obama's next steps

On November 4, 2008 the United States America witnessed history being made with one man representing it all, Barack Obama. Obama became the first African American to be elected into office and now our president. While he is the face of history there is no way he could have done it without his supporters. Obama began at the bottom with grassroots movements and worked his way up to the top with national fame and support, even international support. He admits it in his speeches and confirms that that is the way he wanted it. So what does his movement have in common with Wikipedia? What can Obama learn from Wikipedia?
I find Obama’s movement similar to Wikipedia in the way that they both start at the bottom. Wikipedia consists of the consumers adding and editing the information in a fashion that is easier for us to understand and access. As the consumers, we voice what we want and incorporate what we find that is needed. I think that this is why Obama is so successful, because he did not run things, he put the power in the hands of the people for them do and say what they wanted to hear. Who knows what we want to hear than ourselves?
I do think however that there is still a lot of untapped potential in regards to incorporating technology and per say the Commander in Chief. While pictures and videos were recorded from cameras and camera phones and were quickly and efficiently played on line and the news, how can we advance this even more and what does Obama not realize? Well, first of all, his every move will be recorded. Whether it is people seeing him and taking a picture with a camera phone or the paparazzi, it will be incredibly hard for him to not be top news everyday. This can be positive if he is doing well and the country approves of him, however one mistake and you can bet it will be caught on tape and he will be scrutinized for it. I also think that all of this technology along with the ideas of his movement, we can convert this nation into more of democracy. I wonder that why is it only us that are watching Obama; is there any way we could communicate with him and express our idea and concerns? Because of the movements he has lead I think it would be completely appropriate to have this kind of relationship with him where we can continue to tell him what we want and what is best for us. An idea for this would be “mini campaigning”. If Obama and his cabinet can find options to solutions to for example health care, then they can present them to the country as if they were “candidates” and have us vote and decide. Running these mini campaigns on the issues that matter and having everyone’s voice in the decision and policy making in the country. This would once again be ran similar to his campaign in order to maintain this grassroots ideology.

Obama for the People

Ok. So Wikipedia is pretty much ran by the viewers. People can go into the website and look up pretty much anything and can be publicly edited by adding additional information about the topic as you please. This shows that the internet an important source because people use it to gain information, some that’s created be the users themselves. Obama and his campaign recognized that the Internet is important and a good tool to use for their campaign.

To show people that they are important to Obama by opening up blogs so the people can be heard, use of social networking between Obama and the people. This shows the people that Obama cares and wants you to be heard. The people can put their own messages, strategies, and other topics that are important to them. In this case everyone that the campaign concerns (the presidential candidate and the citizens of the U.S) are all participating to make change. Also on the Obama website you can enter your phone number to get updates and other info on Obama and the campaign.

Another form of participatory culture for when had one of Obama’s debates. He let the people who were there to ask questions and talk to Obama about issues the people wanted to talk about. This shows again that the people are number 1 in Obama’s mind. He could of just talked about what he wanted to, but he took the time to step back and let the people take over and share their interest. This again shows Obama is more worried about the people and not just himself.

The Obama campaign with the use of the Internet was to their advantage to get the people more involved, heard, feel more important, and show that their voice did matter to Obama.

The Hush Sound

Okay, so this is sort of random, but I saw OneRepublic in concert over the weekend and The Hush Sound was one of their opening bands. They performed a song called "We Believe in Barack Obama," and I thought it was so catchy and amusing. Click the photo to check out a snippet of them performing the song.

ideas and terms to review for the exam

kids and media

social networking

remix

Meet up

Joe Trippi

2.0 political campaign and viral media

Convergence Culture (the book) and how it is manifest in different culture industries

The Long Tail

Participatory journalism

Journalism and blogging

Indymedia

Wikipedia

Participatory panopticon

Sousveillance

“Free” by Chris Anderson

Wiki-bama

I apologize for putting this up so late, but I found a great article by 'WebProfits' that I think pretty well sums up the success of Barck Obama's campaign. This article lists 6 things that Barack Obama’s "online marketing strategy" did right.

1.) On your first visit to his website, you were immediately asked to join his mailing list. 2.) Every webpage encourages donations. 3.) The "information architecture" is excellent - the website is well laid out and easy to navigate. 4.) Blogs are used to communicate messages 5.) He used to social networking to maximize his exposure 6.) He tapped into mobile marketing.

Similarly, is all about encouraging people to participate. Wikipedia "is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute." Every webpage encourages contributions, whether it be new information or edits of existing info. Wikipedia also has excellent information architecture, and involves people in community discussion.

Barack Obama really paved the way in new campaign tactics when he became the "social networking king." He used the internet to reach out to all people...just like Wikipedia: "Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute...this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles." This is exaclty what we covered in class: the difference between expertise and collective intelligence.

Barack Obama even created the Citizen Strategy Think Tank, which invites people to "Help Barack Obama craft the messages and strategy that will make him the 44th President of the United States." How incredible that we live in a time where we can not only write encyclopedia articles, but also give our personal feedback to the president.

"It will take your time, your energy, and your advice - to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not." - Barack Obama, Feb 10th, 2007

Obama and Wikipedia

As many people have said in their posts the main similarity between Obama and Wikipedia is that both of their success depends on individuals.  These individuals are not elitist scholars or professional politicians or campaign managers.  They are everyday people, and they take it upon themselves to provide and give whatever they can.  Both Wikipedia and Obama's campaign relies on people feeling that they have some power, that they can make a difference no matter how small.  Both also must trust the "volunteers" to provide correct information and other's who use it to check and fix anything that shouldn't be there.  Here is an example of this, it's a screen shot of Obama's wikipedia page on September 23rd at 10:14 PST.  It was removed by 10:39 the same day (be warned there is some derogatory and just plain rude language used).  It took just 25 minutes for this to be edited away, a sign of how those participating online are peer censoring sites like Wikipedia.  Obama's campaign had volunteers checking each other as well, to make sure data was accurate and the campaign continued the way it was planned.

I thought this blog post from the New York Times explained a lot about how the Internet and every other new technology is changing politics.  The Internet allowed for Obama to organize thousands of people for all different purposes.  Advertisements on YouTube which may in the years before have been missed because they were on the far end of the long tail, became Obama's greatest advantage in the media.  "Those videos were more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them... The campaign's official stuff they created for You TUbe was watched for 14.5 million hours.  To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million" (Miller).  This is a great example of not only the effect of the long tail, but also convergence.  Political ads on television are no longer effective alone, they show up on YouTube along with the hundreds of others that are shown for free.

Obama.

Barrack Obama is president of the United States. Wow. How did he manage to do this? Its all about getting your name out there, getting people to talk about you, getting people to interact with you. America needs a president that can speak to the people that can relate to the people. Barrack Obama is this man. He knows how to attract people. Ever since he started the campaign trail he knew how to get in touch with the people of today. Barrack used text messaging to get people news, and get people to pass information on. This was a great idea; everyone today owns a mobile phone, and texts. Right there he is converging with the people, getting people to work together and change the times. David Talbot talks about how Obama’s campaign has caught up with the technology age we live in today. Obama has social networking sites; you can organize house parties, and get other Obama supporters to come and converse. To me that is awesome.

