VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

Keeping with current events, I want to share with you a speech that President-elect Barack Obama gave at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, DC.

T he GOP is trying to rebuilt, so the RNC has launched Rebuilt The Party , Republican For A Reason , there is a RNC facebook group , with a Twitter account , and many more spin offs from the official GOP.com But, why are there two websites with the same content but different names? www.RNC.org and www.GOP.com? Why the party needs spin-off websites to rebuilt? Can't it do that from the official GOP.com? Do people need a different website to become republicans for a reason? Why doesn't the GOP promote the facebook page that it has, but created a new group named Republican National Committee - Official Group? Is this Grass-root online development, or just sporadic moves that hope for the best? The republican party's online presence says one thing right now: ME TOO! The GOP is copy-pasting stuff from BarackObama.com and Change.gov; It needs to do more, it needs to have a Republican online presence, with tools and technology that reiterate GOP values.

I've been rather busy of late, but I did manage to read some articles on how social media have promoted democracy, and how people are more involved with politics, elections, campaigns ... and with one another... due to web 2.0 tools. I also had a read about democracy (and direct democracy ) and social media . I believe that the Internet has given an opportunity to all people to be more involved, share their views and take action ...oh and donate money... So, people are more engaged and their views are out there for politicians to take them into consideration. But wait... just because I Blog and use facebook and social groups or use twitter to write what I'm doing does not make me an active citizen in my community in real life. Sure, it makes me an active member, but, in an online constituency, sharing my views with like minded people. Participatory democracy needs people to be involved, and YES you can be involved through social media. You will also need to act in real lif...

I came across this very interesting article in the New York Times I believe that given the "change theme" of the new Presidency, President Barack Obama should keep on emailing directly to the people that sign up for email updates from change.gov or whitehouse.org It is the power of direct communications that can provide the Obama Presidency a straightforward link to concerned citizens, and create a no-clutter, media bias free, message delivered directly to a huge base already gathered from the campaign. Security issues need to be addressed, but the opportunity of the President being able to speak to the people should not be missed. People got used to being so engaged with politics during the election, they expect to be so during the tenure of the new administration.

Internet communications make a difference in changing government and shaping new policies.  You see, President-elect Barack Obama isn't the only one that believes in the power of the people, or how direct communications between citizens and politicians play a big role.   President G. W. Bush at the Mercantile Exchange in 
Chicago, Illinois on March 6 2001  is quoted:  See, I believe in the power of the people. I truly do. I do. I believe that when you email a congressman or a senator, it makes a difference. It makes a difference. And so that's why I'm traveling the country. And that's why I came here. I'd like for you to contact your congressman, and contact your senator, and tell them to come on the side of the people, when it comes to what to do with your money. Listen to this quote:

hey everybody, So many thing have been written about the President-elect, some argue that expectations are so high that Barack Obama will need to do it's best in the first 100 days in office. I would like to share my experience of http://www.change.gov/ It is a first, a move from the transition team of the President-elect to provide information openly about the new administration and the planing on how change will happen. It is a great example of change 2.0! I am sure that business strategists and academics will create excellent case studies and simulation exercises based on the "change politics" of campaign Obama. Let me just suggest some reference books on "Change Management": Burnes, B. (2004) Managing Change, London: Prentice Hall. Hayes, J. (2002) The Theory and Practice of Change Management, London: Palgrave Brockbank, A. McGill I and Beech, N.(2006) Reflective Learning in Practice, London:Gower Somekh, B. (2006) Action Research: A Methodol...

Many comments are to be written about the new President to be, most of which far better than my own, IMHO, I believe that U.S.A. has proved that "if you will it, it is no dream". U.S. citizens voted for a man who is progressive in principle and patriotic at heart. His presidential campaign is a beacon of sound communication strategies; but most of all excellent organization and human resource management. Will analyze my views on "Online Communications Strategies" in later posts.

