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Wow, have you ever seen that before? Now imagine just a few sites down....just like that....Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Google....what would you do?

99 problems

they got 99 problems - we try to push em

99

This weekend, the Left is fine-tuning the party’s program for the upcoming Bundestag Elections on their party convention in Berlin and the discussions can be viewed live via UStream on http://twurl.nl/tr4gcr. Countless debates about the exact wordings of paragraphs in the last hours prove that the party is going through some rough times. On the one hand, there are the “Fundis”, the Fundamentals (including the leader of the political party Oskar Lafontaine) who are said to be acting in somewhat very populist ways and care more about ideologies that real politics. Furthermore, Lafontaine’s constant attacks against the SPD have been criticized a lot because the relationship to the SPD seems to remain equivocal. On the other hand, there are the “Reformers” who say that the Left represents more than simply a handful of ideologies and that their goals are enforceable as well as affordable.

Nonetheless, today’s convention showed that the Left has not been able to use the economic crisis to their advantage. Despite the collapse of the financial markets and the rough roads ahead of us, a clear differentiation from other parties has not helped much. Startlingly, the conservatives have been able to position themselves with quite assertiveness and the fragmentation of the Left is not really helpful to change that within the next 99 days.

Mos Def in Japan

Mos Def is one of my favourite MCs and he went to Japan and he broke it down on the streets with Current.tv for their upcoming music show. So, here are three a capella versions from his new album "The Ecstatic".

Politicamp09

Politicamp09, an event combining politics and the online world, has been hosted in Berlin last month. I was not able to be there but I was watching the lives streams. One discussion included some high-profile guests, such as Stefan Hennewig – Head of the online election campaign for the Christian Democrats (CDU), Kajo Wasserhövel – Party secretary for the Social Democrats (SPD) and also responsible for the online election campaign, Robert Heinrich – Head of the online election campaign for the Green Party (Grüne), Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz - Party secretary for the Liberals (FDP), Halina Wawzyniak – dept. chairman of the party The Left (Linke), as well as Markus Beckedahl, a well-known German blogger.
They were discussing trendy new tools for the parties during this so-called “super election year 2009”, including various elections of state parliaments, the EU election, as well as the much anticipated Bundestag election.
The relevance of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and FlickR have been elaborated on as well the importance of the parties’ own websites and social platforms.
One participant was asking about the parties’ particular online strategies and this is what they had to say:
The Liberals believe in a reasonable connection/combination of the online and the offline world. Whatever is being started online should be continued offline because apparently, the outcome of an election is not determined online. Direct communication is possible online and allows the parties to distribute information right to the multipliers which again allows networking effects that have an impact on the offline world.
The Christian Democrats view their website as a launch pad that enables others to become active online and to give them some sense of orientation in order to make the right decisions on election day.
The Green party understands their own website as an extended campaign headquarters which needs to be used in order to continue the campaign online as well as offline. Mr. Heinrich talked about posters that can be printed out and put up for everybody else to see offline. Since the Green party often lacks money by the end of an election campaign this is a very useful tool for supporters that want to get their political point across.
Mr. Wasserhövel pointed out that mobilizing throughout the campaign is the most crucial thing for the Social Democrats. Enabling participation and trying to support creativity (he pointed out moveon.org during the Presidential Elections in the US as a great example for grassroots engagement). The SPD wants to advocate that.
Interestingly enough, the Left party looks at the online campaign as a mere addition to what is already there. They want to reach more people (not just though info booths), engage in direct conversations and help people to self-organize within their own communities.
So, after everybody mentioned their new trendy tools, Markus Beckedahl was pointing out one quite interesting fact: blogs and podcasts seem to not be relevant at all at this moment. While they can give many opportunites for politicians because it can be seen as another platform for them to reach the voters (just on a much more detailed basis), the parties seem to stay on the Facebooks of today, not realizing the potential that they are missing out on.
Not only blogs for politicians, also blogs about elections stay irrelevant. On a German blog called blogbar.de, the author donalphonso points out that one reason for blogs not being relevant might be the lacking competence of the bloggers. Many of them have no clue about the issues that are discussed, such as Carry Trades in East Europe and Maastricht Criteria.
So, I wonder, as the months pass by in this SUPER ELECTION YEAR 2009, what will come next?

Lynda @ Petrona Towers

Hm, ich hab hier noch ein Foto vor den Petronas :)

Change of Plans

Hm, momentan läuft nichts nach Plan, aber da muss man eben flexibel sein

Hier jetzt erstmal ein paar Fotos für euch, damit man sich das mal so vorstellen kann, was ich eigentlich außer Workshop noch so mache :)

First Week Is Almost Over

Ok people :) so, here I am, already one week has passed and I am already thinking about the sad day of my departure. I have to admit that I really like the other end of the world. The amazing food we have...oh my goodness :) (last night, it was Lebanese, but we also tried some Chinese, Japanese, Halal, Vegan, Malay, and Thai....and prob. some more that I don't know of...). It is way too exciting to leave so quickly...but then again, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity and I will def gonna come back in the near future.

