POSTED ON TOTALITARIAN MUSEIC'S THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FORUM (FACEBOOK) - Should Governmental Candidates Run on Their Opinions?

Among democracies, candidates seeking elected positions universally run on issue-based platforms – Candidate X believes in Y, and therefore should be elected to a given position. The assumption is that if enough of the voting public subscribes to position Y, Candidate X will be elected and will follow through on the promises that embody the Y position. This issue-driven and opinionated orientation among candidates is increasingly yielding disappointment and alienation among voter populations in democracies worldwide – as candidates regularly miss delivery on the solutions promised during campaigning.

What if a different formula could be implemented? What if a candidate did not take a position or hold an opinion at all?

This may seem like a foreign idea – as the voting populace currently has a need to select a candidate through an understanding of where he or she stands on a key issue. But candidates are asked to provide their positions on multiple issues – and invariably the sum of those positions will not align with the identity of the individual voter. At some point in this process, the voter is going to have to dismiss certain issues voiced by their candidate as less important than others. This whittling away of different issues leads voters to settle for a more vanilla choice – or worse, to select the lesser of two evils.

Candidates should desire to service the will of the people – as documented in the U.S. constitution. There is no need for a candidate to voice an opinion or to take a certain posture – other than to express how they will implement the needs of the people, what logistical hurdles they will overcome to institute the wishes of the constituency. As societies become more wired, and technological infrastructures become more advanced, the desires of an entire population can be transmitted to the appropriate government offices. This is no longer the stuff of science fiction. This is a tangible way forward for modern democracy.

Too often, elected government officials take dismissive authoritative positions that creep toward a polite and tolerable totalitarianism. It is easy to draw supportive examples from the current Bush administration – but all U.S. presidencies have had their autocratic moments. In these instances, the elected authority chooses to be a supreme executive authority, and the people are just the ambiguous people – vague and anonymous masses that need only be respected and understood during election cycles.

This totalitarian behavior flourishes in an apathetic public. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36% of the eligible American public did not vote in the 2004 presidential election. This inactivity is especially notable given the wartime polarity that was circulating throughout the United States during the period.

This behavior is born also from a general misunderstanding on the part of the elected appointee. It arises from a certain brand of arrogance that comes from having the “right” opinion – and if opinion can be removed from the equation, a more humble and service-based nature can be bred into future candidates.

Imagine how the public would respond to a candidate that did not have a preordained position on anything. Such a candidate would be a populist hero and a true civil servant. When asked about issue Y, candidate X would defer to the choices of the national or regional population. In this scenario, the president would not lead through subjectivity – but would act as a liaison between the people and the subject put before the people.

Implementation of the demands of a government’s population should be the core objective of a democratically elected body. With proper understanding of the population’s responsibility and accountability in the decisions of a nation, and with more coordination on the technologies that allow the communal voice to be heard, democracies can get there.

Why Facebook is Growing Faster Than Other Social Networks

So much has been written about Facebook over the past several months that it is almost easy to forget that there are other social networking properties available to the internet community. The meteoric growth that Facebook has been enjoying has made headlines in traditional media and across the blogosphere – and this kind of attention appears to have pushed the other networking sites to the sidelines in both media exposure and new user acquisition.

But maybe that is the point. Maybe the others should be overlooked. The Facebook phenomenon could be an incarnation of the coming Darwinist weed-out Web 2.0 has yet to experience. There are currently 15 social networking sites of significant audience size in operation – and numerous smaller entities vying for users; a lot of choices for an identical purpose.

So, what is it about Facebook? Why is it growing at a faster rate than the other social networking offerings?

In posing these questions to the Facebook user universe, there was a bit of a duh factor – the key take-away being that Facebook is Web 2.0. But that answer – albeit from a biased communal source – is not enough. The question really had to be put to the business-minded community, and what better place than LinkedIn?

The LinkedIn community can be seen as an audience conquest target for Facebook’s business development strategists. As Facebook users mature and seek to expand their business network, LinkedIn is assumed to be the most logical choice. Indications that this assumption will change can be found in Facebook’s Parakey acquisition – but more on that below. In the meantime, what does the LinkedIn community think of Facebook’s popularity?

James Schneider, Jr., Creative Director for Interactive Marketing at Target – a key strategic advertiser on both MySpace and Facebook – shared his perspective. “Facebook is safe…period. Its primary guest is not comprised of the exhibitionist, the musician, the artist or some other guest who has something to ‘wow’ you with or prove,” he said.

When looking at MySpace and the expressionist methodologies employed by users there, it is easy to recall the CB Radio days of the 1970’s where everyone had call-names and an acute anonymity from which they could espouse their colorful views. The MySpace universe does not have its roots in the university culture as Facebook does. Stemming from Harvard, “Facebook is a place for intellectuals,” Mr. Schneider asserts.

