Communications and Politics - The Basics

The notes from a talk I'm giving today for future reference by the participants:

Today's Communications and Politics

• Mainframe computers to minis to micros to embedded
• Private leased lines at 30 characters/second to internet at megabytes/second
• Corporate email to inter-LAN to Use-Net to BBS to Internet to instant messaging
• Climbing phone poles and dial phones to selling VOIP systems and using Skype
• Producing B+W TV to live streaming wildlife cameras and video-blogs

• Create and manage corporate and non-profit internet “faces” and teach people to self-manage them long-term.
• Media and Marketing consulting for communications-oriented programs and products
• Production and Technical consulting for communications and product offerings
• Tie the ideas to the realities, and implement or manage the implementation
• Hobby is technical – Business is Marketing and Product/Image Creation/Management

• “Back Fence and physical neighbours” has largely given over to self-selected peer groups that are geographically dispersed and connected via telecommunications (but the geographic neighbourhood is starting to be recognized and used commercially)
  • China and the fax revolution (hard to intercept, and dealt with hand-writing)
  • 3^rd World and the cell phone revolution and now the Twitter/Facebook revolution (wireless)
  • Instant Messaging and Location Tweeting – Flash Crowds
• Rise of Memes – “ideas with legs” - ideas that spread from person to person like a fire, via communications. Cultural ideas, symbols, practices, rituals, etc. “Something Imitated” that becomes part of the self, at least for some time period.
• Rise of “hot” site, video, blog entry, etc. of the day, hour, minute
• Acceptance of (some) privacy invasions more and more (but push back is starting)
• Wariness of spam and phishing but wide range in understanding of how it all works (from none to very high)
• changes in legal climate coming slowly – but coming (copyright and anti-spam, etc.)
• Empowerment at low cost (counter to lobbying by money)
  • peer group empowerment
  • “individual with a cause (or idea)” empowerment
  • “On the internet nobody knows you're a dog” - or you're a single person company
• High barrier to entry of new contacts unless peer suggested (friends tell friends, etc.)
• Google everything and everyone
• You can't hide your past
  • Acceptance of error if “mea culpu” and no repeat (but we remember everything)
  • Derision if obvious stone-walling of problems (see empowerment)
  • “We are watching” and “We will find out” and “we will put it on YouTube” attitude
• peer review and rating (note that scientific journals are giving way to this concept)
• Either Very Slow or Very Quick to adopt, but quick to abandon in either case
• Time is short
  • Gaming is no longer elusive activity – now happens in real time, 24x7
  • “My schedule, or not at all” - PVRs and YouTube/download vs. TV scheduling
  • Strange: Radio still works due to being in cars so much

• It is not just technical, it includes humans
• It is not just what someone does/says/posts – it includes automated information too
• Instant publication to large potential audience, from anywhere that matters
  • The Net Never Forgets – don't forget this!
  • It is HARD to get something taken down from YouTube or out of Google's index
  • Ubiquitous video/audio and image capture – and no control over where it ends up
  • Anyone can publish anything, any time, for any length of time
• Always on – never away from the net with smart phones and *-pads
• Personal Communications on Corporate Time
• Geolocation enabled – your car, phone/*-pad knows where you are and can help you meet friends or help a retailer sell you something
• View on my timetable, not yours
  • Disparity between “now” items and “scheduled” items (TV scheduling) vs the YouTube and Twitter generation. News travels fast but I'll watch the scheduled items on MY schedule, not yours.
• Peer groups come and go quickly but some last “forever”
  • Facebook vs YouTube
  • Facebook personal vs Facebook corporate/group
• spam and phishing
  • spear-phishing – targeted attacks
  • internet attacks of all kinds
• Flame wars and flaming
  • Do not feed the trolls

• Find out what you know and are comfortable with
  • have a computer? I-pad or E-reader? I-phone or other smart phone?
  • use it daily?
  • Have someone else look after it?
  • Use email?
  • Have Twitter and/or Facebook account? Upload to YouTube or Flicker?
  • Use Google or Bing search? Specific (vertical market) search engines?
  • View or listen to entertainment on the web?
• Learn about what others in politics are doing
  • Email newsletters
  • Blogs
  • Forums
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube and Live (Ustream, etc.)
  • Astro Turfing (opposite of grass roots) directed discussion, posting, blogs, meme generation, etc.
• Discuss potential ideas for next meeting
  • Types of communications to be used
  • How/When to start using them
  • What types/groups of people should do what, when
  • Measuring progress and effectiveness
  • Alternatives
• Give you homework
  • Use a search engine to look up words in this document you don't understand
  • Look at the WikiPedia entry for such words
  • Look at WikiLeaks
  • Look at other political party's web sites
  • create a Facebook and Twitter account for yourself – find someone you know there and ask to friend them.