The Obama campaign like Wikipedia started from the ground up. The both started from nothing, and with the support of other people, and the contributions people brang to the table, made it into what it is today. The both only exist because of the tones of support they receive from whoever wants to contribute. Without the collective intelligence of individuals they would not have succeeded.

So I now leave you with this. The presidential address was no doubt history in the making, It was heart felt. It was sincere and genuine. Most importantly it left me with a feeling of Hope. Hope for our future, and our kids’ future. So hold your head up high, because today is a new day, and tomorrow don’t look too bad either.

Comparing Obama and Wikipedia

When we look back at the historic presidential campaign of Barack Obama, one aspect that sticks out was his ability to network. After watching the news for the past few days after the election, many stations are complimenting Obama’s campaign team, including the general public that volunteered to help him out. There was a lot of social networking on both the internet and in real life. Obama had roughly 1.5 million American volunteers doing everything from door-to-door campaigning to calling cell phones. The relationship between Obama’s campaign and Wikipedia is the voluntary services. The idea that both parties, Obama and Wikipedia, would be unsuccessful if it wasn’t for the help of the general public is true in this sense.

Wikipedia slowly grows, by roughly 7% a year, because of its volunteers. Members of the website have the ability to create new entries as well as edit existing ones. If it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of the Wikipedia volunteers to take pride in what they do by helping maintain a very popular online referencing website.

The Obama page on Wikipedia was updated the day after elections. I remember looking at it on Tuesday just to see what it had to say about Obama and they had already written him in as President-Elect Obama. He has quite a page with a lot of his history on it. The volunteers that made this page are a good example of the relationship between Obama and Wikipedia. As far as we know, the page could have been created by someone from Obama’s campaign, again reiterating the public’s enthusiasm of both working for Obama and Wikipedia.

The recent and fast growing birth of Web 2.0 has really opened the doors for all types of people and businesses. The ability to socially network millions of people through the use of one webpage can help spread the word for any situation. Whether it is a presidential campaign or just a simple advertisement for a company, Web 2.0 helps everyone out. Obama was smart about taking advantage of the internet by spreading the word of his campaign, using blogs to get people talking and interested, and many websites that encouraged people to vote by setting up easy to use voter registration techniques. For the 21 months that he campaigned, starting in Feb. 2007, Obama networked as much as he possibly could. Once again, the volunteering of the public to help create something shows great success if we look at Wikipedia and Obama’s campaign.

Obama and Wikipedia

When thinking about the Obama campaign, the first thing that stood out to me is that the people played perhaps the largest role. By people, of course, I refer to the general population, his supporters. Unlike virtually every other campaign in history, Obama's grassroots campaign was run much like wikipedia is run: by the community. Without the community, Wikipedia would have virtually none of its entries, it would be unnoticed and unappreciated, and probably wouldn't be even thought about today.

Obama's campaign relied on its community to fund it, as well as spread its message. Through the small, though numerous donations, Obama really didn't have to worry about the cost. Additionally, a large part of the campaign was done by the community itself, which is of course, free. The ability to utilize youtube, blogs, internet news sites, social networks, and the rest that web 2.0 has to offer revolutionized Obama's campaign.

In response to the second question, I believe that Obama can use sites like Myspace and Facebook, blogs, youtube, and the like to hear the voice of the people. Listening to the people and identifying with them is one of the things that helped Obama the most this election. If he can use these tools to get a grasp of the public's opinion, I think he can really help the public shape the country. Additionally Obama can use these tools to reach the public as well. In an age that is growing further away from the TV set and newspapers, the traditional media of the past, the internet will arguably be Obama's greatest tool during his term.

Obama and Wikipedia: The Connection

What does Wikipedia have in common with the Obama Campaign?
Wikipedia, like the Obama Campaign, really portrays themselves as being ‘for the people’. They are different from anything else out there, they are innovative and the focus is involving people.

I think that really made Obama successful was how he focused on involving the people. He managed to raise the most money of any Presidential candidate by appealing to the people instead of large contributors. In turn, he received donations from all across the United States.

Likewise, instead of relying on a few “scholars”, Wikipedia has opened its doors to anyone and everyone. By lifting the restriction of who can and cannot participate, Wikipedia has created a new type of intelligence – a collective intelligence that relies on every day people to pool what they know together and in doing so, they spread the information to countless others.

What can we draw from the material we've been studying in class that could help Obama as he moves forward with his goal of building a participatory USA?
I think Obama’s campaign had it right the first time – it’s all about the people. In order to get the people involved, he needs to meet them on their level.

His original campaign was brilliant. He (and his campaign) really focused on bringing in the interest of those who felt like they did not have a voice - mainly, today's youth, to the forefront. By putting himself on popular sites like MySpace and Facebook, he got his message out there. He started a completely new way of running a campaign.

I think if he continues to use the internet and new media and new technology that might not have been available in the past, then he will be able to keep his finger on the pulse of the United States – and in essence, what the people want.

Wikipedia and Obama

Both Wikipedia and the Obama campaign use forms of participatory media and collective intelligence. Wikipedia needs people to participate and pool together their knowledge in order for the site to continue expanding. Something similar could be said of the Obama campaign. One form of participatory media the Obama campaign used was the debate that was set up similar to a town hall meeting. People were able to ask questions, make comments, and interact with Obama. It was more like a two way street. Instead of Obama just coming on stage and speaking, he was taking time to address their concerns. Another way the Obama campaign used participatory media was his blog. Not only could you read his "presidential campaign diary", but you could connect with others who are pro Obama in your community, donate, read articles and videos from his campaign trail, and comment. The Obama campaign relied heavly on donations from supporters, much like Wikipedia relies on people to continue adding information.

I think it would really help Obama to attain his goal of building a participatory USA if he continued to use the internet as a way to inform people about issues and bills going through his office. This way people can engage with each other through blogging and social networking sites. Maybe some of the responses on those issues and bills would get back to him and he could make a more informed decision on how the American people would react to them.

Obama Obama Obama

When you are running for president or any kind of political office, there is some basic information that any informed citizen should know. Like the candidates background, their stance on certain issues, and how to get involved in that particular candidates campaign just to name a few. The Obama campaign recognized the importance of the Internet and new media technologies and put them at the center of their campaign, by using the Internet to converge all of these topics on to their web site . Which in convergence culture everyone is a participant and in turn participation shapes our culture. Not only can you get background information on Obama, his running mate, and their family’s. You can also get information on their stance on specific issues and compare it to McCain’s stance. You can search for information by group like small business owner, environmentalists, and students or you can search by state. You can also sign up to receive texts updating you on the campaign or what I thought was really cool, pick out an Obama ring tone, there’s 12 to choose from.