It is going to be the first YouTube election! An election that user generated content will play a role, not only in communications, but also in generating buzz and making the elections count, not only for the candidates, but for the people. Video Your Vote is an excellent tool to use in order to View early voting View notable Voters Voting perspectives from first time voters Watch voter Intimidation Report polling problems and Report registration Problems Be sure to also see some other very interesting websites on the theme of "Video the Vote": Election Protection BallotVox Video the Vote Wired's Threat Level New York Times Polling Place Photo Project YouTube's Video Your Vote   Our Vote Live MyFairElection.com Voter Suppression Wiki Twitter Vote Report The Role of Citizen Media in Ensuring Fair Elections Not all states permit to video your vote, with some of them not allowing to video the choice you make. Anyway, you can always upload a video stat...

Just a quick note on why the U.S. citizens vote on a Tuesday. Curtsey of whytuesday.org In 1845, before Florida, California, and Texas were states or slavery had been abolished, Congress needed to pick a time for Americans to vote. We were an agrarian society. We traveled by horse and buggy. Farmers needed a day to get to the county seat, a day to vote, and a day to get back, without interfering with the three days of worship. So that left Tuesday and Wednesday, but Wednesday was market day. So, Tuesday it was. In 1875 Congress extended the Tuesday date for national House elections and in 1914 for federal Senate elections. Today, we are an urban society, and we all know how hard it is to commute to our jobs, take care of the children, and get our work done, let alone stand on lines to vote. Indeed, Census data over the last decade clearly indicates that the inconvenience of voting is the primary reason Americans are not participating in our elections. If we can move Columbus Day, Pres...

Browsing through my Mac, I came across a report I had written about the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. I must say it was a good read. I want to share my 2004 views and some abstracts of this report with you. (7 days to go) Lessons Learned from the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections A brief review of Internet Political Communications E-democracy E-campaigning Politics and the Internet The U.S. Presidential elections were held on November 2nd 2004; the two major political campaigns of the President, George W. Bush, and Senator John Kerry, started in early January of 2004, when the battle for the Democratic nomination was being fought. An interesting fact to mention is that the online re-election campaign of www.GeorgeWBush.com launched on the 19th of August 2003. Politics and Internet Communications Everything started with Howard Dean’s campaign. Of course, political WebPages existed before, but Dean’s move to involve people, gather a huge email list, create Blogs, and empower voters t...

I came across one of the new websites from Google labs, "In Quotes" . Although the site can become a huge quote bank, it has started by compering quotes from politicians in the U.S. UK, Canada and India. The spin feature (pun intended) selects random quotes from the candidates on a specific issue. Issues, so far, range from abortion to the war in Iraq and from human rights to nuclear proliferation. The sites offers people raw information, and frames news and opinion subjects, in specific 3 or 4 line answers. In doing so, visitors can compare and contrast, while reading quotes from statements made in news sites, press conferences, TV interviews, speeches and the Internet. Now YouTube includes speech recognition in searches for spoken content . A good move from Google (one of the few companies that didn't felt the credit crunch) P.S. 10 days to Election day.

Now Ralph Nader wants to share his mother's Apple Cake recipe... Seriously, he is in need of some sound campaigning advice, and not from his mother... Read the Email... October 20, 2008 www.votenader.org www.officialnaderstore.com It's that time of year again. Apple harvest time. I love apples. As a child, to help with the harvest in orchards, I picked lots of apples. And in New England, where I grew up, there were so many great varieties. Baldwin, Cortland, Golden Russet, Honey Crisp, Macintosh, Red Delicious, Rome, Shamrock. Honey Crisp was -- and still is -- my favorite. During apple harvest time, my mom would make a spectacular apple cake. It had lemons, and apples and cinnamon and butter. It remains to this day my favorite cake. And it got me to thinking -- with only two weeks left ...

