All of the presidential campaigns use web 2.0 sites to some extent. Some are more savvy than others. Obama is pretty good at it, Hillary just doesn’t quite get it. While I think most people would agree that this has helped the campaigns I don’t believe they are utilizing it to it’s full potential.
The candidates are mainly using pages on social networks and profiles on sites like Twitter and FriendFeed as a publishing tool but they are not interacting with the users. They are broadcasting their message and reaching a larger audience in a more intimate way than TV can offer but they’re not talking to the individuals much. When the candidates are out there campaigning it’s important that they talk to the people. Why should it be any different on the internet? I think this has to do with people still seeing the internet as being like TV or newspapers. People are finally beginning to realize it’s nothing like that. It’s a two-way street. Old media was a one-way street.
But these sites aren’t meant to just publish or broadcast from. They are all about back and forth interaction. They are about discussions, conversations, arguments even. And therein lies their true potential to really captivate and engage people. If people could be involved in a conversation with a presidential candidate do you think they would still be apathetic?
How can a presidential candidate with a non-stop schedule have a conversation with 300 million people? Designate volunteer proxies that cover candidates profiles on these sites daily to respond and interact with the users on the site. They would be people that know the candidates positions thoroughly and could speak for the candidate (unofficially). The most interesting and widely read discussions could be forwarded to the actual candidate to weigh in on when they have time.
I think this would have a much bigger impact than simply broadcasting and could greatly increase their grass roots base. People want to be involved and this could be a great way to spark discussion and build virtual communities of supporters. It wouldn’t cost much to implement if it’s done by volunteers. The selecting of the proxies would be the most difficult part - they would basically have to be trusted campaign spokespeople but anything they say would have to potentially be deniable if someone did say something stupid. In other words it would have to be obvious that it’s not the candidate themselves speaking.
What do you think? Am I completely crazy or could this work? Would it really make much of a difference? Leave a comment if you have an idea of your own of how the candidates could utilize the internet more effectively.
Just saw this via Scobleizer.Quotably lets you follow your Twitter conversation threads very easily. TechCrunch is saying it’s the best third-party Twitter service they’ve seen so far.
This is a rearview mirror GPS that also switches automatically to a rearview camera when you go into reverse. It’s made by DSUS Technology of China and the model is DS-400GB. It has bluetooth built in and a SD/MMC card slot. The screen is about 4″ and is touch sensitive. I think this would be very cool to have. It’s much more natural to glance at your rearview mirror while driving, you do it all the time. But I would rather have voice activated control because I wouldn’t want to be reaching that high up a lot. No word on when this will be available in the US.
A new report in the UK warns that kids are spending over 20 hours a week online. It argues that children are effectively being raised online and that “kids are constantly connected”, staying up late into the night online and leaving their cellphones on to receive messages. It warns that many of these kids are being exposed to violent video and porn pop-ups.
This may all be true but these are things that are caused by poor parenting, the internet can’t be blamed. Parents should be monitoring what their kids do online and control how much time they spend online. I see these reports, that are often requested by government as a way for the government to say “See, the internet is evil, corrupting our youth. We need to come in and control it.”
This report came out in the UK and I have no doubt it will be used by the government to try to exert more control over the internet. The majority of people in the UK seem to be happy to give up their civil liberties in exchange for a false sense of security. They are putting up cameras just about everywhere so they already given up their privacy. There are similar efforts under way here in the US, I just hope we aren’t as willing to fall for this crap.
There has been a lot of talk over the last week or so about comments leaving the blogosphere and moving onto content aggregators or other sites. Some people think it’s a bad thing, that the author should have full access to the conversation on their blog. Others say the authors don’t own the conversation that develops around the ideas they post so it can go anywhere it likes. It may become a moot point on FriendFeed as they are releasing an API soon and someone will probably make an app that sends comments back to the authors blogs. A lot of authors want this. FriendFeed may do it themselves too.
I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing for other conversations to develop on other sites like digg or FriendFeed. It drives more traffic to the original post and it allows more focused, smaller conversations to take place among friends. Have you ever tried to follow the conversation on some sites where there can be hundreds of comments? It’s just too time consuming and most of them are junk. On FriendFeed I can see just what my friends are saying. This makes the conversation more interesting to me and makes me more likely to check out what they are talking about. I have discovered a lot of great new blogs and people this way.
One thing I’ve noticed in FriendFeed is that two or more different conversations can start around the same subject but by different friends. I would like to have a way to see all the conversation for that subject in one place. It could be organized by my friends conversations and everyone’s conversations. This would be a great way to see all of the discussion at once. So once the API is out maybe someone will do this. Check out Fred Wilson’s wishlist for some other things I want for FriendFeed.
You know those spies must be getting tired of typing their text messages in obscure codes. Now they get their own phone that switches from normal mode to “uber top secret majic eyes only” with the press of a button.
L3 Communications also has one close to being released. This came about through the NSA’s Secure Mobile Environment/Portable Electronic Device Program. It complies with the Secure Communication Interoperability Protocol and High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor Interoperability Specification for secure access to federal voice and data networks. Data on the phone is secured with data-at-rest encryption.
All that above sounds really good, but here is the scary part. It runs Windows Mobile and uses Internet Explorer for web browsing! HaHa, Enemies of America rejoice, you can now steal our secrets on the go! Soon they will be texting our spy phones - “All ur base are belong to us”. Hope they keep those security patches coming quick.
As you may or may not know the newer MacBook Pro now has a multitouch trackpad that uses the same gestures you can use on your iphone or ipod touch. Here’s a good video of the MacBook Pro new multitouch pad in action.
This is the first artificial muscle that can heal itself. Other artificial muscles have been around for awhile but would break-down with repeated use. What’s special about this muscle is that it uses carbon nanotubes as electrodes. When an area fails the nanotubes around it stop conducting and prevent the failure from spreading. The carbon nanotubes are very strong and are also what allow the electric current that the muscle produces to either be put back into the muscle (it is 70% efficient) or used for something else - perhaps charging your iphone in your pocket.
This incredible development could be used to create better prosthetics, robots, or charge your mobile devices. No word on when it will be ready for mainstream use. I would guess it will be implemented into prosthetics and then robots.
Bret Taylor of FriendFeed says that an API for FriendFeed is coming soon, maybe “within weeks” but wouldn’t give any specific time. He also mentions feeding comments back to post or Twitter which is something I would like to see. He also downplays threaded comments saying sometimes users ask for more features than they really want.
It’s good to hear they’re releasing an API so soon. I think there will be a lot of interesting things come from this. FriendFeed’s popularity is rising quickly. Robert Scoble the other day said he had switched his homepage from TechMeme to FriendFeed.
I myself have been getting better/more interesting content by following FriendFeed then TechMeme. You can see what’s going to be on TechMeme before it even gets there.
Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen revealed during a conference call with investors that now that the iphone SDK has been released they are developing a flash player specifically for the iphone.
This is after Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the iphone couldn’t support flash because of “technical limitations”.
We’ll have to see if Adobe can really do this since the developer guidelines say that the third party apps have to stand alone and can’t operate as a plug-in.
