The video of my March 2012 Presentation for TEDxWallStreet. I speak about the evolution of protesting techniques and how within each uprising there exists an economic opportunity. All in 12 minutes.

China Town Gates. I’m craving some dim sum!

Doing a tour of Washington, DC. The Capitol Building!

First off, sorry if there are multiple posts I’m having some issues with tumblr.

Anyway I’m in the Vancouver lounge waiting for my flight.

Just wanted to give a quick kudos to William from the concierge office who helped me solve a small glitch quickly and with a smile. Competent and fiendly service is alway appreciated and really sets the tone for the rest of the flight.

Hopefully this post goes through!

Getting ready to have dinner in beautiful Vancouver.

For some reason I find this BettyBoop luggage set ridiculous. I would be slightly embarrassed to fly with it. One piece says: I’m fun and don’t take travel that seriously. The set says: I put in effort to evaluate a set and this is what I came up with.

The view of Panama City from the air. Pretty.

Hanging out in the Star Alliance Continental Lounge in Panama city.

Omg. This woman let her kid sprawl out between her legs during a bumpy landing. COPA flight fail!

Hola Panama City! The view as we landed was beautiful.

Watch them explain the campaign in their own words:

Why I love this campaign:

1) Use what you have:

There was no need to develop a fancy application or create a complicated web presence. They used two existing features that most users were already familiar with: tagging pictures and the sharing functionality.

2) Clear strategic objectives:

They knew what they wanted to accomplish: get people talking about the launch of the store and spread the news to their online network. The entry barrier to participate was very low. Anyone could easily and quickly be a part of the campaign.

3) A realistic campaign life cycle:

They set a clear deadline (12 days) and the end point for the campaign was clearly communicated to all  members. As more organizations execute social media strategies our attention spans will continue to shrink. I think many organizations have a misguided notion that they have to build a long lasting community of people who will remain engaged with the brand for months.

I can see where this perspective comes from considering building an online community of active members take a lot of time and effort and companies want to see some bang for their buck. However, as Ikea proves you can have an effective campaign with a shorter life cycle that is just as effective in getting the job done. I do want to point out that I am referring to specifically branded campaigns and not Ikearsquo;s overall web presence.

4) They incented the right actions:

It really makes me laugh. People love getting things for free. Whatever it is, if itrsquo;s free someone will happily take it. AND theyrsquo;ll tell their friends about it. Ikea was able to move the online discussion beyond the boundaries of one photo album and into the digital common space by counting on the fact that people will gloat about their free loot. And it worked like a charm.Whether it was announcing that they won something, or encouraging their friends to take part it made sense for people to talk about the campaign.

Well done Ikea!!

Many thanks to my friend Kimmo Kuortti, Director of International Relations at the University of Oulu in Finland for sharing this wonderful video with me!

A small highlight:

In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes businesses and organizations make when it comes to social media and branding?

The most common mistake I see are businesses who think they need to be doing every new thing. They are all over the place simply because they feel like they should be without necessarily considering how much value it’s adding to their overall strategic objectives.

Your best bet is to really sit down and think your strategy through. Where are your consumers naturally congregating online? What are they doing there? How would you like to engage with them?

These thoughts have to be carefully considered before entering this space, otherwise you end up wasting valuable time and money, not to mention potentially irritating potential customers as well.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Just a quick update from Davos. Itrsquo;s been a great annual meeting so far. More details to come after, but I thought I would share this brief cameo I made on a German news progam discussing what the Forumrsquo;s Global Partnership to Assist Haitirsquo;s Economic Development, a partnership wersquo;ve launched with the Clinton Foundation and the UN.

Just a quick update from Davos. Itrsquo;s been a great annual meeting so far. More details to come after, but I thought I would share this brief cameo I made on a German news program discussing what the Forumrsquo;s Global Partnership to Assist Haitirsquo;s Economic Development, a partnership wersquo;ve launched with the Clinton Foundation and the UN.

Itrsquo;s incredible how much can change in one year. At this time last year, I was working as a volunteer on Barack Obamarsquo;s New Media Team in Chicago. It was Election day and everyone was wound up tight with anticipation, excitement and fear. I had spent the last few months working with some of the brightest minds in digital media and strategy and it all came down to this day.

