Wednesday, March 26, 2008
How to Test for a Captive Audience Online?
It is 10:00 AM ET on March 26, 2008. To test this week's class on social networks and politics on the go, I am testing how long it takes from now to receive a posted comment on this blog post by the professor of the course. This test is to show how/if RSS feeds work to what is an assumed captive audience.
My plan:
10 - 12: Wait for response on RSS
12 - 2: Post a comment on Facebook (the professor is a friend on the network)
2 - 4: Email directly
Stay tuned for the results on the next blog post.
My plan:
10 - 12: Wait for response on RSS
12 - 2: Post a comment on Facebook (the professor is a friend on the network)
2 - 4: Email directly
Stay tuned for the results on the next blog post.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Endorsments
Yesterday Governor Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama to be our next President of the United States. Whatever "it" is that makes an experienced candidate a viable candidate wasn't there this year for Richardson, but through his endorsement Senator Obama gets a strong promoter and someone that can help deliver both the southwest and a great majority of the latino vote. With the possibility of a second vote in MI and FL, having this endorsement will certainly help Barack -- especially in Florida's latino community.
A second endorsement, which I found really interesting, was Obama's endorsement of the UNC basketball team winning the NCAA tournament. Although North Carolina's vote is still upcoming, this gesture shows just how likeable Obama is. Bush's likeability over Gore as a regular guy that a voter would just want to have a beer with also holds true with Obama. Most of the people I speak to feel the same way.
I had a long conversation with my best friend, who has never voted in an election, but has registered and intends to vote in November about Clinton and Obama. He knew a lot of the talking points but didn't necessarily have a candidate in-mind yet. After three hours of explaining why I am supporting Obama...he started to get more interested in him more-and-more. I feel I def brought one more vote in for him through this conversation.
A second endorsement, which I found really interesting, was Obama's endorsement of the UNC basketball team winning the NCAA tournament. Although North Carolina's vote is still upcoming, this gesture shows just how likeable Obama is. Bush's likeability over Gore as a regular guy that a voter would just want to have a beer with also holds true with Obama. Most of the people I speak to feel the same way.
I had a long conversation with my best friend, who has never voted in an election, but has registered and intends to vote in November about Clinton and Obama. He knew a lot of the talking points but didn't necessarily have a candidate in-mind yet. After three hours of explaining why I am supporting Obama...he started to get more interested in him more-and-more. I feel I def brought one more vote in for him through this conversation.
Labels: Barack Obama, bill richardson, hillary clinton
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"It's Hard Out Here Being a P.I.M.P" Online Petition
While eating my customary healthy lunch -- today Cosi meatball pesto pizza -- I received an email from a fellow CCT peer about Professor Diana Owen leaving the program to go on a sabbatical. Although I never had the opportunity to take a class with her, I only heard good things about her knowledge of online media and politics (not to mention her background in statistics). This email was sent prior to the program's memo about her leaving (your call if the second email came in response to the first).
But what was interesting about the initial student email was that it came with an action alert. The "CCT Loves Media and Politics: Petition to Invigorate Media & Politics" or as it was cleverly named by it's acrononym "P.I.M.P." is asking 100 students to request that Dr. Garcia and the other faculty replace Dr. Owen with a full-time faculty member.
Losing Dr. Owen hurts CCT. She was the only remaining full-time professor in the Media and Politics cluster. Although their are a couple adjunct professors, the service that a full-time professor can provide is vastly different than an adjunct.
Although this is my last semester at Georgetown I take a lot of pride in the fact that I am a CCT student and I want to make sure the name of our program withholds and builds on itself...so I signed the petition. In about 5-6 hours from when the action alert was sent, I was the 41st signature on the petition. I compared the lose of Dr. Owen to the lose of Professor Kathy Wallman last year. A lot of my consideration of where to go to grad school was directly related to who was teaching there. Prof. Wallman stood out as a professor that I wanted to work with and learn from -- as she was a technology counsel for the Clinton Administration (something I can easily see myself doing further in my career).
