Archive for category politics
Canadian Election Choices … in song.
Posted by Paul Holmes in politics on April 25, 2011
Stephen Harper
Michael Ignatieff
Jack Layton
Elizabeth May
Gilles Duceppe
Book Burning 2.0
Posted by Paul Holmes in politics, society on August 3, 2010
The year is 2017.
You get on the bus, and people are busily going about their business.
A handful are talking on their phones, some holding it to their ears, and others watching their friends on the screen. Some people are reading or listening to music on their phone, and about a third of the people are playing or reading on their tablet devices – iPad’s, Kindles, one of those tablets made by a Chinese manufacturer – and that new one that RIM came out with a few years ago.
One guy is reading a book that’s made with paper.
Now I’m no futurist, but this future doesn’t seem very weird to me, nor particularly scary, at face value.
But now consider the added concepts of widespread censorship, like we see today in places like China, which is particularly notable for excelling at censorship. Now think of the long tradition of book burnings around the world – it’s been around about as long as we’ve had books!
Of course, every single one of those devices – tablets, phones, etc. – are all connected to the same network, the Internet.
Is this crazy talk?
It wasn’t very long ago that Amazon demonstrated their power to delete books from their Kindle device.
I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to imagine a future world, not that far off, where there are restrictions on what books are permitted.
Maybe it is crazy. But it does raise some interesting questions, like What sort of protections are there for consumers, both from intrusive governments and intrusive corporations?
What do you think?
The Affirmation Society in the Information Age
Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, politics, social media on June 21, 2009
Can millions of young fans be wrong when they declare that the Jonas Brothers are the greatest music group in the history of the universe?
Of course they can. But they won’t believe you.
Why? Because they have received instantaneous affirmation of their belief, and can do so anytime their faith might be swayed.
Not by music experts, writers, community leaders – but affirmation online by millions of other fans, most of whom they don’t know, nor ever will.
Not terribly important in human history (for anybody but the Jonas Brothers and their benefactors), except when you translate the same human reality to other realms and endeavours: politics, science, religion.
Was 9/11 an inside job? Is global warming a serious, human caused phenomenon? Did Jesus get married and Father several children?
The new answer to all these questions and more is: Whatever you’d like to believe. Any answer you’d like, you can virtually guarantee instant affirmation.
The culture of affirmation used to be described to us by our leaders, media, politicians and opinion-leaders as the social domain of the strange and the perverse: racists, conspiracy-theorists, child-molestors, UFO abductees, etc.
The Internet has changed all that.
What are the consequences of mass affirmation, and how do we evolve as a society from here?
Perhaps we will transcend, as humans often do, into a new, more educated, media-savvy and otherwise street-smart society.
Or, perhaps we’ll devolve into a society of affirmed self-righteousness, until it ultimately descends into societal collapse, or human extinction.
It’s food for thought.
Next time an otherwise intelligent person comes to you with some crazy idea, as seen on the Internet, send them this article, and have them answer the question.
In the meantime, go Jonas Brothers – the greatest musicians ever!!
Economic Stimulus and Canada – An Idea
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, politics, social media on June 4, 2009
I have an idea to help solve a bunch of Canada’s problems.
Here are a list of the problems:
- One of the largest media companies in the country, CanWest, is (apparently) hovering on the brink of bankruptcy.
- The Canadian Government and financial analysts are anticipating record federal deficits.
- American visitors must now have a passport to visit Canada.
- The website for the Canadian Government is stupidly branded as www.canada.gc.ca.
Here is my bold (and a wee bit crazy) plan …
The Government of Canada buys Canada.com from CanWest Publishing. The value of this property to CanWest is really the content, which can be moved elsewhere. OK, OK, there is some inherent value in the name, but, honestly, it’s not really ideal for what CanWest is selling.
It is worth a considerable amount of money, which the Government should pay (one time), and this would help bail out CanWest (somewhat), thus solving problem #1.
With this new acquisition, the Government of Canada should put together a tourism website a la Australia.com, and use it to promote Tourism to Canada to the world, thus alleviating problem #3, and growing this sector of the economy (alleviating, somewhat, problem #2).
This website, naturally, would incorporate some fancy social media features, too! Anything is better than the crappy website (Copyright 2007, no less) that Tourism Canada has now.
What about the acquisition cost and development of this tourism portal?