But this question of popularity growth is also about utility and usage patterns. The Facebook gains are made where MySpace experiences erosion. “My employees are all high school students / early college years,” said Adeena Mignogna, Senior Engineer at GeoEye. “At first they encouraged me to join them on MySpace, which I did. Since, most have all switched over to Facebook – some have even completely closed out their MySpace accounts.”

The Facebook momentum is built at the high school level and extends into professional life – an intelligent strategy for growth in the present day and for growth among the upcoming Millennial Generation.

In a recent interview with Time, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook put their growth in perspective. “It initially was only available to people at Harvard, where I was a college. We rolled it out to all the colleges, all the high schools, then a bunch of companies could sign up. It may seem like the growth is really accelerating at a crazy rate, but it’s actually been growing and doubling about once every six months for quite a while.”

At 30 million unique users, Facebook now has 40 billion page views per month – standing as the 6th largest site in overall traffic. Additionally, it is the number one photo-sharing site on the internet. MySpace claims 191 million users, and LinkedIn has 12 million users. The comparison of Facebook with MySpace is obvious – as they are both clearly in the social networking category, although Facebook is quick to define itself as a “social utility.”

This utility definition is notable, as it ultimately opens the comparison with LinkedIn and the longer-term strategy that Facebook wishes to exert in the business-to-business space. “I love the configurable widgets,” said Ms. Mignogna. “And the fact that other profiles I have out there on Twitter and Shelfari, for example, can be incorporated easily into Facebook.”

Open source applications differentiate Facebook – not only against the consumer-facing social networking chaff, but against the B-to-B sensibilities of LinkedIn. F8, the Facebook platform, allows applications to be run exclusively from Facebook itself – and the acquisition of Parakey could bring a whole new professional dimension to the service. The Parakey acquisition has not fully been realized in the market, but the business applications Parakey embodies will have a direct impact on LinkedIn – where the professional networking service has not emerged beyond static user listings in a classified manner. Some bloggers have even begun characterizing the Parakey acquisition as an assault on Microsoft.

This curious morph from a network to a utility has an IBM/blue-chip enterprise vibe that is undeniable. It is all about usage. “For band research, I go to MySpace,” Mr. Schneider said. “To chat with old college buddies and co-workers, I go to Facebook or LinkedIn.”

Whether or not Facebook is a network or a utility, it is clear that it is a new internet bell-weather. What happens on Facebook does not stay on Facebook – and this spillover will govern the web’s next ideations.

Pittsburgh/Trojan Story Picked up by Mediapost

Mediapost's Marketing Daily has agreed to carry the Trojan/Pittsburgh advertising controversy story. This is a notable distribution within the advertising community, as Mediapost is considered a must-read in the advertising sector. Marketing Daily is distributed electronically to professionals in marketing, advertising sales, media, etc.

The link to the story is below...

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=64223&Nid=32451&p=428616

Putting Lipstick on a Pig – Pittsburgh and the Trojan Condom Advertising Controversy

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the estimated number of new AIDS diagnoses in the U.S. from 2000 through 2005 increased by 17% among women and 16% among men. The CDC further estimates 19 million new sexually transmitted infections per year nationally – and direct medical costs associated with STDs in the U.S. estimated at up to $14.1 billion annually.

These figures and their impact are well understood by the people who are behind the Trojan condom brand, and their latest piggish advertising campaign and the accompanying trojanevolve.com site seek to explain Trojan’s solution to this ongoing public health scenario.

Not unless pigs can fly, said the ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates in Pittsburgh – all of whom rejected the Trojan television spots, echoing an earlier rejection from CBS and FOX nationally. Ray Carter, general manager of WPXI, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh, told The New York Times that the spot was “not one we thought was appropriate for the market.”

Can media executives deem what messaging is or is not appropriate for an entire population in a given market? While media properties have the right to protect their audience from tasteless advertising creative or fictional claims in advertisements, Pittsburgh features a 33% composition of people aged 15-34 according to the 2000 census. Advertisements from condom manufacturers can have direct health benefits to this active demographic – and the Trojan campaign is no different, as it is ultimately about responsible intimacy planning.

In a press release, Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, finds hypocrisy in the position of the television networks and affiliates. “On any given day or night, Viagra and other erectile dysfunction ads also run regularly on these networks,” he stated.

The trojanevolve.com site – which offers video testimonies from numerous public health authorities, along with the controversial spot itself – has attracted more than 400,000 unique users since June 18. “As a condom manufacturer, we view ourselves as a steward of public health,” said Jim Daniels, VP of Marketing on the Trojan brand, in a recent Mediapost interview. “In our research, only one in four sex acts involves condom use, which is a very low rate versus the rest of the Western world.”

