Jose Antonio Vargas is the Technology and Innovations editor of the Huffington Post. Previously, he was a national political reporter for the Washington Post, where he broke new ground with his in-depth coverage of the Internet's impact on politics. Among other issues he's covered include video game culture, race and demographics and HIV/AIDS. A year-long series he wrote on AIDS in Washington, D.C., is now the subject of "The Other City," a feature-length documentary due next year. In 2008, he won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team that covered the Virginia Tech massacre. E-mail him at jose@huffingtonpost.com.

A newspaper reporter for 11 years, he's written for the Philadelphia Daily News and the San Francisco Chronicle, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." He currently sits on the advisory board for the Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, housed at American University. A Bay Area native -- and a very proud alumnus of Mountain View High School ('00) and San Francisco State University ('04) -- he lives in New York City.

For more of his work, go to joseantoniovargas.com.

Blog Entries by Jose Antonio Vargas

Anatomy (and Meaning) of the "Did You Know?" Video Series (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)

49 Comments | Posted November 24, 2009 | 12:00 PM (EST)


Yes, technology is revolutionizing politics, from raising money through online donors to organizing and mobilizing supporters using Facebook and text messaging. Yes, technology is impacting businesses big and small, particularly how they pitch and sell their products in such a fragmented, almost ADD digital marketplace.

But most importantly of...

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Unplugging -- Turn It Off! (VIDEO)

40 Comments | Posted November 23, 2009 | 07:48 AM (EST)


We can't turn it off -- we just can't. Our relationship with our phones (BlackBerrys, iPhones, Sidekicks) have gotten so eerily co-dependent that, as the New York Times noted in a must-read story, we're solving "a problem caused by technology with more technology." Instead of simply turning the phone...

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Palin Online -- Palin's Web Buzz Trumps Obama's

184 Comments | Posted November 19, 2009 | 08:04 PM (EST)


Is there anyone quite like Sarah Palin online?

At the moment, no -- not Michael Jackson, not Manny Pacquiao, not even President Obama. According to Google Insights for Search, which tracks what the online masses are searching for within specific times and regions, the former Alaska governor-turned...

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Did Pacquiao Make Web History?

85 Comments | Posted November 15, 2009 | 05:26 AM (EST)


In front of an ecstatic, sold-out crowd at MGM Grand Sunday night, Pacquiao won his seventh title in seven weight divisions -- a first in boxing history.

And within seconds, a once dirt-poor man from the Philippines who sold cigarettes on the road had the Web buzzing.

By...

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Online Hit -- Manny "Philippines" Pacquiao

6 Comments | Posted November 14, 2009 | 05:25 AM (EST)


Manny Pacquiao is the Philippines.

And on the social Web -- where the often overlooked Filipino diaspora gather on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube -- today is Manny Pacquiao Day, when the 5-foot-6-inch boxer faces Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto for a welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Win...

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Obama Online -- Using Technology, It's the Electorate That Has Changed, Too

3 Comments | Posted November 4, 2009 | 08:48 AM (EST)


*UPDATED*

Change, of course, carries many definitions, as Barack Obama won the White House a year ago this week, expanding the American electorate by drawing new voters, raising millions from small-dollar donations and, for the first time in presidential politics, placing modern technology (the Internet, text messaging, social networking) smack...

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Obama Online -- What's the Future of Organizing for America (OFA)?

49 Comments | Posted November 3, 2009 | 10:21 AM (EST)


"Technology, like the grassroots focus, would be at the core of our campaign from the start..."
-- David Plouffe, "The Audacity to Win"

Is it time for Plouffe, the architect behind Obama's winning campaign, to take Organizing for America out of the Democratic National Committee?

Organizing for...

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Michael Jackson Online -- A Singular Attraction

32 Comments | Posted October 28, 2009 | 02:34 PM (EST)


Online, Michael Jackson is a singular attraction.

We saw this on June 25, a day that will forever live in online infamy, when the King of Pop's death literally stopped the Internet. Within a day, Jackson's main Wikipedia article was viewed more than 6 million times. Twitter and AOL...

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Obama Online -- Where Are the Young Supporters?

802 Comments | Posted October 23, 2009 | 06:25 AM (EST)


They were ubiquitous, they were tech-savvy, they were vocal -- nearly a year after the election, where are the young Obama supporters?