Wikipedia is also in a scene like the Obama campaign. Wikipedia was built and is still run by a very large community of volunteers, who research, write, and police the web site. These volunteers, which could also be viewed as a form of participatory culture, use's collective intelligence, the idea that everyone knows a little bit about about a certain subject and pool's this knowledge together, to write and publish an entry. Volunteers in general play a major role in the growth and up keep of Wikipedia and with out them Wikipedia would not thrive as it is today.

 

The Obama campaign was run by volunteers or in a sense a different form of participatory culture and I do believe without this participator culture the Obama campaign could not have won this election. Volunteers played a vital role from going door to door, calling people, organizing rallies, passing out flyers, selling T-shirts, etc. His Campaign also shattered the record for the amount raised by a candidate running for office. Simply just by having people go to his web site and donating 5$. The Obama campaign also use's blogs and social networking sites as a form of collective intelligence. They use these sites to pool together knowledge like this unofficial think tank for not only his campaign but also his presidency. A think tank could also be thought of as an area/type of collective intelligence that keeps the campaign at a grassroots level and to also make it easier for the general public to voice there opinions or solutions bout certain issues. The use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Flickr just to name a few to gather together this type of collective intelligence to see what issues are important to a specific demographic.

For Tuesday

For Tuesday I'd like you each to write a post addressing the following questions:

What does wikipedia have in common with the Obama Campaign?

What can we draw from the the material we've been studying in class that could help Obama as he moves forward with his goal of building a participatory USA?

Please think back on the various concepts we have gone over in class including--participatory media, collective intelligence, the long tail, convergence, creative commons, horizontal organization, social networking and so on. I also strongly encourage you to read this great piece on the Obama campaign's social networking strategy for ideas and insight for this assignment. And please take care in writing your post--include links, proof read, and make it interesting for us all to read. And finally please read all of the posts and write thoughtful paragraph-long comments on at least 3.

Due up on the blog by Monday evening at the very latest!

My Election Day 2008

Yes, this was my first time voting and happy with my vote and the results of Election Day. I had a funny story because I registered to vote last year. Turned out I was never registered, what a joke. It was a good thing I went to the Denver Elections Building on Mexico because I could not remember what address I gave them when I registered. But everything turned out well and I voted at Halls which was convenient. I feel like an adult now and I was very excited that I was able to vote and let my voice be heard. Most of my friends i live with got there information and news from mainstream news and websites. Nobody I know really of information on non mainstream sites.

My Election Day

For Election Day a couple friends and me went snowboarding. We all had voted early, so decided to take the day off. I thought it would be pretty cool to get your mind away from all the election coverage, and then come back to civilization, and jump right back into it. So while snowboarding, we saw an Obama bus. This was some woman’s bus that was gathering people to take them to vote, and then bring them back at the end of the day. I had the chance to speak with her, and she was very stoked on life, and was almost certain Obama was going to win. There where people wearing Obama shirts, and stickers, and I have to say the whole day I didn’t see anyone with a McCain pin/ sticker. Alright, so the entire day we were oblivious to how the election was turning out. We got back into Denver around 8, and met up with some people at the bar to watch the election, and celebrate history. In the bar they had two different news channels on. CNN and FOX. However they where only playing the sound from the CNN channel. All in all it was pretty interesting, they had that giant map, and would focus in on states to see what counties were going in what direction. I though that was pretty cool. The night then got a little hazy after Obama won. The next day I spoke to my mother, because she is up in Canada. She said that everyone is Canada was excited about the election, they where even celebrating up there. I though this was interesting, because knowing Canada, they don’t really like the United States, so maybe this will all change. Who knows? So there you have it, my Election Day experience. To add a quick note, South Park did a really funny episode about Obama and McCain. I don’t want to write about it, in case you didn’t see it, but be sure to watch it.

Election Day!!

Election Day was awesome. This was my first time being able to vote, as I'm sure this was the first time for many of you guys as well. I turned the TV on for some news and looked at CNN as the primary news. Most of the people that I talked to got their news from mainstream news sites and television, there wasn't really anyone who looked for this information on indie sites. One person particularly was looking at one of those government sites that had information about all of the amendments that were on the ballot. I don't remember exactly what site it was but I looked at it too because it was helpful in regard to what the amendments really were.

I know that a lot of people voted early and said that they preferred it that way just in case there were long lines and most people had work. People also said it was simply convenient to vote earlier. I voted at a high school near my house with a friend. Wooo!

Then, later that night we were watching the special with John Stewart and Steven Colbert, and I think that John Stewart said something like, as of 11 o'clock eastern time, Barack Obama has been elected president. I turned to CNN right away (just to make sure) and saw that Barack Obama was the new president! It was pretty cool to watch videos of people around the country be so excited. I hope this time, we can have a president that the majority of the country doens't hate and that legitimate change can start happening when Obama starts his term.

election reflection

During the entire day of the election, I could not focus! I was unable to do homework or even sit still as I was too anxious and excited. After sitting in the library for forty minutes pretending to do homework (really on Facebook) I left to go vote. I had received my mail in ballot a couple days earlier but filled it out finally and walked over to the polls with a friend. I found that many other people I knew had also requested a mail in ballot or had voted early to not wait in line and possibly interfere with classes or duties. I felt the general excitement during the day along with the feeling of nervousness and anxiety. As I talked to my peers throughout the day, I found out most of them got their information from mainstream as it was so readily available. I got many responses saying that they did not do extra research, in fact were so tires of the election coverage everywhere. I found that interesting because I am always hesitate to believe mainstream since I feel they always say what we want to hear, not what we should hear.

I ended up going to the election party at the Cable center here at DU. Two of my political science professors were available to talk to people about the election and what was happening. The big screen had about 4-6 different channels being displayed. I know for sure we were watching FOX, CNN, CBS, and NBC and the others were in and out. It was interesting to see all channels at the same time, especially when we realized that some networks were faster than others. For example, FOX called a few of the blue states quite a bit before CNN. This is VERY interesting to us. The environment was great, everyone was cheering and praying. I went up to one of my Political Science professors at about 8:40 pm when I asked him if the election would end early. He said by 9:01pm we would know the winner, and sure enough, we had very quick results.

Overall, I think this experience was great and extremely historical. Its amazing how much influence the media has had and that is one of the predominant reasons why people were glad the election was over, the media.

Election day 2008

Election Day 2008 was truly a day for history. The United States elected the first African-American president for office. On top of it, he won by a land slide. Throughout the night I found my self flipping back and forward through the three channels mainly. Those were CBS, ABC, and NBC. It was interesting to see how all three stations were going along the same theme for coverage just with a different appearance. The channels were set up similarly to a football or basketball draft it seemed like. I particularly like ABC’s coverage of the election. For the first couple hours in which they were in the studio with ten or so huge plasma screens all displaying different things was a really cool way to approach the election information. It felt as if someone was giving a presentation with a well done power point. The large interactive touch screen that was being used to break down the states voting information was really neat. It was extremely interactive and I could see some Web 2.0 in it as well.

