I was reading Scoble's
post today about organizational challenges. Besides it rambling a bit, it contains some good nuggets. First, the point of using weblog technology in the campaigns is to increase the conversations surrounding a candidate. So far, this endeavor has fallen short this year. Scoble points specifically to the Iowa caucuses and Dean’s failure. I'd attribute this to a learning curve, for both the candidates and the people running the web sites. Feedback loops need to be built into the weblogs and web sites of the candidates. Where is the audio and video content from the candidates? I constantly download stuff and put it on my iPod to listen to it later. I'd love to be able to download MP3s of debates and speeches. I don't have time to stop and watch it live. An RSS feed with enclosures for debates and speeches from each candidate would be great.
Second, Scoble issues some sound common sense. Good common sense is increasingly hard to come by.
- If we fail at something, we better INCREASE the conversation, not decrease it.
- If something is going wrong, acting like it's not won't make the problem go away, and will probably turn off those people who could help you turn it around.
- You should set expectations ahead of time properly just in case they DO go wrong.
Combine these two things and you’ve got a good conceptual framework for business or a campaign.
