politics and social media

From an article today on ReadWriteWeb -

Obama’s campaign is using wikis and social media to motivate and engage voters. According to Josh Catone, Obama has “run one of the most comprehensive online campaigns in recent memory — perhaps ever — generally outperforming opponents on nearly every social network or social media site…”.

When you think about community building and engaging people with social media, this is what I’m talking about. Has Obama stopped having people knock on doors or make phone calls this primary season? Absolutely not, because they know that works and makes a difference.. BUT… taking advantage of these new technologies has also made a difference. By using things like wikis, blogs, twitter, etc.. you can reach people, change thinking and build a community of people that support your cause. I do know that Hillary Clinton is also using these sorts of things in her campaign but I’m not sure that she’s using them to the extent that Barack Obama is.

Another quote from the article that I found really interesting was, ‘”The Web-based collaboration platform combined with a strong organized grass-roots effort, created unprecedented public involvement that is revitalizing politics in America,” said Patrick DeTemple, the California Data & Systems Manager for the Obama campaign.”.

Grassroots effort, and collaboration.

Where else have we recently heard these terms? In the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report for 2008. See how it all comes together, people?

NMC Horizon Report and what it might mean for Outreach

Every year, the New Media Consortium (NMC) releases their Horizon Report detailing some key ‘emerging technologies’ to keep an eye on.

This year the list is as follows:

1. Grassroots video
I think this has some pretty significant implications for WPSU and really gives them an opportunity to lead the way in this by working and collaborating with local schools and teens to produce video.

2. Collaboration Webs
Wikis, Blogs, Shared documents.. fall under this category. Just think of how much we could accomplish in Outreach if we take advantage of things like this to share ideas, solve problems, and connect with each other.

3. Mobile broadband
We can think about different ways to connect with students and provide them mobile-friendly ways to access our information.

4. Data mashups
New ways to access and organize information.

5. Collective Intelligence
This basically means that together we can accomplish amazing things. By giving students a space like Second Life where they can meet other World Campus students, and begin to connect and network with each other – wonderful things will happen. Also, using the sorts of tools I mentioned previously (wikis, blogs, shared documents) along with just meeting each other and learning about each other will make us a stronger organization.

6. Social Operating Systems
This idea is that the the network is about the people and not the content. Once again, in using tools like Second Life to connect students with each other, with their advisers and with Penn State, we open doors for them that didn’t exist. We give them experiences, and show them different ways of thinking. Just as we have meetings here in Outreach to innovate and learn from each other, providing these experiences for our students will help them grow and learn in a new and unique way.

We talk a lot about ‘value-added’ learning here in C&DE. These sorts of things are what will give us value. Giving our students new experiences, new ways to connect, and the technological skills to succeed in these environments will truly change their lives – and that goes way beyond handing them a degree.