Mobilizing Youth

Candidates give podcasts, blogs a try

What: Gubernatorial Candidates try out Blogs, Podcasts

When: July 2006

Link: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/NEWS/607260370/1006/SPORTS

Reading Notes:

Examples of how candidates have been using web 2.0 tools

* Former Florida gubernatorial candidate, Tom Gallagher became the host of TomCast, a library of campaign messages in an effort to be seen as an innovator in the 2006 race

* Communication director, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society: “A precedent [in the 2004 presidential election] was set that you can really use technology to change how campaigns operate. Now people are expected to do it.”

* Democratic candidate Rod Smith created RodCast, in which he answered voters specific questions about issues

* A national study of campaigns for senate (in 2006) showed that of 77 candidates, 5% were podcasting and 23% had blogs

* However candidates were perceived as participating on the web because they felt they had to

* Some view the interactive campaigns as candidates taking every opportunity possible to reach out to voters

Getting Listeners to find podcasts

What: 12 Ways to Promote Your Podcast

When: 2007

Link: http://podcasting.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?%20zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=podcasting&cdn=compute&tm=47&gps=130_12_1276_604&f=00&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=%20http%3A//www.jakeludington.com/project_studio/20051028_12_ways_to_promote_your_podcast.html

Reading

Notes:

Article about getting people to listen to your podcast

* Make it easy for listners to find the podcast by linking sales-pitch-y text to the file

* Distribute the podcast via email for those that aren’t used to RSS feed technology

* Create press releases for significant podcasts to post on free pr sites

* Subscribe to your own podcast so that on line services like Yahoo and Google know that it exists

* Smart tags generate podcast traffic

* Interview interesting people

* Post comments on other podcasts and blogs with a link to your own podcast

* Get listed in directories

What is Web2.0

What: What is Web2.0 - article
When: 9/30/2005
Link: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Reading Notes:
This is an oldie. Just did a reread of it and it left me a bit breathless again. Trying to look at it from the perspective of a person who doesn't care an iota about web2.0, but still end up enthused by the ideas/methods described here. Here are my reading notes:

* Great Web2.0 Meme map. Standalone version here: http://www.2036ad.com/archives/images/web2mememap.jpg
Some key phrases from it:
    * trust your users
    * small pieces loosely joined
    * rich user experience
    * granular addressability of content
    * emergent user behaviors
    * software gets better as more people use it
    * right to remix
    * perpetual beta
    * hackability
    * long tail
    * an attitude, not a technology
    * web as platform
    * services/not packaged software
    * architecture of participation
    * software not tied to a device
    * harnessing of collective intelligence

The Web As Platform
* Google is standard bearer for web2.0
* the value of the software is proportional to the scale and dynamism of the data it helps to manage
* without the data, the tools are useless
* longtail = the collective power of the small sites that make up the bulk of the web's content
* bittorrent is an example of a web2.0 service that acts as an intelligent broker - connecting the edges to eachother and harnessing power of users themselves

Harnessing Collective Intelligence
* Ebays product is the collective activity of it's users - it is an enabler of a context in which user activity can happen. it's advantage comes from the critical mass of buyers and sellers
* amazon made a science of user engagement. they have invitations to participate at every turn. they layered data on top of existing data structures.

Lesson: network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the web2.0 era

Blogging:
    - the chronological organization of a blog drives the value chain of a blog
    - RSS was key in growth of blogs
    - permalink was also key to building bridges between blogs
    - bloggers have a disproportionate role in shaping search engine results
    - also create an echo-chamber which amplifies their role
    - the "former audience" decides what's important

Data is Key
* SQL is the new HTML
* control over the database has led to market control - especially when those data sources are expensive to create or amenable to increasing returns via network effects
* failure to understand importance of owning an apps core data will undercut competitive position
* amazon relentless enhanced data - adding on top of publisher supplied data. harnessed users to build the data. they embraced and extended data from their suppliers - and added a layer of value
* the race is on to own certain classes of core data: location, identity, public event calendaring, product IDs and namespaces
* the winner will be the company that first reaches critical mass via user aggregation, and turns that aggregated data into a system service

End of Software Release Cycle
* software is delivered as a service, not a product [as i write this in Google Docs]
* operations must become a core competency - the software will cease to perform unless it is maintained on a daily basis
* users must be treated as co-developers

Lightweight Programming Models
* simplicity sets the world on fire - simple apps/methods/protocols have won out over the complex. ie: RSS + REST
* support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems
* think syndication, not coordination
* design for hackability / remixability - make barriers for reuse extremely low - use 'some rights reserved'
* innovation comes from assembly - when commodity components are abundant, you can create value simply by assembling them in novel or effective ways

Software Not Tied to a Device
* it's no longer linked to the PC platform
* more and more devices are connected to the new platform - enabling flash mobs, citizen journalism...

