingdom will hold elections for the House of Commons. It is widely expected that the Conservative Party will gain at the expense of Labour, which has been the governing party since 1997. How does the electoral system in the UK work exactly? While the principle – single-member districts in a plurality electoral system – bears a striking similarity to the US electoral system, the outcome for the party system in Britain is quite distinct: Two major parties (Labour and the Conservatives) compete at the national level; a third party (Liberal Democrats) is electorally strong nationally, but gains disproportionately few seats in parliament, while multiple smaller regional parties are quite strongly represented in Westminster even though they gain a relatively small vote share nationally.

Several interactive websites allow students to reallocate votes and calculate seats accordingly, based on previous electoral performance of the parties in their districts. Among them are the BBC simulation,  the Hill and Knowlton simulation, and the Electoral Calculus simulation. For a fee, UK Elect also offers information on previous elections and other services. All these websites are useful tools to demonstrate the workings of the electoral system and electoral outcomes in the UK.

Thanks to all who stopped by Soomo’s booth at SPSA. We enjoyed meeting you! As promised, here are the links Professor Tressa Tabares of American River College uses in her class and discussed during the SPSA round-table discussion on Friday.

Americana Phonic includes links to iPod-friendly audio versions of many primary documents related to the Founding, including The Federalist Papers and Common Sense.

The Center on Congress at Indiana University includes a terrific interactive learning module titled The Dynamic Legislative Process. This interactive lesson focuses on comparing the simplified textbook version of legislative process to the intricacies of how bills are passed in reality.

Annenberg’s  Sunnylands Classroom includes a delightfully civil 37-minute conversation between Justices Breyer and Scalia on judicial interpretation of the Constitution. (Yes, they’re civil…but some of the facial expressions are priceless!)

Tressa also mentioned two online simulations that she likes to use with her classes:  The ReDistricting Game and the Concord Coalition’s Federal Budget Challenge. More on these in previous PoliSilo posts here and here.

MSNBC.com, BBC News Special Reports, Frontline, and Wide Angle were also mentioned by participants.

Do you have any additional links to share? Please post in the comments or send them along to me at melissa@soomopublishing.com.

Conference season is officially upon us, as SPSA begins today, January 7th. And Soomo, of course, is here. You can look for our table in the registration area. Please stop by,  tell us about your courses, say hello!

And a quick reminder about Soomo’s workshop with Tressa Tabares of American River College on  “The Promise, Peril and Practicalities of Using the Web in Your Course: Specific Implementation Strategies.” Tressa’s talk is on Friday, January 8th, from 11:30 – 1pm, in Ravinia A.

Safe travels and we look forward to seeing you in Atlanta!

Before the card stores start stocking up on Valentine’s Day paraphernalia, it’s time to enjoy the start of a new year. Are you still planning to make a New Year’s Resolution? Maybe you’ll make an obvious choice like spending more time with loved ones, or maybe you hope to be more conservative with money or to become more organized. But what about increasing your civic engagement and getting more involved in grassroots politics?

We at Soomo have already blogged about the top 10 cities for political junkies (Asheville, NC, included), so it’s quite easy for us Asheville folks to find ways to be more politically involved, but for others that’s not necessarily the case. A great web tool that you can use to find local political events in your neighborhood is Eventful Politics. The site’s tag line is “discover, share, and create grassroots political events,” and it’s very easy to use.

By joining Eventful Politics you can post your own political event, let others know about it, then use the website’s tools to help maintain your schedule, send messages, alert others to campaign stops… the list goes on. In this way, other people can find your event and attend. It’s a win-win situation. And if you are simply looking for events in your area, Eventful Politics allows you to limit your choices by selecting either Republican or Democratic events.

No matter what you decide to resolve, Happy New Year from Soomo! Here’s to a great 2010!