Townhall meetings via Facebook

The initiator is the republican governor of Minnesota, Tom Pawlenty.

A change (finally!) of strategy in the Republican team? Waiting to see and find out more.

Wiki in new clothes

coming soon.

For me, Wikipedia represents a very good proof of how knowledge is challenged by the 2.0 world. With advantages and disadvantages, of course: the increase of the number of people with direct accesss to information - both as consumers and producers of information - means not only that we are able to enrich our culture easily, but also that the reliability of sources - hence, the doubtful value of what we are reading - should be checked at least twice. But, in the same time, the affordability of a system as Wiki offer to many people - not with purposive "technical" skills to enter, make the corrections considered appropriate and delivering, at the end of the process, the valuable version.

The twitting dance

The dancing/ballet experiences on Twitter is another example of the doors the communications are opening to our knowledge. A knowledge based more on the personal experiences - or slices of them - than on what we assume these experiences are.

Few observations about the ongoing debate on the health care reform

Most part of the intervenients in favor of the reform package are mentioning individual cases of persons advantaged by the eventual promotion of this law: a neighbour, an individual from the constituency, a family member etc. The power of the example and the symbolic need to answer the needs of the voters.

Some web ads in favor of the law reminded me of the (successful) Obama electoral campaign. Found it a bit unappropriate and an example that advertising is not enough.

Curious to see the final result of the tonight debate, but also the consequences of the vote for the American politics.

The taste of social power

Just have it right now, after a very short "virtual" conversation with a friend regarding a case of discrimination. Following the exchange, a Facebook support page was created and we widespread the news among our list of more or less virtual friends. Each of us twitted the information as well. The number of fans is increasing from a minute to another among journalists, politicians, public figures, people from various industries.

It is not a blind power, but the decision to assume and explain a certain position. The social power.

Twitter for companies

I will be positive and will outline a couple of advantages of opening a Twitter account for companies. I will refer mostly to companies, whatever the object of activity. From case to case, you have extended opportunities to offer specific information, based on your services. My post want to be a kind of encouragement for all the possible companies to go as faster as possible into the virtual world.

- You get visibility among your potential clients. First of all, you start to spread information about you on various professional forums and webs.

- You have as well the possibility to be aware of what your competitors are doing: what kind of services are they offering, what kind of public events are organising or how they answer various problems facing your market.

- You are in touch with the media and interested journalists. You could offer permanent updates about what you do, about what your clients are doing. You create a multiplied effect and offer any time possible subjects the journalists could write about. Of course, you have to be aware to do not "spam" the web with various kind of irrelevant information, but to be targeted enough to create a certain interest from the part of the journalists.

- The web interventions and the posts related to your activity as well as to the activity of the market are outlining your added value and your special profile. You could easily brand and rebrand yourself among your target groups than using the classical media tools.

But, of course, as I stressed on other occasions as well, a very intensive social media presence is not an excuse or could excuse a poor record in the daily, real life. Rather the opposite. Lying about yourself and your activities "online" are most likely to be exposed by the other partners, neighbors and competitors from the virtual world.

The virtual fitting room

A very creative and intelligent idea. An answer to the demand of the market.

The future of e-mail

I just realized a couple of days ago how useful for me - with not too much time and lots of new and old projects to work on - is the use of the social networks, in comparison with the classical system of the messenger/e-mail.

I have all the people I need for certain purposes - online - I can talk with them and instantly send messages, while checking periodically about news on topics and subjects I am interested in. The newspapers I am fan of, or the other groups I added on my profile are providing me the necessary updates for what I should read. Plus, from time to time, I have also the occasion to make a bit of fun, while seeing some funny posts and other remarks from more or less virtual friends about various posts.

Of course, in some cases, it is embarassing and disturbing to be able to follow fully this hectic environment. Some friends are excessively busy with their virtual farms, aquariums and mafia wars. But, in time, you develop the selective capacity to select the people you could have a valuable virtual or realtime conversation. As in real life, in fact.

