Blurred Absolutes: A blog about a blog

Blurred Absolutes is my favorite. I start with Jessica’s page as I begin my weekly review of my classmates work. Her posts make even the truly technical stuff interesting. For example with the creative commons assignment I just did not know where to begin. Jessica inspired me to tell a story and bring the reader in with a personal anecdote. She began her post with a gripping account of an experience she recalls from her childhood education. I wait to see what happens forgetting what the post is meant to be about. Then she ties it all together.

In her t post “A Rose colored apathy,” Jessica begins the article by making me wonder where she is going by citing LSD and Greek mythology. I remain interested and wonder if this is one of her free for all blogs or an assigned one. What follows is a starkly honest account of war blogging.

            Jessica does what she cites Achenbach as doing in her blog “Achenbach of the People.” She tackles issues that everyone is familiar with; junk mail, ect. and personalizes it in a way that the reader feels like she lives next door to them and trudges along through their day making the same casual observations that anyone might while sifting absent mindedly through junk mail. Her blogs are conversations that keep the reader wanting to talk.

            In “A dream goes on forever” Jessica shows what writers can really do. The first paragraph, though leading up to second life, makes me want to read what other imagery and power Jessica can pull forth with a keyboard. I prefer her writing to Second Life. She may guide me towards the image of a tearoom with cranberry scones and weather controlling powers. Second life may allow users to flex their imagination from other people’s chosen imagery, but reading leaves me with more free will and money in my pocket.

Decrease Voter Apathy and Win.com

I intend to create a game that will utilize 7 web 2.0 tools to draw young people age 18 – 25 to the polls this following November. The game will be entitled ‘Fight voter apathy and win.com. The web 2.0 applications that I will use are facebook, youtube, the game, an RSS feed, meetup.com, Skype and direct e-mail.

The Game: Fight Voter Apathy and Win

            There will be 3 games. One will take on the form of a virtual reality such as Second Life with the players assuming the roles of the candidates themselves. Players will become candidates such as Hilary Clinton, Barrack Obama or Rudy Giuliani and stand at the podium to debate each other. These podiums will be regional. Second life users will metro to D.C. and drive pass cornfields to the Iowa caucuses. Points will be scored on the accuracy of having mimicked recent events as close to reality as possible.

            Visual effects will include the ability to physically throw mud at another candidate when disagreement on an issue peaks. Upon slinging mud, gamers will be referred to a website such as that of Obama’s, where he chronicles every attack that Hilary has lodged against him along with a counter argument.

            Another game will be in the form of a digitalized version of the childhood classic Guess Who. This Game will be entitled ‘Guess who stands where.’ and will be interactive amongst users. The guesser will ask a question such as “what state does your candidate work in”, or how did your candidate vote on the Iraq war.”  There will be different levels available according to the players knowledge and skill, as well as how many points they have amassed.

            The beginning level will include questions such as what is the candidate’s stance on troop withdrawal from Iraq. The intermediate level may pose questions such as ‘what is the difference between Obama and Clinton’s plan for health care. The advanced level may pose questions regarding what countries the candidate will attempt to increase diplomatic relations with and by what means.  The last question may be “what candidates are the most likely to be aware of this game.”

            The truly advanced players will be challenged by interpretive events. For example when faced with the question as to why Karl Rove has made suggestions to Barack Obama on to how to beat Hilary Clinton, the gamer will have to write out their answer. One may respond that Rove wanted to weaken Obama by associating his name with that of Rove. Someone else may suggest that Rove pulled this one out of his sleeve because he feels that the Republicans can beat Hilary.  Gamers can go on Skype to discuss their different viewpoints and interpretation of events.  Players who seek to utilize the most interactive web tools to discuss the presidential elections can do so by using meet up.com.

            In the game there will be the primary presidential candidates such as Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul and John Edwards.  The player will have to match an issue and the correct answer to the candidate. Right or wrong a youtube clip will pop up displaying an online debate between the candidates showing where they stand on what issue.

