All you need is love, says Clay

I just read Internet guru Clay Shirky’s new book Cognitive Surplus

The basic premise of the book is that we have spent too much time passively watching television rather than doing stuff.

This is now changed as the online generation turn away from TV to the internet where they hangout in social networks, comment on posts and upload videos.

They are using their spare time which 100 years ago people had very little of to do something creative. OK most of the stuff done is trivial but for every 100 cute cat videos there is one video of real worth.

The problem with the book is that although Clay paints a convincing picture that the internet is groovy and it brings the world the 60’s ideal of peace and love in bytes, this is only half the picture.

The heart warming stories like wikipedia and the online charitable giving of time and money are great, but they need to be balanced with the fact that the internet can be used for ill as well as good: the Jihad movements plotting the next terrorist outrage; the Russian hackers attacking a Balletic state; pedophiles grooming children online.

Clay radiates nothing but goodness, but beneath this goodness lies a dollop of evil.

A quiet revolution is underway in Africa

Many of us take the Internet for granted, but what about locations that are too remote or economically impoverished to enjoy the hi-tech benefits of the developed world?

The Shadow Chancellor in the UK, George Osborne, illustrated in a recent speech that people in the developing world - even in the poorest of circumstances - do care about having access to technology.

In a visit to a remote village in Rwanda in 2007 he and 40 other Conservative Party volunteers were working on transforming a once derelict orphanage into a school.

When it was announced that they were going to fix up the buildings and improve the water supply there were cheers from the villagers, but the loudest shouts were received when it was announced that the school was to be equipped with a computer.

Osborne was at first surprised with the reaction - access to a computer is not a fundamental of life. But even villagers in the remotest part of Rwanda knew about computers and the Internet and didn’t want their children to be excluded - as they had been - from something that could help lift them out of poverty.

While computer penetration is still low, Africans are buying mobile phones at a world record rate with take-up soaring 550% in five years. Now one third of the population in Africa owns a mobile phone.

These devices are being used in Africa to do all sorts of things never dreamt about by their creators. Transferring money via SMS between people who don’t have a bank account is now a huge business.

They are also acting as a link to get information out from rural areas and onto the Internet.

In Kenya, soon after violence erupted in 2007/8 elections, Mashada- a prominent online forum - launched an SMS hotline to help share information. Several prominent Kenyan blogs also accepted comments via SMS. Perhaps most prominently, BBC Africa’s ‘Have Your Say’ received over 3800 and published over 1300 comments after requesting updates from Kenyans.

While these innovative SMS tools are allowing more people to contribute opinions and information, none of them can yet directly reach the majority of the population, who need Internet access to see the posted messages.

Twitter is perhaps the most promising tool because of its ability to deliver messages to mobile phones. In the Kenyan elections twitter was used by journalists in trouble spots to warn people in real time to avoid these locations as well as to inform the world of what was happening.

Now, finally, Africa is getting the new high-speed Internet connections developed countries have had for years. In September 2009, a new cable linked up East Africa and this, combined with widespread mobile access, is promising to revolutionise business and communications, acting as a check on corrupt regimes by exposing malpractice and lifting areas of the continent out of poverty.

The Internet won't create success for Africa but perhaps the freedoms it brings will.

The Secrets of Obama's New Media Juggernaut

One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president echoed that of Kennedy was with his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Kennedy, it was television. For Obama, it was the Internet.

Recently I was luckily enough to be able to attend a presentation in San Fransisco by one of the architects of Obama's online campaign, Jascha Franklin Hodge of Blue State Digital.

Obama didn't win the election just because of his use of the Internet. He was an amazing candidate, with a great team and the right circumstances, but the way he used the web as a tool to galvanize support was crucial to the outcome.

These are 6 core principles on how it was done:

1) Drive Action

If you want people to do something then set a low barrier to action. Keep it simple and develop a number of different tools that allow people to become involved. Set expectations high and move people up a pyramid of action encouraging them through easy steps to a higher level of engagement.

On the Obama website the bottom of the pyramid was a simple site registration form whilst at the top it was about multiple donations, action taking and peer recruitment. Reasons were always given to act such as registering so you would be the first to know the name of the vice presidential candidate.

