Change is (dot) coming

Like millions of others around the world, I sat and watched in awe as Barack Obama gave his inauguration speech and felt that I was witnessing a genuine piece of history. But, perhaps more interesting than the handover between Mr Bush and Mr Obama is the handover of the websites. Well...more interesting for me. 

I've blogged quite a bit on the success of the Obama web team and their excellent use of social media on the road to The Whitehouse, but what now? Obama's Change.gov is making the transition to the Whitehouse.gov site and it has already been asking for citizens to email in ideas, the best of which will be ranked then put in front of The President for consideration. But what about the Twitter account, the Flickr account, LinkedIn and Facebook? I guess only time will tell.

MyTake - The conversation has been started, so it must continue. I hope that we are going to see an era of openness and honesty and lets face it, this our best chance. The communication platform offered by social media probably represents the most powerful connection with Obama's audience. After all, a man of the people needs to talk to the people.  

War games or bore games?

Obama and gaming seems to be a good combination. A while ago I wrote a post about the Obama campaign advertising in-game to entice earlier votes, now I’m writing about a game called “Commander in Chief” that let’s you have a shot at running the USA. The game, which hits the shelves the day Obama is sworn in, lets players make decisions about everything from budget through to health, military and diplomatic.

Produced by Eversim, the game is played out on a 3D world map and even lets you pick your own cabinet. To top it off, you get information from the likes of the United Nations, G7, OPEC, NATO and NAFTA to help you make the right decisions such as invading foreign countries (fail) topple unfriendly regimes (fail) and plot assassinations (fail?). The game is yours for a mere $US39.95, for which you get the play God with the entire planet.

MyTake – sims are always hugely popular, I remember getting hooked on Command and Conquer when I was at University. But do people really want to play a game about running the US? Yes, I think they do. The chance to run one of the biggest modern empires is going to appeal to a lot of people and given that it’ll probably be available on PC, the uptake should be good thanks to the huge install base. The question is – will people be trialling Obama’s decisions to see how they pan out?

Super Obama World... just like Mario, but without Mario

Gaming is more often than not about doing things you normally wouldn’t be able to do, like fighting aliens, scoring a goal against Man U or, in this case winning the US presidential election. A new game by ZenSoft called “Super Obama World”, which is based on a certain old school game staring an Italian plumber, is available online now for Obama fans to play. The game is apparently going to be released in installments, with the first chapter seeing President-Elect Obama taking on Sarah Palin in the ever-charming state of Alaska.

Imaginative is too poor a word to describe the enemies in this game, with foes such as hockey moms, Russian soldiers and pitbulls with lipstick….Genius. But it doesn’t stop there. The game also features the stores where Palin went on her questionable shopping sprees and you also have to avoid being run over by Palin on a snowmobile. For the icing on the cake, once you’ve completed a level you get congratulated with a screen proclaiming "Level completion we can believe in!"



MyTake – Brilliant, I thought that all the online fun was going to dry up after the election but then this comes along. I have had a quick play of the game and it’s very funny. It’s interesting to see that the “victory dance” of the online generation manifests itself as a game. But then again, they had a lot of material to work with, didn’t they. My mate Ed should play this game, he'd love it

Cometh the hour...

What's that saying? Cometh the hour, cometh the man..... It's never been truer than it is right now as the U.S. sits on the eve of history either way. I written a fair few posts on the online campaigns from both parties, but more on the Obama campaign's efforts as they seem to be doing more.

But it's not over yet, you may remember the iPhone apps story that I posted sometime ago - that'll be in full swing right now. Also, people logging on to Facebook today will have a nice little reminder to go and vote and guess which campaign uses Facebook the most...yep, you've guessed it. Looking at the Facebook updates from my friends, there seems to be such a buzz with people organising to go to parties, making sure their friends have voted...I for one am very excited and can't wait to see the results. If you want to read more from a U.S. perspective, check out my friend Ed's blog - a Washington based PR.

MyTake - I have said is before and I'll say it again - they are going to talk about this campaign for years to come and from an online perspective, they are going to teach this stuff in colleges and universities around the world. Will we see something similar from the next UK elections? Probably not, but it's nice to dream...

Twitter Turnbull

Kevin 07 isn’t exactly up there with the current Obama campaign, but for people in Australia it was pretty exciting to see politics embrace the online space…even if we did have the then Prime Minister John Howard starting all his YouTube broadcasts with “Good morning”. Malcolm Turnbull is probably the most savvy when it comes to the online space and special credit goes to him for leaving a negative comment on his site when every other politician removed any trace of negatively from theirs.  

But, what’s the news? Well, Malcolm Turnbull is the first Australian politician to start using Twitter. He hasn’t been on it long and has only posted eight times, examples include “is in parliament”, “is learning about twitter”, “is in question time” and “is addressing the nation”. It wasn’t until his seventh post that he (his staff) realised that Twitter is in fact not your Facebook status update and decided to drop the word “is” from the start of every post, by post eight he/they finally twigged that Twitter is about sharing things and posted a link to his address on the financial crisis.   

Yet, a couple of things still bother me about this. The first is the fact that all the updates are done from the web, which must mean he either has a laptop connected to the net with him at all times, or he’s not actually posting himself. The second thing, he has 413 followers and isn’t following a single person – kinda missed the point there, didn’t you guys.    

MyTake – I applaud good examples of brands, companies and politicians getting involved with social media as it’s a really good way to talk to an online audience. However, the Turnbull team need to realise that social media is about a two-way conversation, not just pumping out message after message. Take a look at the Barack Obama Twitter feed, he/they are following 103,116 people. Now, while I’m sure Barack isn’t tweeting himself (of maybe his is) this is more in keeping with the Twitterverse as it’s positioned as the campaign tweeting. 