With national condom usage at just 25% and sexually transmitted infections – including AIDS – on the rise in the U.S., it could be argued that denial of these messages from reaching the most vulnerable young audiences is irresponsible. While media properties certainly have the right to approve or disapprove certain creative messages, controlling the spread of communicable disease should supersede the individual moral platforms of TV network and affiliate management – many of whom are well beyond the Trojan target audience.

The outright rejection by the management at Pittsburgh’s television affiliates may be a matter for the FCC. These decisions on what is appropriate or inappropriate with regard to responsible sexual activity certainly transcend one television market.

Or maybe this is just the kind of nibbles found over the fodder of small talk – pigs in a blanket, anyone?

HELIUM CONTEST: Is There a Best Time to Walk?

According to marathon coach, Wendy Bumgardner, "research on lung function, body rhythms, temperature, and hormone levels says one thing - to exercise around 6pm. Surveys on exercise habits say another - to exercise in the morning before other commitments distract you, or during the day when you have a free period of time." Our behaviors being out of step (pun intended) with science are not anything new, but what is the best time to walk?

Scheduling a walk depends somewhat on climate and season. If you live in a region that regularly experiences hot temperatures, such as Florida or Arizona, your optimum walk times will fall in the early morning hours or around dusk. Some people are uncomfortable with walking at night, so dusk would likely be removed as an option. A morning walk is most ideal in a hot climate or during the peak summer months.

But the exact hours composing a good morning walk are dictated also by job and career commitments. Many of us cannot leave work early enough to benefit from a 6pm walk, so the mornings and the later evenings are necessary. In cases where commutes to and from work further constrain exercise times, the tighter clips at the fringes of the day are amplified.

Too often, the more sedentary among us get caught up in over planning a walking schedule - and to those in this mindset the answer really is that there is no ideal time of day in which to walk. Just get out there. While creating a schedule does also establish a healthy habit, a more flexible approach allows for a higher likelihood that the walk will occur. For instance, if it rains during the predetermined walk period (and walking in the rain is out of the question), having the flexibility to walk at another part of the day will ensure that the exercise goals are met.

While hormonal chemicals, body rhythms, temperatures, and other biological research point to 6pm - our lifestyles and our locales more accurately determine our walking hours.

HELIUM CONTEST: Characteristics of the Successful Entrepreneur

The successful entrepreneur has to be willing to alter the initial business vision and evolve - taking advantage of unseen opportunities that present themselves and abandoning loss-making products or services along the way. This kind of decision-making can be compared to the ying/yang of resolve and direction change found in expert stock market participants.

A steely nerve is helpful. Every day the entrepreneur is going to meet different challenges - prospective customers have a change of heart and a change of budget, competitors appear from unlikely sources, internal cost projections fluctuate uncomfortably, and general logistical issues present themselves. Emotional fortitude and maturity is paramount.

The successful entrepreneur anticipates the majority of these occurrences ahead of time and implements plans that have been conceived months - and even years - before their implementation. In this regard, success can be found in the forward-looking cognitive reasoning required to win at chess.

This confluence between emotion and intellect is the key ingredient. The micro-business in which the entrepreneur must operate is hyper-dependent on satisfied customers. Variances in customer moods and approaches demand an on-the-fly shift in sales style - from ideas and intelligence to the passionate and emotional conveyance of those ideas. Some customers make their buying decisions from the gut, and some buy the concept. The successful entrepreneur must be a successful salesperson.

And, of course, all of the above are woven together in a tight wrap of discipline - the discipline to stay on schedule and to stay true to the evolving plan. The successful entrepreneur is reminded time and again that sound discipline guides the business and mends the inevitable and repetitive hiccups.

Syndicate Efforts: Helium and Facebook Usage

The prior Power Ballad post is a contributing piece to a contest that was held on Helium. The site offers a number of weekly contests in a Darwinist citizen journalism vein - whereby other contributors rank the pieces through side by side comparisons, and the highest-rated pieces win cash prizes. This exercise offers a unique window on writing toward a deadline and will be beneficial for future projects.

Additionally, articles posted on Helium allow for distribution through other channels like Digg, Reddit, and - notably - Facebook. Linking to other forums is clearly encouraged by Helium to further the site's viral objectives - however, the Facebook angle presents another interesting outpost in the user generated content (USG) arena.

The Matter is now accessable through Facebook, as well as Helium and LinkedIn. This will only help establish a syndicate infrastructure later.

HELIUM CONTEST: How and Why the Power Ballad Undermined Late 80's Metal Music

To comprehend how the power ballad diluted and ultimately undermined metal music in the late 80’s, an understanding on the variety of influences in music and in economics that shaped the period needs to be achieved. Since the 70’s were heavy metal’s embryonic years, the examination should begin in that tumultuous decade.

Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath share the distinction of fathering the metal genre – churning out long-form albums that were composed on the power chord backbone. The groundwork laid by these bands established the sound and the mythical themes found throughout metal music in the 80’s and today.

Big arena bands of the 70’s can attribute much of their success to two key background influences: a persistent economic recession that characterized the decade; and a fierce dedication – particularly among young males – to the tenets of rock and roll music in the face of a disruptive challenge from disco and the dance culture.

The economic turmoil of the 70’s – demonstrated most dramatically by the OPEC oil embargo – set a general unrest in motion among the decade’s youth, and their rebellious appetites were fed at stadiums across the country. The economic discontent was further amplified in the social and political attitude that raged out of the 70’s punk scene.

While it can be said that punk embodied an inevitable divergence from rock and roll, disco represented the first truly threatening fracture in its establishment of a new platform in pop music. More importantly than an alternative choice in popular music, disco was significantly more appealing to young females.

This demographic departure would play itself out in the 80’s and would directly contribute to the birth of the power ballad. In order to pack arenas, metal bands would have to be palatable to young women. The amplifiers and riffs would keep the boys, and the love lyrics and tight pants would draw the girls.

A formula for robust commercialism was in the making.

The same push for demographic inclusion was happening in punk – and new wave music took shape. Cosmetic influences from The Cure, The Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode, Boy George, and many others crept into 80’s metal. The result was more about outrageous hairstyle and lipstick applications than it was about the music, but it succeeded in keeping the female listeners content.

The 80’s also enjoyed another kind of inclusion – an economic prosperity that touched almost every corner of American society. However, strength in the U.S. economy contributed to a watering down in popular music. The times were too good for young people to buy music with lyrics that addressed anything other than trivial matters and lighter fare.

So, the power ballad was a result of hyper-commercial necessity against a backdrop of increasingly fissured musical diversity. While metal would make a major comeback in the 90’s, the power ballad of the late 80’s drove many metal enthusiasts underground to the alternatives that would define the next decade. It never killed the genre outright, but it came close.

With Bed Bug Population Growth, Questions on Size, Scale, and Solution to the Problem

Bed bugs have received a lot of publicity in recent months – an increasing cacophony of concern over their rising numbers throughout the United States. While bed bug population growth can certainly be described as alarming – particularly in North America, Europe, and Australia – the sweeping recommendations for broad pesticide usage from bed bug experts, most of whom are employed in pest control businesses and extermination consultancies, are equally disconcerting.

Bed bug numbers are being hailed as epidemics in all 50 states. But is the bed bug question one of media sensationalism, or is their population resurgence a matter of national concern?

There is no disputing the nasty nature of bed bugs. They are ugly brownish animals, roughly the length of a fingernail, and their bites leave significant and – many times – scarring welts. Their only food source is human blood, and they can survive for six to twelve months without a meal. Female bed bugs lay one to twelve eggs per day, so their numbers can increase quite quickly. They are well-adapted nest parasites – the nest, of course, being your comfy bed – and their elusive behavior and flat bodies make them difficult to remove.

If you have bed bugs, you have a big problem.

The National Pest Management Association is quick to point out that bed bugs should not be equated with filth or sanitation problems. Cindy Mannes, media spokesperson for the National Pest Management Association, reiterates this position. “Bed bugs need a blood meal,” she said. “They are not cockroaches. Their populations are increasing in all 50 states, but we find them most where there are large groups of people. This tends to be in the urban settings, but their numbers are growing in suburban and country locations as well.”

Are their growth figures the hype of the pesticide services industry? Pest control revenue clearly will increase with increased hysteria around this voracious insect. According to Ms. Mannes, pest control companies are experiencing a boom in bed bug eradication calls – and some are hiring staff specifically to deal with bed bug projects.

But must we return to the more virulent and poisonous applications that prior generations of American households utilized?

Stephenie Hendricks, spokeswoman for the Pesticide Action Network, believes we have another alternative. “Bed bugs can be controlled with diatomaceous earth applications,” she said. This is a non-toxic approach whereby the infected bedding and surrounding space is sprinkled with a dusting of tiny fossilized water plants. The algae-like plants, called diatoms, act as microscopic razors, slicing through the exoskeletons of any insect unfortunate enough to cross through it.

The use of this specialized sediment is quite effective. Diatomaceous earth – also known as DE – has been utilized for years by farmers to eliminate pests. “The bed bug question is becoming louder,” said Ms. Hendricks. “The pesticide proponents are also getting louder.” The Pesticide Action Network offers alternatives to the pesticides on their web site – panna.org.

The most recent EPA figures demonstrate U.S. insecticide expenditures – as a percent of the world market – have increased from 34% to 36%.

Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite. Given these questions, this common phrase from yesterday is as much metaphorical as practical.