VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

Credit: OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev I strongly believe that Foreign Affairs Organizations have the opportunity to become pioneers in developing a comprehensive Digital Diplomacy and Social Media Strategy. The Internet as a whole and the different Social Media applications provide an opportunity to connect with various stakeholders, online communities, interest groups and individuals. The advantages of developing a Digital Diplomacy Strategy: To communicate the message directly to the public across the world. Without having to rely on International Media, Journalists or the Foreign Press. To harness public knowledge, share it with the world, so as to pursue national interests abroad. To maintain contact with audiences online and to utilize Social Media to listen and target important groups of individuals with key messages. To influence major online news leaders and International news agencies. To listen and gather information in order to anticipate emerging political mo...

First of all I want to say that I don't believe in websites that debunk Internet rumor. As I said in a previous post Debunking smears on the Internet :  "When you make it an issue, it becomes an issue"  AttackWatch.com is a new website that seeks to put the record strait (according to the Obama campaign).  The Obama campaign also keeps FightTheSmears.com a website actually created for the 2008 campaign! The website is still online, along the new  AttackWatch.com . Both of them! Comes to prove that websites that re-produce smears and rumors, do just that: re-produce smears and rumors.  FightTheSmears.com is a 2008 Obama campaign tool, that still keeps the 2008 smears online! The Republicans instead of "Getting the record strait" they just serve "the facts" not the rumors; with the  StimulusSpotlightProject.com  The difference is that they do not re-produce the smears. The website offers bullet point "facts" that target on...

When I updated the Organizing for America app in the iPhone, it transformed to the 2012 election app. It is a pretty straightforward app, with news, multimedia, local events and a donation button (although you have to leave the app to make an actual donation). Using the app, I came across the local events function, I found it really interesting when the app stated that: "Obama" Would like to Use your Current Location . Maybe the choice of words isn't the best, I think that "Organizing for America" Would like to Use your Current Location is the correct phrasing; but I might be wrong. Currently I am in Athens, Greece; but this iPhone app does not offer me any events in my local area, although there are programmed events . I know that http://www.democratsabroad.org/ are really active in Europe, they have "Country Groups" which organize, promote events , register voters, and encourage U.S. citizens to vote early and post their votes. Maybe it's s...

As part of my presentation at the 6th International Political Marketing Conference, on Blogger Outreach strategies and New Media Engagement , I commented on how to manage negative blog posts in a political campaign. Blogs are becoming part of the Public Relations landscape and being able to engage is crucial in developing a cohesive new media communications plan. You can watch my remarks here:

Even if facebook was a great campaign tool for the previous US Elections and plays a big part in any western European political communications plan; we can clearly understand the power of facebook in politics by analyzing the recent ban in Iran. The upcoming Presidential elections in Iran are set for the 12th of June. The current opposition is utilizing the Internet and social media sites to connect to young and first time voters, while appealing to Internet users. facebook was banned in Iran for one reason - politics. The current state owned, or controlled, media provide the opportunity even for Iranian politicians to be pro-active in Internet political communications, and connect with voters that use the Internet as a medium of non-biased news. facebook in Iran provided a clean platform for all politicians to connect with citizens and campaign like in any other western country. The ban, only made facebook a more legitimate place to campaign and clearly demonstrated, that even in a...

Reading the recent investigations on the UK MPs' expenses, I really had laugh looking at the telegraph MPs' expenses on Google Earth ! At the same time I do think that there are excellent examples of UK Members of Parliament using the Internet to be more open, transparent and connect in two way communications with the general public and their constituents. One great example I came across is Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson in this video from the UK Parliament's YouTube Channel and I must say that Ms. Swinson comes across as a very fresh and innovative UK politician. I do believe that online engagement with politics gives the opportunity to politicians to become more active in direct communications with members of the public. The segmentation of Parliamentary constituencies provides UK MPs with the opportunity to engage with people in their local community and create virtual constituencies in dealing with the problems in the local community, while connecting with peop...

