It’s official. Ontario is going to the polls on June 12. Which means some of my blogging will turn its attention to campaigning and news, issues and ideas that might be of value to the people who are campaigning and campaign-watching in my home province. My company, FullDuplex.ca, will be conducting ongoing analysis of activity and issues of Ontario election. Please contact us if you’re interested.
Here are some stories and ideas for digital public affairs practitioners as gathered over the last seven days.
News
- How the internet hurts political reporting and breeds spin – Andrew MacDougall, former director of communications to the Prime Minister, offers his point of view on how the speed of information and the nature of digital culture has impacted communication.
- Advice for politicians caught in the media firestorm – The CBC really drew on the former Hill community folk. Besides Andrew MacDougall’s piece (see previous bullet), Stockwell Day contributed his thoughts on how politicians can weather a political storm that may play out in the media, online, or both.
- Testicular, breast cancer social media campaigns get edgier – Also from the CBC comes this piece on how edgier campaigns capture attention. Like these campaigns for testicular and breast cancer. Lesson? To get noticed, do something out of the ordinary and shareable.
- Shut your Tweet-hole: Why Twitter will add a ‘mute’ button – The Globe and Mail’s Shane Dingman reports on a new feature which will allow you to temporarily (or permanently) prevent updates from selected users without having to unfollow them.
Blogs
- Crowdfunding 101: A User’s Guide to Success on Indiegogo. It’s All About Connections. – Among many for-profit ventures, crowdfunding is being used to help advocacy campaigns with paid media and legal opinions. In this TechPresident post, Sarah Lai Stirland shares some not-so-secret sauce.
- Facebook privacy improvements are good news for marketers – Thornley-Fallis president Joe Thornley explains how changes to Facebook will help marketers build trust with their audiences.
- Canadian Telcos Asked to Disclose Subscriber Data Every 27 Seconds – This post by University of Ottawa professor (Internet privacy advocate) Michael Geist notes that Canada’s telcos disclosed so much information that they were concerned about telling the Privacy Commissioner just how much that much is.
- Boost your channel’s recognition using new intro videos – The Next Web’s Josh Ong did a short piece on YouTube’s newest feature — branded pre-roll — which can be applied to selected videos or all videos posted to your YouTube channel.
Video
My good friend Bob Ledrew brought this one to my attention… US researchers are making the tracking of bills going through the US legislative system much more interesting with an interactive data visualization tool. It’s an amazing web tool and a real time suck if you’re a data geek like I am. This video shows just one aspect of the tool.
