Exclamation blog: Stories, Ideas and loud noises
G’Day Mate! Social Media and Politics in the Land Down Under
Approximately one month ago in the land down under, YouTube launched its Australian site. In his inaugural Aussie video, YouTube’s News and Politics editor Steve Grove noted that the site’s launch corresponded with the heart of Australia’s elections for Prime Minister. In sharp contrast to the seemingly endless American campaigns - which practically begin for the next election before the last ballot for the previous election has been cast - Australia’s federal election season is just six short weeks.
This truncated season - combined with the fact that Australia’s remarkable lack of population density makes it difficult and time-consuming to physically meet large groups – may explain why the Australian candidates have so enthusiastically incorporated YouTube into their campaigns.
In a Reese’s-style conundrum (you got peanut butter on my chocolate…) the internet is becoming politicized and politics are moving online.
In addition to professionally written and produced content à la BarelyPolitical, the growing prevalence of sites that allow people to submit their own content and have that content made globally accessible and easily searchable has forever changed the face of politics.
You don’t even have to have the body of Obamagirl to get noticed. Even the most seemingly banal videos can change the course of a campaign and thus a nation. Nominally, a video of an obscure Australian politician making a commonplace speech would not be particularly interesting. But when the person behind the speaker – the guy eating his own earwax – decides to run for Prime Minister, the hits start pouring in.
In American politics, examples abound. John Edwards’ haircut, George W. Bush struggling with a locked door, and Virginia Senator George Allen’s famous “macaca” comment.
These videos can be provided by anyone with a camera and a connection to the internet. Often times you don’t even need a camera – but just a VCR and a willingness to slog through hours of boring tapes, trolling for embarrassing gaffes.
Indeed, technology has advanced to the point that we don’t even have to wait for politicians to embarrass themselves. We can do it for them using iMovie or even free video editing software.
It is hard to measure the influence that these videos have exerted on the political fates of those featured. Indeed, who has heard of an exit poll inquiring whether a particular YouTube video effected the voter’s decision? (On a side note, while these sorts of questions may eventually be asked I do not think that people would admit the extent to which they were swayed by a single video clip) Yet with millions of views it is clear that these online videos can’t help but influence some voters’ perceptions.
(On a side note, Australia’s Federal Elections were held over the weekend and the earwax eating candidate - Kevin Rudd - emerged victorious with nearly 54 percent of the vote. This is merely a factual observation and is not intended to make a statement on the impact social media can have on political elections.)
In spite of the large impact that online videos can have on the political process, I believe that they play a more important role as a means of participation than they do of persuasion. In sharp contrast to the silent onlookers of yesteryear who were only allowed to express their opinion once at the very end of the process (with their ballot), today’s voters can become as involved with the political process as they wish by creating their own content and editing and commenting on that of others. The proliferation of YouTube, blogs and other social media outlets has exponentially increased the avenues of participation.
And we all know that Web 2.0 is all about participation…
The Literary Flame is Dying - Does it Need Kindling?
Last night I spoke with my dad, an independent bookstore owner for 33 years, about Amazon’s introduction of the Kindle. Surprisingly the discussion didn’t end up being about whether this would catch on or not, or whether this means the end of books as we know them. Instead, my dad pointed out a study released by the National Endowment for the Arts the same day as the Kindle, which concludes that young people (college age and younger) are reading books far less than they ever have before. The study also goes on to show how “literary readers” perform better on tests, have higher incomes and are more likely to vote, exercise, and perform volunteer work.
In short, it proved something my dad has been preaching for as long as my sister and I could read: reading leads to good things.
Enabling, encouraging and empowering people to read books is most important. Obviously Amazon wants to make a ton of money selling the Kindle and then the books to read on it, but hopefully it will also reach a big market (which Amazon thinks exists) that needs books to be digitized and accessible online to encourage readership. Just like the iPod and iTunes created music lovers and collectors out of people that previously were not, the Kindle could potentially do the same for books.
Having a successful bookstore was always my dad’s main goal, but empowering people to read was a close second. The guilt I used to get for not reading enough was pretty bad… and rightfully so. The Kindle may not convert paper book readers to digital book readers, but it does have potential to turn Internet generation non-readers into readers. Will that happen? Maybe… Hopefully.
As my dad said, “the important thing is the word, not the format.”
FacedIn?
Over the last few days, I’ve had conversations with a few different people about whether Facebook will overtake LinkedIn as the business social network du jour. There’s actually quite a bit of discussion about it out there and Bernard Lunn at ReadWriteWeb wrote a post about it a couple days ago. What’s really interesting though, is the accompanying poll that asks, “In 6 months time, will you have more business contacts in Facebook than LinkedIn?” Sixty-seven percent of respondents said LinkedIn, versus 27 percent for Facebook.
Why is that interesting? Well, for me, it’s because LinkedIn is virtually useless. My LinkedIn experience – and that of many others I know – consists of getting invitations from people, accepting them and then wondering for a couple seconds why I actually do this. This is part my own ignorance – many people fully utilize LinkedIn’s capabilities – but mainly because LinkedIn just isn’t that useful or user friendly.
It’s tough to imagine LinkedIn ever outpacing Facebook as the predominant business social networking application. Sure, Facebook has ridiculous aspects like zombies and throwing sheep, LOL, OMG and a huge audience of high schoolers and college kids simply looking for the next party. But, it’s also got real business value – a powerful conversation platform and meeting place, an application platform, and, well, it’s just fun. LinkedIn is just a glorified bulletin board.
While Facebook may seem a bit childish and immature to use as a business platform, the company also fully knows this and is working to change it. My guess? In six months, I’ll have more business contacts on Facebook than LinkedIn. In a year, I’ll actually be doing a whole lot business on Facebook. And so will you.
The Holiday Gift Card Debate
With Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday, it’s safe to say the holidays are upon us and accordingly, gift cards are once again a hot topic in the media and consumer blogosphere.
I have always had mixed feelings about the cards as legitimate, thoughtful holiday gift-fare—they often seem to serve little purpose other than to clog my wallet. They’ve furthermore proved remarkably adept at expiring mere days before I finally attempt to redeem them and I try not to think about the the many cards I’ve been given that have gone unused.
When a college friend very generously gave me a spa certificate for my birthday a couple of years ago, I put it in a drawer and vowed to redeem it upon completion of my final exams. Of course, I forgot about my opportunity for a free facial in the chaos of end-of-the-year festivities and when I finally booked myself in for an appointment the following Christmas, I was unceremoniously informed that the gift card had expired. Guilt-ridden, I resolved never to admit my forgetfulness to my friend– and also began to think twice before purchasing gift cards for others.
Undoubtedly, I am not alone in this frustration and complex gift card fees and expirations have resulted in a windfall for retailers.
According to The New York Times:
“In 2006 alone, $8 billion in gift card sales were never redeemed. That same year, shoppers spent about $80 billion on gift cards. Of that, consumers forfeited 10 percent — about $8 billion — either because the card was lost, stolen, never used, or fees cannibalized what was left on the card.”
Certainly, $8 billion in lost cash is not a number to sniff at — and the recent buzz around gift card management demonstrates that reporters, bloggers and finally consumers are really beginning to pay attention.
On November 13th, Consumer Reports kick-started a public education campaign aimed at creating awareness around the hazards of gift cards with a full-page ad in The New York Times. USA Today, Reuters, The Consumerist, the NPR News Blog and The Motley Fool have all discussed the dirty little secrets of the gift card industry—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With all this coverage, one could say that consumers finally are striking back against an industry that profits — and to a vast degree — from a combination of shopper ennui, ignorance and the post-holiday frenzy, all of which result in deferred or perpetually delayed card redemption.
A new LaunchSquad client is also moving into this space with a free personal web application that helps users better manage gift cards, and loyalty/rewards program memberships. Launching this week, the service is called Leverage and allows users to purchase, track and exchange gift cards and even earn interest on gift card balances for the first time.
What with the proliferation of coverage around the industry and launch of a comprehensive gift card management service like Leverage, I can’t help but wonder if the days of missed expirations and the subsequent exasperation are coming to an end.
