Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Youth Vote 2008: How Obama Hooked Gen Y

Since the election, there has been lots of attention focused on how the Obama campaign was able to leverage many types of new and social media to engage Gen Y to get out and vote.

At the 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East, held at Boston College just days after the election, several of the panelists talked about Obama's use of social media. Some of the most interesting and detailed election research at the conference was presented by Dan Coates, co-founder of SurveyU.

Dan's presentation, What Every Brand Could Learn from The Obama Campaign's Marketing to College Students, outlined some of the key demographic and media consumption trends among college students that the Obama campaign leveraged to get youth more involved in the political process. Dan also explained how marketers (or educators!) can use these same strategies to engage with this increasingly influential generation.

In this video, taken at a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics panel, YES We Can producer Wes Hill and The Nation's Ari Melber discuss Youth, Politics, and Civic Engagement in the 2008 election year.

Also worth noting, and somewhat lost in the post-election euphoria, is the election of Aaron Schock (R-Illinois) to the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman-elect Schock is the first member of Congress born in the 1980s and he will be the first millennial to serve in Congress.

Related Resources

• A chat with the first Gen Y congressman (Thanks Anastasia!)
• Obama's Change.gov Adds OpenID
• The Obama Factor: The Net Generation
• Ruminations: 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East
• Mind the Gap: American Teens Falling into the Digital Divide

iCue: Teachers Guide to Election 2008

The iCue Team, part of the NBC News family, has developed a "2008 Election Viewer's Guide" for the first Presidential Debate, with two fun and engaging activities for teachers, students, and political groupies everywhere.

You can find the Election Viewer's Guide and more new activities right here in the iCue forums. And teachers can now share more ideas in the iCue Teachers' Lounge.

Related Resources

• NBC News
• iCue > Luke Russert's Blog
• CSPAN Presidential Libraries

Education in America : Ask Obama & McCain

Given the opportunity, what would you ask John McCain or Barack Obama? Today Katie Couric has announced that she will being hosting a convention webcast that will feature questions submitted by viewers like YOU! Here's the scoop from Katie:

"I have a press pass and I intend to use it at the Democratic and Republican conventions...to get some of your questions answered.

The video explains the plan, so check it out. And be sure to watch my live webcasts from the floor of the conventions in Denver and St. Paul."

This is a good opportunity for us as a community to get some of those education related questions out into the public domain and in front of the candidates. What's their stance on NCLB? Or technology funding? Do they have a plan to reform public education?

So go over to CBS News and submit a question. Or two...

Related Resources

• ED in '08
• Think MTV > Issues > Education
• Education, Innovation and the Future of Learning

Paris Strikes Back at McCain

Paging Mr. DeMille. It looks like Paris Hilton is ready for her close up. 

I'm sure this isn't the response that John McCain expected when he lampooned Paris Hilton in an attack ad aimed at Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama. Who knows if this video, which is bound to spread like wildfire, will hurt McCain. Or help Obama for that matter.

Regardless of you support, just remember that you can't vote unless you register. For more information, be sure to visit Declare Yourself or Rock the Vote for more information on voter registration. You can also sign-up for mobile election alerts from Mobile Voter or the New Voters Project.

Related Resources

• Declare Yourself
• Rock the Vote
• Youth, Mobile Phones & Election 2008

School Confiscates Student Cell Phones

According to the Middletown Journal, school administrators at Mason High School in Ohio are confiscating student cell phones and reading text messages to "to determine if the students attended private parties off school grounds during the weekend."

Students and parents at the school have contacted the ACLU who has warned school officials that their "current practice of seizing student cell phones and reading personal text messages was poor policy and unconstitutional."

Moreover, the ACLU countered that "Attendance at a private party that does not disrupt classes and does not occur on school grounds is none of the school's business. Private student social activities are issues for parents, not the school."

For many school administrators confiscating phones and blocking content seems like the easiest way to address the issue. But as Gen Y expert Anastasia Goodstein points out, doing so creates a “Lord of the Flies” environment where our kids are left to navigate the world of social networks, technology and online content without any direction.

Just like we have “drivers ed” to help them learn the rules of the road, we need to arm them with the digital literacy skills necessary to safely navigate the digital world in which they were raised.