In celebration of that historic win, I am sharing some of my personal videos of my time at the campaign.

Sharing Some Down Time:

Everyone on the team worked long hours, 7 days a week. It was nice to find a few minutes to be able to unwind and have a little fun.

We Win Michigan:

We just won Michigan, and the whole office was gathered around the television, cheering and clapping.

Trolley of Change

As soon as we were sure of the results, we hopped on the trolley and headed down to Grant Park.

November 2009

Exactly a year later, I had written a book about my experiences and am now living in Geneva to work on a project for the World Economic Forum.

I still vividly remember the morning of November 5, I felt like the whole world was different, a little brighter. I knew it wouldnrsquo;t last forever, so I just savored the day, and the feeling that we could accomplish just about anything we set our mind to.

Happy November 4th!!

It is now also available for the Amazon Kindle.

Also a very special thanks to everyone who has emailed me to let me know how much they liked the book. It is such a thrill to receive each and every one of your notes and never fails to brighten my day. Over the next few weeks, in celebration of the one year anniversary of the election victory, I will be sharing some of my personal pictures and behind-the-scenes footage of working on the New Media team. Itrsquo;s going to be fun to relive that time again!

Can you believe itrsquo;s already October? Where has 2009 gone?

Using social media sites to organize and mobilize groups of people is nothing new. What I am finding particularly intriguing as I watch the Iranian Election crisis unfold, is how some of these social networks are making decisions as corporate entities that are evolving their roles from neutral platforms to powerful players within a new digital narrative. Itrsquo;s no longer about USERS leveraging a sitersquo;s features, but organizational decisions that are being made which are  adding a new variable to social mediarsquo;s role in impacting global change.

For the first time, tech companies like Twitter, Facebook amp; Google are taking direct action in response to an unfolding crisis and are having a big impact. Irsquo;m trying to puzzle out the corporate agendas behind these acts as well as thinking of the implications that these decisions will have on driving the development of governmental IT policies and the creation of emerging digital rights legislation.

1) Twitter Reschedules Maintenance after US Government Appeal

The US State Department asked Twitter to reschedule its maintenance in order to keep the service available to Iranians so they could continue to share up to the second reports of the unfolding situation. A CNN blog post reported that US Government officials are pushing to ensure that they (and the rest of the world) continue to receive as much information as possible from social networking and content sharing sites. With this request coming from the US Government, it is clear that social media channels are being monitored by the Obama administration which has no official relationship with Iran. The content they are receiving through Twitter, Facebook and Youtube is an invaluable source of information.

Twitter made the corporate decision to change their maintenance date to provide the Iranian people the opportunity to share information at a critical juncture.

On to Facebook amp; Google

2) Facebook releases Persian Translation

On June 18, Mashable reported that Facebook has released an early version of the platform in Persian in direct response to the Iran Elections Crisis:

The Persian translation is already live on Facebook, but the company warns that it’s a test version. In other words, the company and its 400+ volunteer translators have not completed all the steps to assure that all translations are correct, so the text or language may be awkward in places. Here’s what Facebook said in a draft release that should appear later tonight:

“Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath. Much of the content created and shared on Facebook related to these events has been in Persian – the native language of Iran – but the users have had to navigate the site in English or other languages.

Today we’re making the entire site available in a test version of Persian, so Persian speakers inside of Iran and around the world can begin using it in their native language.

Persian was already in translation before worldwide attention turned to the Iranian elections, but because of the sudden increase in activity we decided to launch it sooner than planned. This means that the translation isn’t perfect, but we felt it was important to help more people communicate rather than wait.”

3) Google Introduces Farsi support for Google Translate

Not to be outdone by Facebook and Twitter, the search-engine giant announced they would be offering Farsi support for their Google Translate tool. The service was hastily launched meaning users may experience some bugs and delays for now.  According to the Google Blog:

“Today, we added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. This means you can now translate any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian — whether it’s a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message. The service is available free at http://translate.google.com.

We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran. Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.

As with all machine translation, it’s not perfect yet. And we’re launching this service quickly, so it may perform slowly at times. We’ll keep a close watch and if it breaks, we’ll restore service as quickly as we can.rdquo;

Mulling it over: What about China?