As for my friends, the majority of them were doing the same thing as me. They were watching it on television from their home and they were all watching the same channels as well. There were a lot of election parties that friends of mine were attending as well. Only one or two friends were following along with the election via internet because they had classes at night. The majority of my friends did early voting or mail in ballots because they either did not want to wait in line on Tuesday or because they had mailed in an absentee ballot to the state they were registered in. I mailed my ballot in about a week before the election in order to avoid lines as well. As far as my family members, everyone that I talked to all did early voting or mail in ballots as well. None of them went to the booths yesterday for mainly the same reasons as me.

Election day party's the new thing????

During the election day I talked to alot of other students in my class and I was suprised to find out that alot of people took the opperitutnity to vote early instead of going to the polls. The main reason most of them staed was the fact that they didnt want to stand in line to vote and they just wanted to go get there free Starbucks. I also found it intersting that alot of people I talked to and all of my friends where going to some form of election party. I just thought that was cool because during the 04 election I dont remember attending or my friends talking about going to an election day party. I went to the the cable center here on campus to watch the election coverage. For those of you that werent there they had CNN, NBC, Fox, And ABC all up at the same time but i mostly focused on CNN......to be honest I just liked there graphics better then the other stations. I also went to there wed site which I liked alot because once again the graphics but they had all of the election results all graphed out for me from senate, house, governer, and ballet measures by state just to name a few. I also found it intresting that they compaired the 04 election results with the 08 election results. CBS also did something like that but i dont think there web site is as fun as CNN.

Election Day '08

During the election coverage, I was mostly getting my news feeds from the internet, since I still had two classes yesterday and wasn't near my TV. It's definitely interesting to see the different "biases", if you will, from the different mainstream news sites.

CNN definitely focused more on Obama's campaign, whereas Fox News had significantly more McCain coverage. There were a couple of things that I saw on Fox News that grabbed my attention; I'm not sure if it was on CNN and MSNBC and those as well, but when it was being covered I was watching Fox News. There was an anchor reporting from a voting place that was being guarded by a "Black Panther" security guard, as the reporter called him, who they believed might have been intimidating voters. Apparently one of them had a nightstick that he was walking around with, but he had since left after the report was being shown. They got into a pretty heated argument on the air because the guard didn't think the reporter had the right to be showing him, when in fact, he did, and the reporter was trying to figure out what purpose the "Black Panther" had at a voting station. I thought it was pretty interesting to see how, with all the drive this election to get people to vote, there was also an opposing force trying to intimidate them into not voting.

Another interesting bit that I saw was also on Fox News, and it occured after Obama was announced as the winner. They were talking to Ralph Nader about his opinion of Obama being our next president. There was definitely a lot of doubt in Nader's statement, and at one point he said something roughly like "I wonder if he will be like Uncle Sam instead of Uncle Tom". At that point the anchor got pretty upset with Nader and basically stopped the discussion. The anchors on the show discussed what he said and basically concluded that Nader's career was over after that statement. I personally didn't think it was quite that big of a deal, but it was definitely a little sad to see Nader, someone who had contributed a lot to the nation back in the day, that bitter and, frankly, out of touch.

Here's the Nader video:



I was also reading the Huffington Post and it reminded me of something i'd see on CNN. All Obama. And political affiliations aside, I was a little disappointed as to how many "Probama" articles there were. Not only on the Huffington Post, but also just a general sentiment that floated around during the election was that electing Obama would be more important as a victory in breaking racial barriers, rather than what he actually will do for the country. And I think that's hogwash. I think that the racial card, if you will, further emphasized the "change" he'll bring to the country, and I think that definitely helped him in the election. But I just don't think it's significant in the grand scheme of things.

There was one alternative site that I mentioned earlier, Fact Check, that had some interesting notes on Obama's promises come election night. You can read about it here.
It basically reviews his promises regarding health care and the economy. Some of the other articles on there are pretty provocative, and I found myself going back there pre-election. One of the things I thought was most interesting were the result projections websites, like 270 to win, were spot on in their expectations. Although I don't really think the results in this election surprised anyone. It'll definitely be a good resource for future elections though.

Most of the people I talked to got their information, like me, off the internet. The only people I found that actually got most of their coverage off the TV were my parents. I'm not sure if it was just a convenience thing, or if TV coverage is just becoming a thing of the past.

What really happens

I found this website that not only explains exactly what happens on election day, but what it takes to win. It also voices the concerns of glitches and problems that might arise on Election Day and what happens the morning after the election. If you didn't already know how Election Day works, you might want to check out this website.

According to this page, the 2004 election had the highest voting turnout in years, but we apparently broke that record last night.

Election Day Coverage

On MSNBC.com they aren't, due to the request by the Democratic Party, reporting any results until the polls close tonight. However, they are reporting on the voting problems that are going on in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The article talks about how both states are reporting problems with several polling machines throughout the states and extremely long lines. Unfortunately, this may mean thousands of votes from these states may not be counted.

Voting problems were not Fox's main concern, their top story was reporting on where the candidates were today. McCain is here, in Colorado, before he heads down to New Mexico for a quick stop before heading home to Arizona where he will await the Election Day results. Obama was in his home state of Illinois where he voted with his family in tow before he headed to Indiana to make one last push for the Democratic Party.

The main difference I saw between these 2 media stations is that MSNBC seemed more interested in reporting breaking news stories (voting problems) and Fox seemed more interested in reporting "light" stories (where the candidates are this election day). Also, Fox had begun to report early votes from some states despite the democrats asking media outlets not to broadcast any results until the polls closed.

I used The Seminal as one of my independent media sources. They didn't
Really have any election news per se, but they did have links for voters to click on for more information or a way to report problems. They included the advice that once you get in line, stay there.

My other independent news source was the Colorado Springs Independent. One of their main articles was about how many people are having problems being able to check how they voted on the new digital polling machines and how when they asked for help often the election judges were much less than helpful.

The main difference I saw between these 2 independent news sources was that the Colorado Springs Independent seemed a more solid place to get your news from whereas The Seminal seemed kind of like a joke.

Overall, I think the two mainstream news sources and the Colorado Springs Independent were fairly good places to get your Election Day news from. However, unless you are reporting a polling problem I wouldn't suggest using The Seminal.

Most of the people I talked to said they got their Election Day information from mainstream media (watching NBC and CNN or listening to the radio or looking at MSNBC.com, etc.) They said throughout the day they would be checking these sources to find out who is in the lead, any new updates regarding any of the people or amendments on the ballot.

November 2008 Election

Well, my Nov. 4th started off with a hitch. Since I am registered as an absentee, I got my ballot (ahem *yesterday*) but I wasn't worried because I'd been told by CA that I could drop off here in CO. Turns out that isn't true and I got to spend about 3 hours on the phone today trying to find out what to do. Fun fun BUT I got to vote and that's all that matters.

