Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Wikinomics - citizens recording history

Just finished reading the book. I was amazed by the story of how quickly wikipedia entries recording key world events are created. A few stats say it all:

  • The first wikipedia entry was created within 18 minutes of the london bombings on July 5, 2005 at 8:50 am
  • By the end of the day 2,500 users had created the most detailed 14 page account of the event

There are numerous recent incidents of incredible news recordings (Saddam hanging video being one) that did not come from the traditional media or even bloggers but from citizens. The media business continues to evolve extremely fast.

I listened to a very interesting panel on technology and politics at a meeting organized by The DC Technology Council:

The Intersection of Politics and Technology
Carol Darr – Director GW's Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
Jack Kemp - Founder and Chairman, Kemp Partners
Joe Trippi – Veteran campaign consultant and author
Moderator: Mark Walsh - Managing Partner Ruxton Ventures LLC

The challenge of getting your voice heard and dealing with the speed at which negative messages get out is going to be key in 2008. The net result is going to be that the candidates will need to be more transparent as they will be under the microscope all the time. Traditional strategies based on closely controlling the message are bound to fail.

No comments: