thought-after

The power of the internet as a marketing medium has been embraced by the majority of political parties, and their members. In Australia, every major party has a web presence, and a growing number of national, state and local politicians have their own sites. Some have even entered the 'youth markets' of MySpace and YouTube. A prime example of this move is Australian Prime Minister, John Howard.

ALP leader Kevin Rudd has launched a new site for his 2007 electoral campaign with the slogan Kevin07. It's a highly stylized site that looks like it has come straight out of any of the many political satire movies, lots of prime colours, big and flashy, marketing driven - and with very little substance.

As the politicos jump on the opportunity to use the internet to reach the widest possible audience, they miss the point and use their sites as direct extensions of their standard media campaigns. The opportunity for public interaction is missed, and in todays social web, that's a big no-no.

But the online political arena is not the sole domain of the political parties and their members. There is no requirement to have (hundreds of) thousands of dollars of marketing capital to run an online campaign. Many minor groups and individuals are using the internet, and particularly blogs, to voice their opinions about issues they feel strongly about. There are large groups, such as GetUp that take on the government directly, and much smaller groups/individuals, such as Alex Hawke, that campaign more about issues that affect them directly.

The Alex Hawke site is a great example of the power of the internet being harnessed by a motivated individual to campaign against a politician they have issues with. The site does not use cheap tricks, skulduggery or misinformation to attack it's subject. Rather it employs the ethical and unwavering use of truth and publicly available information to inform the reader. The use of a blog as the publishing platform allows direct interaction from visitors to the site with it's author, and other visitors, to discuss the subject matter.

Through the honest and open use of the medium, one man can raise the awareness of an issue, create a ripple that grows into a swell of opinion. It is this change that politicians and political parties must face as they battle to win the votes of the electorate.

The latest comments by the Australian Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, with regard to the actions of Dr Mohamed Haneef, leave me with grave concerns for the future of personal freedom in Australia.

For those that are not aware of the proceedings, Dr Haneef is an Indian doctor working in Australia, who was arrested as a suspected terrorist following the recent bomb attacks in the UK. Dr Haneef is the cousin of one of the men involved in the UK bombings, and this seems to be the only plausible reason for his arrest. Other 'evidence' of his involvement has been proven to be circumstantial, unsubstantiated, or just plain wrong. That didn't stop the Australian authorities from holding him for over three weeks without charge under new Australian Anti-Terrorism Laws.

Dr Haneef has finally been released, with all charges against him dropped, yet Mr Andrews has canceled his work visa, stating "undisclosed information" as the reason.

Dr Haneef made short time in arranging flights back to India to visit with his wife and new born daughter, and to no doubt escape the mass media attention and probable further persecution by the authorities. And this is where I got really pissed off, with Mr Andrews' comment that the speed with which Dr Haneef flew out of Australia only "raised his suspicions"

Shame on you, Kevin Andrews. You have become a puppet of the very threats you are 'trying' to defend us against. You have removed liberty from an innocent man, and continue to besmirch his name. You have abused your position of authority and should, for the sake of Australians faith in our government, step down immediately.

Hiding behind the threat of terrorism as justification for illegal acts is as cowardly as the acts of terrorism themselves.

My son, 4 year old Connor, seems to be on a mission to keep alive the Celtic belief that bad things happen in threes.

Week 1:
Following his regular Saturday swimming lesson, Connor was playing in the toddlers pool. The game of the day was jumping towards the edge of the pool, using his kick board as a chest plate, so that when he hit the water a wave would splash out over the edge and get me wet. All went swimmingly (cheap pun) well until he jumped a little too close to the edge and landed his chin on the edge of the pool. A gush of blood ensued, and after 5 minutes calming down time we found a 1cm gash under his chin. Trip one to the hospital for a couple of stitches.

Week 2:
Mid-afternoon I get a call at work from Connors' daycare center. Connor has run straight into a metal column supporting the outdoor covered area. Not too bad, a lump over his right eye and a sore head. Here's the kicker though, 5 minutes after hitting his head he has a convulsion and loses consciousness. Now that's scary! Another trip to the hospital for a check up, and the possibility of further tests being required.

Week 3:
Another mid-afternoon call from daycare. This time Connor has bitten his tongue. So what, we all bite our tongues at sometime. Only Connor has really bitten his tongue, just check out the photo taken in the hospital waiting room. Another trip to the hospital, this time to be admitted for emergency micro surgery to prevent speech impediments in later life. Six hours waiting for surgery, another two hours in recovery, then home to start on a mostly liquid diet for the next week.

So there you have it, three weeks of injuries. With another long holiday weekend about to start I'm keeping my fingers crossed that three is the magic number.

We all get bombarded with them every day, you can't miss them - marketing buzzwords. The words and phrases that marketing types use to hype up their pitch, to make it sound better than it is. Marketing and sales speak could well be a whole sub-language, and something that future historians would choke on translating.

So what are the top 20 phrases or words that you come across that are seemingly only ever used in marketing or sales pitches? The words themselves aren't necessarily out of the ordinary, but their use may be out of context.

I'll get you started with a few of my own favourites:

• leverage
• synergic
• value proposition
• shifting the paradigm

Feel free to add to the list, and we'll see if we can pull together the all time top 20 marketing buzzwords!

An interesting development in the life of the Found Agency.

Australian IT - Google penalises black hat tactics Lara Sinclair, MAY 10, 2007

Not sure what their clients must be thinking right now, but I'm sure there is a lot of damage limitation activity going on. The rumours and chinese whispers of the SEO/SEM market will keep this story alive for a while yet.