Obama's got game revisited

Who’s going to win the US election? We’ll, there appears to only be one team actually treating it like a race for the most important political position in the world, and that’s the Obama campaign. At work, I sit very near a good mannered US citizen by the name of Ed (read his blog here) who I always talk to when I want update on the US election…mainly because he explains everything in simple terms that I can understand, but also because I get to learn American phrases such as “that dog don’t hunt”. 

The latest bit of news that Ed shared with me was that the Obama campaign has started advertising in online video games, namely Burnout Paradise on the Xbox 360 using Microsoft’s Live network. The adverts are actually on billboards along side the road in the game and advertise the campaign’s website VoteForChange.com. A quote from an EA rep (who makes the game) reads: "Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates. Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.” 

MyTake – The Obama campaign is busy nailing the few last nails in the coffin of the McCain campaign. Not only is Obama himself cleaning up in the debates, his team are kicking every goal possible in the online space. Trust me, they are going to write a text book on this election and generation of Communications students will learn about it. 

The phone that changed the world just might win the US election

OK, a lofty claim, but the iPhone might do just that for the Obama campaign. A new application developed for Apple’s runaway success allows users to rally the troops in so called swing states. Called "Call Friends", the idea is simple – you call your friends around the country in order to get as much support as possible. The application puts a structure and tracking mechanism around this idea, letting users make notes on who they have called, where they live, how they will be voting and even if they need a reminder on election day. 

But…there’s more. The app also provides up to date information and news from campaign HQ, plus a whole host of talking pints, video and photos to help convince in the most stubborn of pals. Obama, as I have previously posted, is very active in the online space and this could be the thing that tips it over the edge, alongside his other activities on YouTube and Facebook. 

MyTake – You go where the audience is, and guess what, they’re online. The iPhone blew the mobile web market wide open with its easy-to-use software, big screen, speed and more importantly, the SDK.  This is probably the smartest move to date by either party, tunneling through from the web to the phone, opening up the range of influence and taking that right up to the voting booth in the hands of countless voters. 

It pays to be social

I’m a bit biased when it comes to the U.S. elections as I’m very much an Obama fan. Even though I’m not American (and therefore have no say in the matter) I think that the election of the next President of the United Sates of America is pretty important to all of us. So, it’s with interest that I have been following the news on the election, occasionally posting a few stories here when it relates. Here is one such story that relates –Obama has more friends than McCain.

It’s official. According to a report by Pew Research Centre that looked at the respective candidate’s online presence, Obama is the man out in front.  With 1.7 million Facebook supporters and 510,000 MySpace friends, Obama out punches McCain with 309,000 Facebook supporters and 88,000 MySpace Friends. The report also revealed that Obama’s fan base on YouTube was 11 times the size of McCain’s. 

MyTake – They’re going to call this the Facebook election the rate this is going. It’s amazing to see the emphasis that is being placed on each candidate’s online presence and activities. With such a large geographic area to cover, online does offer the best solution to interact with your audience on a continuous basis, but it's the effort that's being put into the space that is quite amazing. I can’t wait for election day on Facebook -  “Barack Obama is……the President of the United Sates of America”

Is Obama game?

The US elections, I just can’t get enough of them. I recently wrote about the Obama camp emailing supporters the name of his running mate as it was announced to the media, and at the weekend I read that supporters were also texted the name, asking them to “spread the word”.

I don’t know what the opposition are doing on the digital space, but it can’t be that much because we don’t hear about it. The Obama camp, on the other hand, is getting its message out there for all the read – see this article on the Washington Post’s website sent to me by my colleague Ed Hoover as an example.

The latest news to come out about an election that is being increasingly fought online, is that activist group “Rock the Vote” has signed a deal with Microsoft to boost interest among young people in the US. Part of this tie-up (and the genius bit) is that they are working with the Xbox Live service to allow its users to take part in a number of polls. Starting on 25 August, Xbox Live users will be able to take part in polls and forums to have their say on their preferred candidates, with feedback and results passed on to the candidates

MyTake – Guess what, young people aren’t watching CNN for the latest campaign announcements. Good news, somebody’s figured that out. Great news, somebody is actually doing something about it! There’s obviously a revenue model in there somewhere – after all, that kind of data is going to be very valuable to both parties. Putting everything else aside, it seems that this election could be about to change the way elections are fought and won – it’s becoming less about spin and more about collaboration, listing and presence. What I mean by presence is actually going to where your audience is – after all, the old fashioned campaign trail is about going to see your audience and telling them your story in person. What's happening online is no different - the Obamas of this world are going online to get a presence in spaces and places where their audiences are. Bloody smart move.

You've got mail

For me, Barack Obama represents change on a number of different fronts, but it’s his latest move in the online space that's interesting me. According to an email sent from the senator's campaign manager to Obama’s supporters, the name of the senator’s running mate will be emailed to all those subscribing to the email service, letting them “be the first to know”.

Who knows exactly what “be the first to know” means, but if taken literally, the announcement of one of the biggest pieces of news in one of the most eagerly anticipated elections could be floating round cyberspace before it hits the print or broadcast media – what a thought. This type of thing usually never happens when it comes to such big campaigns, but it demonstrates the forward-thinking nature of the team behind it. They are understanding the power of the medium and using it.

MyTake – I doubt that they will announce such a huge piece of news via email then wait for the rest of the media to find out. I think that they will have a number of well timed embargoes in place for media to run the story as the emails are sent out, if not before. But, what a great move by team Obama. It’s certainly going to get the numbers on that email service up to dizzy heights and create a groundswell of online noise. What was the email address?