The issues that will be covered in the game are as follows:

1. Health care

2. Homeland security

3. Immigration

4. Iraq

5. Iran

6. Pakistan

7. Alterative energy

8. Gay marriage

9. Lobbyists

10. Gun control

11. Social security.

Competitors and Allies

            My allies would be facebook, youtube Second Life, Skype and The New York Times online coverage. My competitors are my space and persuasive games.  The main competitor of facebook is my space. Facebook has greater potential to recruit game players because facebook is geared towards students.  My space users don’t need a student email account to join.  Many my space users are not even old enough to vote.  Most importantly my space does not offer the interactive gaming tools made possible on Facebook.

            The persuasive games that have focused on the presidential campaign are sparse competition for decrease voter apathy and win.com. The persuasive game is not difficult to overshadow because they are very simplistic and lacks any informative detail. The Persuasive game simply shows a cartoonized image of the presidential candidates with the only action being the exchange of a ping-pong ball.

            After the gamer has matched a presidential candidate’s stance on an issue, an article will scroll down to inform the player as to the right or wrong answer. Leading authorities on the presidential candidates are C-span, the BBC and the New York Times Web election 2008 web page. To keep up to date with the latest information, these sites will be regularly channeled to my game via an RSS feed.  The New York Time’s would be an ally. I would use their election 2008 site as reference to quotes on the various issues put forth by presidential candidates

            Players will be asked to match the quote with the candidate.  The New York Times website presents information into a columnized section listing the presidential candidates by name and face, the current issues and the candidates stances.  Readers can go to a column such as Immigration and read all the quotes from each candidate as to what their position is and why.

Facebook 

            Now is where the competition comes in. The game will be accessed as a facebook application available to group members. There will be new questions depending on a gamer’s status and level in the game now. Upon signing in to Facebook, players will be informed as to who has the highest score and who has just stepped down a notch.

Direct Email 

            Direct e-mails will be sent to a user once they have been beat. The e-mail will serve to inform them as to who now has a higher score and on what issue. The winner will also have the option to add a message as to the gaps in the loser’s knowledge with comments and suggestions on how to stay informed.

            At the end of every month the standing winner will win a trip to meet with the candidate.  The winner will also be allowed to host the next interactive youtube debate between candidates. This will be done by region. Upon becoming a part of this facebook group, gamers will be able to meet other gamers in their district through meetup.com.

            The visual aspect of Decrease Voter Apathy and win will depict the facebook picture of the reigning champion’s face on top of a ladder. There will be two ladders; one red one blue depending on which party the player is the most up to date with. Players will also have the option of an open discussion forum in the form of an interactive blogosphere to debate the validity of news stories, exchange online news articles and take sides.     

         Decrease voter apathy and win.com will draw young people to get involved in ways not possible in 2004 or any elections past.

Critique of Save our Bars.com

Save our Bars.com needs a pull to bring pub goers to the website. This pull could happen by means of blogging on Technorati or advertising on a website capable of promoting a similar interest. Perhaps a link could come from a website that marketed beer or made recommendations of cool places to go watch the game. One underutilized tool would be to post a memo about save our bars.com on yelp.

             Yelp is where local bloggers go to discuss their experiences about just about anywhere in their joint zip code.  Writing about bars on yelp would succeed due to its community feel and the fact that such posts could link different local bars together. If the reader were impressed by one person’s recommendation, they would be likely to follow that up by reading the next.

            Bar goers also need an incentive to go blog about their experience after leaving the bar. Independent bars could offer a free beer to those that promise to go home and blog about it. Those pubs that offer free beer would be giving consuming bloggers an extra incentive to go home and give them a nice rating.  Bars could also have laptops set up at the bar to give immediate rewards, like bloggers free before 11:00.

            It would help to use facebook to promote the bars, however this should be done by region.  Local bars should align themselves with the local universities in their surrounding area to maintain that tight nit community feeling.  When the facebook users download the save our bars widget, instead of merely describing the nightlife landscape they should include a picture of it. People can also post pictures on their friend’s page of their group experience at that bar.

            The Google campaign is not very feasible because it would be very expensive to gain ownership to such a popular search word. However if done, one of the Google ad words to draw pub goers to the site could simply be ‘beer.’

            While well intended, links to alcohol support groups would only weaken the strength of the movement to revive bars. Most importantly, the website needs to inform patrons as to what the independent pubs offer that corporate bars do not.  All in all though, if I were someone that went to local bars, I would take part in save our bars.com with the hope that my participation would preserve the remaining independent bars from less digitalized corporate giants.