A very active social network was developed which was similar to FaceBook but with a crucial difference, that whilst on FaceBook there are many frivolous activities - poking and gifting - My.barackobama.com encouraged action orientated social networking. Instead of throwing sheep you were asked to help the campaign by ringing a friend or sending an email containing an Obama message.

2) Be authentic

Obama's team realised that emailing potential supporters a robotic press release would result in an instant redirect of the message to the bin. To engage people you need to speak to them as people and show personality. Personal email messages and behind the scenes videos released on YouTube although not polished are more real and effective because of this.

3) Create ownership

Give people a sense that they own a part of the cause. Why would anyone support a faceless bureaucracy, corporation or political party that they didn't in anyway feel involved with. Obama created ownership by turning people into personal advocates, giving them their own web pages and encouraging them to add their friends to personal fund raising groups.

He also recognised that it is all about the network, he didn't match groups of grassroot supporters with a single wealthy donor as had been done before, he matched them with people like themselves and sent them emails of introduction so they could support and encourage each other.

By keeping it local the campaign created neighbour to neighbour connections. Once signed up on the site you were sent a list of targeted voters in your locality and given materials to door knock, send emails or make telephone calls. This resulted in over six million contacts.

4) Be relevant

Make sure that your message has relevance to the people that you are trying to engage with. If constituents are recently unemployed steel workers then sending them an email discussing the budget deficit may not be appropriate. Also don't just react to events learn to anticipate them.

5) Build a strong open brand

It is vital to brand professionally and apply it consistently across all your communication materials, which in Obama's case was everything from his posters to his jet. However your supporters should be empowered to do interesting things with the brand. The Obama website carried a full list of brand resources (the original artwork) and gave instructions on how to create your own computer wall paper, videos and posters. This freedom led to some novel uses with people illuminating their bicycle with the logo and the creation of iconic art such as the Obama Hope poster.

6) Measure everything

The great thing about the web is it is very easy and cheap to measure the effectiveness of everything. The campaign used this to its full extent testing emails, advertising and fund raising activities on small groups and then adapting the products to be more effective based on this data.

And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make

There are many more reasons behind Obama's new media juggernaut including the creation of an amazing iphone application - that with with the owners permission - scanned the phones address book finding friends in key states to call so you could enlist their support. Also to be where the people are, be it on FaceBook, YouTube or MySpace, Obama had a presence.

But perhaps the most important lesson to learn from the campaign is that you should never underestimate people and the beneficial results that can be achieved by empowering them.

And if you choose not to believe me then just look to the 44th President of the United States of America, one Barack Obama and how he managed to achieve his historic victory.

Follow me on Twitter: @nelliesk

Bar Humbug to cinema-style age ratings for websites

Dear Andy Burnham (UK Culture Secretary),

After reading your comments in the Daily Telegraph about the "dangerous internet" and bringing in cinema- style ratings for websites to protect not only children but adults, I'm not sure if you have been enjoying the office party a little too much or whether getting into the festive spirit you have decided on a Christmas makeover as Scrooge.

Bar Humbug!

Ideas such as this make me despair that this Government really does not get the web at all.

One minute the Labour Government talks about our creative industries being one of the engines that will pull us out of the recession. The next minute it is threatening to snuff out one of the last bright flames in the economy by talking about ridiculous legislation.

Some questions Andy:

• Do you plan just to apply this to UK based sites?
• Does the Government not realise that the web is not a walled garden and it cannot force these regulations on sites that do not originate in the UK?
• Or does the Government plan to make the UK like China and bring in heavy censorship of the internet blocking sites that it does not approve of?
• Also Andy, is it not a worrying trend that a government minister in a democracy says he knows what people should and shouldn't be allowed to read and see?

There are so many web initiatives that the Government should be spending its time developing rather than on producing regressive legislation that won't work. The use of collaborative tools, communities, crowd sourcing etc that would help to reinvigorate our democracy.

So Andy, I hope this was merely a throw away comment aimed at pleasing ill informed floating voters in a quiet news period and not a real attempt at a policy suggestion.

If so you could still be one of the the brighter lights on Gordon's Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas and let's hope that like Scrooge you see the error of your ways before it's too late and that you revert back to the generous, kindhearted soul you were in your youth.

Yours
The Ghost of Christmas Present

PS - You can tell the Government what you think of this ridiculous policy suggestion yourself here.