$8 billion is a pretty big number. This year, by actually proactively managing my gift cards rather than relegating them to a lonely drawer or the recesses of my already painfully congested wallet, I hope to do my part to put a dent in it.
Let the shopping begin.
Welcome to the Dog-o-sphere
Infamous for his shoe-thieving, pants-biting, garbage-eating habits, it wasn’t long after introducing my pug, Gutterball to LaunchSquad that several coworkers suggested I blog about his notoriously naughty behavior. Who wouldn’t want to read about a dog unscrewing an airtight canister and eating the enclosed pound of puppy kibble at 5 a.m., or taking the lids off two dozen Poland Springs bottles without spilling a drop, only to watch me dump the entire pallet onto my pants the next morning?
Before devoting my time to any extensive dog-blogging efforts, I decided to do a small audience study. What kind of audience is there for crazed pet owners and their crazy pets? Would I be on the same level as the guy whose dog has matching pajamas, or the woman who refers to her canine as her first-born child? Is there a home on the Internet for those of us who simply like to boast of their pets’ abilities to sit, fetch, and wreak havoc on the general population of San Francisco?
I discovered rather quickly that there’s a stronger niche on the web for the average pet owner than one might expect. In fact, social “petworking” has been taking the Internet by storm. It began with the advent of Dogster in January 2004, in the then-fresh wake of Friendster, Myspace and Facebook. The pet-centric networking site is an online forum where dogs like Max Benkelman, a Schnauzer from Nebraska, can gripe about his brother Gus chewing on his ears, while Max’s owners and others can trade tips on doggie daycare and flea control.
Social networks prosper because they are a platform for folks to engage and interact. Creating one around a popular “vertical market” such as canines has proved a surefire way to bring people together. In its first three months, Dogster’s subscriber profiles grew from 100 to 8,000, and nearly four years later, it has over 300,000 subscribers worldwide.
In light of Dogster’s success, multiple social petworking sites and an infinite number of pet-specific blogs have cropped up across the Net. This week alone, two dog networking sites launched. MyPetVideos.TV, a user-generated community for people to share home videos of their pets, announced on Monday, boasting such treasures as a cat playing Whack-a-Mole. Meanwhile, actress Glenn Close and husband David Shaw founded FetchDog on Tuesday, which offers advice, a shopping catalog and a social network for dog owners to share information, photos and stories about their pets.
Though petcentric blogs don’t have an overwhelming readership in the blogosphere, there are a lot of them, and it’s clear that dogs maintain a solid position in the world of Web 2.0. According to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, Americans alone owned 74.8 million dogs in 2006, and over 23% get information about their dogs online. Truly, dogs and our love of them is an unstoppable force, even on the Web.
It’s good to know that while not everyone will be flocking to read daily updates on the life of just another pug, there is still a place out there for Gutterball and his much-deserved shot at international infamy. He hasn’t spent the last four hours single handedly dismantling my couch in vain. Now it’s just time for me to start writing about it, and finally throw him a bone. Maybe then he’ll stop gnawing on the microfiber.
Lifan: The Guys Who Are Freaking Out The Auto Industry
I’m not a big motorcycle guy. In fact, I was a little freaked out when my kid sister, a grown-up AP reporter, bought a Yamaha scooter. But I’ve got to say, I’ve been fascinated with the brand Lifan Motorcycles, ever since I read about them in Don Tapscott’s
Wikinomics.
They’re decently large company ($900M annually), but they’re only about 1/50th the size of, say, BMW. They’re based out of Chongquing, a growing metropolis near the Yangtze River. It’s no little city-state, either - Chongquing is the most populous of China’s provincial-level municipalities. Lifan burst onto the scene fairly recently (around 1992), initially beginning as a motorcycle repair shop. Today, they’re cranking out over 700,000 cycles a year, shipping to over 100 countries.
It’s no surprise that Lifan and its Chinese compatriot brands are really taking over the motorcycle industry; they currently account for nearly 50% of the global motorcycle output now, according to Tapscott’s book. It’s what they’re doing with cars that’s beginning to really freak out the global automotive industry. They make a car called the Lifan 520, which I’d position against a Kia Optima or a souped-up Honda Civic. This car has leather seats, dual airbags, a DVD system and a huge trunk. It retails for $9700, which is about $6000-8000 less than the other two cars.
