Things I Learned During the Biden/Palin Debate.

I, like millions of others, watched the Biden/Palin debate tonight.

I come away from it learning lots of things, most of which I will share with you now:

1) Knowing that your Tweets will make it to television still doesn't stop people from mentioning that they're waiting for their pizza delivery.

2) Facebook's status/comment threading is the new FriendFeed.

3) Even though Current was cool for saying "hash tags" they were uncool for doing a Max Headroom-style Biden/Palin megamix video.

4) For the second consecutive debate, the Obama/Biden ticket mentioned the internet (Obama: 'broadband', Biden: 'joebiden.com'), and the McCain/Palin ticket did not.

5) Tweeters lean left.

6) It took less than an hour from the beginning of the debate for footage to show up on YouTube.

7) My personal twitterstream (read: others' tweets) was higher in volume following the debate than during it.

8) CurrentTV's debate coverage featuring tweets innovative, entertaining, but aesthetically a bit annoying. Whey the crazy word-flying dissolve?

9) Not every tweet made the Current debate coverage. Mine didn't, but @MTLB and @Mikearauz's did. Kudos for being part of history, guys.

10) Facebook's status/comment threading is not only the new FriendFeed, it will be one of Facebook's most popular features -- if not THE most popular feature -- within weeks. It's the new newsfeed, and marketers will shift strategy to influence those status updates. This is especially true now that they can actually facilitate conversations. Because of the redesign, applications are somewhat less effective at affecting the newsfeed...

BONUS) CNN's use of Microsoft Surface on TV is pretty darn cool.

Comments

[bg]

I missed mine jumping back and forth between current and Twitter. I hope I was pithy at least? ;-p

That MS screen is cool though. Saw it in use at the NY Auto Show last year: http://snurl.com/41epy

[c3ane]

Twitter, Pownce and other relatively new real time communication feeds have always been more left leaning. A sizable amount of their audience are early adopters who are more responsive to changes in technology and have a desire to integrate the use of those technologies into their lives. They also show that they desire to be more connected with the world around them. By definition, they tend to hold more progressive views. It's simple psychographic analysis.

While on the other hand, you have a more general audience still hanging out mostly on youtube and facebook. But it is interesting now that during this period people have re-engaged themselves into finding our what's happening in the world around them. They are more responsive to messages and have a desire to share their opinions with a larger audience. So more people are find out about twitter via CNN, Fox News, etc and have joined the fold. Even the propagandists. So righties may soon outnumber the lefties.

I too was impressed by CNN's use of Surface Technology. Hooray for Touch Interfaces. Touch interfaces '08 - they are the wave of the future. Boo for ATT not wanting to update to 4G, 5G, 6G networks and thereby choosing not to keep pace with the rest of the world

[Kevin Colleran]

jeez, this is comlicated:
10) Facebook’s status/comment threading is not only the new FriendFeed, it will be one of Facebook’s most popular features — if not THE most popular feature — within weeks. It’s the new newsfeed, and marketers will shift strategy to influence those status updates, now that they can actually facilitate conversations — especially now that applications are less effective at affecting the newsfeed because of the redesign.

[Mike Arauz]

thanks for the shout out, ian. and for noticing the TV tweets.

re: "7) My personal twitterstream (read: others’ tweets) was higher in volume following the debate than during it."

i noticed this, too. and i'm speculating that Twitter was seriously embargoing some tweets during the debate. if you noticed something similar, please leave a comment here, and ask your own twitter followers if they noticed too.

http://www.mikearauz.com/2008/10/twitter-was-not-up-to-challenge-during.html

[movie fan]

the VP debate was stunning. Palin did a decent job faking about 20% of the questions and didn't even bother answering the other 80%.

i couldn't help thinking of the end of the movie Billy Madison, when the debate moderator says to Adam Sandler, "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."