VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

I came across an OSCE update on facebook asking: "Can social media help us prepare for peace?" In the new Report " Preparing for peace Communications in conflict resolution " the OSCE explains the role of Social Media in conflict resolution, detailing challenges and opportunities. OSCE/Curtis Budden Definitely recommending reading this OSCE publication. It is great that an Organization such as the OSCE is keeping active in Social Media, and at the same time "Mapping the blogosphere, reporting on negotiations, using social media to overcome divides" . Credit to the OSCE PPIS, Ireland’s 2012 OSCE Chairmanship, the US Mission to the OSCE and the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the OSCE.  Having worked for the OSCE in 2009 , I launched the official OSCE presence on facebook and twitter , along with Issuu . It was an excellent start, and I am happy to see that the team in PPIS are keeping up with the OSCE presence in Social Media and are launc

The 2012 campaigns for President have been very interesting in terms of Internent communications and voter outreach. In this article I have collected all of my comments during the past months and years leading up to election day. These are my unbiased honest opinions as an observer, not as a voter.  I have Blogged on numerous issues, mostly focusing on Internet Political Communications, Political Marketing and Political Issues that I felt passionate about. You can browse though my articles here:   The problem with political emails asking for money: TV Ads  I do not oppose online fundraising, I understand that both campaigns are tapping into their hardcore supporters; The problem is that for the most part both campaigns are asking contributions in order to outspend the opponent on TV air time! Barack Obama Vlogs on YouTube   During the past few days I enjoyed the videos coming from the Obama campaign on YouTube. #debate politics and new media communications   I was quite sur

During the past months both the Democrats and Republicans have send an abundance of emails, driving home their message for the future.  At the same time all emails asked for money in the form of donations or contributions. Here are some punch lines the campaigns used to urge supporters to click-through and donate: Please chip in $5 or more today. Chip in $5 or more before our final budget deadline. Your generosity and efforts can make a great difference. Chip in $5 or whatever you can today. Don't wait. Supporting this campaign once more will move us closer to victory. Please don't wait any longer. Help us out with a donation of $5 or more today. Donate $5 or more right now to keep this campaign strong straight up until the last vote is cast on November 6th. Contribute $5 now to be automatically entered for a chance to win. Chip in $5 or whatever you can and you'll be automatically entered. Close the gap -- chip in $5 or more now. Thanks to you, our camp

During the past few days I enjoyed the videos coming from the Obama campaign on YouTube. I really liked the style of these videos, being a Vlog-like series with Barack Obama taking directly to the camera. It feels very DIY, and definitely without the production quality of other videos from the Barack Obama channel. These videos feel real; the president talks directly to the camera, they are backstage and give a behind the scenes look into the campaign. These sort of videos give the opportunity for the YouTube campaign to become more real and Barack Obama to connect with voters using informal videos. In doing so the campaign utilises YouTube like a Vlog Platform, rather than just uploading TV ads. Below you can find a collection of them:

I must say that I enjoyed watching the first debate between the nominees for President of the United States. It was quite clear from the start that Romney was in charge, and President Obama seemed settled in reciting talking points. Some of my tweets included:  To start, disappointed with @ barackobama - @ mittromney is doing a good job. — Vas Gkinopoulos (@VasGk) October 4, 2012 hmm @ mittromney is definitely in control of the #debate — Vas Gkinopoulos (@VasGk) October 4, 2012 I was quite surprised to read some articles on social media and politics, that suggested TV debates were obsolete, or that it was an "old media" approach to political campaigning. Such smug approaches are missing the point. The statistics show 10.3 million Tweets in 90 minutes. An amazing number that not only is a first in presidential debates, it makes the #debates more dynamic than ever! So I look forward to the next 3 debates for 2012.  Internet engagement makes the #debates ever more impor

Having read through a lot of information on how the Obama and Romney campaigns are utilising the Internet and Social Media, I wanted to focus on their political photography campaigns. After looking at their respective flickr accounts ( Barack Obama - Mitt Romney ), I was really amazed with the Romney campaign... in not using flickr properly. Dinner with Barack and Michelle—August 20th, 2012, Dinner at Mintwood Place in Washington DC, Photograph by Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America It is really weird that the Romney campaign does not use flickr as they should in order to attract more views, spread the campaign photos across the web, and drive traffic back to MittRomney.com The Romney campaign does not title their photos, nor do they provide a description to each photo. So each photo is " Untitled" and the campaign does not even give credit to the respective photographers. Moreover, none of the photos are even taged with keywords, and also the Romney campaign