Web 2.0 Aids President-Elect

Well, it has finally come and gone...Election Day '08! Today's post will be a recap of the role technology has played in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Surely Barack Obama's historic victory was aided by the heavy use of technology. Since the beginning, Obama has benefited from social networking technologies such as YouTube where users could find his campaign speeches readily available to be picked over and critiqued by would-be voters. Because the youth vote was so important to this election, the candidates' presence on social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook was a factor down the late hours of the election. Facebook, for the first time ever allowed users to "donate" their Facebook status to remind their friends to go vote. After the numbers were tabulated 1,745,754 people participated in what Facebook called the largest online political rally ever! Moveon.org was very good about sending reminders for people to become politically involved and aware and they also distributed free political buttons and bumper stickers throughout the campaign.

In addition music artists such as Nas and Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas have promoted Obama in the campaign through their music and Will.I.Am produced a track which he released on midnight, November 5th, to celebrate Obama's victory. The track entitled "It's a New Day" can be found here.

This has been a once in a first-of-its-kind election in so many ways, but we have finally seen the Internet and Web 2.0 change voter influence in ways never before seen. Could this bring us closer to a world in which we'll one day be able to use the Internet the vote from home?

Social Media Syndicate Podcast

I've been working on a group project to develop a podcast focused on social media. This is the first podcast I have ever done, but I think that overall it turned out fairly well. In our podcast we discuss some of the differences between the way members of Generation Y and members of Generation Z have incorporated social media into their lives. The show notes can be found below:

Social Media Syndicate Podcast - Episode 1

0:05 – Intro
0:26 – Welcome
0:41 – Panel Self Introductions
1:23 – The Hot Topic
1:33 – Shannon discusses generation definitions.
1:58 – Shannon asks panel: “What tools do you guys consider to be important in looking at the differences between how our generation, Gen Y, and the new generation, Gen Z/C, use the Internet tools?”
2:09 – Ceci discusses YouTube
3:42 – Wiltson discusses Facebook
5:21 – Christine discusses MySpace
6:04 – Shannon weighs in on Facebook and MySpace
6:22 – Wiltson responds
6:46 – Shannon discusses cell phones and SMS (text) messaging
8:16 – Wiltson weighs in on texting
8:49 – Ceci discusses Second Life
10:35 – Shannon responds
11:22 – Wiltson responds
12:09 – Closing
12:20 – Outro

MyFace vs. MySpace

In the world of the new Internet, social networking is key. There's much more at stake when various social networking sites are pitted against one another than a growing fan base. Social networking sites receive hefty dividends based on the amount of traffic their users generate, therefore it is in each sites best interest to have more active users. Apparently Facebook is gaining on the popularity of MySpace and in the battle for social media supremacy, there may soon be a new champion. Facebook has changed so much in the three years that I have been on the site to appeal to a broader audience as well as to become a more effective source of revenue. Facebook in just a few short years has been opened up to non-college students, business, advertisers, etc. and it has changed the ideology of the site tremendously. At times people have become upset with the way things have been handled since Google acquired Facebook. The Web 2.0 economy is changing the landscape of so many things that people once looked at as personal online communities and when the doors are opened to shareholders eager to get their hands on peoples' pocketbooks, it's usually not taken lightly. Facebook has become much more intrusive and the fact that underhanded information harvesting is done by using user submitted information, it's personally taken away some of the allure of the site for me.