Related Resources

• Facebook Never Forgets
• Digizen: Digital Citizenship
• Connect Safely
• BJ Fogg on Web Credibility
• eSchool News: Online Safety Myths

Memo to Gen Y: Facebook Never Forgets

There's a brilliant editorial in today's LA Times by the editors of IvyGate, a blog that covers news, gossip and other tidbits from the Ivy League, all about lifecasting and Facebook.

Here's a snippet from their OP-ED piece, Facebook Never Forgets:

"Imagine if the current crop of public figures had grown up during the Facebook era. We might have photos of John McCain in Florida slurping body shots off his stripper girlfriend.

Barack Obama rolling a joint on a beach in Hawaii. George W. Bush passed out at a Yale frat party, 40-ounce beer bottles duct-taped to his hands. Hillary Rodham Clinton at a Wellesley peace rally, locking lips with her husband's future secretary of Labor, Robert Reich.

It's one thing to hear that your elected representative had a wild time in college. It's entirely different to have pictorial proof. Would you still vote for someone after viewing a photograph of him passed out in his own vomit?"

Two takeaways: First, eventually there will be enough dirt on all of us that we won't really care what we learn about others. Secondly, perhaps it's time that everyone (not just students) should think more about what and why we post information on the web.

And remember, just because you delete that photo of yourself doesn't mean that it isn't archived somewhere. Forever. After all, your privacy is an illusion.

Related Resources

• LA TIMES: Facebook Never Forgets
• Gen Y: Sharing Way Too Much
• Your Facebook Privacy is An Illusion

EdTech Obama Meet Up @ NECC 2008

Will you be in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday June 29th? Come join me and other supporters of Barack Obama for President at a free EdTech  Meet Up for Obama in '08 and Unite for Change in TX.

Where: Sunset Station, Depot 1, just 2 blocks from the convention center

When: Sunday June 29, 8:30-10:30 pm

What: Chips, salsa, drinks, and great political conversation

RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4gzk

Alternative RSVP instructions: Go to www.barackobama.com, click events in the right column, search for events in zip code 78205, and click EdTech Meet Up.

Related Resources

• Ed4Tech Obama > Facebook Group
• NECC '08: Podcasters Beware
• NECC '08 > Ning

Invisible

The thing about this war is that the only people really doing any type of sacrifice are the men and women fighting over in Iraq & Afghanistan, as well as their families back home in the United States and the U.K.

Sure we sit here all safe and sound here in the suburbs with our "Support the Troops" bumper stickers on our cars, and shake our heads in disgust as we listen to the radio as we listen to the latest death toll of soldiers.

Those of us who are "old school" enough to still read a newspaper are among the few who get to actually see the faces of these young Americans, hear their stories and witness the impact and reverberations their death has had on both their family and community.

These young adults, and make no mistake many of them are really just kids, are risking their lives for a cause they may or may not believe in. But duty always comes first. For a solider, political opinions come second or third on the list. Personal safety and family back home rank much higher on the list of things to worry about.

For the most part the people fighting this war are invisible. We don't see their caskets on the evening news, most of us don't know anyone fighting in the war. Our community had a care package program for soldiers. I went to drop off my donations and expected to see the bins overflowing with razors, chewing gum, soap and other necessities. I looked into the bottom of the bin and saw only one small bag with a couple bars of soap in it. It seems that even the support for the troops is invisible.

This is not right.

Veterans Day isn't about a great deal on a new car or a low APR on a refrigerator, it's a day to honor veterans. You don't have to agree with the war. You don't have to like the president. But we owe all veterans, past, present and future the respect they have earned by putting their lives on the line.

This year get involved. Send a card. Make a donation to the USO. Send the soldiers some books. If you live by a military hospital, then go visit some wounded soldiers. It doesn't matter what you do, just as long as you do something to let them know that they aren't invisible.

Related Links

• Support the Troops
• Books for Soldiers
• A Million Thanks
• Message from John Edwards

Yahoo!, Youth and Current TV

The Yahoo! Current Network :"Internet media company Yahoo! and Current TV, a television channel founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, announced today that they have teamed up on a Web video service aimed at young adults.

The service, named the Yahoo Current Network, will feature both professionally produced video and material from viewers." (via)

Web Resources

• Yahoo! + Current TV
• Current TV
• Gen Y Learning Styles