There has been so much talk and analysis of the first overseas trip by President Obama; I will just comment on the discussion that he had during a student roundtable in Turkey. After a question regarding the European future of Turkey, Obama talked about the Sarkozy opposition to Turkey EU membership and in answering he said: "You'll probably have to ask him directly, so maybe when he comes here, he'll have a townhall meeting like this one". After seeing the video I sensed that there was a bit of sarcasm in the President’s answer. But he makes a good point; foreign leaders do not have townhall meetings with the public in most of their trips. It is one of a first for US Presidents as well. I do not know if he is going to insist in having these meetings in future trips, and whether other politicians will follow his example. Then again some politicians do not know, or are afraid of this sort of open discussions, with no moderation or formal Q&A. You do not know th...

Coming up to the  February 10th Israeli General Elections  and I must say that after a first read concerning Israeli politics I got more confused than ever.  Middle-East politics is complicated enough given the recent GAZA operations, and of course not forgetting the history behind the current situation. Nevertheless, this is an election, and Tzipi Livni is out there utilizing Internet Political Communications.  Her website , I must say there is a first page photo-plug of her with the new U.S. President , is really strait-forward! no clutter and endless links, focus on multimedia and photos, simple and to the point, really easy to use in getting the message out. She has a YouTube Channel   - a flickr photo-stream  a Twitter account , and a facebook page all relaying messages for the upcoming election. I do not know if there is a policy decision for the social media to be named as "Tzipilivni4pm" and "Tzipilivni2009" and only be created for the upcoming election, ...

I haven't stopped watching CNN for the the duration of the inauguration today... while micro blogging and updating facebook through CNN.com/LIVE and Twitter. Congrats to President Barack Obama!  Do check out the new whitehouse.gov and the new YouTube Channel ! PS> will try to write a post on my new ventures in Vienna Austria, for the time being you can visit the OSCE ...   

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...

Barack Obama launched  www.fightthesmears.com , a new webpage that: Informs the people about the rumors smearing Obama  Stating the truth around the issues, with video and links to support the argument Exposing the people that are behind the unjust attacks (with links to their sites and mainstream media reports) Urging people to report smears to the campaign and email them to watchdog@barackobama.com  It is a move that has got mainstream media publicity and a great tool to defend against Internet rumors becoming campaign issues.

YouTube videos from the ‘08 presidential candidates can be distinguished in 5 categories: 1. Uploads of TV ads 2. Candidate appearances on TV shows 3. YouTube exclusive messages and videos 4. Viral videos of the candidates and their supporters 5. Political Infomercials Some latest Hillary videos have a distinct characteristic, they look like infomercials! I believe it is a rather sad outcome of lost creativity. The web gives the opportunity to create great looking viral videos with hand held cameras, while exploring editing opportunities previously not used in political campaigns. The Hillary Clinton campaign has created a series of videos of people talking about “The Hillary I know”. I don’t want to judge the messages presented, but I must say that they look made up, given the studio like production quality. YouTube gives the opportunity to candidates to look real; Hillary Clinton is trying to rebrand herself with old style infomercials. Video utilisatio...

It seems to me that the upcoming 2008 US election has not only started early this time around, but it has been feeding the news with commentary about current issues, whilst criticizing President George W. Bush. Candidates take the role of the opposition while trying to differentiate between themselves. There is no gains in attacking the President, especially from the democratic candidates; by doing so they do not differentiate from one-another, they just repeat common values while having a safe opposition strategy. Hillary Clinton is attacking the President without differentiating from the rest of the bunch, while Edwards and Obama are talking about current affairs. The democratic candidates need to understand that their opponents right now are in their own party, there is plenty of time to attack the President, and the republican candidate, once there is a final Democratic candidate. Hillary's move not to differentiate from the others is setting her aside to be targeted. Obam...

INT ERNET POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS Vasileios Gkinopoulos Refereed paper 4th International Political Marketing Conference Sinaia, Romania 19 April - 21 April 2007 Let me say that I really enjoyed traveling to Romania and being involved with the International Political Marketing Conference. I must say t h at I made a lot of friends and I hope my paper added to the Political Marketing debate Please read two articles concerning Politics and the Internet 2008 Fundraising Barack Obama’s first fundraising call managed to get 5,000 people participating in a new donor drive just the fist 24 hours of BarackObama.com. An Email update just after that emphasised that more important than the numbers themselves is “the way people got involved”. A new method employed by BarackObama.com was for every new donor to have their contribution doubled by someone just like them. Each new stakeholder in the campaign got to meet and exchange messages with someone who committed...