Showing posts with label Benjamin Barnett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benjamin Barnett. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

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

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

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Is it about time to transition off the Grid? The URL has fallen.

What have I done? Dr. Frankenstein


Is it possible that the almighty URL has fallen from its perch and taken a fatal blow by the disintegration of the Digital Media landscape? A website presence is no longer required as part of any online launch. Websites are now called applications by those who build (develop) them. The rabid rise of Social Networking and the capability of boundless self promotion across multiple global platforms of millions and millions of opt in humans, bots, worms, bugs, etc in single key strokes is absolutely incredible. People are producing their own (interesting!) content at shocking turnaround rates, year after year, more and more, and posting it online for all to experience and comment on. Connecting the dots was never so easy. What does this mean for Cybernetic culture design?


It is no longer a requirement to have an URL when a Social Network marketing (ecosystem) plan will actually work. With the recent enabling of a wider, hyper-interactive, user base via the belief that Broadband connectivity is as needed as the radio, telephone, television was when it was originally made available, we know it is a matter of time of its demise.


The future is a combination of micro niche efforts under the Outer most Use Case. Things do not look good for pay-per-article (newspapers) as a silver bullet. The ongoing aggregation of cherry picked (global) content to "user" pages is the future.

Clearly, politics has been changed forever ... micro-donations in the political arena are thriving and propelled now President Obama to the Oval office.


We are either witnessing or experiencing a time in history where citizens have been enabled via the Internet to take back the journalistic and political platforms from a grassroots perspective. It is a time in history of the possibility of true political RAD reformation. Citizen 3D. Let's hope no Henry VIII lurks behind the curtain...



Thursday, February 12, 2009

Destroyed Satellite's high speed debris worries scientists...

notes:
1. We have no idea what to expect in such a disaster. Nothing.
2. The debris is traveling at 660 ft per sec.
3. This could set off a chain reaction of events that puts the Space Station and other satellites in trouble.

Will their be interplanetary cooperation? NASA's debris experts are working on the situation now with Russian counterparts.

ongoing.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Jeremiah Owyang: web-strategist blog spot.

While looking for tech spots that focus on SN I came across Jeremiah Owyang
in the SF Bay Area. Owyang is a Sr Analyst at Forrester Research on Social Computing. These web strategy reviews and blogs are excellent reading and will serve you well in helping establish a SN strategy. Check out the posting of reports that obviously come from actual research, so it's possible that you are getting nuggets of information that might otherwise cost thousands of dollars. As well, apparently when Jeremiah contacts people for lunch, they call back. 'nuff said.

http://Twitter.com/jowyang
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/


ongoing.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Obama Database ... Who owns the data? (draft)

blogging:
draft v02

-Blogging on the Barrack Obama Campaign 2008 Database.
Return for ongoing updates or subscribe to our feed. Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The massive "opt-in" database launched in early 2007 by Joe Rospars (New Media Director) and the Obama team had provided the Obama '08 campaign a unique opportunity (but not a unique idea) to develop and interact with a rapid (post early adapter) following. These citizens provided an unprecedented amount of personal information while volunteering and contributing funds via Facebook, YouTube (via Obama’s own “channel”), IM, and other “real time” digital interfaces. Viral political campaigning had taken hold for good in this time frame changing the political landscape once and for all, forever. But we knew that already!

Since the Obama campaign opted out of taking matching funds and essentially had not used the DNC apparatus to run its campaign, BarackObama.com took what many (drDigipol, CAP, Politico, Salon, Media Bureau, and many others) already knew was going to happen – a virtual candidate that owes nothing to (but is more than happy to use) old media and the old political guard while being able to take over their own destiny via an online centric advocacy campaign.

It had finally become mainstream that (starting at the RNC’s Digital Alley at the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia and followed at the DNC in Los Angeles) online advocacy and activity can translate to offline, on-the-ground results. This was done not just by connecting via the Internet but allowing the user to be enabled and featured. This is contrary to all past campaigns that spent so much time and money "controlling" the message as well as the medium. With the verticalization of (the web) Social Networks such as YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, and IM as a new strategic Real Time activator/enabler, Obama's New Media team established a permanent platform through which people could identify with (they were already “adapted” users) and use themselves as “activists.” In a rudimentary way, citizens were now part of the campaign, or so they thought. The goal was to quickly activate citizens in the following ways:

1. Ensure that all people would be accessible via a "Mobile" interface and therefore, in touch, at all times, anywhere.
2. Allow and enable for the creation of "Niche Campaigning" via use generated posting of Web Campaign based Videos.
3. Establish Microtargeting scenerios and deliver "themes" and "candidate produced" video and txt interaction directly to people who want it 24/7.
4. Utilize an already existing "Smart" user base generated on Social Networks and the skills they (users / Citizens) have acquired.
5. Buy time on networks that include (niche programming) Cable shows via country wide local programming and reinforce via txt and local “meetup” style home “events.”.
6. Openly engage the Blogosphere instead of shunning them (and in turn establishing counter control problems that could go viral) and interacting as a partner, contrary to your opponents, while offering a “possible” voice in policy and –e-government.
7. Purchase and produce Rich Media Online Ads in content rich niche markets to as to stay “interactive” with Citizen users.
8. Speak directly to niche audiences in the manner in which they are accustomed (language and content style are customized based on hyper market analysis).
9. Provide a central repository (portal) to all that is Barack Obama with http://barackobama.com that enables citizen / users to:

1. Find and take part in “local” events and groups
2. Be enabled to contact undecided voters within your demographic
3. Be heard.

So with the above, we now have a tightly controlled but an apparently loosely based, group strategy to engage and enable the Digital (2.0) Citizen .

