May 30, 2008
Cuba – Will the Whole World Be Watching…And Talking?
Last week, President Bush announced that the US is changing its regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones to family members in Cuba.
Only recently did Raul Castro ease restrictions on “luxury electrical goods”, allowing Cubans to own items such as mobile phones, computers, and microwaves.
Yet mobile phones will remain out of reach for most Cubans. Phone contracts are costing Cubans more than six times the average state salary of $120, not including the cost of a phone or calling cards. Still, many Cuban citizens were lining up outside the door and down the entire block at Havana telephone centers to get their hands on mobile phones.
The world has watched as developing countries rapidly embrace technology to further the democratic process, from protests through SMS in Zimbabwe to using Facebook to Organize Burma Protests.
So, will Cuba be the next country to utilize mobile technology to create democratic reform? We think so. Although the cost of mobile phones may weaken the short-term affects of Cuba’s move towards democracy, it shouldn’t be long before we start seeing and hearing from many more Cuban citizens on the Net who are ready for reform.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 23, 2008
How YouTube Ruined John McCain’s Week
Anti-McCain coverage has been viral on the Net this week, with suppossed lobbyist ties and contradictory statements fueling the fire.
MoveOn.org has begun airing an ad campaign on YouTube aptly titled, “McCain: Fire Charlie Black". The video calls on Sen. McCain to fire his chief adviser, lobbyist Charlie Black, who has recently been linked to dictators. The video, posted last Thursday, has been viewed more than 69,000 times.
Campaign Money Watch, a project of the nonpartisan nonprofit reform group Public Campaign Action Fund, has created “Fire the Lobbyists.com” where they have posted a YouTube video condemning McCain’s lobbyist ties</a>. Viewers can download the ‘lobbyist’ song accompanying the video as a ringtone and sign an online petition calling for McCain’s campaign to sever ties with lobbyists.
Continuing to haunt Sen. McCain is Brave New Film’s Robert Greenwald, who is the mastermind behind the YouTube series, “The Real McCain”. The video, which highlights perceived contradictory statements made by McCain, has been viewed more than 1.1 million times, an impressive number for McCain’s usual YouTube stats.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
The Future of Political Debates – Live Blog Sessions
The Crewe & Nantwich candidates bellied up to laptops rather than podiums for Sky News Online's live debate today. The verdict? So far, so good; no emphatic emoticons in sight.
Hosted by Martin Stanford, the live blogging session was completely interactive, enabling readers to submit questions and to watch the blog in real time.
The main candidates partaking in the online debate for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election were Tamsin Dunwoody (Labour), Elizabeth Shenton (Lib Dem) and Edward Timpson (Conservative).
An impressive move was on the part of Labour’s candidate Tamsin Dunwoody, who inserted a hyperlink in referencing a tax package; although, the hyperlink lead to nowhere, I give Dunwoody an A for effort and note the useful tactic in future online debates for those candidates tech-savvy enough to use hyperlinks.
One questionable side note of online debates is the ability for campaign staff to do the debating rather than the actual candidate, a concern voiced by Tamsin Dunwoody, who replied to a comment by Conservative candidate Edward Timpson with, “Hi Edward. Are you actually writing this or one of your spin doctors...sounds like it LOL”
Fired with questions that would have left the candidates stuttering at a microphone, the online debate had the same rigor and passion that televised debates encompass; but I’d prefer the caps and ‘LOL’ remarks be left to teenage bloggers.
Watch Sky News Online’s Live Blog Session with the Crewe & Nantwich candidates.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 16, 2008
John McCain Ventures into Blogosphere, Attempts to Reach Liberal Voters
Sen. McCain has bravely crossed enemy lines before, but attempting to enter and win over the liberal blogosphere? Now that's gutsy.
Sen. McCain has been successful in communicating with conservative bloggers through conference calls during Republican primaries, and is building on this newly formed technological platform to tap into a new audience: liberal and non-political based bloggers.
Yesterday, Sen. McCain called on non-conservative bloggers to join in his regular blogger conference call, opening himself up to the merciless left blogosphere.
McCain's main guy in charge of blogger outreach, Patrick Hynes, said "The plan is to take the work we've already built on with conservative bloggers and to open up a dialogue with non-conservative bloggers and even nonpolitical bloggers." He continued, "We hope to be the most accessible and transparent campaign in history."
