The Intersection of Online and Offline

I’m sorry if there are any Senator Ted Stevens fans out there, but with his recent political (and perhaps) legal troubles, I cannot get enough of Ted Stevens.

I wrote about it a few times, most recently in “Rubes, Boobs and Tubes,” but as a laugh, here’s a “Ted Stevens The Internet is Not a Series of Tubes” mix.

Mark

My Georgetown colleague, author and all-around good guy, Garrett Graff this week wrote a blog posting in the online version of Washingtonian magazine entitled “McCain and the Internet: Why It Matters.”  I respect the points put forth, but Garrett, you are wrong, wrong, wrong — and I am here to help you see the light.

I encourage everyone to read the article, but the point is basically that McCain doesn’t get the Internet, so it is a metaphor for his larger cluelessness, and it should “give us pause:”

The fact that John McCain hasn’t yet learned how to use the Internet himself puts him not just at odds with most of the rest of the nation but, in fact, with many people in his own age bracket. More than a third of Americans 65 and older use the Internet, according to the May 2008 numbers from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Work by Forrester Research, which uses different age brackets, shows that more than a third of Americans over 55 regularly read blogs and online forums, watch videos, or listen to podcasts. This “Internet thing” isn’t some crazy person’s niche; it will be the driving force behind the next half-century of America’s economic growth. That John McCain isn’t part of that group of “wired seniors” should give us all pause coming into this fall.”

I love a good debate, so here goes.

1. There is,  without a doubt, a WIDE gap among online activists and enthusiasts in the Obama and McCain camps.  Before penning this (old school reference), I consulted a friend of mine who, for a while, worked in McCain’s online shop.  He basically confirmed what we can agree upon, and that is that Obama and the Dems do it better.  “McCain Space” was embarrassing.  But McCain, like any president before him, is going to leave the blogs and Twitter accounts up to other people. I doubt that Obama wakes up every morning and checks the Technorati ranking on his campaign Web site.
2. I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that the Internet is such as powerful force, that not even the dumbest of politicians can kill it.  The recent flap between the Dems and Repubs about “blocking” You Tube and Ted Stevens’ 2006 comment (presumably about “Net Neutrality”) -  “the Internet…is a series of tubes..” doesn’t scare me at all.  Not even Congress can kill this. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago in Media Bullseye - Rubes, Tubes and Boobs.
3. Once whomever the new president is steps foot into the Oval Office, I doubt that he will have time to touch a computer.  The Internet is all about getting to the White House, but you can pretty much forget about it when you’re there.  Unless you are Al Gore.  And I concede, and wrote a couple of weeks ago, that this will be the first presidential race in which the online activism will truly cross over into offline.
4. To hell with online.  I want a president who is a Man With a Plan about the economy, the war on Islamic fundamentalists and other critical issues, not someone who is Tweeting with his pals.  I am fine that McCain is “clueless,” just so long as he gets the big issues.  Or Obama.  My point is that understanding the Internet does not crack my Top Ten List for what I care about in a presidential candidate.
5. To your larger point, “…what kind of president would he be in a world where just as much commerce travels over fiber optics as over interstate highways? What kind of president would he be in a world where, for the first time this year, there are now more users of the Internet in China than in the United States? What kind of president will he be in a world where the greatest force for Iranian democracy today is its thriving Persian blog community?” – you need to think past the Beltway.  Washington, DC is the most active social networking city in the nation.  I would bet that there are a lot of people who don’t care about the Internet (Columbia, SC, St. Louis and Chicago round out the bottom), but about other pressing issues as well.

My final point is about the line”…John McCain seems to have missed this [Internet] movement—an oversight that may have profound implications both for his campaign and the entire nation if he is to become president.”  Propeller-heads like us care.  A farmer in Nebraska probably doesn’t.

Campaign?  Yes.

Nation?  Hell, no.

Mark

This posting is republished from an article that I wrote for Media Bullseye.

For those of you who have not seen it in the news, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been under fire lately in the French press for, of all things, hiring, as the French call him:

• Sarkozy’s little cop
• Sarkozy’s eye on the net
• Cyber Spin Doctor

What are the French all up in arms about? The French president had the Gaulle (pun intended) to hire a 24 year-old kid to monitor what was being said about the President in the online environment. Mon Dieu!

Bienvenue to 1999, la France! Let’s not forget that it was out our French brethren who actually did help invent the Internet with Mintel in 1982. Yes, 1982. According to Wikipedia:

Since its early days [using Minitel], users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, and chat in a similar way to that now made possible by the Internet.

So what’s the big deal?

I don’t know what is more surprising; that, for the president of a republic to have waited nearly one year into his term to hire someone to monitor what is being said about him in the online environment (Custom Scoop does monitoring in French, BTW), or that the French public would put down their smokes and café au lait and react with outrage that some 24 year-old kid is following what people are saying about Sarkozy.

What is even more surprising is that, in many way, the French “get” online politics, especially the way in which the final two French presidential candidates made use of online tools and tactics. Selogene Royale, the socialist candidate, used her website for, in essence, a “listening tour” of France that would help her gather information and make up a platform of issues and policies. French voters rejected her by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, a sizable victory considering that Royale was the socialist party candidate, one that has traditionally fared well in France.

And Sarkozy? His website was all him. Literally. My French is not good, but it doesn’t have to be, because Sarkozy’s Web site (and now “presidential site”) is all about video, images, music and creating an online image of strong, self-assured leader. The guy, or at least his advisers and most definitely the people who voted for him, understands that his people get the Internet and social media.

So what is it that is causing the French bloggers to become enraged that someone would actually read their blog postings about the president? (Note to French bloggers: isn’t it a good thing if someone in the president’s office actually does read what you are writing?) But, I digress.

Aside from Sarkozy himself, the poor kid at the center of the monitoring controversy is Nicolas Princen. Here are some of the things, as reported by AFP, that are being said in the French blogosphere:

• “The appointment of Nicolas Princen, who worked on the website of Sarkozy’s presidential campaign last year, has sparked derision but also serious concerns among the online community.” Serious concerns?
• “One satirical video posted on Dailymotion begins with a poster showing the Soviet symbols the hammer and sickle and bearing the words ‘KGB Web - Elysee. It then shows a man in a wig, his face covered in bandages, advising viewers that they should follow his example and be careful about what they say about the president. I don’t want to end up in a jail, tortured,’ said the man.” KGB?!?!?

Memo to my friends across the Atlantic: the Internet matters to public opinion.

Further note to my friends across the Atlantic: blogs are about opinion, and people have some very strong opinions about the French President and are expressing them in the blogosphere, particularly in regards to a YouTube video in which the French president appeared intoxicated at the G8 Summit.

Sarkozy, who has had several missteps, finally wised up and put someone on the payroll to give him a sense of what was being said about him.

So my unsolicited advice to the French bloggers is to put down the Gauloises, take a deep breath and relax. Having someone reading your blog postings and maybe - just maybe - reacting to them is not a bad thing.