So when the citizen / user signed up and provided the Obama campaign their personal information, did they believe that they were providing the Campaign or the DNC such personal information? We think, clearly, people volunteered their information because they believed that it would be used by the Obama campaign, not the DNC or any other entity (there was no disclaimer to state this would be the case – or was there?) Where will this information go and will citizens who signed up be asked if their information can be used for "party" happenings?

Tactics to generate such information were personal and widespread. For example, “… as the primaries and caucuses neared, what [Steve] Goodstein calls "a big experiment" started paying off. One Sunday afternoon in early December, minutes before Oprah Winfrey and Obama addressed about 29,000 people at a rally in Columbia, S.C., Jeremy Bird, Obama's state field director, asked the crowd to take out their cellphones and text "SC" to 62262, Obama's short code. The code spells "Obama" on phones.” This was done repeatedly through out the campaign generating “millions” of phone numbers and other personal info.

So, who owns the data?
Well, since it is now housed at the DNC, clearly the DNC.



Ref:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29069515/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081903186_pf.html/
http://www.newpolitics.nethttp://wizbangblue.com/2008/04/29/obamas-database-a-treasure-trove-of-riches.php

Friday, January 23, 2009

Name the MARS Rover ... Last chance!

blogging:

We have entered and so should you ...
http://marsrovername.jpl.nasa.gov/

end.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration 20009 #inaug09 !!!! DC, January 20th.

blogging:
Everybody had a camera. No where did you go and not see hands stuck in the air recording everything and anything. Smile! Can I take your picture? Where are you from?

This #inaug09 was a full frontal New Media outing (again!). Caveat: It's level of interactivity was minimal *20% immersion possible at best. We witnessed very little contact (organization) with attending citizens on the ground (Citizen interaction was minimal.) Events appeared to be very much about pomp and the moment.

There was very little intrusion from law enforcement although obvious around an entire perimeter. Witnessed 1 military defensive action. People were cut off from food, water, security and on foot. Metro's were jammed and shut down (Metro Station) with little or no way to figure out what was true or which stations would be affected. People trusted "hearsay," "rumor", and good will. Their seemed to be much hearding going on as people would stand in lines for long amounts of time only to realize the line went nowhere. There were no Information booths for people to help you get around. No vendors of anything. No people on loudspeakers. Nothing. Very minimal police / gov / "visible" presence.

update:
Cell phones must have been jammed on a "haphazard basis" as they would go up and down in terms of signal. It could not have just been capacity - their appeared to be no reason why a citizen would call at the same time unless you base it on speaker impact possibilities / potential. Some of the speakers would generate very little interest to begin with. As well, since there was "no" information available to people walking around, nobody knew anything unless they had a “connection” to the outside. The White House and surrounding Mall is on physical / technical lock down.

%%%%%%%%
ATT signal dropped for a full hour period (1:00pm) and txt messaging went down fully.
Update: ATT Service works again (- 2:22pm) and I was able to "phone" out of state.
---
txt msg not working.

%%%%
Web access and in turn IM had been disrupted. It seemed blocked and sudden.

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.

Monday, January 5, 2009

... 1st Post in 2009

Look for blog to begin with Inauguration 2009 coverage!

TechHeadz is a gathering at the cross roads of human interaction, technology, and the future.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

http://www.mogulus.com/blog

Taken from the Mogulus Blog located at:
http://www.mogulus.com/blog/

notes:

http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz3.html
http://www.mogulus.com/blog/?p=778
-How much Bandwidth was used?
Video
/ Chat (posts per minute)
/ Page views / ClickStreams


http://www.mogulus.com/pari

http://live.youtube.digitaria.com/site/streams.xml

Monday, December 8, 2008

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/

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election User base ...

notes:

We are not commenitng yet on "who" won the ratings game, but we can say for sure that this election "seals the deal" that "New Media" is a fact and that the Networks are now listed in the same breath as websites. What started in 2000 has landed in 2008.

notes:

Election Night ratings blowout: 71.5 million watch Obama win
(The Live Feed is James Hibberd's daily news site covering the television industry.)
http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/11/election-rating.html

Election night draws record viewership
Led by ABC, the networks and cable channels were watched by 71 million.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ratings6-2008nov06,0,495759.story

TV Ratings: ABC Polls Highest on Election Night: Broadcast nets' overall numbers are down from 2004. Wed. November 05, 2008; Posted: 06:14 PM
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1998571/


CNN dominates broadcast, cable, and web "Users" / "Viewers" with huge increase in interaction since Campaign 2004 ...
In the 25-54 bracket, MSNBC was up 87 percent...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/05/cnn-dominates-election-night/


71.5 MILLION VIEWERS...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/election-2008-coverage


Election Night Ratings: ABC Wins Viewers, NBC Demos, CBS Nothing
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/11/05/election-night-ratings-abc-wins-viewers-nbc-demos-cbs-nothin/7649

updated:110508

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10082831-38.html?tag=mncol;posts

Friday, October 31, 2008

Russia nixes Googles bid to infiltrate national seach field

pending:

The last European country where Google lags behind local search (advertising)competition ... http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=17201227


...

Friday, July 27, 2007

TechRide ... Online ALL the time.

We have been discussing the Candidates who have (off the record) been trying to manage the influx of debates and forums that have been presented to them by trying to limit the amount. This phenomenon is new; the citizen 2.0 demands interaction. Now.

Access such as this will diminish in the near future. We are in unprecedented times.

What would Benjamin Franklin say to this Open Source Democracy?

How can Candidates handle such requests in the future? Will they?

We will post the podcasts soon.