That will certainly hurt the bottom line in the short term, but I think it’s a good long term investment. Besides, the Government is busy spending money to help the economy anyway, so why not on something like this? It beats the hell out of a traditional corporate subsidy or bailout (like the crap going on with the automotive companies).
As for problem #4, the Government of Canada has full rights to using the name Canada.ca, but chooses the brand Canada.GC.ca. Why? I can only assume it is because of the concern that Canada.ca might be misheard, leading hapless Canadians to type in Canada.com instead, and end up, confused, on CanWest’s web portal.
Saying Canada.GC.ca makes people stop and think “hmmmm”, so they tend not to mistype it as a result. Theoretically.
If my grand scheme went forward, problem #4 could be solved, the Government of Canada’s web portal could be re-branded (not just re-directed) to Canada.ca. If people mistype it as Canada.com, well, they get the Tourism Canada site, and can click on a link that connects them to the right place. Done.
And the world’s problems are solved.
Harmonized Sales Tax and Selling Online
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, politics on May 8, 2009
The debate about internet sales taxes is raging in the United States.
When I started selling things online 9 years ago, one of the first revelations that hit me was my competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis my American competitors, because I had to charge the 7% GST (now 5%).
“Shipped” goods from the U.S. to Canada could get hit with customs, and, of course, higher shipping, so a Canadian “e-tailer” selling to Canadians was pretty safe (selling to the U.S., they could not charge GST, but they’d have all the shipping disadvantages going the other way).
“Virtual” goods (such as domain names and website hosting, which we sell) are at a major disadvantage when marketing to a U.S. customer. And Canadian consumers could buy from a U.S. company and skip the GST. (There are a number of other business reasons Canadians shouldn’t do this, though, which I’ll have to cover in a different article.)
Now the U.S. is on the move to level the taxation playing field (or complicate it further … we’ll see).
Alas, that’s just one story shaking up e-commerce.
The (largely ignored) story is Ontario’s agreement with the Federal Government to move to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
This development is massive.
First of all, most Canadian “e-tailers” operate out of Ontario.
Right now we charge 5% GST. Presumably our Ontario competitors will be charging 12 or 13% HST, and presumably this tax will apply to all their Canadian customers.
This will create a massive competitive disadvantage for any “e-tailers” located in Ontario who are peddling “services” online (which are generally PST exempt in “disharmonic” provinces). Of course Atlantic Canada has had HST for years, but they are not the hot-bed of Internet retailers that Ontario is (and maybe the HST is one reason why).
I’ve spoken to a number of business folks in Ontario who are strongly considering moving their entire operation out of Ontario if the HST goes through.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government is hoping all provinces will harmonize their sales taxes. Fat chance. I think B.C. should definitely not move forward with it if Ontario does – the influx of investment dollars from Ontario into the internet business will be massive.
Smartest Twitter Spam Ever
Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, internet, politics, social media on March 25, 2009
We’ve all had “spam followers” on Twitter. Presumably this is done to promote websites and products. Most of it is idiotic, and the accounts get closed pretty quickly. I just discovered one, however, that impressed me greatly. Some smarter spammer out there came up with this.
At the risk of educating spammers, I have reviewed some Twitter spam to help educate ordinary folks who use Twitter. Here it is:
Where are the updates?
In detecting a spam account, the most obvious bit is no updates and following lots of people. This spammer solved this with the following update:
i just deleted my old updates. i don’t like living in the past. lol
Where is the picture and website link?
Twitter reviews pictures and website links. If you are spamming, it’s a great way to ensure your account gets manually reviewed. This spammer clearly knew this.
But lots of people follow this person.
Spammers have started to track the “auto-followers”. It wouldn’t be hard to figure it out. Follow somebody and see if they follow back 30 seconds later. In order to appear not to be “spam”, this spammer followed all the auto-followers first.
Demographics.
Most Twitter users are male (I’ve seen demographic stats all over the map, actually, so this is actually a “best guess”). Nonetheless, males are probably more likely to follow absolute strangers than women. This person chose the name “Kristen”, which implies “female” and “under 40″. Judging by the text (no capitals, poor punctuation, “lol”, they were trying to appear younger). And what red-blooded Twitter male gentleman isn’t going to want to follow a young lady named Kristen from Miami.