My question is for how long we will consider efficient to keep our yahoo e-mail accounts instead of choosing a larger platform for communication, as Facebook. Recently, yahoo introduced also the possibility to create networks and to keep a certain level of interaction with your friends, via various updates - I always wondered why only now, as long as hotmail, for example, is using this system of years already. But still, we are far of the high level of interactivity offered by the usual social networks.

In addition, e-mail and social networking are directly interconnected: for a couple of months already, Facebook and Hotmail make possible the sharing of updates of statuses, images or videos.

So, given the current technological directions, it is more likely that, sooner or later - it could be count in the matter of months in some cases, as the evolution of the social networking showed already - using only the e-mail will become as obsolete as are now, for example, the yahoo groups.

An Abortion on Twitter

Reading the first time the title or the news you could consider it exhibitionism: how it is possible to talk about THIS? But, when reading further, you will discover that, in fact, it is not about making a case out of it, but sharing an experience as a usual experience - many women are facing at least once during their lifetimes. Talking about means making this issue a matter of public interest. And a tool as Twitter is useful about this because it provokes the conversation.

The debate as such is not new: there were always smaller or bigger groups of discussions, as well as ideas to organize a campaign in favor of an idea - in this case, the public "desincrimination" of abortion. The nowadays tools are offering lots of space of creativity and, not less important, efficiency in transmitting the message to a larger audience. And lots of idea to create integrate campaigns, with not too many costs but lots of benefits.

Using the right word

Glamorous words. The last new entry fantastic words found in some sophisticated - or pretending to be - books. They make us feel special, to impress people - including by creating them the lack of comfort when it is understanding what we want, in fact, to say. But, as clothes, words have a very contextual use. A very sophisticated silk dress and rich jewelries we decide to wear at 8 o'clock in the morning are not improving our image, but - if we are not very kitsch- make the other doubt seriously about our capacity to make rational choices about our life. Even some of them we do not want to hear about, what we dress is telling a lot about ourselves.

The same, the words. I always appreciate people who are able to use a diversified vocabulary. The condition is to use the right word, when necessary.

One of the challenges I am facing very often is exactly about finding the right words. In the PR messages, you need to be as clear as possible, for an audience who, in general, do not have too much time. And want to hear or read your messages very fast. An to remember, at least 10%.

So, if we agree that the same think could be said in more than 10 times, we hope to agree as well that the number one and number two choices of describing something should be the simplest one. Without diminishing by this the core concept, or without weakening the ideas. But, making it understandable for a broad area of individuals.

Using sophisticated words and constructions is not at all a sign of intelligence. And nobody will pay you more because of your hectic vocabulary. But for being able to make things understandable and decryptable. Do you feel humiliated or under used according to the professional and academic capacity you assume to have ? Maybe you are not in the right professional position!

Live from your home

Another not new but useful "discovery" I would like to shortly write about: the Webinar. An important tool for education, trainings, sharing information and ideas.

I will not enter too much in the technical idea behind this system, as long as it is very easy to already find the appropriate references on the Internet. I would rather like to focus a bit more about the so to say, "philosophical" implications of this system.

What a Webinar is offering, at a very general level: the possibility to have live meetings, independently of the geographical localisation of the participants. All you need is a computer connected to Internet. In some cases, you need a camera as well and a microphone. The program for watching the webinar is easyly downloadable. The direct access is possible after log in, according to coordinated sent via e-mail.

In the front of your computer you might follow business presentations or trainings on various topics. The information could be presented in the Power Point format or as a live presentation. The participants - in unlimited number - are able to address questions - in writing - at the end of the discussion. After, you have to follow the usual rules in terms of feedback - sending the presentation to the participants, managing a couple of questions and observations. If it is about the presentation of a company, you have to see how many of your attendance is interested to continue the communication, would like to take part to other kind of presentations - eventually, paid - or to classes in an extended format.

Minimum costs, lots of advantages. One of the most important is related to the learning process, but the business potential cannot be neglected as well. If you have something to say, just with a bit of technical skills and another proportional bit of smart PR, you are very close to find the right audience to share your toughts.

Social Language Networking

I discovered the details about the social language networking sites completely accidentally: an article from the NY Times. I would always love to learn new languages and to improve the ones I already knew. Without exercise, continuously, we cannot maintain a coherent relationship with our language skills. And, in some cases, it could be available including regarding the mother tongue.

