Published Oct 24, 2008 at 8:00 PM EDT Updated Mar 13, 2010 at 6:09 PM EST In the summer of 2007 Toshiaki Kanda, a freelance video journalist, decided to run for the upper house of the Japanese Parliament as an independent—no easy feat in a country where machine politics still rule. But as a techie, Kanda was hoping that he could improve his prospects by harnessing the power of the Internet. He bet