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I'm at the Techonomy conference today, where tech innovators from around the globe are gathered to discuss how technology can tackle the world's biggest problems. It's getting controversial already, and the day just began.

The day kicked off with a presentation about the future of the World Economic Forum's influential Global Information Technology Report, a 400-page annual study of the information and communication technology preparedness of every country in the world. Report co-author Soumitra Dutta said the rise of digital and social media calls us to consider social impacts, such as happiness and social cohesiveness, beyond mere GNP, and other factors like ecological sustainability require a reformation of the metrics in the report.   Discussion quickly illuminated, however, that such changes could get complicated - and controversial - if the organization goes beyond counting how many bits can be shot through the tubes in Tunisia or Tehran.

Historical records are hard to look through casually. One solution is being explored in the case of Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan's archive of emails sent while working under the Clinton administration. That body of data is now available in a Web-based interface that looks a lot like Gmail and is open to full-text search, thanks to the watchdog Sunlight Foundation.

Elena's Inbox is a thought-provoking project that could inspire future efforts to facilitate citizen evaluation of public records, and the Sunlight Foundation has open-sourced the code used to build it. As it stands, the microsite is a fun and interesting peek inside the Clinton administration's day-to-day operations. It's hard to imagine any previous political nominee facing this degree of public transparency.

New Media Ventures, the first national network of angel investors focused on creating political change, launched last week in New York. Investors in the network intend to provide seed funding to new media and tech startups that are developing "disruptive uses of technology" and, according to the press release, "have the potential to build progressive political power."

The Obama campaign is often touted as the premiere example of how social change can be affected by new technologies. From text messaging to Facebook to Twitter, these technologies were seen as key to engaging and motivating voters. But the history of Internet technologies and progressive political change certainly predates the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign.

The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, now has a Facebook profile. The man who famously said he liked to "use the Google" to look at aerial maps of his ranch will now have a presence in arguably the most democratic publishing community in history.

So far the reaction has been almost entirely positive. That's because you have to "like" Bush in order to be allowed to comment on his wall. For a large portion of the world, putting "I like George Bush" into their newsfeed would be like garlic to a vampire. You are, remember, either with him or against him.

More sources are now claiming the Chinese government is behind the recent cyberattacks against Google and 33 other Silicon Valley companies, reports security firm Verisign iDefense. The attacks, revealed yesterday via a posting on Google's official blog, were hacking attempts on the technology infrastructure of Google and other major corporations in sectors that included finance, technology, media and chemical, said Dave Girouard, president of Google Enterprise.

Although Google's politely-worded blog post doesn't come out and directly blame the Chinese government for these attacks, many have suspected that is the case, including, apparently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now even more sources are coming out to confirm the Chinese government's involvement. According to Verisign, their sources within the defense-contracting and intelligence-consulting communities also believe "agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof" are to blame for these recent attacks.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, politicians and reporters quickly discovered the power of Twitter. These days, Twitter has become yet another tool for politicians to get the word out about political initiatives and for reporters to reach out to their readers. In October, social media analytics firm Sysomos took a closer look at the political Twittersphere and how politicians like President Obama and California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger use this tool and who they connect with on Twitter.

Britain's Conservative Party plans to offer a £1 million taxpayer-funded prize for a website that can "harness the wisdom" of voters. The price will be given to the team that develops a platform that enables large groups of people to come together online to solve common problems and develop new policies. According to the Guardian, some of the ideas for this site include services that help to identify wasteful government spending or rate the quality of schools and hospitals. It is worth noting, though, that the Conservatives will only give this prize away if they win the 2010 elections.

In the wake of a leak of an international trade agreement on online file-sharing and copyright violation, U.S. House representatives are introducing legislation to curtail the greatest of American freedoms: the illegal download.

Let's not kid ourselves, dear readers. P2P's best use cases all revolve around the liberation of data, software, music, movies, and other copyrighted and rather expensive content. You may direct your angry emails to Rep. Edolphus Towns (NY-Dem.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, politicians and reporters quickly discovered the power of Twitter. These days, Twitter has become yet another tool for politicians to get the word out about political initiatives and for reporters to reach out to their readers. Today, social media analytics firm Sysomos took a closer look at the political Twittersphere and how politicians like President Obama and California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger use this tool and who they connect with on Twitter.

A 22-year-old iPhone application developer by the name of Red Daly is claiming that Apple rejected his new application from inclusion in the iTunes App Store due to its political nature. His app, iSinglePayer, was designed to educate its users on the benefits of a single-payer health care system, a hotly debated issue here in the U.S. In addition to data-filled bullet points, the app also taps into the phone's GPS to determine who the user's local congressperson is, how much money the health care sector donated to their campaign, and a "tap to call" button to connect app users with lawmakers.

According to Daly, an Apple representative spoke to him by phone to inform him that the rejection of the app was due to its "politically charged" nature. Well that, and the fact that Apple doesn't allow political apps from single developers.