Although this declaration of campaign transparency seems ironic, given that the potential Republican First Lady recently refused to provide her tax information to the public, McCain's blogger outreach is making major leeway with both conservative and liberal bloggers who are having their questions and concerns answered.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 13, 2008
President Bush Gives First Exclusive Online Interview
George W. Bush will give his first ever interview exclusively for an online audience today, hosted by Yahoo! News and conducted by POLITICO’s Mike Allen.
This first ever exclusive online interview by Bush heightens the divide between past Presidents’ mere acknowledgement of an Internet and the current Presidential candidates’ use of the Net as a vital tool in their campaign arsenal. In our current Presidential election, technology has concretedits well-earned place in politics by subsiding scandals, fundraising millions of dollars, and breaking news in cyberspace.
Online interviews have been essential forms of communication in this year’s Presidential election; a hopeful sign that the embrace of technology by future White House occupants is here to stay.
“This interview is a natural progression in political news coverage, mirroring the change in the habits of Americans, who are increasingly turning online for their news,” said Alan Warms, Vice president and general manager, Yahoo! News.
The complete video interview with Bush will be available on the Yahoo! News’ homepage will post the video interview this afternoon. POLITICO will have a complete analysis and a full transcript .
Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 08, 2008
Jordan's Queen Rania - Smart, Beautiful and Tech Savvy?
Rania Al Abdullah has raised the bar with her forward thinking Web-based approach to international diplomacy.
Attempting to irradicate common stereotypes and misconceptions of the Arab world through YouTube, Queen Rania has created a video requesting questions and comments on stereotype associated with the Arab world. So far, the video has been viewed 1,386,265 times.
The open-forum take on her country's foreign diplomacy is a refreshing break from the scripted and defensive political presence portrayed by many other world leaders on the Web.
"I want people to know the real Arab world, to see it unedited, unscripted and unfiltered," Queen Rania says. "YouTube is a great platform for dialogue and I believe we need to use these tools in order to get those messages out there, because change begins within each one of us and our willingness to reach out to each other."
Queen Rania will be answering YouTubers' questions until August 12, International Youth Day.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 06, 2008
McCain Launches Spanish-Language Website
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Happy Cinco de Mayo! Sen. John McCain has finally launched a Spanish-language website just in time for a holiday that carries more significance in America than Mexico.
Many young and web-savvy Latino voters are taking an interest in politics and turning to the internet to find information and a community to express their views on one of the most controversial reform agendas of the 2008 presidential election: immigration reform. Sen. McCain, although pathetically late in the game to do so, has made a wise decision to acknowledge the 18 million eligible Latino voters. According to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington DC , 9 million eligible Latino voters are under 40 years old, and tens of thousands of Latinos reach voting age every month. And while George W. Bush garnered an impressive 40 percent of the Latino vote in the 2004 election, the Republican Party has since broken ties with the Latino community through an outspoken stance against illegal immigration. The Democrats have long fought for the Latino swing vote that has a weighted significance in this year’s election. Clinton and Obama have launched Spanish-speaking websites, and openly court Latino voters via the Internet.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 01, 2008
Twitter Post Rescues Jailed Journalist
James Karl Buck was bailed out of jail by a 'tweet' post on Twitter, a social networking site. The message “arrested” was seen by Buck’s friends and bloggers in Egypt and the United States via the Internet.
Buck, a journalism graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, was in Egypt for a school research project, ironically focused on bloggers and journalists who use tools like Twitter to keep in step with news, when Egyptian authorities arrested him. The authorities claimed that Buck may have been inciting a riot; although, Buck was merely photographing a labor rally near a textile mill in Mahalla, Egypt.
Buck reached Twitter through his cell phone, allowing him to make the post without being detected by authorities. Twitter allows its users to post 140 character or less messages, providing a place on the Web for people to be constantly updated in brief, to-the-point blogposts.
Thanks to the Tweet post relaying his arrest, Buck was able to reach his friends via the Web, who contacted the U.S. Embassy and UC Berkeley, eventually sending a lawyer to bail him out of jail.
Buck says keeping in contact with the rest of the world via the Web and his Twitter posts kept him sane, curbed the fear that he would “fall into a black whole” and potentially saved his life. Buck said that he “came to realize how important a tool like Twitter is.”
If you can’t find a place for another social networking site in your connection overloaded life, this story should demonstrate how Twitter is a valuable online resource. Tweet posts come in pretty handy in emergency situations, from connecting people online after minor earthquakes in the California to proving its worth internationally by rescuing a jailed journalist.
Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