Great Debate! I really enjoyed John McCain, he was really hitting all the points, his best performance yet. Barack Obama reiterated his talking points (which are really good) and the polls decided that he was the winner.  But the best part... the twitter election page ! It was awesome! the discussion was dynamic, and you really get a sense of the debate as it happens. You share your commentary with other people, you see attack twits, love twits, action commentary ... is a great experience, well better than the jiggly lines on CNN.  I really enjoyed the "Joe the Plumper" commentary... Check out my Twitter Posts during the debate: Final Thought: McCain differentiated, Joe the Plumper can play a big role, Obama needs to get more offensive. about 8 hours ago from Election 2008 My friends: McCain won the debate. about 8 hours ago from Election 2008 Obama: Change - McCain: Reform about 8 hours ago from Election 2008 Obama: stay into frame! about 8 hours ago from Election ...

I haven't commented on the Nader campaign so far, well, I didn't see anything interesting... but wait... Ralf Nader will share his mother Hummus recipe if you contribute any amount of money but it has to have at least one three in it. So what the Nader/Gonzalez campaign is saying is: contribute to the campaign, we will email you Nader's mom hummus recipe, and then please vote for us on election day. It is a rather interesting way to entice voters to donate to your campaign, but I must say, when I first saw it, I found it really funny. Would be very interesting to see how much money will be donated because of the Hummus... Ralph's Mom will be proud!

Hey Everybody, Maybe it was the Debates, maybe it was the huge amount of podcasts I had to listen to; or maybe it was me changing jobs that I didn't update my Blog… come to think of it I’m hooked on Bill O’Reilly’s “talking points memo” podcasts... So, now I know what I’m going to be doing during the 3rd and final debate: watch it and be logged on the Twitter election page . Its really sweet! This tool is great, an ongoing live opinion ticker. More importantly, the twitter election page gives politicians one very important information: direct FEEDBACK from active citizens. People who are active through social media and are in a position to be vital political advocates. So be there on October 15, 2008 !!!

The Republicans Abroad in Greece, invited the Democrats Abroad , Hard Rock Cafe provided the venue … and it was ON. The debate was played again and the crowd cheered for the President to be. United States Ambassador to Greece, Daniel V. Speckhard was there as well. I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere, it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new people interested in the U.S. Elections. Debate wise, I want to say that the first debate didn’t really lived up to hype. Both candidates were well prepared, in a controlled setting. My opinion: No one won the 1st debate, Obama didn’t make the difference, McCain needed to do better. Looking forward to the town hall type debate. Thank you to Katerina and Ioanna for the coffee and brownies!

As a citizen and a voter, the sites of most candidates feel the same. Now every politician or public life wannabe, running for office, has a template website, all done by some young aspiring political team and/or campaign media advisor. It doesn’t have the sparkle no more. Take any reasonable website of a candidate running for U.S. Congress or Senate, political candidates and parties in Europe or local government elections. They are the same! (ok, if you exclude the name of the candidate and some coloring). Now, any respectable campaign has: a newsletter, an RSS feed, a Blog, a podcast a page on facebook... twitter, youtube, myspace, flickr, digg, stumble upon, linked in, you name it its there. All the sites have a contribute button, a volunteer button, host an event, join the newsletter, get involved, watch the webTV, see the calendar, the issues, the media … Although I am not trying to argue that all these tools are not important in a campaign. They have become Stereotypical and Must...

On the subject of flip flops I came across http://www.obamaflipflops.org/ . I would have expected to see merchandising like this from the official McCain campaign; but hey, I'm sure that they will end up as a great memorabilia campaign item at eBay. Both candidates are rather busy of late, my take is that Obama needs to get back on message, energize people and focus on policy - themes that have brought him so far. P.S. Hope to Blog more often during the last days of the election.

Just take a look at the last 8 YouTube videos from the 2 campaigns... see anything interesting? McCain's videos (by far) are the most popular... Now, why is that, well first of all the McCain campaign has uploaded videos creating TV buzz (most interesting the Celeb & The One video), second, all of the McCain videos are fun, specific, and single issued, Thirdly, the Obama campaign continues to work very hard to create viral videos with Barack backstage, and with the campaign eating at a diner. Now is the time to attack! YouTube can be fun and creative, but, most importantly, it can carry your message. The McCain videos do just that, they carry the message, that it why the are popular.