To some Dr. Owen was that same light that brought them to CCT. I know Dr. Garcia and the rest of the administration will do the right thing. I think they would have done it without the petition, but with this grassroots outcrying of constinuents...they will certainly be prone to act faster.
But what was interesting about the initial student email was that it came with an action alert. The "CCT Loves Media and Politics: Petition to Invigorate Media & Politics" or as it was cleverly named by it's acrononym "P.I.M.P." is asking 100 students to request that Dr. Garcia and the other faculty replace Dr. Owen with a full-time faculty member.
Losing Dr. Owen hurts CCT. She was the only remaining full-time professor in the Media and Politics cluster. Although their are a couple adjunct professors, the service that a full-time professor can provide is vastly different than an adjunct.
Although this is my last semester at Georgetown I take a lot of pride in the fact that I am a CCT student and I want to make sure the name of our program withholds and builds on itself...so I signed the petition. In about 5-6 hours from when the action alert was sent, I was the 41st signature on the petition. I compared the lose of Dr. Owen to the lose of Professor Kathy Wallman last year. A lot of my consideration of where to go to grad school was directly related to who was teaching there. Prof. Wallman stood out as a professor that I wanted to work with and learn from -- as she was a technology counsel for the Clinton Administration (something I can easily see myself doing further in my career).
To some Dr. Owen was that same light that brought them to CCT. I know Dr. Garcia and the rest of the administration will do the right thing. I think they would have done it without the petition, but with this grassroots outcrying of constinuents...they will certainly be prone to act faster.
Labels: grassroots, petitionsite.com
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Random Thoughts Rolled Into a Post
Obama just won Mississippi to create a little more space between he and Clinton, but things def got interesting over the last two weeks. I'm sure the race is going to the convention now, but we'll have to see. The Obama campaign invited me up to Pennsylvania and I'm considering going. I couldn't make OH, but PA could be easier time-wise and since I have friends in Philadelphia and the suburbs there. I just moved into a new apartment so I am not sure if I can do the timing stuff, but I def want to get involved.
The IPDI study was a pretty good read. I enjoyed some of the take-aways and am applying them in my day job. Plus I am hosting a training session on grassroots on Thursday for my entire company and I was able to create some slides based on the study. The article on Terri Schiavo was a little uncomfortable to read. I felt strongly that the whole situation being made a government issue was just WRONG. It was a family matter and for random people to breach the privacy of Shiavo's husband was wrong.
In preparation for the training session, I also took a couple more stabs at Change and Care2. I still don't find the networks to be that valueable, but was able to click around to more pressing social issues (like hugging trees and making sure butterflies can fly free) instead of the social issues that I'm more interested in like green tech and CSR.
Last random thought was that I tried to publish a new blog post to the MyBarackObama network on Sunday and either I was timed out or my Internet connection dropped. It was a lost opportunity and a frustrating experience. The frustration of a user on such a political network can def. impact how they feel about their candidate. So hosting such blogging software can come with unintend consequences.
The IPDI study was a pretty good read. I enjoyed some of the take-aways and am applying them in my day job. Plus I am hosting a training session on grassroots on Thursday for my entire company and I was able to create some slides based on the study. The article on Terri Schiavo was a little uncomfortable to read. I felt strongly that the whole situation being made a government issue was just WRONG. It was a family matter and for random people to breach the privacy of Shiavo's husband was wrong.
In preparation for the training session, I also took a couple more stabs at Change and Care2. I still don't find the networks to be that valueable, but was able to click around to more pressing social issues (like hugging trees and making sure butterflies can fly free) instead of the social issues that I'm more interested in like green tech and CSR.
Last random thought was that I tried to publish a new blog post to the MyBarackObama network on Sunday and either I was timed out or my Internet connection dropped. It was a lost opportunity and a frustrating experience. The frustration of a user on such a political network can def. impact how they feel about their candidate. So hosting such blogging software can come with unintend consequences.
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