Rich User Experiences
* companies that succeed will create apps that learn from their users and that use the richness of shared data
* getting more desktop like

Core Competencies of Web2.0 Companies
* services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
* control over unique, hard to recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
* trusting users as co developers
* harnessing collective intelligence
* leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
* software that works across devices
* lightweight user interfaces, development models, and business models

Into the Blogosphere: collection of essays on rethorics, community and culture of weblogs

What: Into the Blogosphere: collection of essays on rethorics, community and culture of weblogs
When:
Link: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/

Reading notes:
Online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Such a project requires a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others. We encourage you to post your responses to the essays.
Covered categories are:  gender ,genre, identity, mass communications, pedagogy, public/private, virtual communities and visual design.

Engaging young voters

What: Editorial ticle in The Examiner
When: June 2 2005
Link:  www.generationengage.org/newsfiles/ExaminerEditorial.pdf

Reading notes:

Despite efforts of engagin youth, 18 to 24 year olds have still a lower voter tournout than other age groups. Voting as a civic duty, crucial for democracy.  Technology would seem to promote their political engagement. Young voters are natural audience for cyberspace media and blogs that challenge tradictional sources, but technology is only a means.  The importance of person to person, local and grassroots organization is the key to mobilizing young voters. Part of the reasons is that young people do not feel connected with platforms of parties or campaign programs.and how the outcome of an election is relevant for their lives.  Ties to political outcomes are important for participation. Make issues more personal. How politics involve intimate aspects of life such as family, freedom, reproductive rights dying loved ones.  More social activities to network and engage them.  Building trust with youth is essential. Politics still about people and not about tech.

Blogging, Journalism & Credibility

What: Harvard conference on Blogging, Journalism & Credibility
When: January 2005
Link:  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/webcred/

Reading notes:
Conference gathered a group of 50 journalists, news executives, media scholas and librarians. Entering an era in which professionals hav elost control over information, reporting and framing what's imoprtant to the public. Credibility of weblogs? Is it a zero-sum game in which the media lose credibility?  Conference participants believed the answer is no: the goal of informing the public is shared.  A few summary conclussions:

- The new media ecosystem has room for citizen's media and proffessional organizations as well. They will have tensions but they will complement and feed off each other
- The acts of blogging and journalism are different, both have valuable functions within the ecosystem.
- Ethics and credibility are key  but very hard too define. No clear answers. Transparency is not enugh, credibility also depends of trust relationship with the public.
- Many media organizations are now blogging as a way to build loyalty, trust and credibility. Establishing relationships btw newspapers and blogging communities, having traditional journalist blogging, bringing the expertise of audiences who don't blog.
- New esperiments in citizen's journalism are emerging, such as wikinews, grassroots journalism and hyper local citizen's media projects.
- Opening online archives makes sennse for business, credibiliity and for the audience. Increases traffic, creates a social benefit.

Questions remained unanswered:
- Are blogs the best tool for grassroots conversation?
- What will the new business model be?
- How can we engage non-bloggers, disconnected population in the conversation
- How much of this conversation is only relevant in the US?

Re-writing the rules of online ID

What: Article on the BBC: Re-writing the rules of online ID
When: January 5 2007
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6234663.stm

Reading notes
Young people forget their paswords in Myspace and very easily decide to make a new account, migrate their friends, redisign. Abandon email addresses and profiles. Recent research by Danah Boyd indicates that is a general attitude. Young net users start over with most of their accounts in more places, they do not see their profile as an extensive identity but something to interface with friends at the moment. Adults try to create consistency in their online identitity, but teenagers experimenting with their identities in real life could extend this playfulness to the virtual realm. Not all young users have this casual approach, many invest heavily on their online activities. Young people exploring different aspectsw of their personality through different accounts. A few lessons to learN. it is harder to pin online activity onto a real person. Number of signed-up users is effectively meaningless for companies, not indicator of real people. Many accounts are created just to try out the srevice, in Second Life there are 2 million accounts but only 35 000 are paid for accounts. Some organizations starting to offer tools to manage online identity, prove identity and limit the sharing of personal info.