So far, our workshop has gone really well. The participants had to shoot a video and edit it, they learned about the differences of streaming and downloading, they received showcases of various devices, and next week, we will explain to them> podcasting, we'll have a mobile day, put their videos online and spread them through the power of SOCIAL MEDIA :)

On my FlickR Account, you can see some pictures, but I will def put up more later and add a video (just for you, Olga :)).

Tomorrow, we will go to Little Malaysia ... don't really know what it is but I'm excited already :)

L8

Lynda in Kuala Lumpur :)

Beyoncé’s “smash hit” Halo has been banging out of radios in almost every 7/11 I’ve been passing by in Kuala Lumpur. I see NBA games being broadcasted in cafés and people wearing all too familiar brands, such as Gucci or Prada. March, 2009 – I find myself in the busy shadow of the Petrona Towers and I have to ask myself: is this really Malaysia or simply a duplicate of the Big Apple? The mega malls and superstores are lacking Asian authenticity, apparently, the music is all-American, and I can buy food from KFC or Outback.

- Welcome to Globalism -

However, I have to admit: there is another side to Malaysia if you actually start looking a little bit further.
The variety of ethnicities is astonishing – Malaysians, Chinese, Hindus, Christians, Arabs, Black, White, Yellow, Red…. it seems as if in Kuala Lumpur we’ve come full circle when it comes to ethnic groups. Beautiful … Don’t get it twisted, there are conflicts. Minorities experience many disadvantages in daily life, such as finding jobs and renting apartments. However, when you walk down the main roads and look at the people, you can’t really tell where you are. Additionally, the people are very friendly and surprisingly open.

We will stay in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks and we started our workshop two days ago and the participants come from many places – Philippines, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Mauritius – very interesting mix and we all learn from each other’s experiences.
Jan and I probably prepared around 1,000 slides and the participants seem to be very interested. I am excited (and a little anxious) to see whether or not this interest will turn into careless boredom within the next few days :) The topics we cover are quite extensive – we speak about different video and audio formats, podcasting, streaming, RSS-Services, video production, audio production, codecs, and things of that nature.

Well, I will see and report later :)

AIBD_SATURDAY

Click to Play

So, this is our day of preparation. We are looking forward to presenting our slides as well as having a great time with the participants.

Welche Plattform ist die beste?

Nach der Blamage auf StudiVZ, bei der SPD Gruppen gleich zweimal gelöscht wurden, möchte die deutsche Plattform nun laut basicthinking 13 Millionen potentielle Wähler mobilisieren. Stellt sich jetzt bei mir natürlich die Frage: wat wolln die denn jetzt mobilisieren? Gibt es eine Holtzbrinck-Partei, von der ich wissen sollte? Denn eines muss klar sein:

Eine Social-Network-Plattform kann keine Wähler mobilisieren! Eine Social-Network-Plattform ist lediglich das Vehikel, oder sagen wir: die Kommunikationsplattform, das von verschiedenen Institutionen genutzt werden kann/sollte, um Wähler zu mobilisieren. So lange also die „Mobilisierungs-Initiative“ lediglich von den Plattformen und nicht von den Parteien ausgeht, kann man m.E. nicht mit Interessierten rechnen. Sicherlich, Offenheit muss auch seitens der Social Networks kommen, aber es reicht eben nicht, um die Wähler an eine Urne zu bringen.

Jetzt könne man sich noch die Frage stellen: auf welchen Portalen treffe ich eigentlich auf meine Wähler? Wo kann ich sie ansprechen, wie kann ich sie erreichen?
Deutschland hat momentan 62,2 Millionen Wahlberechtigte (darunter 32,2 Mio. Frauen), die angesprochen werden wollen. Leider sind aber 70% der Wahlberechtigten über 40 und auf den meisten Social Networks sowieso nicht zu finden. Vielleicht überschätzen wir auch mögliche Aktionen der Parteien auf Facebook & Co.? Vielleicht liegt das wahre Potential der Mobilisierung in Mediatheken von bspw. ZDF oder ARD? Die Interaktivität und die Personalisierung sind zwar nicht gegeben, aber hier könnten Links (z.B. auf eigene Homepage, YouTube, etc.) zu weitaus mehr Erfolg führen.

Egal welche Aktionen während der Bundespräsidentenwahl im Mai, während der Europawahl im Juni, während der zahlreichen Kommunalwahlen und Landtagswahlen oder gar während der Bundestagswahl im September gestartet werden, wichtig wird nicht die Plattform sein, sondern wie die Parteien mit uns, den Wählern, in den Dialog treten.

Im gonna be a daddy!!

Wow, two of my friends have each separately contacted me last week telling me that they are so happy because they are going to be a daddy. I have to admit: more and more of my friends are starting to become real serious about this family planning thing and I gotta ask: are we at that point already? Is it really time for our generation to become parents and raise children and prepare the next generation to become parents again so that they can prepare their children to become parents and so on and so forth….. are we at the top of that cycle already?
By the way, I coincidentally went to MILK two nights ago - I didn't even know that Sean was up for an Oscar but all I can say is: he truly deserves it! What a beautiful and inspiring movie. Oh, and VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA .... hm, I really liked that one too :)