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Micah Sifry recently published a very honest postmortem of the failed Rasiej campaign for public advocate in NYC. I read it and added my thoughts and comments in the text that follows. I quoted liberally for context, but I would encourage folks to read teh entire postmortem. Andrew Rasiej ran an unconventional Internet-driven campaign for…
Friendster caught some flack recently for “re-inviting” people who had not responded to previous invites from their friends. The temptation is strong to abuse email addresses of people who have not opted in to your site or list. Friendster spokesman Jeff Roberto called this a misconception. “We’re not in the business of spamming,” he said. The campaign, he added, was a one-time mailing to people who were once invited but never joined the network. I would like to point out that a generally accepted definition of spam includes: any commercially oriented, unsolicited bulk mailing perceived as being excessive and undesired. I would add: or any advertising email that comes from a source with which the recipient does not have a pre-existing commercial relationship.
“You have to be smart about how you use e-mail,” said David Strom, editor in chief of Tom’s Hardware Guide, a technology review Web site. “Otherwise you let it ruin your life.” This recent article from the New York Times struck me. As a virtual worker who interacts with my coworkers, clients and other business associates almost exclusively by email, i really don’t feel buried under it. Which is not to say I am not addicted to it. Checking email is one of the first things I do in the morning and one of the last I do most nights. Perhaps the single greatest reason why I don’t suffer from the stress detailed in the article is because there is not much “one-up-manship” in my email exchanges, nor the competition embodied by so much corporate emailing (according to the article).
Rob Cordry, live from Paris "It has been 12 days fo riots and the question is: How much longer can this go on before the french government surrendors?" These guys are brilliant. If you bitorrent one episode of The Daily Show this year, this is it! Or you can watch it repeated every other…
“The West Wing” is brilliant. Sunday's episode “The Debate” was a live debate between the two presidential candidates Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick. What made this episode brilliant, besides the wonderful acting, and the only 2 commercial breaks, was that the candidates tossed the absurd debate rules at the beginning of the debate. And for…
Some cartoons nail it. While others don't. In 2004 we saw the first powerful use of campaign cartoon animation with JibJab's "This Land" which lampooned both Bush and Kerry. Earlier this week, Nyc Democratic Mayoral Candidate Freddy Ferrer launched a cartoon ad . It is one of the ones that doesn't work. This ad (it is…