2012, What? Change Again or Something New..- Response #12 December 5, 2009
Posted by girliegirl1965 in Uncategorized.Tags: 2012 Presidential election, cyber activism, Democrats, Howard Dean, Internet, My Cricket.com, Neil Armstrong, President Obama, Republicans, social media, Wright Brothers
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If Howard Dean’s 2004 use of the Internet was similar to the Wright Brothers flying the first airplane,than surely Barack Obama’s successful use of the Internet and social media should be likened to the first man on the moon. In the 1960’s, everyone said the US couldn’t put a man on the moon, but there’s a guy named Neil Armstrong who would beg to differ.
The 2012 Presidential election is now. In fact, President Obama has never stopped engaging social media. Every week since the election, I’ve received an email communiqué on my Blackberry about something. At any given time, I can turn it on and there might be message from the President, Vice President, or even Mrs. Obama.
If President Obama decides to run in 2012, he’s definitely going to have to extend his cyber activism efforts well beyond the 15 intentional sites he participated in during the 2008 campaign. He’s also going to have tap into every niche community that didn’t engage social media in 2008 because its highly probable those people will be connected to something in 2012.
It’s also evident to me that as I write this post that more rural and urban decentralized communities now linked to the Internet— again just one year after the 2008 campaign. Companies like My Cricket.com have made a concerted effort to bridge the digital divide and bring broadband access to more niche communities. Neighborhoods like Columbia Heights that are heavily populated with immigrants from all over the world now have a MyCricket.com satellite stores on every corner. While most people in that corridor of the city don’t speak English, I am willing to bet most of them have cell phones and some are now new Internet users. It’s those people and communities around the country that the campaigns are going to have to go after. Additionally, all of the candidates are going to have engage social media worldwide. While other countries don’t vote on US soil, they have a voice in cyberspace and Americans listen.
Long of short, whoever runs for the presidency in 2012 is going to have to employ all of the online media campaign strategies of 2008. Since no one knows what new social communities will exist two years from now, all of the candidates whether Republican (especially the Republicans) and the Democrats are going to have to be on the forefront of the latest technologies as soon as they drop. David Alexrod, let’s do it again!
A for Angie and Angola – Response #11 December 4, 2009
Posted by girliegirl1965 in Uncategorized.Tags: Angola, blogosphere, Coasean Floor, crowd-sourcing, White House
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I chose Angola as my country. As I toured Angola’s blogosphere, the first thing that struck me was its home page. The site appeared to be serious and stoic. As an American, I’ve gotten used to looking at US blogs, and the ones that I patronize have a sensational, paparazzo feeling, including the White House blog.
As I continued to tour the site, I began to digress a bit. I was quite taken by the topics of discussion. There were blogs on everything from cyber activism, to gender, human rights, LBGT, and more. I had no idea Angola was so liberal. The links section of the site was also pretty interesting. The links section was organized in no particular order, but it did seem to breathe a more little life into the country. It was kind of amusing to see entries about hip-hop and poetry under the arts & culture section, and somewhere stuck in between that section there were entries on business, the Internet and telecom activities, as well as a section entitled ideas.
As far the layout, a lot of the blogs didn’t have links. For the most part, the blog entries were short and to the point, some of them had videos, most seem to have pictures that were thumbnail size, and there was RSS feed. As I kept digging, I discovered the site didn’t takeoff until 2007. According to the monthly archives, it seems like the first post was made in 2005, and then the next entries occurred in 2006.
In the end, there were obvious formatting and stylistic differences between our blogs and theirs, but what unifies us is the fact that everyone is blogging whether in Angola or in the US. This is perfect example of crowd-sourcing and the Coasean floor at its best— everybody is working together to accomplish a similar mission; and the cost of doing it is low, therefore everyone can do it!
Bill Maher gets my vote…What’s up with the Media Vultures? December 2, 2009
Posted by girliegirl1965 in Uncategorized.Tags: Afghanistan War, Bill Maher, Huffington Post, President, Tiger Woods
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December 2, 2009, while reading the “Huffington Post.com”, I was taken aback by the number of times stories about Tiger Woods appeared. Let’s see, there was a story about him on the front page entitled “Tiger Woods Alleged Sex Tapes Released.” Than there was some text that read “More Affairs Reported” highlighted in red. Underneath that line, Dave Zirin weighed mind you in bold blue print “Tiger Woods Deserves Your Scrutiny.” Than I wandered over to the section entitled Most Popular on the Huffington Post, and there were three more stories about Tiger Woods.
Okay, here’s my take. Tiger Woods seems to be a pretty cool guy at least on the surface. I certainly appreciate his athleticism, his historical contribution to golf, and I’m relieved he wasn’t severely injured as a result of his accident, but I honestly don’t care that he left his house at 2:23 am without shoes. Clearly, something went wrong after the turkey was served, but who has time to care? Why would any media outlet devote the majority of their website or newspaper to Tiger Woods and his alleged extra marital affairs? I think Bill Maher said it best, “what a bunch of vultures the media are. Who has not left their house at 2:30 in the morning and crashed into their neighbor’s mailbox?”
No body asked, but here’s my opinion—the President of the United States just ordered 30,000 
men and women to be deployed to Afghanistan. On good faith and with the best of intentions, he said we’d pull out of that country in 18 months, but who really knows? After all, who can prognosticate the end of a war?
So, while I and most people seem to appreciate a little gossip every now and then, maybe its time for us to reprioritize how, what, and to whom we direct our attention. Really, who should get more attention Tiger Woods or the war? In the end, I guess it all depends on who’s selling or telling the story?
Anyway, maybe it’s time to put Tiger to rest, or maybe back on the cereal box. Instead of eight stories about Tiger, it might just behoove Huffington Post.com and other media hacks to start dialoging a little more about the men and women facing deployment in January 2010—less than 30 days away, something we should all care about.
