Thursday, April 17, 2008
Interface, Class Reading, and the Colbert Bump
Senator Hillary Clinton just made an appearance on The Colbert Report. Instead of an interview they had a staged back-and-forth act, which was amusing. It was a short-stop through but was great!
I reviewed some of the Interface book but really didn't find value in reading it, so instead of offering the full book review, I am opting to write instead about a recommendation to strengthen future classes.
Yesterday's candid conversation about the class was important to bring up my motivation to write this blog post. I echo Sean's comment that the class should offer more practical tools and less theory. The vast majority of the readings, besides possibly the MoveOn book and some of the IPDI reviews, offered solely theory. As an "Online Politics" course I hoped to learn more about practice and not just go over some of the available freeware tools. That's why I liked Michael Bassic's presentation. He showed us how a leading firm does targeted advertising.
So my general thought with the required readings was that it was too much. Part of the reason that I couldn't read Interface was that it was given to us while we needed to write our final papers. I admit that we could have spread some of the 600 page reading over the course of the semester, but as we had a week to read all of the other books, it was not possible. The vast majority of us are full-time workers and part-time students. We look at college as a second job and take it very seriously because we are spending money out of our pockets to attend. I read every page of every book and assigned reading up until Interface. I may still read Interface after the class concludes but to juggle reading a book a week, my work requirements, and my other school responsibilities...their was no way to adaquately offer the time needed to read a 600 page book of something that's just more theory.
I was able to attend all but the last two weeks of classes and that's because of work. The first class I missed was due to a report that I was pushing at my job. We released it on the day of class and due to my work we received over 250 press hits. The next week I was asked by my CEO to do the communication and PR for an event that brought Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman George Miller, House Committee on Education & Labor, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), Ambassador Alan Holmer, and U.S. Trade Representative Sue Schwabb. I've lobbied in the past, attended high-profile events but this was def. the most effective boost of PR that I've witnessed with key constinuents. Within hours from the event, I had added over 100 photos that I took onto Flickr. Within 24 hours, I had a recap of the event linked on our homepage.
So...off track, Senator John Edwards just showed up on the Colbert Report too. This has been a great show! He just said that he will support any candidate that makes him a spy, because that would be cool. I haven't seen Edwards in awhile so this is great getting him out again. Edwards is now doing the word of the day too.
It's late, I'm tired, I am done ranting. Bring on the Pennsylvania vote for my next blog post!
I reviewed some of the Interface book but really didn't find value in reading it, so instead of offering the full book review, I am opting to write instead about a recommendation to strengthen future classes.
Yesterday's candid conversation about the class was important to bring up my motivation to write this blog post. I echo Sean's comment that the class should offer more practical tools and less theory. The vast majority of the readings, besides possibly the MoveOn book and some of the IPDI reviews, offered solely theory. As an "Online Politics" course I hoped to learn more about practice and not just go over some of the available freeware tools. That's why I liked Michael Bassic's presentation. He showed us how a leading firm does targeted advertising.
So my general thought with the required readings was that it was too much. Part of the reason that I couldn't read Interface was that it was given to us while we needed to write our final papers. I admit that we could have spread some of the 600 page reading over the course of the semester, but as we had a week to read all of the other books, it was not possible. The vast majority of us are full-time workers and part-time students. We look at college as a second job and take it very seriously because we are spending money out of our pockets to attend. I read every page of every book and assigned reading up until Interface. I may still read Interface after the class concludes but to juggle reading a book a week, my work requirements, and my other school responsibilities...their was no way to adaquately offer the time needed to read a 600 page book of something that's just more theory.
I was able to attend all but the last two weeks of classes and that's because of work. The first class I missed was due to a report that I was pushing at my job. We released it on the day of class and due to my work we received over 250 press hits. The next week I was asked by my CEO to do the communication and PR for an event that brought Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman George Miller, House Committee on Education & Labor, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), Ambassador Alan Holmer, and U.S. Trade Representative Sue Schwabb. I've lobbied in the past, attended high-profile events but this was def. the most effective boost of PR that I've witnessed with key constinuents. Within hours from the event, I had added over 100 photos that I took onto Flickr. Within 24 hours, I had a recap of the event linked on our homepage.
So...off track, Senator John Edwards just showed up on the Colbert Report too. This has been a great show! He just said that he will support any candidate that makes him a spy, because that would be cool. I haven't seen Edwards in awhile so this is great getting him out again. Edwards is now doing the word of the day too.
It's late, I'm tired, I am done ranting. Bring on the Pennsylvania vote for my next blog post!
Labels: hillary clinton, John Edwards, nancy pelosi, stephen colbert
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
A Race to Super Tuesday and Another Two Bite the Dust
Today both Rudy Guilini and John Edwards dropped out of the race. Chalk Guilini's up to possibly the riskiest campaign of a major candidate and Edwards' up to strong competition.
Rudy said from the beginning that all of his chips are in Florida. As an outside candidate for the Republican nominee he went with a risky tactic, which if would of worked out would have been heralded as brilliance. I cannot fault him for betting big. To continue the gambling analogy, it's like playing the roullette. You place big and if you win...you win big. Rudy is a dying breed of liberal-republicans so he figured, what the hell...let's have it ride on 29 (January 29th Florida primary) and take those winnings and put them in play in Super Tuesday.
Edwards on the other hand was always the little brother in the race. He kept on wanting to play with his big sister and big brother, but they just wouldn't let him. His charisma was nothing compared to Obama and his $400 haircuts were nothing to Clinton's crying.
So we are heading into Super Tuesday, less than a week away, with the Kennedys backing Obama and Clinton winning a delegate-free race in Florida.
Rudy said from the beginning that all of his chips are in Florida. As an outside candidate for the Republican nominee he went with a risky tactic, which if would of worked out would have been heralded as brilliance. I cannot fault him for betting big. To continue the gambling analogy, it's like playing the roullette. You place big and if you win...you win big. Rudy is a dying breed of liberal-republicans so he figured, what the hell...let's have it ride on 29 (January 29th Florida primary) and take those winnings and put them in play in Super Tuesday.
Edwards on the other hand was always the little brother in the race. He kept on wanting to play with his big sister and big brother, but they just wouldn't let him. His charisma was nothing compared to Obama and his $400 haircuts were nothing to Clinton's crying.
So we are heading into Super Tuesday, less than a week away, with the Kennedys backing Obama and Clinton winning a delegate-free race in Florida.
Labels: Barack Obama, hillary clinton, John Edwards, Kennedy, Rudy Guilini, super tuesday
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