The Bradley Effect

I have never heard about that before but I think it is an important issue that needs to be discussed. The Bradley effect is well explained here:
" The Bradley effect, less commonly called the Wilder effect, is a proposed explanation for observed discrepancies between voter opinion polls and election outcomes in some US government elections where a white candidate and a non-white candidate run against each other. The effect refers to a supposed tendency on the part of some voters to tell pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, and yet, on election day, vote for his or her white opponent. It was named for Tom Bradley, an African-American who lost the 1982 California governor’s race despite being ahead in voter polls going into the elections ".

In my eyes this effect was really important during the 2008 presidential race. People feared that Obama only got good polls because he was a black man. I understand that lots of people would like to say they will vote for a black person just because not to be seen as a racist. Especially because the US have a bad history with the black slaves. However, I think that our times should not talk about races but about the ability of a presidential candidate, whether black or white. The same could be said because of Hilary Clinton as a female candidate. People would say they vote for her because she is a woman and they want to be seen as a open person that is for equality when it comes to men and women in politics. For me the only important thing to about is the political part and it does not matter if the person is black or white or a woman or a man. People should not pay that much attention to things like the Bradley-Effect, they should instead decide because of their personal feelings and preference.

What kind of tech user am I?

I was doing a test on the internet about what kind of tech user I am. http://www.pewinternet.org/Participate/What-Kind-of-Tech-User-Are-You.aspx I did the test twice with different initial situations. The first time I imagined what I was like at the beginning of class in terms of the internet and other technical stuff.
The result was that I am "Drifting Surfer". That means I am an infrequent internet user who only gathers basic information. The digital resources are not the center how I get information, stay in touch with friends or do my job.
In my eyes this result does exactly describe myself at the beginning of the class. For me the internet was just a nice medium to find out a lot of information and to check my emails but it was not that important to me to stay in touch with people. I think that staying in touch with people is more worth if you talk in real life or meet each other. Although I have to say that it is an easy way to stay in touch with a huge amount of people.
The second time I did the test I was doing it from my point of view today I got a different result. Now it says I am an "Ambivalent Networker" which means that technical tools are important for me to run my social life. I also think that sometimes the connectivity is too intrusive.
This result is matching, too. I noticed that because of this class I spend more time on the internet. I have a blog now and I research a lot for it and write my own ideas down. I also watch more stuff on youtube which I never used to do before.
however, sometimes I still believe that it is a waste of time to spend so much time on the internet because you cannot stop that easily. You find more and more information and you open a lot of new pages and then you do not realize how much time went by already.
As a final result I would say that I like to be on the internet and love getting a lot of information but I do not rely so much on it. I still know there are more important things than spending my whole time on the internet. Real people are more important to me than all the social networks.

Joe Trippi

The 2008 presidential race was outstanding and it was something like a revolution because it was mostly an internet campaign by Obama. But, he was not the one who started using the internet for campaiging. The one who did use it for the first time was Howard Dean in 2004, initialized by Joe Trippi. He had this brilliant idea to use the internet and get the people involved. In his book " The revolution will not be televised" he described his way as a camapign organizer and it is a really interesting story, especially when he talks about the Dean campaign. He probably never thought that his idea would turn out to be so revolutionary and he basically gave the impulse for Obama to use the internet to reach everyone. Although Dean was not that succesful in the pre-presidential race he developed something special in terms of campaigning.
Today Trippi is a really important man and a lot of people still ask him for help. He just has the ideas and is willing to to work really hard. he even risks his health to work. He loves his job but he often hates it, too. It seems that he has a love-hate-relationship with his job. he cannot resist taking a job although he knows how much work it is.
Joe Trippi is a really important person in the process of the internet as a medium for political activities!
To get more information, check this page out http://joetrippi.com/

Internet Revolution in Iran

The people in Iran use the internet for reporting over the demonstrations going on. Other media like television and newspaper are controlled by the government but the internet is still free and so many people upload their videos and talk about the actual situation in Iran right now. Even the international TV stations get their information from twitter or youtube.

