Life on Pause

I will not be blogging as much over the next 3 months as I am on holidays. I am backpacking around South America (Argentina, Chile and Brazil). I will also be stopping off in South Africa for a week on the way over.

I guess the blog will be more about my learnings from these foreign places rather than new technology slant.

One of the most interesting things I have found with travelling is the feeling of yuor life being on pause. Because you are not having those day to day interactions or relationship building activities with people it feels like your life is being put on hold. It gives you time to step back and look at the where you are at and where you want to go.

Catch,
Jules

Politicians mission to Cyber space

Peta Menzies interviewed me last week for an article on Politicians using Social Media. Here is the article.

Politicians mission to cyber space
By Peta Menzies


'Australian politicians are trying to win the vote of Generation Y this federal election through internet social spaces though the 18-29 age group are not convinced that the campaign websites are enough to engage young voters.


Both the major political parties have joined the campaign revolution through internet networks like Facebook Myspace and Youtube. The sites advocate party policy and are designed to promote political awareness amongst the younger generation. While it is seen as an attempt to bridge the generation gap it is being considered a fractional one.


22 year-old Julian Cole is a digital strategist for Naked Communications and says that political leaders need to be authentic when they are in these online spaces. “It rings a bit mass. I think there is a role for them there but if they are wanting to get a message out they have to access the right people, the opinion leaders,” Mr Cole said.


The Political sites act as a billboard rather than a two-way interaction that the social space intends.The sites are designed for networking and just like real-life opinionated participants emerge.“It’s a misnomer to think that everyone using this online space has an equal voice. We’ve found that some people have a louder voice and therefore have a bigger audience,” he said.


Labor candidate for Dobell Mr Craig Thomson says politicians are attempting to connect with the younger generation now more so than what has happened in the past.
“The Labor party is very much aware of the need to engage with Generation Y through the mediums that are better used to communicate with them like Youtube and Myspace,” Mr Thomson said.

Mr Thomson acknowledges the need for political parties to continually develop their use of web based social pages.“At the moment the campaign pages are not having a conversation with people, its talking at them rather than anything else,” he said.'



In other news concerning Politics and Facebook, here is a great stunt from the Chasers boys on Kevin Rudd’s Facebook Friend.

Kevin's Facebook Friends

Add to My Profile | More Videos

New VB Stubby Beer Symphony Commercial



Following on from The Big Ad and Flashbeer comes the next Big Fosters Idea, ‘VB Stubby Symphony’

Just like the past campaigns they have housed it on a main site, thank god someone ripped it on Youtube. I think they really let themselves down by not letting people view on Youtube and embed the video on blogs.

However there are some nice consumer involvement treats in this site. They have used SuperVirals as the host site for their ‘Create Music using VB Stubbies Competition’. However again (see past post) I think that Supervirals is such a narrow channel, this should really of been done through Youtube.

I think overall this is a great idea, and as was pointed out to me, it is capitalising on the most iconic part of the VB brand, the song.

George Patterson Y&R are behind this idea with Jim Ingram and Ben Couzen cracking this big idea. Well done boys!