| | 31 August 2006 - Free campaign advice |
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In this issue
MySpace has passed 100 million registrants and the social networking giant is expanding internationally with sites in French and German. What does the biggest Internet phenomenon since the creation of the world wide web mean for Internet campaigning? On the "magic" side, this issue looks at new technologies for seamlessly combining several different web applications.
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Social networking revolution
Why have social networking sites become so popular and how can they be used for internet campaigning?
The new social networking sites have made maintaining and marketing a personal website as fun and competitive as playing a video game. They combine three approaches:
- a place to store digital "stuff", ranging from music to comment guestbooks to video clips
- eprofiles that describe likes, dislikes, favourite movies, career goals and much else
- friends lists and comment guestbooks, adding a competitive edge to see who can accumulate the most friends and comments.
These three components are powerfully reinforcing. The more interesting "stuff" you have and the more detailed your eprofile, the more likely it is that someone will add you to their friends lists. A detailed eprofile makes it easier to find other people like yourself, and making them friends makes it more likely that they would make you their friend.
Social networks have already been used for numerous campaigns. The most successful of these have been run by the young people who actually use the sites and are motivated by the desire to protect their friends.
Read the full article
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Integrating web applications
There is an exploding number of high quality open source web applications. From Drupal to Moodle, from Elgg to phpBB, the choice seems endless. The problem is no longer "can I find an open source application to meet my needs", but rather "what is the best open source application to meet my needs?"
Answering the second question is not always easy because different applications have different strengths and weaknesses. In the real world, many projects require a combination of these features.
After surveying the features of several web applications, many online campaigners ask "why can't I have them all?" Now you may be able to.
New technologies, including template engines like PHPtemplate or Smarty, single sign on and profile exchange tools like OpenID and search integration technologies such as Simple Sharing Extensions and OpenSearch make it possible to combine several different web applications into one seamless website, with a common look and feel, single registration and login process, and searchable content.
Read the full article
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In the next issue
The long promised convergence is finally upon us. Telephone, video, sound, animation and text are all blending together into one incredibly powerful medium, driven by the rapid expansion of broadband Internet. Text-based websites are now looking increasingly outdated.
Next month we'll look at how organisations are combining video, sound and interactive technologies to create new forms of communication and campaigning.
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| CAMPAIGN SOLUTIONS |
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| SELECTED LINKS |
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| FUN FACT |
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Youtube visitors watch 100 million video clips and upload 65 thousand new clips each day.
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