So I am left with more questions than answers. Are the these companies remaining neutral or being subversive? If the Iranian government succeeds in suppressing rioters, will there be consequences for online companies who can be blamed for promoting civil unrest? Or will it be citizens who find their online rights even more curtailed than before? Governments will have to think about their technology approach, theyrsquo;ll probably take a cue from the Obama administrationrsquo;s decision to hire a CTO. I find myself wondering what the Iranian government has learned from this process and how they will adapt to these collaborative technologies in the future?

I really want to believe that these actions are a step in the right direction for transparency and greater access to information. However, the cynical part of me remains caustic. Was this a move to help a troubled part of the world or a great opportunity for some PR?

With big statements from all of these companies regarding Iran, I wonder why we donrsquo;t hear as much about China, who continues to block sites such as YouTube and heavily censored everything from the Economist to the Huffington Post for the anniversary of Tianemen Square.  Maybe China is just too profitable a market to risk its wrath? In fact, just today, the Chinese Government ordered Google to place even more restrictions on some of the sites it makes available.

What do you think?

In the next part of this mini-series, I will take a look at how social media is redefining activism and how people are showing their support worldwide.

Using social media sites to organize and mobilize groups of people is nothing new. What I am finding particularly intriguing as I watch the Iranian Election crisis unfold, is how some of these social networks are making decisions as corporate entities that are evolving their roles from neutral platforms to powerful players within a new digital narrative. Itrsquo;s no longer about USERS leveraging a sitersquo;s features, but organizational decisions which are adding a new variable to social mediarsquo;s role in impacting global change.

For the first time, tech companies like Twitter, Facebook amp; Google are taking direct action in response to an unfolding crisis and are having a big impact. Irsquo;m trying to puzzle out the corporate agendas behind these acts as well as thinking of the implications that these decisions will have on driving the development of governmental IT policies and the creation of emerging digital rights legislation.

1) Twitter Reschedules Maintenance after US Government Appeal

The US State Department asked Twitter to reschedule its maintenance in order to keep the service available to Iranians so they could continue to share up to the second reports of the unfolding situation. A CNN blog post reported that US Government officials are pushing to ensure that they (and the rest of the world) continue to receive as much information as possible from social networking and content sharing sites. With this request coming from the US Government, it is clear that social media channels are being monitored by the Obama administration which has no diplomatic relationship with Iran. The content they are receiving through Twitter, Facebook and Youtube is an invaluable source of information.

Twitter made the corporate decision to change their maintenance date to provide the Iranian people the opportunity to share information at a critical juncture.

On to Facebook amp; Google

2) Facebook releases Persian Translation

On June 18, Mashable reported that Facebook released an early version of the platform in Persian in direct response to the Iran Elections Crisis:

The Persian translation is already live on Facebook, but the company warns that it’s a test version. In other words, the company and its 400+ volunteer translators have not completed all the steps to assure that all translations are correct, so the text or language may be awkward in places. Here’s what Facebook said in a draft release that should appear later tonight:

“Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath. Much of the content created and shared on Facebook related to these events has been in Persian – the native language of Iran – but the users have had to navigate the site in English or other languages.

Today we’re making the entire site available in a test version of Persian, so Persian speakers inside of Iran and around the world can begin using it in their native language.

Persian was already in translation before worldwide attention turned to the Iranian elections, but because of the sudden increase in activity we decided to launch it sooner than planned. This means that the translation isn’t perfect, but we felt it was important to help more people communicate rather than wait.”

3) Google Introduces Farsi support for Google Translate

Not to be outdone by Facebook and Twitter, the search-engine giant announced they would be offering Farsi support for their Google Translate tool. The service was hastily launched meaning users may experience some bugs and delays for now.  According to the Google Blog:

“Today, we added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. This means you can now translate any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian — whether it’s a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message. The service is available free at http://translate.google.com.

We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran. Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.

As with all machine translation, it’s not perfect yet. And we’re launching this service quickly, so it may perform slowly at times. We’ll keep a close watch and if it breaks, we’ll restore service as quickly as we can.rdquo;

Mulling it over: What about China?