That kind of revolution in Iran shows how democracy is lived. all the young people want to change something and their way is the internet. People all over the world know about the latest actions happening in Iran. The whole world is part of what is happening. Because their actions are noticed from many people on the web it encourages them to write even more. We should all encourage those people by reading their stuff and giving positive feedback!!
For more information:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31411475/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Social networks

Social networks become more and more important these days and I just wonder why these networks have such a power! Personally I only use studivz.de and mostly for being in touch with people from University. It is an easy way to organize meetings or to share things about the same classes. For me it fulfills the function of a student network in a good way. Of course sometimes I use it for other things, too, for example looking at my friend's photos but this is just a side effect.
I do not like to write messages with people that I have not seen for long time (some people from school for example), it is basically just stupid small talk like "what are you up to, how is University..." and after writing one or two messages we never talk again. For me this is useless and kinda a waste of time. However, there are some other good social networks, too. Especially when it comes to school/student networks or business networks. Basically networks that help communicate with people that share the same interests.
Social networks can be dangerous though if people have wrong identities and try to betray that way. You never know who the person at the other side of the computer is and if that person is talking to you honestly. I am actually a careful person and I never tell much about myself. Still, I do not think that it is easy to live without social networks these days, especially for young people. there are so many information going around over these networks and it really helps us in our everyday life. And if you do not participate you are
The first social networks on the internet started in 1985 which means that these networks are not ideas of recent years. Twitter http://twitter.com/ is one of the recent ones and combines a lot of functions in one "tool". It becomes really popular these days. I found a nice article that tells about how twitter is used in Iran. http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/487599/index.do?direct=486568&_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/index.do&selChannel
It is amazing that it is possible to follow the actions that happen right now. you get even more the feeling that you are "live" at places where something happens. You get the latest news every minute.
It is sad that not all people in the world access to the internet. The ones without are kinda excluded from the world because they do not know what is happening, especially if countries block websites for the people.
The internet and with it the social networks create a really great community where people from all over the world share information. The world becomes more interconnected because of that.

Election in the USA

Today when we talked about the election system in the states and I noticed that I never knew much about it. It is a really complex system and I do not think that a lot of people in the states know how it really works. In the US the presidential candidate with the most votes wins the election. It is already enough if he has a few more votes than the other candidate. this is a big difference to other election systems like the one we have in Germany. There the candidate needs a total majority, which means that at least 51% of the votes have to be for one candidate. If that does not happen in first round there is a second round in which the two candidates with the most votes compete against each other and finally the one with the total majority wins.

An important thing in the states are the caucuses. I found a definition on the internet: " a closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy" I actually never heard about that before I read the book by Joe Trippi "The Revolution will not be televised" http://www.amazon.de/Revolution-Will-Not-Televised-Everything/dp/006156107X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1245161134&sr=8-1 This book really explains a lot about the election system especially what happens behind the scenes. I really enjoyed reading it.

However, coming back to the system. I actually did not find a really good link that explains the system... but I found a funny video on youtube that explains the system :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkqEdlRDKfo

I wonder how many people in the states do actually know how the system works. It is funny that people vote for the candidate they want to be president on their ballot paper but actually the votes come from the electors and not from the people directly. For me that does not sound like democracy...

well, if I have time someday maybe I will read more about it :-)

Something funny at the end!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5YzlcAHt0&feature=PlayList&p=5CD673C0B0D48412&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39

History becomes alive on the internet

I am going to write a thesis paper at the end of the course and it will be about John F. Kennedy and Obama. I want to compare them by looking at their campaigns and how they used the media for it. When Kennedy ran for presidency in 1960 the "new" medium TV was used for the first time in a campaign. Therefore the first presidential debate was held on TV which was a really great thing back then.
By researching about Kennedy on the internet ( I have to say that I did not know much about him before) I really found some interesting stuff and I spent hours reading articles about Kennedy also in comparison with Obama. The internet makes it possible to get so many information about a topic... However, the best thing I explored where videos on youtube. I actually did not spend that much time on that site before so it was really exciting for me to see how many videos there were especially the old ones. I watched speeches by Kennedy, the tv debate and also how he was shot. It was so interesting to see these old things from about 1960 on the internet. It felt like getting a real insight into that history. That way it is even fascinating to learn something about "boring history". I really like that kind of studying more than reading old history books. On the internet history becomes alive and if people would spend more time watching serious stuff on youtube they could know alot of things. Especially when it comes to politics it is a really good source, you always have the latest news on youtube and you can catch up to what happens in the world right now. There is even an own youtube site for people interested in politics http://www.youtubepolitics.org/ lots of great stuff.
If you need information for University stuff from the internet you should consult youtube, there are probably the best information.