The Internet offers politicians infinite ways to reconnect with the citizens. Some campaign teams go for more classical solutions such as e-mails, websites and online advertising, while most present-day political messages are delivered via alternative wide-reaching channels such as blogs, podcasts, Youtube, Twitter updates or Facebook pages.
Engaging voters, recruiting volunteers, and raising campaign funds via new media is simply a matter of few clicks.
Microsoft jumps on this political bandwagon with its cloud-based TownHall app, which claims “to combine the grassroots appeal of the town hall meeting with the reach of the Web”. Launched at this year’s Politics Online Conference, TownHall works on Microsoft’s Azure platform (therefore, it comes at a price) and uses a badges system to convince its users to vote and answer questions.
As promising as it might sound, TownHall is not build to become mainstream and will probably end up being used by large political organizations. Nonetheless, it shows us that the 2008 US presidential election changed the way big players in the IT sector relate to politics.
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is of the yearly highlights for tech aficionados. And over the last 40 years some amazing gadgets made their debut here: we had the Palm Pre, OLED displays and Dell Adamo subnotebooks in 2009. 2008 was mostly about the retirement speech held by Bill Gates. In 2001 we saw the first Xbox there, along with plasma TVs. Two years later high-definition television and Blue-Ray conquered the scene. Going way back in time, we had the first camcorder and CD player at the 1981 edition.VCR in 1970. You got the idea.
At this year’s edition (January 7-10) many highly-anticipated consumer technologies are expected to surface: wireless chargers, eco-friendly devices (like the Vaio W, Sony’s netbook made out of recycled soda cans), HDTVs, 3D TV, netbooks, e-book readers, internet radios, home energy-management devices, mobile DTV etc.
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Just hours before CES 2010, at Google’s Mountain View headquarters the first Google-branded phone was unveiled. Nexus One is truly great phone which can teach Apple’s iPhone some new tricks: multitasking, full Google apps integration, 5Mpx camera, better display and battery, great processing power (1Ghz Snapdragon processor).
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During the first days at CES, Microsoft broke in the news on its motion-sensing Project Natal. The revolutionary Xbox 360 add-on will be available just in time for this year’s Christmas shopping season. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off some Windows 7-enabled tablet prototypes, but no mind-blowing moves here.
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Also at CES 2010, HTC opens its smartphone lineup to the masses with the new HTC Smart running BREW, especially build for European and Asian markets.
he Internet offers politicians infinite ways to reconnect with the citizens. Some campaign teams go for more classical solutions such as e-mails, websites and online advertising, while most present-day political messages are delivered via alternative wide-reaching channels such as blogs, podcasts, Youtube, Twitter updates or Facebook pages.
