Obama – President of the United States

As America prepares for an historic day tomorrow – what thoughts and views are being exchanged via social media.  Is it that Obama is the right man for the job?  Is it around the colour of his skin?  Worse is their condemnation of this man because of the colour of his skin? Is it reflecting on George W Bush time in office? 

The Obama Presidential Election trail utilised every form of media at its disposal.  His campaign sought to seek the broadest range of web users.  His use of UTube and e-book were all utilised.  Was his success aided by this tapping into a relatively new communcation tool?  The general commentary has to be a resounding “Yes”.

Many questions – not sure of the answers.

Personally I welcome a new age of enlightenment and hope for all Americans under the care of this new President.

Twitter

To Twitter or Not to Twitter – is this the question?

Digital Recruiting states that it is “strangely addictive”.  Having  just become accustomed to blogging the thought of spending yet more time communicating by another medium, more often and follow the current “interesting topic” does nothing for me?  Do other people feel like this?  Do you feel that your valuable personal time is being eaten away by communicating with more and more virtual contacts rather than spending quality time in the very richly rewarding one to one conversations?  Having talked to people on both sides of the fence as it were, there are directly opposing views.  Those who use Twitter find it very useful but then again these are people who  constantly email, facebook, myspace, surf the net etc.  They live in a virtual world.   To these people the following website will prove invaluable www.Twitterlocal.net – this will find twitterers near to them.  The Guardian also posted a list of those who are worth following – Stephen Fry being amongst them.  I admit to following this up as he is extremely interesting. Perhaps I might be converted after all !!!  There was an interesting article on the BBC website about the power of blogs/twitter to mould opinion.  Mr Fry who has a following of 20000 - has a large audience to influence. What does this say about those of us who have so far resisted Twitter for whatever reason,  lack of interest, fear of yet more invasion of personal time.  Is this a generation thing?  Not really having spoken to my teenage son – he can’t be bothered but does Facebook, to work colleagues who ask simply “Why do this when they can talk to friends and colleagues?”

It would seem that esteemed Bloggers such as Seth Godwin advocate not using Twitter as it could be “misunderstood”. The amount of space to make a point is just not large enough (140 characters).  Seth does say that there is nothing wrong with Micro blogging but to be careful.  HE does also say “Using it for keeping in contact with an ever-widening circle of friends and colleagues is brilliant”.

We not only Twitter but now we can Yammer - a short messaging service within companies to connect fellow employers working on the same project.  The cynic in me says, once upon a time we would walk down the corridor and chat!

As for me – the jury is still out – need to do more research but interested to hear from others?

Gaza Strip

Listening to the Today programme driving into work and the hell that must be the Gaza Strip.  I found myself thinking about what type of communications are taking place or in some cases not taking place.

There is the public announcements from both sides to justify the stance that they are taking. 

There is the media focus on both sides seeking to promote that they have just cause.  There is the so called “independent” media all seeking a unique angle.

There are the independent “diplomatic peace” parties from the EU, US and Arab states  who are seeking a solution and wishing to open up communications between the two sides to bring about a cessation of hostilities.

 

There is the communication within the armed groups from both sides organising the tit for tat rocket launches/bombings.

 

There is the lack of communication within the communities affected by the hostilities where communications have been cut.  Families trying to get news of friends and relatives both within the communities and around the world.

What role the media in this – could they use their tremendous influence to smooth the hostilities, stop hyping up the situation and help to bring about a ceasefire.  The power of the written word could bring about the power of the spoken word and who knows a solution for those suffering the day to day hell which is Gaza.