Archive: Author: The Management

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), an arm of the Pew Research Center directed by Tom Rosenstiel, has a new report out on "How the Presidential Candidates Use the Web and Social Media." Let me save you some time, in case you just don't have the stamina for a 33-page report on the two campaigns' use of their website blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and the level of social media response that usage generated over a two week period in early June: Their use of these tools is highly controlled and generating a relatively weak response. Here's how PEJ puts it: In theory, digital technology allows leaders to engage in a new level of “conversation” with voters, transforming campaigning into something...

We're happy to announce techPresident's "Politics and the Internet" timeline, a living archive tracking how technology has started to change politics, government and civic life in the United States, worldwide and online, from 1968 to present. (U.S.-related events are color-coded blue, international events are in purple, and online developments are in green*). The timeline starts with the first vision of the "networked society," as described by J.C.R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, in early 1968, and the release of "Request for Comment-1," the first of many open standards planning documents that created the protocols of the Internet, in early 1969. And then it slowly unfolds, from the invention of email and the rise of the first online communities, to the release...

According to various news accounts, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney secretly met Rep. Paul Ryan on Sunday August 5th in Brookline, Mass., where the two men spent an hour in private conversation going over their relationship. Then Romney offered Ryan the VP slot, which he accepted. On Monday, August 6th, I wrote a short post called "How to Spot Romney's VP Pick in Advance," which noted that in 2008, last-minute edits to Joe Biden and Sarah Palin's Wikipedia pages were a harbinger of their announcements. I observed: None of Wikipedia entries for the current candidates being bandied about by Romney-watchers — Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Kelly Ayotte or Pawlenty — are currently showing anything like...

There's nothing like the ingenuity of mobile app developers, apparently. This just in: In response to my story Monday suggesting that edits on the Wikipedia pages of potential Republican vice presidential candidates could be a tip-off to Mitt Romney's pending announcement, a Silicon Valley engineer and author named Martin Ford has built "Romney VP Predictor," an Android app that automatically checks the Wikipedia pages for Mitt Romney's leading vice presidential candidates and then tabulates the number of recent edits to the pages. While Wikipedia is still limiting access to those pages to registered users, Jennifer Lee, an associate for Ford's, says, "The Romney campaign will almost certainly have access to people with editing privileges, and it seems very likely that the...

The act of observing something can sometimes change the thing being observed. Case in point: my observation on Monday that we might be able to get useful clues as to the identity of Mitt Romney's vice president pick by watching for a surge of edits on their Wikipedia page. Not any more. Last night, Stephen Colbert played a snippet of a Fox News report noting the jump in last-minute edits to Sarah Palin's page four years ago, and then he went to town. Assuming that Wikipedia edits were the tip-off, he declared, "We could be looking at Vice President Season Six of Buffy-the-Vampire Slayer. So, Nation, let your voice be heard in this history decision. Go on Wikipedia, and make...

Two weeks ago, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania released a national survey on public attitudes towards targeted political advertising, and the results were unequivocal. 86% of Americans say they do not want "political advertising tailored to your interests." Somewhat smaller majorities also said they don't want ads for products and services (61%) or news (56%) tailored to their interests. 85% agreed "If I found out that Facebook was sending me ads for political candidates based on my profile information that I had set to private, I would be angry.” More than 3/4 said they wouldn't return to a website if they knew if was sharing information about them with political advertisers. 70% say they would be less likely to...

The Romney campaign wants you to download its mobile app to be among the first to find out who Mitt is going to pick as his running mate, but if past history is any guide, you might want to instead be looking at Wikipedia — and whether any of the leading contenders' entries are being suddenly brushed up. Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page was updated at least 68 times the day before John McCain announced her selection, with another 54 changes made in the five previous days previous. Tim Pawlenty, another leading contender for McCain's favor, had 54 edits on August 28th, with just 12 in the five previous days. By contrast, the other likely picks — Romney, Kay Bailey Hutchison —...

Today, Twitter announced the launch of the "Twitter Political Index" in partnership with the social data analysis firm Topsy and pollsters The Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research, and the twittering class swooned. "Ignore the 'Twindex' at your peril," stomped Chris Cilizza of The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog. "This is a big deal: Twitter just launched a very powerful new political sentiment tool," tweeted Ben Smith, the editor of BuzzFeed. "Twitter Will Gauge Voter Sentiment in New Venture" was the headline at National Journal--never mind the fact that this is neither a measure of voters or of sentiment. Rather, what the Twindex number for Obama or Romney purports to be is a ranking of where attitudes expressed about those...

Celebrate Barack's birthday at our home SO COOL Gray hairs Do just one thing A family photo with the President You'll need to comb your hair for this Warning: This picture is cute Trust me -- you'll have fun We'll fly you in for the President's birthday Get-together in my backyard Hey The girls and I have a tradition Barack's a good sport Sign Barack's card --B.H. Obama Mitt's VP Inspired by my grandfather Saturday Only! My VP "You didn't build that" Meet America's Comeback Team Sign up and get a coupon Meet Mitt and his running mate Meet America's Comeback Team My dad's VP We Did Build This The context is even worst that the quote itself Built By Us --W.M. Romney [All genuine email subject lines from each campaign since July 12}...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's PDPlus teleconference with Andrew Slack, the founder of the Harry Potter Alliance--not because I'm a fan of the books, but because I'm intrigued to learn more about how you can convert fans into activists, and how the web makes that easier. We live in a world driven and distracted by pop culture, and while that may mean lots of brands spend lots of time trying to convert their consumers into their promoters, fans of various icons, books and movies are also creating their own autonomous spaces that can have political value. The read-write web, of course, as Henry Jenkins most memorably argued in his writings on Participatory Culture, makes this process of fan-driven expression and...