So I am left with more questions than answers. Are the these companies remaining neutral or being subversive? If the Iranian government succeeds in suppressing rioters, will there be consequences for online companies who can be blamed for promoting civil unrest? Or will it be citizens who find their online rights even more curtailed than before?

Governments will have to think about their technology approach, theyrsquo;ll probably take a cue from the Obama administrationrsquo;s decision to hire a CTO. I find myself wondering what the Iranian government has learned from this process and how they will adapt to these collaborative technologies in the future.

I really want to believe that Twitter, Facebook and Googlersquo;s actions are a step in the right direction for transparency and greater access to information. However, the cynical part of me remains caustic. Was this a move to help a troubled part of the world or a great opportunity for some PR?

With official statements regarding Iran, I wonder why we donrsquo;t see as much of a push for digital rights in China? The Chinese government  continues to block sites such as YouTube and heavily censored everything from the Economist to the Huffington Post for the anniversary of Tianemen Square.  Maybe China is just too profitable a market to risk its wrath? In fact, just today, the Chinese Government ordered Google to place even more restrictions on some of the sites it makes available.

What do you think?

In the next part of this mini-series, I will take a look at how social media is redefining activism and how people are showing their support worldwide.

I think my favorite part is meeting so many cool people who shared their own favorite campaign moments with me.

As the afternoon progressed I become increasingly nervous for the official launch. Rotman had contacted me to let me know that there were over 400 people attending! Having my longtime mentor, Don Tapscott (who also wrote the forward to my book) introduce me was such an emotional moment for me, and I became doubly nervous knowing he would be in the audience. Once I got underway I started feeling all of the support pouring in from my family and friends  and got through the presentation without any major hitches.

I just want to say a big, big, BIG thank you to everyone who came out to support me or who send their digital love via   facebook messages, emails, text messages and tweets. I could not have gotten through the last few months without the humor and warmth of my community and I count myself to be so blessed to have such amazing friends in my life.

Irsquo;ll be touring around various places promoting the book for the rest of the year, but I am happy to say that this month has been the peak of the insane travel I have planned. I just might get to enjoy living in Europe for a while instead of constantly trekking back and forth to North America in the mother of all commutes, lol.

I have sorely missed my blog and plan to revive TED Tuesdays with a vengeance, along with a few more blog series I have kicking around. I am a bit behind in terms of my schedule, but hopefully after this week Irsquo;ll be back on top of everything.

The Foush is back!

You can take a peek here:

Coming up: An interview on BNN, and photos from the official YES WE DID booklaunch party at Rotman!!

So you can imagine my surprise when I found out the Kindle DX was justhellip;bigger? Meh. I was puzzled. This was the new version? Lame. You canrsquo;t even fit it in your purse like my sweet and thin Kindle 2! Thanks, but no thanks.  Apparently Irsquo;m not the only one who thought it was a little ridiculous.

For the record, I love, love, LOVE my Kindle. It is one of the best purchases I have ever made. As a frequent travel and rabid reader I cannot imagine going back to physical books ever again. Honestly, the fact that I can load up my Kindle with 1500 books guarantees I am endlessly entertained on plane rides where the only alternative is the horror that is ldquo;Inkheart.rdquo; It saved my sanity! It does have some drawbacks which Irsquo;m currently covering in a review video I am making and will post soon so stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out this trailer for Inkheart. I rest my case.

If yoursquo;re around on June 4th you should definitely swing my the Rotman School of Management and celebrate the launch of Yes We Did, the book that has consumed my life for the past six months!

Not only is this a big milestone for me, but I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family. Irsquo;ve been in Geneva now for about two months and still miss them like crazy!

So what does the evening have in store?

• The event will be hosted by Alexander Manu (Author of Everything 2.0) and Don Tapscott (Author of Grown Up Digital)


• Irsquo;ll be giving a brief presentation on some of the ideas covered in the book.


• There will be a book signing


• Refreshments and mingling (my favorite part!)

Tickets are $30, and include a copy of the book as well as some tasty treats.

You can register for the event HERE.

Facebook event listing can be found here.

WHEN AND WHERE:

June 4, 5:00pm-7:30pm

The Rotman School of Management, Fleck Auditorium

105 St. George Street

More info about the book