VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

It was awesome to take part in the DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable with Mr. Price Floyd , Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, talking about the launch of the new defense.gov website and the new social media strategy of the DoD . You can listen to the whole roundtable discussion on defenselink.mil . It was an excellent opportunity for people interested in the new media strategy of the DoD to ask questions, give feedback and propose ideas for implementation. I did manage to ask two questions on: 1. DoD new media strategy for Global audiences. 2. Twitter messages for DoD policy communications - engaging with people online. All the other Bloggers were excellent in their remarks; Mr. Price Floyd responded on military families and the Internet, technical stuff on webpage management and Social media strategies to connect and engage with people online. I was the only blogger from overseas (currently in Vienna, Austria) and I believe that there is a Inte...

From preliminary results 40% to 50% of 15 million registered voters in Afghanistan actually turned up to vote . The total population of Afghanistan is 33.6 million, only 7 million people actually voted, and these people must have been from low or medium risk areas: see the electoral security map on BBC . Citizens that live in areas of Taliban control were probably denied their right to go to the polls. Are these election results accurate under these circumstances? Are these results even statistical valid given the population spread, and war operations in the country? The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan thinks so and the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission claims to received a total of 433 complaints during the last two months. I am still not convinced. There are also international observers that monitored the elections and will comment on the results, see the UNDP Elect and the UNAMA . I also came across the " International Security Assistance Force ...

The U.S. government has embraced social media on a number of new federal website projects. The new DoD website is a great example of utilization of new media, on a rather sensitive issue of Defense and Security. It may come as a surprise that organizations as such are engaging through social media. Read the DoD Special Report: Social Media @ DoD . The new public affairs chief, Price Floyd, has revolutionized the way the Department of Defense is communicating with the public but also with people in the military, Floyd said he plans to expand efforts already under way at the Defense Department to tap into social media outlets to reach audiences not reachable through other, more traditional, means . The DoD launched into twitter , facebook , YouTube , flickr , Ustream , Blog , Podcasts , and created a number of Widgets . Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen has a twitter account . It is this openness in communications that gives the opportunity to everyone t...

I came across Rand Paul's campaign for the US Senate , the son of Congressman Ron Paul after watching him on the Glenn Beck show yesterday. He seems to follow the republican values of his father, while showcasing a clear view of his own beliefs and the actions that he will take while on the US Senate . The Ron Paul campaign has been remarkable is gaining attention online and continuing the "Revolution" well beyond the Presidential campaign. The Ron Paul revolution is an ongoing campaign that has steered off the " Extended Campaign Syndrome " of President Obama, as Karl Rove explains in a recent article on the Wall Street Journal. I consider this as truly "grassroots politics", a term that has been misused on a number of political movements. Ron Paul is supporting an online fundraising campaign " The Rand Paul for Senate Money Bomb – August 20th, 2009 ", which is a dedicated website that has a target to raise Rand Paul $1,000,000 in one day ...

Alexi Giannoulias, currently the Illinois State treasurer , has announced his nomination for the US Senate. Browsing through his campaign website AlexiforIllinois ; a strait-forward political site that has all the basic features ( Contribute and Volunteer being the most prominent) and links to Alexi Giannoulias presence on major social media like twitter , facebook , flickr , MySpace , and YouTube . I expect that he will boost his online communication tools, and be more active in social media when the election closes in. Also, given that he does not receive lobbying, 527 or PAC money, online fund-raising should play a very crucial part in his campaign, real lessons to be learned from the DNC and Organizing for America online fund-raising strategies, but I am sure he already knows that. Now, while on the theme of backstage video clips, (from my previous post: " Behind the Scenes Multimedia - Dora & Hillary ") here is the "Behind The Scenes: The Alexi For Illinois Ch...

I really like this tool by " Organizing for America " as a user, by entering a zip code, you will be re-directed to Twitter (you need to be logged in) where you will be prompted to tweet your senator with a pre-written text Example: "To Sen. Charles Schumer: Please pass health insurance reform this year http://bit.ly/j 63 je #hc 09 #NY #10010" . Note the hashtags that are added automatically and watch your tweet on the interactive map. Great tool! but why only Senators and not all members of Congress? And What about Senators that use twitter? the site could cross reference those that are active on twitter and mention @theirusername. You can find a list of Congressmen and Senators on tweeter by clicking through TweetCongress . Some of the extra features of the site are maybe the most important ones. It is good to tweet out to your Senators but if you want to follow through, you can call your senators with a good set of tools provided, including Calling Tips and Exa...

Far from formal structured political campaigns in most developed or developing countries, there are other examples of people that start a political campaign from zero, with little or no help (financial or otherwise); more importantly it is excellent when this happens in Afghanistan ; a country at war, with democracy just creeping in to the political system. The upcoming Afghan Presidential election is scheduled for August 20th 2009. I came across this video of an Afghan candidate for President, campaigning on a bicycle. What I really appreciated is the simplicity of his decision to campaign, even if he does not stand a chance to win. But this is a success story that explains how democratic transition can give all citizens the opportunity to stand as candidates and communicate directly with people that will hopefully vote for them. I suppose that web 2.0 technologies and the Internet have nothing to do with this campaign since most people do not have access to the net; the inten...