You are viewing the Interesting Uses of Social Media category
Fred Wilson on Social Recruiting: A Guide for the Recruiter and the Recruited
Social Media at the White House and at the State House
President Obama was swept into the White House by using so many social media tools to engage voters. Now that he is in the White House, social media has been injected into all aspects of white house communications. Most notably by having a White House blog, embedding you tube videos on whitehouse.gov and creating the Citizen Breifing Book on change.govthe president-elect’s website, a way for you and I to influence policy at the highest level. No matter your political stance, the ability to get your idea to the White House is a win for the common person.
But how can web based tools be utilized at other levels of government? One great example of the use of online tools with a social aspect is the state of Kansas’ transportation department website: Kansas T LINK Calculator.
The calculator lets “you to create your own theoretical Kansas transportation program [by] developing [a] budget by making assumptions about current funding sources and choosing from a variety of potential new funding options [and] allocate funding on a variety of transportation modes.”
Basically the calculator lets you adjust where the money comes from and where it goes to in transportation policy by adjusting many different assumptions to achieve your personal best policy plan for the department. The site then lets you submit your plan so that the department can gauge public sentiment and understand the user’s values and priorities for setting policy.
It is a specific and real way that you can engage a specific state agency and provide feedback. The transparency President Obama jives on is one concept that lines directly to the principles of Gen Y and the relationship revolution.
I can’t wait to see how the government begins utilizing online tools as a way to increase efficiency and transparency to the government services area.
How do you think the government can get online and increase interaction, transparancy, and effeciency? The comments section is yours!
Popularity: 12% [?]
Meyers-Briggs Blog Analysis: I’m a INTJ
So today I found via the master networker her self, Jennifer McClure, a website called Typealyzer that reads your blog and then tells you what your personality type is in a Meyers-Briggs style. After entering my blog address, it concluded that I am an INTJ. They describe me as:
INTJ – The Scientists
The long-range thinking and individualistic type. They are especially good at looking at almost anything and figuring out a way of improving it – often with a highly creative and imaginative touch. They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be pshysically hesitant to try new things.
The Scientists enjoy theoretical work that allows them to use their strong minds and bold creativity. Since they tend to be so abstract and theoretical in their communication they often have a problem communcating their visions to other people and need to learn patience and use conrete examples. Since they are extremly good at concentrating they often have no trouble working alone.
They seem to think that INTJs look like this:
Both the picture and the description are pretty darn close! And I must say that I do enjoy drawing pictures and charts. It helps me explain things… 
Guess my blog knows me pretty well after all. Does your blog know you?!
Popularity: 42% [?]
Your Alarm Clock Says Hello: Talking Machines
So, i stumbled upon an older post from Tom, talking about how amazing it is that machines can speak to humans using regular old English on a human conversation platform like twitter.
He says the coolest part is that:
“We’re no longer necessarily anthropomorphising machines into people, but treating their digital incarnations as readily-understood metaphors.”
Amazing, machines aren’t people, but they are digital ‘beings’ that have information to pass along. Oh, the potential uses!. Earlier, I wrote a post about how London’s Tower Bridge updates twitter to tell us what it is doing.
But if we take the concept a bit farther in terms of implementation, our machines could be set up to communicate with us in so many productive ways:
- Hydraulic systems can notify us when they need more fluid
- Cars could send tweets for broken belts, hoses and other items
- Inventory systems could notify managers of high/low levels of inventory
- Ovens or stove tops could let us know that they have been on too long
- My personal favorite: If it is Friday night and its past midnight and your alarm is still set, i want a twitter message coming my way that says “HEY! Turn your alarm off, you will be happier tomorrow morning!” Or for a more in depth conversation with your alarm clock check out Chris’ post on “things that IM.”
I only start these lists so that I can hear from you. I want to know what you would want machines to tell you. Leave a comment about your future conversation with a machine and lets grow this list together!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Interesting Uses of Social Media: Twitter Tower Bridge Updates
There are many spots out there where you can find the best uses for social media. Well, sometimes folks miss something, or frankly use social media in a way that might be extremely useful for 3-5 people, but for the rest of us is just plain dumb. This is a series of posts about interesting uses of social media.
Photo courtesy of neilsingapore
Tower Bridge in London is on Twitter
So, someone is sitting in the Tower Bridge in london sending out twitter updates to the world.
I caught myself thinking, what would a bridge have to say? Well, a the Tower Bridge is not just any bridge: It is a draw bridge.
The Tower Bridge sends tweets to let us all know that it is opening for X vessel going up or down stream. Thank you Mr. Tower Bridge Twitterer sir because without you, I dont know what I would do without the tweet-update of why and when the bridge is raising and lowering.
www.twitter.com/TowerBridge —> Follow? Yes please!
Popularity: 23% [?]
Latest Comments