In Western Europe, and not only, learning new languages - and, in general, the idea of continuous education - is not only an useful tool for understanding new cultures and acquiring new mental abilities, but also to help your professional career. More language spoken, more chances to find a new and better paid job. And the market is offering a lot of new opportunities to those able to adapt. China and the new vague of interest for learning Chinese is just the most recent case-study.

But, when you want to learn a foreign language, some of them with a different system of writing and different logical structures, you need lots of time and, last but not least, money: to pay the classes, to but materials etc. The tandem-partner idea could work as well, but again you have to be able to allocate a certain amount of time - daily, weekly or monthly, depending of the emergency of learning a new language.

Given these apparent difficulties, the idea of social language networking sounded very appealing for me. And decided to register on the largest one - LiveMocha. The system is basically one following the idea of the tandem partner: you could register for a class - the choices are amazingly rich: from the classical English to very rare ones; soon they will be also Thai, Lithuanian, Norwegian or Filipino. It is truth that in some cases, for some non-widespread languages, the quality of the translation is not very high. Or, you do not have always the native speaker pronunciation.

Part of the training is for free - the basic - you learn basic words and are able to make short sentences. You have exercises, after each lesson, you are able to share with other members, native speakers of the language you are trying to do. There are some speaking exercises as some written tests. As a native speaker, you could be as well contacted by other members in order to review a homework or spoken submission. And, you could start when you have time - a lunch break, a short morning hour. It's up to you to manage your time. For American English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, there are offered Travel Crash Courses. Up to your degree of involvement in learning and the submission process, you receive points you could convert in credits for learning the language(s) at an updated level.

In addition, you have all the time the opportunity to find people interested to share their language, to talk with, to improve your grammar and vocabulary.

Of course, not all of the participants are fully interested in (only) reading a language. Some are looking for dates as well. Knowing more languages could improve as well the chances to find a perfect match, isn't it? But, despite all these small problems, the system in itself is very interesting and shows that Internet could make wonders in improving yourself and getting more and more knowledge. Knowledge as a social process.

Random Communications - The Roulette's Principle

After mIRC and ICQ, huge chat hubs providing opportunities of various kind of conversations to millions of unknown partners from all over the world, a new concept, tailored about the principle of the roulette - random video and audio conversations with strangers randomly "chosed" by a computer is getting increase popularity - chatroulette.

It was created by a young 17 year old from Moscow - just in order to answer some needs a teenager used with this kind of comunications discovered while using current similar sites. For entering the site you have to guarantee - a word is a word - that you are at least 16. As far as I tried, it is no way to check it so, more or less is a matter of chance. The principle is not too complicated: you are directed to various kind of people, you are talking with and if you want, to push the "next" button and are directed further. And, in fact, you could never stop, as long as you could be in direct contact - visual as well - with people from all over the world who, comparatively with other websites, they could see you and you could see them.

The door to various kind of abusive behavior is open, as the system itself is in process of improving/changing/adapting to the needs and risks of the users.

Our communications habits are changing and the roulette system is only a simple answer to a simple need we, as humans, discovered in ourselves, to know more people, from various kind of the corners of this big world. It is interesting that the main trends are set by the very young - it was the same with Google, with Facebook, for example - that the other age group of the population is following and to whom it is adapting easily. At the end, there are no barriers, we could enter purposively or not, in touch with various kinds of people, to know an impressive number in only a couple of hours.

The good part is that we are able to improve our knowledge about world, about other cultures, to improve foreign languages or to feel less alone. To consider communication and the words as the main tool to use in getting in contact with the world. The bad side is related to the possible abuses - from various sexual exhibitionists and pedophilia - following the widespread use of these free access websites. But, at the end of the story, it is still about information: as long as you are aware and you know what to do, how to defend yourself against this kind of behaviors - blocking, reporting abuses, going to the next conversation - you could survive. Is in a way similar to the dangers that usually you could encounter in the street: people could rob you, beat you, aggress you. You have to be able to recognize the good and the bad and to drive yourself as safe as possible. Staying home just to prevent various kind of dangers is not the wise solution, isn't it?