Where are the voters under 30 who preferred Obama over McCain by a staggering 66-32 percent margin, the biggest of any age group? Where is the mainstream media...

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The GOP Online (VIDEO)

6 Comments | Posted October 14, 2009 | 06:57 AM (EST)


Of course technology is non-partisan, belonging to neither the Democratic Party nor the GOP.


*Watch video of Michael Steele's speech at the RNC's tech summit last February*

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Your Inbox, Your Self

8 Comments | Posted October 12, 2009 | 06:40 AM (EST)


You are how you communicate.

If you like having an instant focus group, a pulsating, by-the-second, rat-a-tat-tat burst of soundbites, wisecracks and tidbits, then Twitter is probably the best platform for you. (Text messaging, by extension, is a private one-on-one tweet. Or, in tweet-speak, a "DM," aka Direct Message.)

If...

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Why Gays Can't Wait -- Gay Rights Are Civil Rights (VIDEO)

486 Comments | Posted October 11, 2009 | 01:57 AM (EST)


* UPDATE: Interview on CNN.com*

Gay rights are civil rights.

To be clear, President Obama did not exactly use those words. But about five minutes into his roughly 20-minute address, Obama echoed the sentiment at the black-tie, star-studded fundraising event hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest...

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Gay Rights Speech: What Should Obama Say Tonight?

4343 Comments | Posted October 7, 2009 | 04:48 PM (EST)


UPDATED, with comments below:

What should Obama say in what's being called his "big gay rights speech"?

Tonight, on the eve of the National Equality March expected to draw thousands to the nation's capital this weekend, President Obama is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the biggest black-tie,...

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How We Unplug

10 Comments | Posted October 6, 2009 | 07:00 AM (EST)


Sometimes, we just need to unplug.

No firing off text messages. No updating Facebook profiles. No browsing Craigslist or Yelp or whatever-hot-new-site is trending on Twitter. No compulsively -- okay, obsessively -- thumbing through iPhones, BlackBerries and Androids. Yes, technology is all around us -- in our pockets, on our...

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Young Voices in The Future of News -- Connection, Conversation, Community

40 Comments | Posted October 1, 2009 | 12:18 PM (EST)


"The future of news."

Such an incredibly loaded phrase, soaked with history, imprisoned by its own myths and misconceptions, usually the subject of much doom-saying, finger-wagging, "look-at-what-the-Internet-and-technology-has-done!" tone. Search for yourself. Type "the future of news" on Google and drink the misery. Talking about the future of news too often...

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It's Not Facebook, It's the People Who Use Facebook

48 Comments | Posted September 28, 2009 | 05:51 PM (EST)


All the Internet does is reflect -- and amplify -- human behavior.

It's easy to be anonymous online, as anyone who's ever been a victim of online slander knows. It's also easy to threaten the life of the sitting American president. And the controversial Facebook poll asking users if...

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Technology + Transparency = New Politics

17 Comments | Posted September 23, 2009 | 12:59 PM (EST)


Here's a memory: mid-October last year, weeks before Election Day. Blach Middle School, in leafy Los Altos, just a few miles from the headquarters of Apple, Google and Facebook in Silicon Valley. A new kind of tech-powered politics was cemented in my head.

Nearing the end of covering...

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Technology Is Anthropology -- Covering an Evolving Solar System

25 Comments | Posted September 21, 2009 | 01:38 PM (EST)


It's the people, not the gear.

When I declared "technology is anthropology" as the guiding principle of HuffPostTech -- how technology in general, and the Internet in particular, is changing the way we live our lives, from politics and education to entertainment -- this is what I meant: Facebook...

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Technology Is Anthropology

43 Comments | Posted September 14, 2009 | 10:13 AM (EST)


That's the thinking behind a new HuffPost section that launches next Monday. HuffPostTech will cover how technology in general -- and the Internet in particular -- is changing the way we live our lives, from politics, education to entertainment. The iPhone 3GS and new Nokia N96 aren't just cell phones...

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RNC Loses Online Director

Posted March 5, 2009 | 05:12 PM (EST)


Crossposted with the WashingtonPost.com

The GOP's top Internet official is leaving the Republican National Committee.

Arguably the most respected technocrat in the Republican Party, Cyrus Krohn is just the latest in a string of officials to resign from the RNC; last week, the RNC's finance...

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