6.1.05

:: open-source marketing :: ::

Malcolm Gladwell poses an interesting question on pg.92 of his book The Tipping Point. How Little Things Make a Big Difference.
There is a maxim in the advertising business that an advertisement has to be seen at least six times before anyone will remember it. That's a useful lesson for Coca-Cola and Nike who have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on marketing and can afford to saturate all forms of media with their message. But its not all that useful for , say, a group of people trying to spark a literacy epidemic with a small budget and one hour of programming on public television. Are there smaller, subtler, easier ways to make something stick?
Rob Walker writes the following in a piece titled The Hidden (In Plain Sight) Persuaders. This piece was published in the December 5th, 2004 edition of The New York Times Magazine.
... The thinking is that in a media universe that keeps fracturing into ever-finer segments, consumers are harder and harder to reach; some can use TiVo to block out ads or the TV's remote control to click away from them, and the rest are simply too saturated with brand messages to absorb another pitch. So corporations frustrated at the apparent limits of 'traditional'' marketing are increasingly open to word-of-mouth marketing. One result is a growing number of marketers organizing veritable armies of hired ''trendsetters'' or ''influencers'' or ''street teams'' to execute ''seeding programs,'' ''viral marketing,'' ''guerrilla marketing.'' What were once fringe tactics are now increasingly mainstream; there is even a Word of Mouth Marketing Association...

... Given that we are a nation of busy, overworked people who in poll after poll claim to be sick of advertisers jumping out at us from all directions, the number of people willing to help market products they had previously never heard of, for no money at all, is puzzling to say the least. BzzAgent, which has a particularly intense relationship with its fast-growing legions of volunteers, offers a rare and revealing case study of what happens when word-of-mouth theory meets consumer psychology in the real world. In finding thousands of takers, perfectly willing to use their own creativity and contacts to spread the good news about, for instance, Al Fresco sausage, it has turned commercial influence into an open-source project. It could be thought of as not just a marketing experiment but also a social experiment. The existence of tens of thousands of volunteer marketing ''agents'' raises a surprising possibility -- that we have already met the new hidden persuaders, and they are us...
:: you can read the full article here.

:: defining internet politics by its opposite

The following is taken from pg.226 of Joe Trippi's excellent book The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Democracy, The Internet and The Overthrow of Everything.
I am convinced that Internet politics and government will be defined by its opposite, broadcast politics, and by its potential to fix many of the problems politics creates:
  • Civic d i s e n g a g e m e n t. The net builds communities and brings people together, providing the first reversal of trends reported in Robert Putnam's alarming book Bowling Alone - the isolation of Americans, the death of participatory politics, and the unraveling of the fabric of critical social and civic structures.
  • The dumbing down of the American electorate. We're all tired of those studies that show half of schoolchildren can't name the president or the capital of their state. For the past fifty years, people have assumed they have to compete with the SHALLOW FLASH OF TV to get anyone's attention, but the internet is growing exponentially with a very old-fashioned recipe: reading and writing.
  • The insidious corruption of our politics and our government due to the disproportionate influence of wealthy donors, special interests, and corporations. The internet shines a light on these dark recesses and quickly organizes millions of Americans cheaply, without relying on billionaires who want something for their money. Unlike TV ads which can cost millions, on the Internet, ALL YOU NEED IS A WEB SITE AND WORKING FINGERS.
  • Various other diseases of broadcast politics, including ATTACK ADS, governing by SOUND BITES, and celebrity politics. When the Internet has become the dominant information media in this country - in the next few years - TV will go back to doing what it does best, entertaining us. TV is great for Law and Order. It is not so good for making laws and keeping order.

5.1.05

:: environmental overload :: :: ::

e n v i r o n m e n t a l o v e r l o a d : the overload hypothesis assumes that humans have a FINITE CAPACITY for processing stimuli and information and predicts that we cope with sensory or information overload through (among other responses) selective attention and ignoring LOW-PRIORITY INPUTS.

Sundstrom, E., Bell, P.A., Busby, P.L., Asmus, C. (1996). Environmental psychology 1989-1994. Annual Review of Psychology 47: 485-512.

:: attentional overload :: :: ::

...attentional overload is a psychological state in which individuals are overwhelmed by higher quantities and faster rates of information than they can manage (Cohen, 1978; Class & Singer, 1972; Milgram, 1970)...

...will computer-based networks exacerbate the tensions between advantaged and disadvantaged groups by further separating "information-rich" and "information-poor" segments of society? ...

Stokols, D. (1995). The paradox of environmental psychology. American Psychologist, 50(10), 821-837.

3.1.05

:: the potential of technology in the political environment.

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Howard Dean, at George Washington University, on December 8th 2004. To date, I believe this is the best articulation of what the Democratic Party needs to do in order to be competitive on both the national and local scale.
The destination of the Democratic Party requires that it be financially viable, able to raise money not only from big donors but small contributors, not only through dinners and telephone solicitations and direct mail, but also through the Internet and person-to-person outreach.

The destination of the Democratic Party means making it a party that can communicate with its supporters and with all Americans. Politics is at its best when we create and inspire a sense of community. The tools that were pioneered in my campaign -- like blogs, and meetups, and streaming video -- are just a start. We must use all of the power and potential of technology as part of an aggressive outreach to meet and include voters, to work with the state parties, and to influence media coverage.

The most practical destination is winning elective office. And we must do that at every level of government. The way we will rebuild the Democratic Party is not from consultants down, but from the ground up.
:: I encourage all of you to read the full speech at: Democracy for America