Rebooting Obama

How Much is YouTube Worth to Obama and McCain?

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Total in absolute time (view * video length):

Obama: 14,548,809.05 hours

McCain: 448,093.01 hours

How much would it cost to buy this much airtime if you were purchasing TV time?

Its around $46,893,000. 

Trippi makes one additional point. We're not comparing apples to apples, since a TV ad is a form of push media that interrupts people's attention, while web video is much more a pull media, where we chose to watch. As he said, "The finer point would be that people were not forced to watch these -- they wanted to watch them -- they chose to watch them."

Can any candidate afford to ignore YouTube in the future?

Videos

Firstly, I know someone (Adrienne I think) set up a youtube account for the class to post videos but I forget what the username/password is! If anyone could help me out that would be great because I need to 1) post my group's video and 2) watch the ones that I missed.

Secondly, I really enjoyed the last class. I didn't really have any specific expectations going into the class regarding the videos but I'm really glad that they all were so different. Each group took the extremely loose guidelines of making something that was Rebooting America + something you researched + theme/message of some sort and ran with it. Even though I didn't get a chance to see all of the videos, the ones that I did see were great. I was impressed with how they picked a topic/issue and tackled it by using pictures, clips, etc.

I don't remember who said it in class, but I completely agree with the point that making the videos forced us to have more than just conceptual understanding of Rebooting America. We had to go beyond the powerpoint with the "key points from the book" and connect to real, concrete, visual examples that meant something, not just abstract concepts. We had to have a real interaction with the book in order to create something that was creative and entertaining. Within my group, I found that those who had a actually read Rebooting America and had a good understanding of it made a more valuable contribution to the overall video presentation. 

When working on the project, I started my own short film which I hope to finish soon. So watch for it!

Cairo Activists Use Facebook to Rattle Regime

Cairo Activists Use Facebook to Rattle Regime

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Kill Your Blog

Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004

"Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug.

Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge.

'Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it.'

Twitter - which limits each text-only post to 140 characters - is to 2008 what the blogosphere was to 2004. 

@WiredReader: Kill yr blog. 2004 over. Google won't find you. Too much cruft from HuffPo, NYT. Commenters are tards. C u on Facebook?"

Career Choice

http://www.countermilitary.org/PoliticalCartoons/index.html

McCain-Obama Way Too Friendly??

I was just exploring the CSPAN Debate Hub that JD suggested when I came across a blog that had a recent post entitled, "McCain-Obama Way Too Friendly" that said,

"One thing I liked about the Bush/Gore Debates is that it was obvious both men loathed each other and they didn't care who knew it. That liberated them, for good and ill...You look at the way [McCain] sneered at Romney in the primary debates and compare it with his tentativeness toward Obama."

Now I clearly don't have authority on claiming who hates whom etc but from watching last night's debate it was obvious (to me at least) that they both despised each other. It was especially evident given their physical proximity. During the first two debates they were quite far away from each other, either at podiums or roaming around the room. But last night they were at the same table, only a few feet away and the physical animosity seemed to be at a peak. 

Not to mention the verbal attacks. Last night the conversation got almost vicious at times. Not that the specific things they were saying were mean or hateful; it was the short, stinging nature of the comments that led to the overall tone. The two candidates clearly couldn't stand what the other was saying and used both sarcasm and interruptions to get that point across. So, I don't know what debate the author was watching because there was clear animosity between McCain and Obama.

Twitter 101

I had a great time using Twitter during the debate. Initially it seemed strange to just post random comments but as more people got on it was fun to have the interaction. I was planning on watching the debate regardless, but Twitter-ing the debate made me focus more both on what the candidates were saying but also how they were saying it, their body language, etc. I suppose my experience on Twitter was akin to sitting in room with friends watching the debate commenting, joking, laughing etc. (Although these friends were a bit slow to respond at points.)

While I think the experiment was overall a success, it would have been fun to have more people involved. If there was a greater difference in opinions there would have been a better debate among ourselves not just the one on TV. (Prior to the debate, I actually got a few of my friends from different schools to join me in Twitter-ing their responses to the debate because I knew they would be different from our class'.)

Even though the whole idea of Twitter seemed pretty pointless initially,  I found that the more I used it the more natural it became, even after the debate was over. I hope the same was true for my classmates (esp those who had trouble with the concept). I look forward to using this platform again as different means of communication.

Live Blog for Class 10/2/08

12:10 - Twitter? Trying to figure out how to make it work. Adrienne made page now lets figure out how to actually use it....

12:22 - Compromise on Twitter. Volunteers for Twittering the debate. Guys? Anyone?

12:22 - How do you access Twitter w/o a laptop or TV? Come on guys lets not act like we're technologically illiterate.

12:26 - Millennials complain that other generations don't know how to work technologies ("jeez mom its just email"), but this class is currently acting like we've never used things like this before. 

12:29 - Beating a dead horse.

12:31 - Still beating it....

12:39 - I'm pretty sure a whole bunch of brain cells were just murdered. "omg, twitter me, tweet me, follow me, like omg, idk, omg...." Definitely have a headache now.

12:44 - Do we have to be in a group to identify ourselves?....."It's not about you." vs. self marketing??

12:48 - "You cannot be you outside of society."

12:50 - Value inclusivity. 

12:52 - Group vs. individuality. Different kind of formation of groups and how we identity ourselves within that group. Key factor in re-defining democracy. Peer learning communities and the power of social networking?

12:55 - checking for predators.....(aka awkward silence....)

12:58 - wow. they're actually doing a techno trash art sculpture. thats pretty awesome

1:05 - freerice.com not that i believe everything on wikipedia but here's possible verification. Apparently we're not the only ones wondering....Harvard is too.

1:08 - Is clicking on rice grains a viable form of democratic participation?

1:17 - Important to install curiosity in the public. How do you get our generation involved? Treat us like 5 year olds? "Super big, super colorful, videos..." (I'm kinda worried about that.) What would millennial politics look like?? -"Like a video game?" How would you get people involved in topics such as the economic crisis? 

1:20 - sit around w/ friends, drink beer, watch the debate and twitter.....

"The Basis of Optimism is Sheer Terror."

While reading the first couple of essays in Rebooting America and thinking about the need (or desire) for optimism, I was reminded of a paragraph from iSpy's introduction.

"Isn't interactivity, like communication, an unadulterated good, something that can help eliminate misunderstandings, overcome differences, and even empower the masses? Isn't it, in fact, the antidote to the depredations of mass society, a technological enhancement of democratic participation, the ability not just to see and hear, but to be seen and heard?"

When I read that in iSpy, I wrote it off as sarcasm because Andrejevic clearly wasn't considering interactivity as a means of democratic empowerment. I feel as though he believes there is the potential for positive uses of such interactivity, but they are overshadowed by the overwhelming negative of constant surveillance. But the authors in Rebooting America are encouraged to envision and plan a positive outcome for the age of interactivity. In the ever smaller digital enclosure, the authors are asked to cut doorways into a world without surveillance boundaries. 

While a little optimism is a nice change from the overall depressing and frankly, frightening picture painted by Andrejevic, I believe that his is reality while the others only the sunny side of life. The writers advocate the belief that the internet will be an aid to democracy and in fact, make democracy "more realistic" and bring the "we the people" back to the political process. The image of a newly re-vamped democracy that has active participation from informed citizens is amazing....in theory. But in reality my question would be, how would you transform a feeble democracy with uninterested, apathetic voters into some amazingly efficient super-democracy? The authors offer their views on the perfect combination of interactivity and democracy but not a feasible plan to implement.

Twitter Politics