So far, I've been using major news sources like MSBC.com and CNN to keep track of what is going on. CNN is particularly good because I don't have to be in front of the computer and refreshing the page to hear what's going on. MSNBC.com helped when I was supposed to be studying so I had the T.V. on mute...but I could hit the refresh page and cheat a little.

I did find a cool website that's hosting a "live blog" - Computer World - Election 2008 . I like how for a lot of the posts they give a short blurb and then a link to the story (if they pulled it from somewhere else). And it's updated pretty frequently. I like reading about what's going on around the country.

My other "non traditional" source was PBS.org, which posted more of a "who won what" when states were declared.

I started off my evening joining friends at the Cable Center, where we watched CNN on a HUGE screen. There were snacks and door prizes and everyone seemed to be having a good time. After awhile, the group went their separate ways and I headed over to a friends house for more studying and news coverage.

I cannot believe how early the announcement came in. One minute we're working on a presentation thinking that we'd have plenty of time to get this done and then we could watch politics, and the next we're seeing the OBAMA WIN'S THE PRESIDENCY stripe across the screen. Definitely distracting!

I spent the day keeping up with friends and family back home via IM and text messaging. My friends were doing the same, every so often picking up the phone to chat about a swing state or sending a text message. Among the people I was with/spoke with, phones were definitely the communication of choice.

All in all, it was one memorable day!

Facebook

I just checked my facebook and it seems like the site and everyone on it are doing a lot for election day.  

At the top of the home page is a count of how many people on facebook have voted so far (if you voted, you click a button which adds to the count).  People can also "donate" their status to Obama, it shows up like this... Jane Smith is the 1,445,824th person to donate their status to get out the vote for Barack Obama today.  Donate yours: http://causes.com/election/.  

Also about half my friends have "VOTE" or something about voting as their status.  I think this is really cool that people are using their personal profiles to help remind others about something that is really important! 

Some cool sites for the election

These are the sites that I used in my presentation, along with a couple more. They're pretty interesting and will obviously be pretty important as we approach the election.

ABC

Fact Check

MyDebates

270 To Win

Five Thirty Eight

News sites

I find this site to be a good "alternative" news site. It has a good mixture of headline news and also random news that can be interesting, and maybe hard to find on other sites. 

(Don't) Vote.

Don't be scared of the title - it has to do with the video, I swear. I found this on a friends blog and tracked it back to YouTube. I thought it was a cool video about voting.

Election Day and Next Thursday's Class

Please bring your computers to class next Thursday.

And just to remind you, we won't be having class on Tuesday, Election Day. Instead please 1) check out at least two alternative or independent news sources and two mainstream news sources; 2) talk to people about how they are getting their news and communicating with people about the election day news; 3) volunteer or do something to help someone vote--give someone a ride to a polling place, volunteer at a polling place, get your friends to vote; 4) blog about it here (and don't forget to include links). And, of course VOTE if you have not already.

Here are the discussion questions for class on Thursday.

1. What are the strengths and weakness of open systems according to Wales?

2. Hoiberg applies this quote by Mumford to Wikipedia:
“[An explosion of information could] bring about a state of intellectual enervation (weakening) and deletion hardly to be distinguished from massive ignorance.” He goes on to say what is needed is “selectivity and moral-self discipline.” What does he mean by this? And what do these comments reveal about Britannica?

3. What are the biggest challenges faced by Wikipedia?

4. Is Wikipedia democratic in process (is it run democratically?), as a product (does it give people info they need to participate in democracy?), in its effects (does it mobilize people?)?

5. What are the fundamental issues associated with each form of encyclopedia?
(For example expert vs collective intelligence, but there are many more)

Super Deluxe

One of the readings we had this week (I Like to Watch, TV) mentioned this site as a source of Internet Entertainment. I'm not a big fan of watching things online but I wanted to check out the site and see if they had anything that would change my mind. I watched a couple episodes (1 of All my Exes and another of I Hate My Roomates) but neither would be something I see going very far.

They do have a ton of shows listed, however, so if you're up to searching, you might find something worth following.

Internet TV

I found this website, called tvover.net. It's purpose is so that you can log on and find any internet tv shows or sites just by typing in keywords or categories. Once you have logged on, you can also save any shows or sites you love to your page. It is somewhat like Net Flix because it allows you to browse through a bunch of categories and it is all on an internet database rather than having a physical store where you can watch or pick up copies of internet tv shows.

you can vote however you like

I was watching the news this morning and they said that Colorado is the leading state in the nation that follows political websites and blogs. They then showed a very cute video from kids in Atlanta who are not old enough to vote, however are encouraging voting. Watch this video it is really cute.
DS

very cool, check it out

amazing!
haha, so this is hilarious! we've been talking about politics in the media and this is just awesome how they do this, and effective. watch this. anybody's name can be used. it speaks for itself. http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=fTPsPTaedf_tC1psWzfYlTU1Mjg2MjI-&referred_by=11834419-ar6n7xx

Cloverfield

As I was talking about in class on thursday, JJ Abrams created a world outside the movie, including fake companies and news videos, and with deeper reading into all their websites, one can really learn a lot more about the movie.

Here's a youtube of one of the news videos that he created to supplement the video, and it goes along with an alternate storyline he created.

This is one of the companies he made up for the movie:


This is one of their products.


Without seeing the movie, and without reading a lot more into it, it's hard to see how any of it relates, but suffice it to say that they all play a large role in Cloverfield's storyline.

quarterlife Parody

"You know you've gone viral when the parodies start coming" (reelpopblog.com).  

quarterlife parody

Watching shows online

There is a huge appeal to watching shows online. Although South Park is a television show, Comedy Central has complete episodes of it from all of the seasons and a bunch of the other shows on its Web site, which kind of turns those shows into online shows. The perk of this is that there are no annoying commercials and you watch complete episodes with no interruptions. But, there are two commercials; one at the beginning and one in the middle and they cannot be skipped or fast forwarded through. Being able to watch the shows online is really convenient because it can be at anytime. Even though it's impossible to skip the embedded commercials, two commercials is better than however get played during a regular show. 

Go here to watch some South Park 

LoL

Laugh Out Loud is a Web TV series starring Josh Server and Keenan Thompson, both from the Nickelodeon show "All That". Josh is stuck in this kid show because he has no other acting gigs he can get.

Click here to view episodes of Laugh Out Loud.

Stop motion with people

Here is a cool stop motion video I found on you tube. Done by a kid, inspired by the band Ok Go. I thought it was done pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m23bL9AqB0

oh sarah palin

i also found this one about sarah palin

Star Wars Lego's

So in are readings they talked about how a bunch of star wars fans liked to make there own movie.....well i thought i would get on youtube and check things out see if i could find anything cool......i came across lego star wars and they actually do a really good job of stop and go photography you should check it out!

