Influence - Entries from February 2006

Gaining Influence Through Whimsy

Tuesday, February 28. 2006

When your target audience is suffering from information overload, how can you get their attention? Sometimes a little whimsy may help.

SAGECrossroads, a Forum One client, was having difficulty interesting people in medical research involving aging, an admittedly arcane topic. Together we decided to produce trading cards of the "hottest" medical researchers in the field. Industry insiders took quickly to the idea, as has the press. Even the current issue of Wired Magazine ran a feature on the idea. Sometimes a little whimsy pays off!

Posted by Jim Cashel in Communication at 17:28 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Blog rage redux

Monday, February 13. 2006

Jim Brady has a very useful, if a little frightening, description of what it is like to be caught in an online firestorm. He describes the ridiculous venom of which anonymous posters are capable, crediting it to "the extremely partisan times we live in" and "blog rage".

His point that "a small number of highly partisan, energetic bloggers poisoned the debate instead of contributing to it" is something those of us interested in online collaboration must learn to deal with -- how can we control the destructive few while enabling the constructive multitudes. Recent experiences on Wikipedia reinforce this lesson.

Also note Jim's description of what the Washington Post has done to enhance collaboration online by increasing the number of online interviews they conduct (80-90 hours a week), launching more than 30 blogs, and providing links to external blogs (a great feature!).

Hang in there Jim. This too shall pass.

Posted by Dave Witzel in Collaboration at 14:21

Changing the World, Having Some Fun - SOTU Bingo!

Wednesday, February 1. 2006

Will President Bush mention development, poverty, or global prosperity in his 2006 State of the Union Address? How about trade, Africa, security, justice, HIV/AIDS?

How to draw attantion to important global issues and also have some fun? The Center for Global Development created and posted a set of "State of the Union (SOTU) bingo cards" on its web site to play along with the President's speech. So did the President mention any/many of the phrases HIV/AIDS, debt relief, China, vaccines, women, trade, poverty, justice, Latin America freedom, etc? Not sure - I saw the cards too late to play along last night - but will play along next year!

(Note: Forum One provides web consulting for CGD.)

Technorati tag: SOTU bingo

Posted by Chris Wolz in Collaboration, Strategy at 13:49 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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Influence covers innovations in communication, Internet technology and strategy to generate influence on important public policy issues. Chris Wolz manages this blog with the help of his colleagues at Forum One Communications, a web strategy/technology firm in the Washington DC area.