Friday’s 5 – Things I should have blogged about this week

(1) Will Social Networks Impact the 2008 Election? I think NOT.

Sanford Dickert has a good post about the seeming lack of impact social networks have truly had on the 2008 elections so far. He writes:

When I go to the local mall, county fair, outdoor market – I can often see the ardent supporters of candidates “tabling” in the flow of traffic – holding their campaign literature, sign at the edge of the table, looking for eyes that are ready to learn more about the person running for State Senate, Congress or even President. You and your friends are there, giving each other moral support as the throngs of people walk by – nary paying attention to you, until a person walks up and says, “So….tell me about Senator X.”

Where does this happen on social networks? Can I put up a “table” and engage in a conversation? Where is the flow of people that are milling about that can be “chatted up”? Certainly not on MySpace or many of the other social networks.

And he closes by asking where the “virtual tablers” are:

This is where the campaigns can use their volunteers and give them the power to reach across their own networks and chat up people when they are interested in learning more about the candidate. But, it is not easy to go and “speak” to someone in Facebook since all of the communications are not interrupt-driven (as a face-to-face might be), they are addressed whenever the receiver wants to. How do you get people to accept the interrupts? Usually, that is the sense of presence – of human contact. Once that magic ingredient is “captured” and enabled, then I could see social networks truly engaging people.

Interesting stuff. My thought is that the official campaign presences won’t have much of an impact this cycle – it is the the ad hoc organizations created and managed by supporters that are the potential game changers.

(2) Will Social Features Make Email Sexy Again?

Wall Street Journal story about attempts by email carriers to add social networking features into their products to help compete with Facebook.

(3) Life At

This is a social networking site aimed at allowing people living in apartment buildings to network with each other. What a great idea.

(4) How to Raise $1.8 Million in 3 Days

Ruffini does a deep dive into how Obama recently raised $1.8 million through a single email push. I wonder how much was raised off the initial email from Obama and how much was raised from those peripheral emails sent by supporters to unsuspecting Obama list subscribers.

(5) Is Mint Ready for Your Money?

Lifehacker takes a close look at the white hot money management tool Mint.