Here's one on Harry Potter but its not as good.

Wassssup

back to campaign videos. I found this on one youtube, and i though it was pretty amusing

Amusing

I just thought that this video on youtube would entertain you all. Some crazy person who has multiple election vlogs on youtube. It's just weird and entertaining.

Saturday Night Live's political impact

This is a CNN clip about Saturday Night Live's political impact. The CNN journalist talks to a couple people from SNL's cast about how they like impersonating these prominent political figures. Mostly they show clips of Tina Fey portraying Sarah Palin and how Palin responds to these skits.

Vote or Die

P.Diddy has his own political capaign called "Vote Or Die". I think its a good slogin to get young people to vote. having a popular rap star promoting young kids to vote. This is a funny YouTube video of P.Diddy on Southpark.

Click here to view video.

Funny Sarah Palin Video

"The Ballad of Sarah Palin" (Click the photo)

This video (titled "The Good, the Bad and the Rest of US) is one of several homemade, animated, pro-Obama videos generated by the user/artist "craynol." Also, CNN got hold of the video... here is what they had to say about this ad and other homemade election videos.

Hollywood Endorsement Song

I thought that this was a cute/fun video with a good message regarding celebrities and political campaigns.  

And I saw this video a while ago on The Tonight Show, and thought it was funny even if it is just a tad bit... umm stupid.  

here is another video i have found that is trying to get people to vote, and vote for change. It takes a different approach to getting people to vote, so be sure to watch it.

Obey Giant videos

This   Site has two interesting political videos on the home page. The first video is just an interesting look at politics through a younger generation and how people are able to display their views of politics through many ways. The second video also exhibits a modern look at people making videos to get their political views across to a lot of people. Both of these videos are pro Barack Obama, which as was said in class, he seems to be the one who appeals to younger people especially when it comes to generating art. 

McCain Videos

Like Jonathon, I was having a hard time finding pro-McCain video's. I tried searching in a lot of different ways and finally stumbled across this link to a static John McCain YouTube page. It's a page on the YouTube server completely dedicated to positive videos of McCain. He doesn't seem to have the same celebrity backers or girls in tight clothing that Obama does, but there's a fairly decent amount of videos.

I thought this was a funny one by a country singer, John Rich, called Raisin' McCain.

Positive McCain Cideo on Youtube.

It took a pretty long time to find a positive McCain video on Youtube.. which I found pretty sad whether you are voting for him or not.



But here's one that I found:

Sarah Palin

Hayden Panettiere on voting for McCain

I saw this video on a television show last week and thought it was great. Hayden Panettiere talks about how voting for John McCain is a great idea, if you think smoking and not wearing your seatbelts are also great ideas. She says pretty much everything campaign ads and many political speakers have said and that is that McCain has a lot of the same ideas as Bush. Only the way she says it is a lot funnier. As she describes McCain, "he is just like George Bush, except older and with a worse temper".

I recommend watching this video if you have a minute.

net-neutrality

Going back to net-neutrality and censoring. Virgin the internet provider in the UK, controls what you can search for, making websites load time slower, and other faster. Here is a website dedicated to stop Virgin from taking the freedom away from the Internet.

KidMedia.com

This is an Australian- owned website that is used for teachers and students. The site is used to make the learning experience for kids more fun. They help with the skills of education, writing, graphic design, etc.

Click here to view site.

Technology making children safer.. in a way

After all the articles I see about how the internet makes for a dangerous world for children, this one was a nice change of pace. Not necessarily the internet, but some advancements in technology, webcams, specifically, are becoming tools that can make children safer when their parents aren't around.

You can read about it here

Change.org

This article was posted on the front page of MSN.com. It was written by Newsweek columnist Brian Braiker and it is talking about the social network Change.org, which is a site that has approximately 120,000 members and deals with issues like ethnic cleansing, climate change, and immigration. They are currently changing their site to become a hub for latest news major issues and how to get involved. They are changing their platform to 13 individual blogs that tackle different issues and are hoping to educate people on the issues and connect them with ways to make a change for the better.

Harry Potter IP Court Case

In a publishing class I took last year I remember my teacher mentioning something about a Harry Potter fan-based website that created a lexicon (basically a reference book with information on all characters, locations, animals, etc. in the Harry Potter books) and was now trying to have it published. JK Rowling, who in the past had visited the site and praised it, decided to sue the author before he could publish it, for causing her creative grief. The case was decided this September and the judge banned the Harry Potter Lexicon from ever being published.

Read the article here. There are also more links about this story at the bottom of the article.

Thundercats

This is for everyone that hasn't seen Thundercats. I used to watch it was i was growing up and I turned out o.k. 

Social Networking Questions

For those of you who missed class, for Tuesday please do an informal survey of at least 4 friends or acquaintances about their social networking practices and habits. Here are the questions generated by the class today.

How do you choose what sites to use?
How many profiles do you have?
Why did you join at all?
If you are not a member of a SN site, why not?
How much time do you send SNing?
Who are you interacting with?
What activities are you willing to give up to spend time on a SN site? (for example sleep, paying attention in class.)

God i love south park

ok so i know where supose to put like informational stuff up here and what not but i was watching south park last night and this episode was on and it totally made me think of class and the second life thing so it kind of goes along with that.

Evangelicals' thoughts on Harry Potter

This article talks about how many Evangelicals feel that Harry Potter is pure evil because it encourages the practice of witchcraft. My favorite part of this whole article was this quote, "It is the duty of Christian parents to oppose Harry Potter and to aviod every kind of evil". What strikes me as funny is that many of these Evangelicals haven't even read the series. How can you decide what a book encourages or doesn't encourage kids to do if you haven't even read one of the books?

Comcast

If you didn't know. Comcast censors your internet. The FCC has filed a suit against them, and has required that Comcast provides more details on it network management policies. The FCC argues that it is a clear violation of the net-neutrality principles.

here is an article that talks about it. 

Also here is another article from the Wall Street Journal.

A Day in the Life of The Ever Expanding Woman

While on the hunt for interesting blogs, I found one that was almost strange to me. We all know that having a child is suppose to be one of the most magical, private, hurtful, and ecstatic things that can happen in life. However, in reality, I have no idea what it would be like to be pregnant, give birth, or the idea of raising a child. Also, at the moment, I am not particularly curious. But what if you are, what if you need some guidance, or to speak to someone who is going through the same reproductive experience as you? Well, I have found you a perfect site. If you go to this site you will find blogs by women who talked about birth, their feelings, their physical appearance, even their children. I find this an interesting blog because even though giving birth is so private as well as magical, people across the world are now talking about it on the same platform, providing guidance to people who they have never even met. But because of this one experience that can bring them together, they can converse like long lost friends.

Barnes & Noble filters Web 2.0 from how-to content

Barnes & Noble started having how-to guides and videos of experts on different topics. The reason for these videos is to face the people that big issue of user-generated content of non accurate information.

