What I learned

As this is our last class, all of us as students are supposed to learn something. For me I think I learned to truly know what it was like to be a religious blogger by penning your thoughts and having debates and discussions online. I also learned there is a "Pope" for web usability and that he is a trip in himself. Technology makes people move closer or farther apart depending on the uses. The concept of the Digital Divide is a new social problem and how will our generation deal with it is going to be interesting. Seeing the impact of how the use of web videos and campaign websites will change politcal races will be immeasurable. In 50 years we could all look back and be amazed at how young this all was to us.

The Pope Would Be Insulted

Once again the name we've all come to know and recognize as the expert in web usability-Jakob Nielsen. Some of the title's he's gotten have been hilarious. One went as far as to dub him the "Pope"! I think that is very interesting. However, on a serious note it's people like Nielsen who have made the web, websites and how we as bloggers interact a serious thing and have gotten it to where it's respectable and not looked at as some type of hobby. So when if any of us go into the career of online media application we have Dr. Nielsen to thank.

Web Videos

Our guest speakers were really interesting. I never knew that the entire film we had watched was done for the web and designed on a simple laptop. It was also interesting to hear them talk about how this is the newest wave in political media and this could one day possibly replace television ads since their is more fluidity and freedom in doing things for the web. It will be intersting to see how this trend progresses. Web videos used hand in hand with the campaign website will open a new level of campaigning and truly bring it into the 21st century.

The Internet and Capitol Hill

Today at a class luncheon we discussed the use of the internet in politics. This goes back to the lecture about 2 weeks ago where we had guest speaker Dr. Johnson. He mentioned how at the beginning no one used the computers as tools in their offices, but sadly some of my class mates now believe that the internet is losing it's impact. Staffers admitted to emails being chunked since it was simply to much and it even appeared that the impact of a constantly letter was losing value. This is so disturbing. We all keep hearing how great the internet is, but I am curious to know if anyone has looked at this disturbing trend??

Dialogue and Debate

In my class last night there was the discussion of Feminist theory and many different types. One type of Feminism advocated for a Middle Ground and how thier has to be a policy change and even a society change to help this idea along.

Can the Internet help Issue Advocacy begin a dialogue with the people. The issues that voters care about are not easy and in fact are very complex and need full discussion and dialogue. Everyone agrees the system needs to be improved and changed, but how is the question. Could the concept of blogging and using the web produce dialogue?? It's a question I thought I'd throw out to the future politicos

Incompetence??

I read the article, "It's the incompetence, stupid", so aptly titled on how the Democrats lost 2004 election. The article was right, we truly didn't give the voter's an option against Bush or at least presented it well. We all kept saying anyone, but Bush and for a while it worked, then common sense seemed to settle in. Bush reminded people of how he was steadfast and we all knew where he stood weather we liked it or not. It made people think...hm I really don't know Kerry's ideas, policies, or stands and all because we had non-believers in our camp. Yes we had the manpower, but what is the use if the manpower are full of those who don't believe in the cause or even know about the leader. The saying is true quality is better than quanity. The Bush team may have had less people, but they had quality, informed workers that were able to organize and be efficient in spreading the message.

The Influentials

Seems like realizing how much power freinds and indviduals can have is catching on. The Bush team figured it out and it's abouot time that the Democrats start catching on. Who knows maybe in the online world the Democrats can start the groundwork for the next set of elections. At least truly make a stand against the Republican takeover, which is becoming more and more entrenched. People want to be told the point not left to figure it out which is what I believe cost Kerry the election. Voter's didn't like Bush, but they knew his message and where he stood, while the Kerry team kept having different themes and messages which left voters and supporters clueless on what Kerry stood for and was running for. How can we be influentials if we can't even get the message. Just food for thought for the next set of elections.