President Obama is the world leader of technology… he’s even on Spotify

This contribution is by Mike Johns, President of Digital Mind State

President Barack Obama is the most technology-savvy US politician ever, leveraging online, mobile, social networks and other media to build a vast volunteer and fundraising operation to become the nation’s 44th President.

He is the only world leader to have public accounts on nine separate platforms including Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and even Spotify.

He also has two accounts on Twitter @BarackObama and @Obama2012. On the mobile front he is the first-ever president to have his own mobile app, Obama for America, Obama’s Change mobile wallpaper and lest us forget his impromptu a cappella performance of Al Green’s hit Let’s Stay Together that has become a ringtone available on his official website.

President Obama has become the most tech savvy leader the world has ever seen with a huge lead over the leaders of China, UK, Japan, Germany, Russia… and Somaliland.

During the 2008 presidential race to the White House Obama was able to leverage social media sites and raised $55 million in less than 30 days. After winning the Presidential election he kept his Blackberry, becoming the first President to have access to email. Interestingly neither George W. Bush nor Bill Clinton used email during their terms in office.

In an era of extreme innovation and a society that is always connected, the key to Obama’s success is his understanding of real-time communication, key collaboration, connectivity and the ecosystems of communities.

Team Obama has mastered how to touch various communities and appeal to the mobile lifestyle. It is apparent that Team Obama realises people are no longer in the office or the home but out there in the environment, not tethered to one place.

The Obama marketing mix has simply been about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. No other world leader has captured mobility as President Obama has.

John F.Kennedy took advantage of the television, Ronald Regan was labeled the great communicator, Mr. Bill Clinton was the first president to appeal to the MTV generation and now we have the nation’s first ‘tech-savvy’ president.

Obama’s broadband initiative is a clear illustration that his administration understands the importance digital technology plays in further advancing America into the 21st century. Under his watch we’ve witnessed the FBI move from a paper-based case management system to a digital system of records, using a modern web-based application.

Call it fate or perfect timing, but President Obama represents pop culture and technology. He used digital technology as a tool to get into office as well single-handedly changing the stereotype that Governments synonymous with bureaucracy move slowly.

He’s the opposite, he’s revolutionising the US Government services by using smartphones and tablets, Obama said “Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere and on any device.”

Love him or hate him, other world leaders can take note to what he has accomplished using the power of digital technology… and a power that is likely to seem him re-elected in November.

The UK picks up bronze behind Sweden in new Web Index

Even the (very) late arrival of moderator Stephen Fry didn’t detract from the launch of Tim Berner-Lee’s new Web Index on London’s South Bank.

Blaming a ‘nightclub accident’ for causing him to oversleep, Fry told a bad joke about the film Warhorse and added a little gloss to what had already been an impressive line-up discussing Berner-Lee’s new initiative. Continue reading

If you have a strong social voice then your invoices will always be paid on time

For those of you who are salaried and have worked for somebody else for most of your life then the content of this missive will probably be of little interest, but for the others, please read on.

Working for yourself is dangerous and a roller-coaster of success, fail, fail, fail, fail, success, fail, fail, fail, fail, success. It is an utter head-breaker, but it is worth it for the autonomy and the freedom and the spontaneous time you can spend with your family. Once you start it, you never go back… unless Bob Dylan calls offering you a job. Continue reading

Little Grey Cells #9… Google’s Chrome Web Lab experiments and dazzles

Steve Vranakis is Creative Director at Google Creative Lab for EMEA

What is the Chrome Web Lab?

Web Lab is a series of real world Chrome experiments that bring the workings of the Internet to life, with the goal of inspiring people on the possibilities of the Web. Everything on offer in the Science Museum in London can be accessed online from anywhere in the world here

How long has the Chrome Web Lab been in development?

Web Lab has been in development for more than a year. The first phase involved a huge amount of research and development, scoping and iterating as many of the experiments on show have never been attempted before. Continue reading