Click here to read article

Don't Skype in China

As if what we read about China and internet censorship wasn't bad enough, I found this article regarding Skype in China. Sounds like they're taking it a bit too far..

Here's the article.

PoliticalTicker

As the elections approach, I find political campaigns very important as well as influential. As we see in class, the internet is a prime source of information and sites where you can contribute your opinion are vital in the candidates success. I found this website where CNN updates us on information on the candidates, the election, the new information given by the media, along with mnay other categories to read. Some include other people that have been involved in the 2008 election, other by state, and some by dates. These are all sub categories of the Politics category, however there are also many other categories you can explore. World, U.S., Crime, and Entertainment are all available categories to investigate.

Creative Commons type of ideas

I am really interested in the Creative Commons idea, and searched around for any other perspectives and information on it. I also just wanted to read more about copyright issues and similar topics. I found some fairly interesting stories. 

This story talks about Steve Jobs of Apple in regards to DRM and his opinions. There are some valid points that get brought up. 

This  is a good story because it's about a band I like. Just kidding. It's a good story because it offers perspective from a different point of view, which is from someone who is a musician but who has been releasing music through a traditional method and tried something different. 

Making fun of Web 2.0

In class we've been seeing a bunch of great Web 2.0 websites. Well, I was on MSN earlier and their banner declaring "Web 2.0's Most Ridiculous Websites" caught my eye. I guess everything has to have a flip side.

I didn't go to every website on the list but I did go to a few.

BillMonk was especially funny because it claims to be popular among college kids. I have never even heard of it and when I took a poll, no one else had either!

YubNub was just...strange. Interesting thought behind it...but strange that they'd set up a search engine that you can command to search other search engines.

I did, however, pass along the BarbieGirls.com to a special little 6 year old diva I know. I'm sure her Mother will be thanking me soon.

Patriot Act

Relating to what we talked about today, this is a video about the Patriot Act and how it allows the government to detain people with no evidence that they have commited any crime. The man, Padilla, in the clip supposedly knew inside information about the 9/11 attacks. He was, therefore, taken into custody by the military without any evidence or announcing themselves. His lawyer was one of the last to know and was told she couldn't see him or talk to him on the phone. She could, however, write him, but there was no promise that he would get the letter or that they wouldn't read confidential communications between an attorney and her client.

This is an absolute invasion of privacy and I definitely would like to see this act abolished.

review for midterm

Midterm DMST 2200

social web/web 2.0
convergence
participatory culture
produsage
collective intelligence
free culture
control over internet
IP
Filtering
government
net neutrality
Google
ATT
Creative Commons
Patriot Act
EFF

Save the Internet

After spending a little time searching around the internet for websites on net neutrality, I came across a site that particularly interested me. Savetheinternet.com is a website designed to educate people on the importance of net neutrality. They have up-to-date stories on recent news related articles involving net neutrality. One of the more recent posts is about the government penalizing Comcast for invading net neutrality. Head over to this website to learn more about savetheinternet.com. They also include videos if you are interested in watching.

presentation schedule

9/30 Meghan Holly
10/2 Polina Portnaya
10/9 Dulce Saenz
10/14 Katrina Glover
10/16 Jonathan Foos
10/21 Alexi Herman
10/23 Taryn Hemmings
10/28 Anthony Stillitano
10/30 Leah Schwartz

Video on Net Neutrality

I thought this was a great video (made by 'Save the Internet.com') that promotes net neutrality and explains it in Layman's terms. It also makes some interesting points on the reality of this issue, like how big corporations tapped into the radio and cable/television industries, so it's probably only a matter of time before they jump on the internet too.

The Internet

Relating to the south park clip that Leah found. I also found another clip from the episode where the internet it gone. The speech that Stan's dad gives, relates to what we debated on in class on thursday. one of the things we discussed was how net neutrality would be a problem, and that is over usage, overcrowding of the servers, and i think he puts it in a perfect perspective for us.

so here it is

Verison Caught Censoring Texting Messages

I thought this was a good way to think of Net Neutrality. Making it little more simpler terms.


Click here to view video

Net Neutrality and Comcast

Here's an interesting read regarding net neutrality. It details some interesting views and bits of information that some of us might not have already known.

You can read about it here

Mean Harry Potter Spoilers

The spoiling going on in this homemade video clip is a type that I think completely crosses the line.  While the clip-makers call it a "prank" and although it isn't actually happening on the internet, I think it brings up an important point of spoiling information for people that do not want to see it.  I think the sites and blogs dedicated to spoiling are fine, because it is only the people who WANT to see/know and collaborate to ruin their own endings.  When it is forced on public that does not want to see it, it is truly unfair and wrong.  As I think people have the right to express themselves however they want, I also think people have the right to decide when and what they want to see.

Seeing something like this also makes me understand why some people in the Survivor's spoiler camp were upset that one blogger came in with so much information that he basically ruined their "game".  For a lot of them knowing everything wasn't really worth it, unless they could be part of figuring it out.

See the Harry Potter prank here.

A Producers View on Spoilers

I found this article posted by Entertainment Weekly which, instead of taking on the fan view like Jenkins, starts off with an example of Lost producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof when 2 of their season finale's were posted on the web.

From there, the article goes into different examples and views. Overall, it's a pretty interesting read with lots of industry insight.

South Park wants to get paid

I found this South Park video and i thought it was kind of funny. They put a YouTube video up and want to get paid for it.

Second Life

Last week we talked a little about second life, and we saw the video of Henry Jenkins as Dumbeldor. Here i have found a article about the Obama campaign and his second life presence. In second life Obama has a campaign headquarters. Avatars can pick up hats and t-shirts, and watch videos of Obama.

Also here is a ABC news feature on Obama's second life. There is a short tour of what the campaign headquarters is like, so check it out. 

Spoilers

Going off of Tuesday's reading, I found another reality tv show spoiler blog. This blog is a little different than the one we read about in Henry Jenkins book. One person writes the blog which recapped last week (including the judge's comments) and spoilers. On the left side of the page there are posts about everything American Idol. This is where you can leave your two cents.

You can link to the blog here.

Fan Nation in Web 2.0

This website has some many sport resources to look for. It includes articles and pictures from CNN and Sports Illustrated. When you create a account they have the ability to select their teams for each sport, then customize a news page based upon those teams.

Click here to view this website

A book on Produsage

I was searching around google and came upon this blog website. This guy is promoting a book that came out last November called The Produsage Revolution.

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-produsage-revolution-a-stellar-new-book/2007/11/15

Bloggers and News

The Web site http://jezebel.com (I am trying to make this into a link but it's not working!) seems to be a good example of blogging mixed with actual news and how well it can work. This site has a bunch of different contributors that write about all kinds of subjects from politics to women's rights to different humorous topics. I don't always like reading blogs, because sometimes I get annoyed reading someone's opinion or commentary, but in this case, I like that the writers/bloggers stories mostly include links to the "real" stories, so that you are able to read about what they are commenting about. 