The Spam.
They waited about 9 hours before updates. It appears more natural than one that’s 5 seconds after the other – then none for days after that. In the second update, they put the spam. And it says nothing about the site itself, other than her “sweetheart” sent it to her.
So, how do I know this is spam?
Well, I’m guessing. I suppose it’s possible this is a real person with something interesting to say that happened to delete all her old updates. I’m just guessing it’s highly unlikely. Spam rating: 8/10.
Social Media Binge Article 1: Micro-Blogging Sites
Posted by Paul Holmes in politics, social media on March 14, 2009
I went on a Social Media binge the other day, as I wanted to see what else was out there other than the usual suspects (FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace).
(My opinions on these are well documented.)
I thought I would share my opinions on the others, starting with the Micro-Blogging sites.
Before I do this, I must start by extolling the virtues of an awesome website called Ping.fm. This handy little tool allows you to post status micro-blogs, tweets, pulses, status updates (or whatever else social media sites want to call those little 140 character messages) on all your social media profiles in one shot.
The Caveat: In order for social media sites to be successful, they must attract a critical mass, or at least a particular niche. All of the sites I mention below are essentially providing the same service as Twitter, but typically with their own unique twist. Still they cannot possibly be successful unless they are more widely embraced. So, while it was fun to experiment with them all, the success of any of them is entirely academic.
Identi.ca – This is almost exactly the same as Twitter. What’s cool about it is that it is based on Open Source software (laconi.ca) and uses OpenID. A couple of unique features: it turns hashes into tags and stores them in a tag cloud for you, and it provides raw RSS without the password issues of Twitter. I think this one takes second place to Twitter, but only because it has fully embraced open standards (think Google vs. Microsoft).
YouAre – This site is everything Twitter should be. You can send text, video or images through the website. It has proper profiles, including links to other sites. You can follow and favourite. You can also import all your past Twitter tweets, if you want to. I hope it catches on, it is pretty nifty.
Jaiku – This is Google’s answer to Twitter. It is nicely designed. It uses traditional contacts instead of followers and following. It also has a Channels feature, which is a pretty good idea. I can’t get too excited about it, though. I figure Google will eventually buy twitter, then probably eventually ditch this – something like Google Videos and YouTube.
Utterli – These guys are really pushing the anywhere aspect of micro-blogging, allowing you to add a pin to your SMS posts. They have mini-profiles (with custom fields), and groups, too. They also allow text, audio, images and video posts. They have a badge (widget) that will read your last post (and sound exactly like Stephen Hawking):
koornk – Instead of using a hash tag, you can set a topic separately that can be searched for. The website also sorts recent, replies, mentions, everyone (what Twitter shows), and topics. It incorporates all the cool features of TweetDeck directly on the website.
12seconds.tv – Record 12 seconds of audio directly on their website, and send that out as your video micro-blog – is that a micro-vlog? Is this the killer application of the future? Who knows.
Plurk – Almost exactly the same as Twitter, except with a funky timeline and, HOORAY, emoticons! Gasp.
If you are thinking of starting your own micro-blogging site, I recommend you come up with a crazy name that means nothing, as most of these have.
The Real Value of Twitter: Three Predictions for 2012
Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, internet, politics, social media on February 26, 2009
People who enjoy micro-blogging on Twitter include a group I’ve already pretty clearly identified.
- Computer Geeks
- Marketing Types
- Egomaniacs
- Social Butterflies
(I’d include myself in all 4 to varying degrees.) There’s a few others along the same lines.
Others will reluctantly sign on, because they feel they need to – for business or what not. But there are a whole lot of other people in the world who will not use “Twitter” as we know it. Not EVER.
Prediction #1 is that the actual percentage of broadband-capable, English-speaking people who actually “use” Twitter will probably land somewhere between 5% and 10% by 2012. (More may sign up, but many will not “use” it, per se.)
Here’s where things get very interesting, though.
What Twitter has done is built a giant database of all the the thoughts and interests and passtimes of hundreds of thousands of people – a giant, freaky database of humanity. Better still, they are recording history as it happens, and new data will continue to flow like a streaming river of collective human thought.
I think of the Star Trek borg “hive mind”, only in this case complete and utter chaos (as per every other aspect of humanity), instead of order and assimilation.
