Well, I've made it through the second week of my classes and the workload is starting to pick up. The only thing interesting I did this week was watching the Presidential Inauguration of Obama in a Spanish bar. It was quite interesting because I was in a bar with a bunch of Americans but the speech was dubbed in Spanish (obviously) and the voice of the translator was way to loud to hear anything Obama was saying. So, when I got back home I went online and found a video of the speech. There was quite a bit of coverage of the inauguration here, almost as much as there would be in the States. Most Spaniards seem to be excited about Obama if only for the reason that they just despised Bush. However, I think that the Spaniards (and Europeans) are putting way to much hope in Obama to change the world right away. I don't think they realize how much bureaucracy he will have to get through (in my opinion) just to change some very minor things. But, I don't want to start a political debate, that's just what I see over here.
My classes are going well, I already have presentations and papers due next week, so Sunday looks like a big homework day. Tomorrow, I am going to Avila, Spain. It's about an hour and a half to the Northwest of Madrid. I don't really know much about it except it has a huge wall surrounding the city from the occupation by the Romans. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and post the link to them on here tomorrow or the next day. That's all for now, take care everyone!
-Jamie
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Monday, April 09, 2007
YouTube and the election
Well, I'm back in Norman and have just a month left of school. First year of college flew by pretty fast, but it was also a great experience. Easter was just fine and dandy, I got Caddy Shack from the "Easter Bunny" which I will watch sometime this week. I have been taking time to post because I enjoy blogging but I also want it to be about something of interest. A topic that (hopefully) will not bore you away from my page.
On my way from Dallas to Norman I plugged in my mp3 player (an old school Creative 256MB) to a FM transmitter and found a station full of static, just what I needed. Before I left home, I loaded up some podcasts (for those of you who don't know, a podcast is sort of like a radio show but it can be downloaded and listened to whenever you like; Wikipedia Link) to listen to but to my dismay, my AAA battery was running out of life! Luckily there was just enough battery to listen to about three podcasts. The last one I listened to was a show called Cranky Geeks (Episode 57), a show hosted by long time tech journalist John C. Dvorak (dvorak.org/blog) and they talked about the internet being utilized in the upcoming election. On YouTube, a mash up of the 1984 Apple Super Bowl commercial (Original Commercial) was released with Hillary Clinton as the talking head and the girl with the sledge hammer wearing the Barack Obama logo (Link).
This ad has caused a bit of controversy because the creator of the video mash up is unknown, so it could be anyone.
On Cranky Geeks, the panel discussed what they thought would happen with sites like YouTube and MySpace. I wrote about the primary elections on MySpace a few days ago which you can find a link to on the right side of the page. YouTube in the election seems very intriguing, could this be the election where we see the highest 18-34 year old turnout since the seventies? On many of the candidates MySpace profiles, videos have shown up of the candidates speaking to the viewer as if they were one-on-one. This provides candidates a way to speak to voters without the media being involved or having to explain their platforms in thirty seconds. YouTube videos also let regular people like you and I create video questions for the candidates to answer--and many times they will. Advertisers will also be able to advertise to a greater number of people for half of the cost. Will the Internet play a large role in the 2008 election? I think it will effect us in a way larger than any of us can imagine. So many people's lives in my generation (18-34) revolve around the Internet and thus far these candidates have done an exceptional job of tailoring to us. If you are 18 or older (or are going to be 18 or older) by November 4, 2008, listen to what the candidates have to say and vote for one that you agree with, not the one with the biggest fan base or money. Use the resources on the Internet and vote with your brain.
Here are some more thoughts from another blogger on the Election and MySpace: (Link)
-Jamie
On my way from Dallas to Norman I plugged in my mp3 player (an old school Creative 256MB) to a FM transmitter and found a station full of static, just what I needed. Before I left home, I loaded up some podcasts (for those of you who don't know, a podcast is sort of like a radio show but it can be downloaded and listened to whenever you like; Wikipedia Link) to listen to but to my dismay, my AAA battery was running out of life! Luckily there was just enough battery to listen to about three podcasts. The last one I listened to was a show called Cranky Geeks (Episode 57), a show hosted by long time tech journalist John C. Dvorak (dvorak.org/blog) and they talked about the internet being utilized in the upcoming election. On YouTube, a mash up of the 1984 Apple Super Bowl commercial (Original Commercial) was released with Hillary Clinton as the talking head and the girl with the sledge hammer wearing the Barack Obama logo (Link).
This ad has caused a bit of controversy because the creator of the video mash up is unknown, so it could be anyone.On Cranky Geeks, the panel discussed what they thought would happen with sites like YouTube and MySpace. I wrote about the primary elections on MySpace a few days ago which you can find a link to on the right side of the page. YouTube in the election seems very intriguing, could this be the election where we see the highest 18-34 year old turnout since the seventies? On many of the candidates MySpace profiles, videos have shown up of the candidates speaking to the viewer as if they were one-on-one. This provides candidates a way to speak to voters without the media being involved or having to explain their platforms in thirty seconds. YouTube videos also let regular people like you and I create video questions for the candidates to answer--and many times they will. Advertisers will also be able to advertise to a greater number of people for half of the cost. Will the Internet play a large role in the 2008 election? I think it will effect us in a way larger than any of us can imagine. So many people's lives in my generation (18-34) revolve around the Internet and thus far these candidates have done an exceptional job of tailoring to us. If you are 18 or older (or are going to be 18 or older) by November 4, 2008, listen to what the candidates have to say and vote for one that you agree with, not the one with the biggest fan base or money. Use the resources on the Internet and vote with your brain.
Here are some more thoughts from another blogger on the Election and MySpace: (Link)
-Jamie
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Presidential Race goes high tech (again), Obama raises $25M
Myspace. Love it or hate it, it is one of the most influential websites of the last couple years. It has more users than the entire population of Mexico and if it could be a sovereign nation, it would be the 11th largest country in the world. Next January Myspace will hold an online primary for the presidential candidates. Users will be asked to select one of the candidates on January 1 & 2, 2008. Many candidates already have Myspace profiles (check them out here).The turnout will be very interesting but as TechCruch says in their article (Link) a Facebook primary would be more legitimate because users are verified and there is less of a chance for candidates to create face profiles and stuffing the ballot box.
In other news, Barack Obama has raised $25M in the last quarter signaling him as the chief rival of Hillary Clinton and possibly the front runner for the Democratic nomination. With plenty of time to fund raise until election time, the nomination is still up for grabs but it is seems that Obama and Clinton are pushing the hardest to obtain the nomination. This election's Democratic party nomination process is far more interesting than the Republican party nomination process. While the Democrats have a fierce battle of old and new, the Republicans are lacking with any wow factor. Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are fine candidates but don't have anything exciting between them. Will the GOP try to fire up this race to garner more attention for the party or will the Democrats run away with the excitement factor (if you can think of political races as exciting) in the political races? Let the race begin.
-Jamie
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