Produsage

So i Totally found this web site and kind of explains how they get the word produsage

 

if you would like to read more click here

Science Blogging

This is a very interesting article about the rise of blogging within the science community. An effort is being made to make science blogs a more respected resource, as many upper-echelon scientists still believe that published articles are the necessity, not blogs. The fact that this issue is taking consideration just shows how big a part of our lives blogging and web 2.0 have become in our lives.

You can read about the issue here.

Web 2.0 in a Sonic Commercial

So I was YouTubing Sonic commercials (weird I know, but I just really like them), and I ended up finding one that I think perfectly exemplifies two of the topics that we discussed in class this week. The first is from the Introduction we read and the author’s call for the need of new terminology for Web 2.0 and everything else that goes with it. If you watch the commercial you will see the use of the term without any idea of what it means. Another thing that this clip evades to is the misuse of the term Web 2.0 by firms as a marketing tactic, when what they are doing is really not 2.0 at all. I thought this was just a very simple and humorous way to display Web 2.0 coming into our everyday lives.

Sonic Commercial

Web 2.0

This article tells you not only what Web 2.0 is, but how you can use it to network, publish information, and share your life stories. Under each subtitle there are links and a short summary about how you can use or apply each subtitle. For example, under the Publish and Disseminate Information subtitle there is a link to a site on how to easily publish your own RSS and how there is more than one way to create one.

McCainBloggette.com

Dulce Saenz

As a suggestion from our professor, I have begun to read the blogs posted by Meghan McCain on McCainBloggette.com. Regardless of my political affiliations, I find her blogs to be of great interest. The conversations she has with her audience are not necessarily vital or share relevance with great issues of our world today; however they do insight us into the lives of people just like ourselves. I use the word converse, because she talks and describes with such professionalism but at the same time uses a common tone that we can all relate to. It brings this political family to the American people by having access to their experiences, thoughts, and events. Meghan links us to household names we hear and see on television only, also providing us with many of the pictures taken during their tours.
As I continue reading these blogs, I find myself fascinated. The responses Meghan receives are of praise and one can tell her audience committed to reading her daily posts. I myself have gone to past dates those blogs. I am also equally concerned with the advantage the McCain family is gaining through McCainBloggette.com. Following her Meghan’s blogs are convenient for people because they can look them up whenever they have time. They remain available and because she uses a relatable tone, she is shooting up her fan club. I admire her skills and strategy to help her father out in his election because I do think it is very helpful. One question I do have, is I wonder what a realistic count of how many people follow Meghan McCain’s blogs?

Web 2.0

This week we've been talking about Web 2.0 and what it entails. I found this article by Frank Bell which was written in 2007 and published by Entrepreneur.com. In it, he gives a brief overview of what Web 2.0 is, what has gone in to "making" Web 2.0 and what the end result(s) have been. It's a very interesting article that kind of sums up everything we've been discussing.

Sports Devices: Another Area of Convergence

Nokia’s Sports Tractor that can be installed on the Nokia Cell phones. Now Nokia put out a web site to use with the application. People that run or walk can upload their activities onto a map on the website. You can keep tract of speed, distance, and other runners around you. This program has led Nokia to putting out some sport-theme phones.

http://www.ccsinsight.com/blog/?p=79

Popped Culture

Sticking with the themes of blogging and convergence culture from last week, I thought this was a really interesting site that combines blogging with news with pop culture with interactivity. The site is phillyBlurbs.com, and I found the "popped culture" section particularly interesting. Here, bloggers post videos and comments about recent events in the news and in pop culture. Some of the most recent posts have been about things like Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin on SNL, or the recent instances of people in animal costumes interrupting Hurricane Ike weather reports. (Some of the info is also more serious.) This site provides a great medium to be informed, but also contribute your own opinions. It is entertaining and very visual-orientated (which are some of my favorite qualities in a blog). http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/pop-culture

Economics and the Black Box

While looking for something on media convergence, I stumbled upon an article about the effects that America's current economic situation is having (or potentially could have) on the future of media and its products.  The author describes a recent study in which US broadband subscriber rates decreased by half in 2008 due to the recession.  While a steep decline in the broadband is made obvious through this study, the author also mentions how something like this will greatly affect sites like YouTube and Hula because using sites like these without broadband (mostly dial-up) will make you want to pull your hair out.  The speed at which dial-up operates simply cannot comply to sites like these, a slow in broadband sales is not good news.

Along with the fact that subscriptions to broadband have decreased dramatically, is that the US is already behind the rest of the world in broadband adoption (15th in the world according to the Phoenix Center).  This is a problem because broadband adoption is one of the best measurements of technological priorities, and a falling number indicates a falling priority for technology and the rest of the US.

According to this article congress has started to auction off part of the available spectrum for free broadband to try and steady the decline.

Here is the article link....

I don't know if any of you have heard about the website called ohmyNews. For you that haven't, here it is: http://english.ohmynews.com/. This is a open source website where their motto is "every citizen is the reporter", so any normal citizen can edit and post articles .

also going back to class where we talked about the social bookmarking known as del.icio.us, there is another social bookmarking site/ application that you can get on your web browser. Stumble. Stumble is different to delicious, because it is more of like an internet browsing tool. It is an application that is added to your browser or whatever, and when you click on the stumble icon it takes you to different websites. It is like delicious, because you can bookmark your pages and you can access your friends bookmarks etc. It is a pretty good time-waster as-well. 

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Another thing i found using stumble was a video on youtube about the future of communication, i thought was interesting, and it talks about alot of the stuff we discussed in class, so check it out. 

some convergence from a band site

On the band Web site for Nine Inch Nails (nin.com) I found some interesting ways that they use the Web and various other tools and display some aspects of convergence. Like most other band Web sites, they already have things like news, photos, and common stuff like that, but they added a section titled, Remix, where anyone can take existing Nine Inch Nails songs and remix them themselves. Fans are also able to post their remixed songs and rate the work of others. I think it's cool for a band to add something new and a little different to contribute to some ideas of what can be done. I was surprised that when you go into Itunes, you can find remixed versions of people's work under Podcasts. 

Something else that I found to be very interesting from the band was that while making one of their albums a little bit ago, they left USB drives with new songs for fans to find in random places such as a bathroom at a Nine Inch Nails concert. 

I think that all of these things create a community for fans and for the band both online and offline and I see it as being fairly useful for a variety of reasons. 

Seth MacFarlane's Advertising Job

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-11-n86.html


As a big fan of Family Guy, I've always kept tabs with what is going on in the series. But this is an interesting read about the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane's "Cavalcade of Comedy", which is a new series he's producing on the side. It's a pretty creative way of advertising; an ad plays before each "episode", which have various themes, but are in MacFarlane's trademark Family Guy style. The videos have been quite popular on youtube in the short time they've been released. I think it'll be interesting to see if the advertising works and MacFarlane continues the series or not.