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Young people’s interest in digital and democracy sets the scene for both. Vote Match is an appropriate and timely online tool that matches people to political parties in the 2010 election based on their responses to an issues and priorities questionnaire (the political equivalent to matching questionnaires in mainstream online dating sites like eHarmony). This NMA article reveals that next month’s election information online is raising younger people’s interest in the election. This Wired piece turns to university students for a review of the freshly launched iPad. The verdict? Itis better than the Kindle, because it allows for taking notes, bookmarking, and generally better interaction with the material. In the finance world, Kwedit is taking lessons from gaming interactivity to engage kids as young as 13 in its payment models. Here’s the full story ‘Paying offline for vitual online purchases’. “GenerationG(enerous)” is still finding out how to tap into more people paying less to achieve higher goals. A great example of such a model is the web-based social activism platform Armchair Revolutionary . CNET reports on their fine 99cent micropayment model – another example of digital setting democratic principles free.
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BBC Newsrecently ran this piece about WikiLeaks, a site platform that has earned its reputation from revealing controversial information (most recently a video of US military killing civilians in Baghdad in 2007). This is an example where the open submission ethos of the digital world works to strengthen both the engagement and quality of news. Anyone (but mostly“whistleblowers and journalists who have been censored”) can submit stories.The review team then “accepts ‘classified, censored or otherwise restricted material of political, diplomatic or ethical significance’ but does not take ‘rumour,opinion or other kinds of first hand reporting or material that is already publicly available’. In other words, WikiLeaks provides a new type of investigative journalism that may prove a component in the future of democratic process. "Funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public", it is a model to watch.
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In our digitally enabled world, news gets old fast. Many scramble to get the story first, but, once it’s out, the digital distribution is instant and free. Should digital aggregators share credit with content providers for this added benefit?Citing the likes of Google paying Twitter for its real-time content, this CNET article makes the case for real-time information providers making money, and multiplying.
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While quality news requires paid professional journalists (not just “GenerationG”(enerous)’s amateur free online crowdsourcing), many readers may find it hard to distinguish between the two. This is potentially dangerous to a functioning democracy. People may not be willing to pay for quality content when they can get free content, but they may pay for their preferred way to receive information and news analysis. WARC reports for example, that 52% of those who own Apple products are willing “to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions for publications that had been specifically formatted for e-readers.” For this type of micropayment model to work, a lot of people need to perceive clear value of what they pay for. In this Guardian blog, it becomes clear that content quality currently comes second to the delivery format. If this is the case then perhaps changes in the way the content is delivered will add the value that people will pay for, and that will in turn keep funding high quality content.
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Come June we will have another go at paying for news online, with The Times paywall going up. The Times Online answers many questions about their new business model. But, are we willing to pay? Some commentators, like NMA in ‘Times paywall makes a lot of sense to me’, are positive about giving people the chance to pay for the “quality content” they want to consume. With online advertising revenue going to content aggregators rather than content generators, free digital content is blamed for the financial dire straits of the newspaper industry. Campaign speculates that news aggregators like Google should face tax demands in the UK to raise money (as much a £100 million according to a report by the Commission of inquiry in the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland) to provide funds for ailing local newspapers. Others point to the fact that 80% of news stories are now coming from agencies or press releases, as proof that free news means the demise of investigative reporting – a discipline necessary for original and newsworthy reporting but one which requires investment.
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With the upcoming election race heating up, we asked ourselves “what contributes to a healthy democracy?” In a democracy, transparency of the issues is important – and therefore so is a working model for news reporting. Public interest and participation in the choices of the day is also critical. The Telegraph cites the waning interest in politics (the current government was voted in only by about1 in 5 people, compared with a turn out of 61% in 2005). In a society where the ability to vote is taken for granted and availability of information is abundant, the challenge for the parties is to make their information engaging and relevant to people. In this context, the larger issue is about new modes of information engagement.
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What more would you do if it was made easy and fun enough? A lot, possibly, but what?
One option some are banking on is more of what you 'should' do but don't 'have' to. You know, the things that everyone agrees are good, but hardly anyone does. Reasonable things are a bore. Often they are downright inconvenient. Yes, you should run more, eat better, track your expenses, learn more, give more. But, only in the right conditions will most of us really consistently go against inertia.
Nike Plus has made it fun and easy to run, Jamie Oliver made it fun and easy toeat better, everyone and their mother wants to helps us track our expenses. Well, according to Ad Age article on Tuesday, 'Would You Check in toa Box of Tampax? For Charity', CauseWorld (in partnership with sponsors such as P&G, Kraft and Citi), will be making it easy and fun to give more to charities, with an app that will allow us to 'check in' what we buy (meaning scan product barcodes with our mobiles).
Fun, right? Finally, automated charitable giving.
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How often have you texted “I’ve arrived at….are you here/wanna join?” How about the times you looked up a restaurant address to include in your message? Even the most resistant among us will find ourselves tediously texting to get our friends where we are. Indeed, location information sharing is probably a top mobile phone benefit. But, is cumbersome mobile typing really what you want to do when you’ve arrived somewhere? What if you could simply ‘check in’ by opening a mobile app that intelligently pre-populates possibilities for where you are and automatically shares them with the right people? Foursquare and others at the South by Southwest Interactive conference are giving momentum to the ‘check in model’. The New York Times article on Sunday ‘Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not)’ reveals how Foursquare and others at the South by Southwest Interactive conference are giving momentum to the ‘check in model’.
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On Monday Twitter launched “@anywhere” and finally exposed a plan for well and truly becoming mainstream. Only a small proportion (21%) of twitter accounts are active contributors to the conversation. The potential for Twitter is to grow the dominant use of its platform - as an essential listening tool; and as a result make itself a mandatory presence for anyone who wants to be reached – much like business cards, email, and websites/blogs became for professionals. With @anywhere, Twitter links will be available, and follow-able, without leaving sites like Amazon, Bing, eBay, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. By detaching and distributing its DNA, Twitter will prove just how big tweeting can be when brought to the surface…everywhere. See the Twitterblog and Wired article about the launch at annual conference South by Southwest.
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Companies are vying to be the single aggregator of people’s wallets – the online portal for all transactions. And Visa is no exception. With the launch of Rightcliq this spring, Visa is promising: “…an online shopping tool that provides users with a centralised location to store and manage their e-commerce activity in a bid to make it easier and safer.” Sound familiar? Like PayPal Mobile,Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments, Rightcliq has the right ingredients that together could provide people with the useful single mirror into their finances (with advice from experts, strangers, and friends) but Rightcliq has failed in execution. Ingredients do matter, but more importantly it’s how they are put together. Here is Finextra.com reporting on Visa's Rightcliq story ‘Visa preps online shopping plug-in to take on Web giants’
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