Does the Internet undermine culture?

What: Audio program on NPR
When: June 16, 2007
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11131872

Reading notes:
Interview, current incarnation of the internet threatens culture. The Cult of the Amateur. Andrew King.
WEb 2.0: includes youtube, myspace etc. What is the problem?
My problem fundamentally undermines authority of mainstream media. User generated content is unreliable. Crisis in media industry, journalism, TV, music industry. Core of our culture. All we have is opinion, chaos.
Lack of cultural gate keepers. Neo marxist argument assumes that everyone who holds power is protecting economic interest.  The majority of editors, agents, publishers, are doing the best job they can, love and respect for music, news and books.  The "elite" are not perusing corrupt agendas.
Behind the democratization of the media there's a new oligarchy but we don't know who the people are.
How about the wisdom of the crowd?  In cultural terms, I prefer the wisdom of the professional. Quality difference.
POP music scene. Artist happy with putting their work on the Internet, the gatekeepers are gone.  There are some examples that have made it on the web, but not the generality. Is the people who are more skilled in marketing that will succeed but not the best musicians.
How about this being creative destruction in capitalism and that it will be better after it?
We need to manage the consequences of technology, not technological determinism.
Indpeendent bookstores vs. Amazon, the death of independent bookstores.  If bookstores and encyclopedias are the "roadkill" on the path of a new digital world, then what kind of would will it be?

Digital Is Forever

What: Digital Is Forever, post on Info/Law blog at Hardvard
When: 17 Sept 2006
Link: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/10/17/digital-is-forever/

Reading notes:
Paradox of networked communications: making information from tangible form to streams of electronic bits makes it less transitory. Cost of mass storage shrinking, connectivity increasing, communications archituctures are more sofisticated. The longevity of information when it's in the network is theoretically infinite.
In some aspects, a positive development. In web 2.0 type services for document storage, photo galleries, uplading older archves. Email ends up in gmail, google docs and others. For someone who owns different computers it is useful to have the workspace preserved online accesible from anywhere.
The cost of the network permanence is only beginning to be explored. For esample, if you're a job applicant anything you've written is potentially still there. Once info is online is very hard to get it back offline again. i.e. The wayback machine ,google groups archives etc, even deleted emails may stiull exist and law enforcement authorities can get them.  The durability of content raises problems with security and individual privacy.  Once information is released into "the wild" tends to resist control.

Blog Software Smackdown: The Big 3 Reviewed

What: Review of 3  main blogging tools
When: Nov 2005
Link:  http://www.sitepoint.com/article/blog-software-smackdown-review

Reading notes:

Why have a weblog: personal reasons, topical weblog, marketing tool
Why use someone else's software and not custom made? Many of these packages have years of development work behind them, better feature sets.
Hosted services:  TypePad, Blogger, LiveJournal and more. They are managed for you, you focus on content and appearance. Up and running within minutes. Some are free, some charge a monthly nomial paid.
Self hosted: Movable Type, Wordpress, Textpattern and others These required installationa dn maintenance tasks. Some hosting companies make it easier.
Movable type: created in 2001. First major package available and still very popular. Written in Perl can be used with a variety of databases. Wealth of plugins. Easy to manage, has a template editor for look and feel. Intuitive template tag language. Simples admin interface. You can run multiple blogs simultaneously (ie. each member can have his own blog). You can pay for support. Open source development now, you can purchase a support package. Possible pitfalls: it attracts spam and you need additional installations for this, rebuildingn the templates takes a long time. MT is one of the m ost difficult packages to install, the configuration needs to be done before publising. Avg. 1 hour to install.
Wordpress: Open source code, very poular. Written in PHP uses MySQL database. Works in a varitey of hosting platforms. Wordpress is the easiest to install, 5 min installation. Developer friendly package, variety of plugins, flexible in presentation and management, options for style and RSS, comment spam management out of the box. Allows to create pages outside blog entry structure. Possible pitfalls:  big target for spammers. Not the friendlies for non-technical users. Not multi blog.
Text pattern:  PHP with MySQL. Runs in apache. Integration of Textile allows easy fromatting onf web content into html for non expert users. Sections allow spearation of content in better ways than categories. More ressistantto comment spam. Simple visitor stats. Dual license model: different for business use. Possible pitfalls: learning curve, no trackbacks.