Gov 2.0 Summit 2010 – A Twitter Recap
Overall, we tracked 9,064 specific tweets by 2,498 people.
Below is some of the analysis that we were able to draw from the Gov 2.0 Summit using SLURP140:
Gary Bivings on Digital Politics Radio: post-Labor Day election update
Continuing his bi-weekly appearance on the Digital Politics Radio show with Karen Jagoda, this past Tuesday Gary and Karen discussed the role of YouTube videos and viral online clips in generating campaign buzz. With the midterm elections only 8 weeks away, they touched upon what the start of the ‘election season’ really means when social media is used by candidates many months ahead of an election. A few highlights and the mp3 interview bellow. Next appearance: Tuesday, September 21st at 3:00pm EST.
Gary and Karen discussed political issues arising in California and Arizona in recent week. In California, Jerry Brown’s campaign sent an email that they are releasing their first commercial of the election season. However, he’s been in the media spotlight all summer long thanks to a juxtaposition with Meg Whitman and her heavy-spending campaign. Thanks to social media and email marketing, the buzz that Brown’s camp has generated preceded traditional campaign tactics such as commercials and debates.
Likewise, the ‘campaign season’ normally marked by the end of Labor Day seems outdated when looking at the scope of social and online media outreach by this elections’ candidates. Gary also pointed out that people are voting early, which prolongs the official campaign season. This leads to the question: Where and when it is appropriate for candidates to begin generating positive buzz? This affects the time when candidates begin working to create awareness of their campaign.
The Role of YouTube Videos in US Elections
Jan Brewer, current Arizona governor up for reelection, was recently at the focus of a viral video in which she did not speak for 16 seconds during her televised debate with Terry Goddard-
The viral video, which has been making the rounds on social media sharing sires show Jan Brewer forgetting her lines and not speaking for 16 seconds. In response to the negative buzz this video generated, she publicly announced that she will refrain from any future debates. While this may seem like campaign suicide in most states, Gary pointed out that she is currently leading Goddard in the polls by over 12%, and can presumably take the hit.
Gary cites a June 2010 Pew Research Study which concluded that more people watch YouTube videos than read candidates’ websites or check out newspapers about election coverage. Which leads to the question – Do citizens actually watch political debates? Or do people just watch debate commentary and/or viral YouTube videos about debates and campaign coverage? If the latter is true, then sound bites and mess-ups may play a more prominent role in future campaigns.
Lastly, Gary and Karen discussed the notion of winning televised debates. This forum, which has proved crucial since the days of Kennedy, is seemingly falling by the wayside. Whether in California, Arizona, or the rest of the States, it appears that the internet is causing fewer people to watch the debates in their entirety on TV. This begs the question: Is winning THAT important? Will YouTube watchers be able to discern who wins a debate based on several short viral sound bites? If not, what effect will this have on the midterm elections?
Click the link below to listen to Gary’s segment in it’s entirety:
Digital Politics Radio - 9/7/2010 - California and Arizona debates: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadGov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC
The Gov2.0 Summit is going on right now in the Washington DC metropolitan area. We here at the Bivings Group were lucky enough to be able to attend the event and learn about the way new technology is impacting the future of Government.
Do you want in on the action?
Follow the SLURP140 we created just for the event at - http://www.slurp140.com/gov20summit/ On this page you'll be able to see the most active twitter users and learn along with the rest of the attendees about the effects that innovations and next generation technology will have on democracy. We're tracking hashtags such as #g2s to bring you the most complete picture of the conferences and the topics covered during its panels.
Another way to stay on top of the conference proceedings is to watch the livestream of the summit at -http://www.gov2summit.com/gov2010/public/content/livestream (warning: you may have to create an account on the gov2summit website in order to watch the video). The site is streaming live presentations as well as taped panel discussions from the previous days. Once the conference is over, you can still access the entire video archive on the website at www.gov2summit.com .
The following is a list of the day's topics after the jump:
Continue reading “Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC” »
Introducing Bivings After Dark: DC PR Flaks
Introducing Bivings After Dark: DC PR Flaks
We’re proud to introduce a new segment specially for our Facebook Fans which we are calling: B.A.D – or Bivings After Dark. We’d like to give readers a look at the social and education side of public relations and social media in DC.
Tyler and I belong to a number of networking groups and meet a great deal of people during our nights out on the town. Consequently, we’re launching a series of videos aimed to give you a peek at the interesting people, places, and events, we see on a weekly basis. Hopefully the videos are both entertaining and educational. Check out the video & our summary on our Facebook Page.
Tracking News in Realtime: Discovery Gunman
After first noticing Tweets relating to the developing story of a gunman storming the Discovery Channel building not far from our office in Georgetown, we have launched another instance of Slurp140 dedicated to tracking all tweets using the #discovery hashtag: http://www.slurp140.com/discovery/
For live video, our friends at TBD have been doing an excellent job: “Live Video: Discovery Channel gunman hostage standoff”
A couple quick thoughts:
- A picture from @jdivenerea purporting to be of the gunman has received over 27,339 views in 1 hour and 50 minutes. Watching the commentary unfold, a rough consensus has formed that this may actually be of an undercover police officer. http://yfrog.com/2mhdmdj
- The alleged shooters- James Jay Lee’s Myspace profile and personal website (http://savetheplanetprotest.com/) have emerged. The website as a single page of hate speech, that has since crashed due to high traffic. Huffington Post has reposted the text in full. other sites have posted the text in full.
- DCist points out that the suspect has a prior history of being arrested at the Discovery Channel building
- Since we started tracking tweets shortly after TBG broke the story at 1:00pm, we have seen 9,000+ tweets by 5,477 people