THIS is where Twitter gets exciting for me (not just because I love Star Trek), but because THIS is a goldmine of data, ready for churning and sifting.
And some people wonder how Twitter is going to make money. Ya, right.
Prediction #2 is that most of the 90-95% of the world that won’t be using Twitter as we use it, will be using it indirectly, accidentally or unknowingly. They will be using applications and websites that churn through the Twitter data stream of human gobbly-gook – without even knowing it. This was the sort of thing I was thinking when I wrote the Tweeteries.com website (and I’m only just scraping the surface of the possibilities).
This data stream is powerful and valuable. Twitter knows this. Most people, even Twitter “power-users” haven’t quite realized this just yet, as they go about their day Tweeting stuff. Assuming Twitter management are as smart as I think they are, the people at Twitter are not going to try making money from charging their users (like this hilarious notion that they would start charging for corporate accounts). Instead they will make money from the database they have created, and BUCKETS of it.
Prediction #3 is that whoever owns Twitter in 2012 will be making a hell of a lot more money than whoever owns FaceBook.
UPDATE: FaceBook announced twitter-style features on March 4th, 2009. This is a potential game changer and may destroy prediction number 3 in one swoop.
Disclaimer: most of my predictions about most things have been wrong. (But I still think I’m right about this stuff.)
One Month of Twitter
Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, business, personal, politics, social media on February 20, 2009
It’s been one month since I skeptically started using Twitter.
Wow.
I’m convinced that every marketing person, Internet geek, computer programmer, opportunistic, or egomaniac should be using Twitter!
Here’s what I’ve done in 28 days (in addition to my regular job managing the company):
- I’ve created profiles for all 3 of my business divisions and assigned somebody to maintain each one.
- For my eBrands division, I am syndicating the eBrands Twitter feed onto the website, and have plans to syndicate the other 2 to the company blogs (which are being prepared right now).
- I launched a profile for our popular news aggregator website, CanWire.ca (we are building the RSS interface for CanWire right now, then will syndicate this back to the CanWire.ca twitter profile).
- I’ve written an experimental (beta) website based entirely on Twitter feeds. See tweeteries.com (or tweateries.com).
- On my personal twitter profile I have 84 followers, and I’m following 89 (this still sounds like a cult to me).
- I’ve posted 77 updates on my personal profile alone (about 2.5 a day).
- I integrated my personal feed into my personal blog (look down the right side of the page).
- My personal tweets update my FaceBook status automatically.
- I’ve written 5 articles that mention Twitter in one way or another.
- I’ve been included on a political twitter aggregator.
- I’ve written a proposal to integrate a twitter RSS feed into an online campaign. I’m fairly certain they are going forward, and they already have a Twitter profile ready to go.
My brain continues to spin on the possibilities. I have been a computer programmer for 18 years. Twitter is by far the most exciting thing to happen on a computer in human history.
WARNING: This tool can be both an enormous waste of time AND an amazingly powerful tool. Make sure your result is (mostly) the latter.
Social Networking – MySpace
Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, internet, politics, social media on February 20, 2009
Q: What does MySpace have going for it?
A: It is well established, as the first-to-market social network. It has hundreds of thousands of users. It is owned by News Corporation, which (in “normal” economic times) gives it pretty deep pockets.
Q: What does MySpace have going against it?
A: Almost everything else.
I am one of those 30-somethings turned off by MySpace because of its early reputation.
Nonetheless, I finally joined – mostly just to educate myself about it.
These are my immediate thoughts.
- It’s (still) ugly.
- It’s crowded.
- I could not find any useful applications that integrate other social networking tools into your profile (i.e. Twitter).
It’s easy to pick on MySpace, so I don’t want to sound like one of the usual folks. Until a week ago, I honestly never even looked at it for more than a minute or two.
MySpace has much going for it in that they are well established, and drew a crowd early on. If they want to beat FaceBook in the long run, though, they need to start being smarter. I can imagine there are numerous “legacy” issues as they try to take an application built in one “era” and transform it into the new “era”, and all the distractions this creates – compared to FaceBook who understood the business model, and did it right the first time.
I won’t say MySpace is useless, or that it doesn’t have a bright future. But I will say that it has many issues to overcome if it wants to be relevant in this new social media era.
I will also say that I have no intention of using it seriously any time soon. Then again, I’m not the main target audience.
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