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I almost got suckered into believing all of the naysaying about Twitter "just being a waste of time."

In order to doublecheck my insecurities, I flipped through the past 24 hours of tweets so that I could audit whether or not I am actually learning anything from the time I spend there.

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Yesterday morning, 1.2 million people in 6 major US cities read a morning edition of the New York Times that was a little…different. The Times was dated July 4, 2009, and announced that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had ended; global warming was fixed; and the economy was on the upswing. Good news! Or was it news?

Of course, this wasn’t actually the staid NYT. Instead, a collective of activists had created the spoof, with the intent of encouraging President-Elect Obama to keep his election promises.

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I just sent a memo to Change.gov. Hopefully the Obama administration will use web tools to keep a dialogue open with the public and keep the administration more transparent.

The Obama campaign harnessed to talent and enthusiasm of many internet techies to put together an internet infrastructure and strategies to win. Here's a video interview by Technology Review with one of the head technologists with scoop about how Obama's get-out-the-vote worked and what might happen in the future.

I think it might be possible that nonprofits will benefit from this burst of tech development for their own operations in the near future.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1460879066/bctid1902591156

What can we learn from the unstoppable Obama PR machine that just rolled over the country? Never mind the politics: the campaign was the smartest publicity siege that’s been seen in a long time. It’s particularly worth paying attention to how Obama and his crew of merry techsters paid attention to the net. They pulled a bunch of cool tools from their utility belt: social networking sites, twitter, text messaging, and even virutal advertising in video games.  Find out more about their strategy and how it could work for your non-profit...

It’s the night before election day and I’m still not enthusiastic about tomorrow’s election. I can’t help but wondering if Barack Obama is simply a redo of Vista:

• Huge marketing budget.
• Hyped for change.
• Promises of greater stability.
• Improved security.
• Complete compatibility.
• A little more expensive.

The media and pundits are calling it a win for Obama already. In a few months, I wonder if America will be wishing for a downgrade, or even the opportunity to switch to a Mac. (McCain, that is).

We have seen it and heard about it time and again, but the Obama campaign is capitalizing on social media use and setting some great examples for nonprofits and other social change campaigns looking to try something new.  Without any candidate endorsement, we can look at the success the Obama camp has had and try it out in our own work!

Newest in the playbook: iPhone app

On the official Barak Obama website ,supporters can now download and use the Obama iPhone application.  As the site explains, the features include:

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When putting together a social media strategy, be it your initial plan or a revamp, please (except in a few - very few - exceptional cases) stop offering me another movement to jump onto.

A while back, I worked for a woman for three months as a contracted employee - something of an odds and ends outreach person - and after finally putting some thought into her mission, she finally came up with an overarching objective: "I want you to use the Internet to start a movement around [the release of my book]."

The publication in question, which read like a textbook, was a heady and conceptual description of a particular element of global economics. Her goal was radically unachievable and immodest.

The 2008 presidential race has and continues to be good for america and the wider world, one of the things its proved is that you don't need to have deep pockets or connections to win, Barack Obama is proof of that, he defeated Hilary Clinton despite being a new comer.

It has also energised alot of young people to become active, it has made them realise they can make a difference. As for the rest of the world, It has given us something to dream about!