Change.gov

Have you visited Obama's transition website yet? Change.gov was live within 24 hours of the election result, and is a beautiful blog style website which continues Obama's dialogue with America, and indeed the rest of the world.

Watch a video of the transition team at work, apply for a job with the new government, subcribe to the website for updates, read a plain English summary of a topical agenda item, submit your vision for the country or simply follow the countdown to the inauguration - it's all there in an easy to access, engaging format. This is website that you can easily spend time exploring for it's content, design and usablity. And who ever thought we'd be saying that about a political website?!



Change.gov does exactly what its name implies.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

PRs for PR 2.0 research questionnaire

We’ve recently been contacted by Adam Abu Nab, a student in the Media School at Bournemouth University in the UK. He’s conducting research into the PR/Journalist relationship and the changing effects Web 2.0 has had on relations (making blog sites particularly pertinent for research in this area).

The study is measuring the usefulness, influence, credibility, professionalism and informality of new online journalist communications. Under the supervision of Dr Kevin Maloney and Dr Darren Lilleker, Adam has an online questionnaire he’d like PR practioners to complete:

http://s-yan86-40989.sgizmo.com/

Please complete the survey or forward this on to anyone who you think fits the bill. Remember, we were all students once!

The Media School at Bournemouth University claims to be the only Centre for Excellence in Media Practice in the UK, offering courses in Corporate & Marketing Communications, Journalism & Communication, Media, Production and Computer Animation.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Who said secrets should never be told?

Phew! At last! Somewhere to dump that emotional baggage - and for free. Call it voyeuristic, call it cathartic, call it connectivity or call it clever publishing, PostSecret is all that an more.

As described on the PostSecret blog:

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

Three years after the project began, Frank Warren the man behind this psycho-sociological experiment has just published his fourth book of secrets, A Lifetime of Secrets. Below is the YouTube video trailer for the book (a wonderfully emotive piece of viral marketing).

Every day dozens of postcards from around the world still make their way to Frank, touching on every aspect of human experience. Each PostSecret book is an extraordinary collection of the most powerful, personal, and intimate secrets Frank has received. The PostSecret project also received a special award from the American National Mental Health Association for raising awareness and funds for suicide prevention.

Every Sunday Frank updates his blog with his top 20 postcards received that week. Many people who have sent their postcards in, and who go on to get published on the blog, follow up with a comment to their postcard story on the blog - talk about community engagement. I heart Web 2.0!

Track the media, monitor the message

Web 2.0... what the?

Described as 'Web 2.0 in just under 5 minutes', this fantastic video is a beautiful piece of digital communication.

Video director Professor Mike Wesch of Kansas State University states that:

'My videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology.'

Heavy sounding stuff. But if you're wondering what web 2.0 is all about, this video is a great introduction as it's both entertaining and informative. It's 'meta web 2.0' - using web 2.0 tools to education about web 2.0. Very cool Prof. Wesch.

This video works not only as an educational tool, it is also an awesome viral marketing piece. Hey we posted it didn't we?! Enjoy.



Track the media, monitor the message

Pollies impact Myspace

Myspace, a place for friends. A place now also for politicians. Following an American model, we can now get to know our leaders a little more intimately through the Impact channel on Myspace Australia. Political parties have been given access to set up Myspace profiles for their members, allowing voters to view their blogs, videos, photo slide shows, music clips, lists of 'favourites' and even star signs. Oh lordy, give me strength.

The media anthropologist in me applauds the move. It's the very embodiment of the web 2.0 movement, connecting ourselves to our leaders and visa versa, like never before.

But of course the sceptic in me is a tad more cynical. Can we be expecting Kevin Rudd to be logging on to his computer, adding friends to his profile every half hour? I don't think so. The whole political machine has to be managing the process, and the lack of authenticity kinda makes my skin crawl. But then, at least he has a profile.

A recent article in The Age reported that the Liberal party were a little weary of the whole Myspace thing and had given it a wide berth. And it's little wonder...

Joe Hockey vs. Julia Gillard
At the time of writing 560 vs. 1640 friends.

In this article, MySpace general manager Rebekah Horne said the purpose of the channel was to humanise the politicians and help them engage directly with voters who may feel alienated from the political process, such as young people.

This is a difficult line to walk. Joe Hockey's music clip of 'What I l like about you' playing on his Myspace page is NOT cool. The 'young' people won't think it's cool, just self gratifying. And a 'farewell' video from when he left his post at Human Services. Are you kidding me? Less self promotion, more policy thanks Joe. But then he did list 'Jerry Springer' as one of the people he'd like to meet. Enough said.

And whoever set up Julia Gillard's page needs to get the screen resolution right - I had to keep scrolling across to get the whole page. This is almost as annoying as the 'Howard's asleep' video ad on her page.

People, didn't you watch The West Wing?! Well, according to Senator Andrew Barlett's profile he did, and coincendently he's been a blogger since 2004. Nice work with the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song.

Ah well, good fodder for the political cartoonists I'm sure. And from Myspace's perspective, what a success. Surely Facebook must be kicking themselves.

Track the media, monitor the message