Digital Product Diplomacy ... Is it meddling? Gun Boat?

Here in the freeRADlab we have been discussing the idea of Digital Diplomacy since late 1998. We believed then that the Internet was the great enabler by providing the common person with access and a voice to "millions" of actors. We also knew that the idea then was to achieve "views" as part of any Web strategy. We chose to use the already coined term - "user" or "actor" instead. (It did not fail to register that the only other group that falls under the category "user" was Drug User). We associated "addiction" and "repetition" to this person(s) or group and determined that info driven process could deliver "needs".

We applied interaction in as many ways as possible to produce "sticky" "addictive""integrating" "immersive" results. We were provided with: 1. These results allowed for more user time in our (work) sphere of influence (Pre-Information ECO-System). 2. This provided us with a feedback loop that fueled our way forward. People (want) wanted more.

notes: We first niched down and targeted communities based on defined make-ups and strategies that focused on quick wins. Who do we think wants what we have? We wanted to build momentum. Sometimes we supposed - other times we asked questions - many times we lurked.

As an end game, we always identified impact as an essential part of the decision making process

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Ongoing ...



Most of the time, the project defined a type of user it needed. They just needed to be able to find what we had.

In 1996 while working for cable company Comcast online, a job I was later to loose because of an inability to handle SPAM assaults, the online group was tasked to provide a "web browser" that would reflect the online presence of the new Broadband offering. At this time, Comcast could count maybe 12,000 subscribers. The idea was to harness the content, frame it for ease of use, and act as a "portal" to all that you needed. The key was to drop the Netscape interface and make the "chrome" work as a tool. We were working with Excite@Home. At this stage it was as much a technical project as it was a content based solution.


ref:
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http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/clinton-calls-barnard-grads-engage-digital-diplomacy

2 million people and a lot of technology.

Update:
Inauguration 2009, US President Barack Hussein Obama.

Deployment team:
2 operators
Multi-media (I/O) level 3
A/D
AC/DC, IL
WiFi,RJ44,RF

pending.

No, Facebook is dead...

Updated:122208
Here's a POV of the actual users on Facebook. Interesting that they generate no money on the millions of users. Obviously they need to establish a "presence" not just and impression via banner ad's... The plot thickens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/business/media/14digi.html?_r=1&ref=business

Updated:
Can this be true? Or is this just about the techno-freaks leaving the fold? We have seen this happen before (Compuserve,AOL,Napster,etc). It seems the migration is on in ernest ...

Can the Facebook Management actually say this (30 million NEW users and 120 million active users)or have they just gone mad? How many dummy accounts, accounts never used, etc. actually exist? As well, what is defined as active? Once a day posting or logging in or once a week? Seeing that they have logs for all accounts, then Facebook knows "exactly" how many accounts they have as well as what level of "active" they actually are. What are they? Should we go on?

What seems to be true is that it is the largest Social Network Platform in the world. All in the last 3 months.

notes:
Lot's of hype going on ... Marketing?
Capitalizing on the traffic should be possible if not easy. Transaction based model.


Reference:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10081341-2.html
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/12/14/advertising-on-social-networks-fail/

Forrest Ackerman - RIP 1916 - 2008

Post:
I know this is a Technology blog but some might say or think that Science Fiction and Technology go hand and hand - by design. So we think about the news of the death of Forrest Ackerman in context and pause. A great creative thinker has left the earth.

end.