The reason Lifan made it into a book that was largely about knowledge management and peer collaboration was because they used these methods to create tangible goods, rather than information-based services, which is usually how this type of technology is leveraged. Lifan’s physical assembly model is totally modular.
Remember, this company sprang out a repair shop not too long ago, so the idea of using interchangeable parts to accomplish larger tasks is in their blood. In the car and motorcycle industries, traditional production networks resemble a pyramidal structure, with one leader commanding network segments to crank out whole products. Lifan has trumped the supply chain challenges that the hierarchical model encountered by working in clumps, or clusters. These small entities collaborate on development, design and manufacturing.
By the way, don’t bother looking for a Lifan 520 on Craigslist. I already checked. They’re not in the States yet. To learn more about how Lifan is using peer collaboration, pick up a copy of Wikinomics
GPS Technology: Protecting Kids & Teens In Interesting Ways
I think GPS or Global Positioning Systems are one of the coolest technologies out there today. I recently read about this GPS jacket of out of the UK called Bladerunner, which created a unique jacket designed to keep kids warm and safe. The jacket will help parents keep track of their children should they ever go missing.
What really stuck out at me about this story is this unique application of GPS technology. This jacket is a little pricey, but it may be worth it if your child ever goes missing. A children’s jacket will cost about $500.
Let’s look at the facts: 800,000 children go missing each year in the US. That’s around 2,200 a day. The Department of Justice estimates another 500,000 go missing each year without being reported. That’s crazy! After hearing those numbers, some parents will decide that it may well be worth the $500.
GPS technology and cell phones are helping authorities locate people all the time. Recently, a woman was found after she was missing for eight days. Police suspected her husband in her disappearance. Then, they located her by tracking her cell phone signal. Her husband was cleared. She was barely alive. She had crashed off the road, and they located her thanks to GPStechnology.
Recently, a US engineer also created a similar GPS product that uses GPS technology in sneakers. So sneakers can now help keep track of your children should they ever go missing, or if they’re abducted.
GPS is also keeping teen drivers safe. SafeCo has a new program for teen drivers called Teensurance. The program puts a GPS device on a teen’s vehicle, and it monitors the speed and location of the vehicle. Parents can then keep track of their teen and their driving habits. Parents can also set up driving zones, and curfews through the program as well.
Children and teens may not exactly like the idea of being constantly monitored. However, parents will be able to rest easier; thanks to GPS technology now, and in the future.
I don’t have children, but if I did I would definitely look into buying one of these products for them. I wouldn’t do it to know their every move. I would do it because I would want to keep them safe. And if something all the way in space can help do that, then the world will be a much better place.
Tech Blogs - Oh, The Humanity!
Robert Scoble had an interesting post a week or so ago, about tech blogs losing their soul - or “humanity” as he called it. It raises an interesting question: Can tech blogs have soul? Of course, anything created by human beings reflect human biases, emotions and experiences (i.e. humanity) but is it really possible for blogs about technology and business – both decidedly mechanical things devoid of any soul – to have a sense of humanity?
Of course it is. There are blogs in every category from sports to television and politics that approach their subjects with humor, passion and intelligence and the tech world does too. What Scoble worried about were blogs simply becoming a repository for unexciting product news and blind devotion and reverence to companies and personalities, rather than driving creativity and thought leadership as they have for the past couple years.
Scoble’s concern may stem from the sheer number of tech blogs out there. There’s plenty of innovative, insightful and daring blogs out there – Scoble’s is one of them. During a press conference Friday morning for Google’s new OpenSocial platform (check out our client NewsGator’s Didja Hear!? application), Scoble was Twittering the conference and then decided to open up questions to the 7,000 people who subscribe to his Twitter feed, and then acted as a gatekeeper, relaying the incoming queries to the Google folks. Instantly, a press conference with an industry giant that had originally been limited to about 25 top bloggers was open to anyone who wanted to ask a question.
That’s a fantastic story that evokes everything that blogs and social media should be – open, egalitarian, collaborative, free … and distinctly human.
