The RoboCup Soccer Simulator – The RoboCup Soccer Simulator is a research and educational tool for multi-agent systems and artificial intelligence. It enables for two teams of 11 simulated autonomous robotic players to play soccer (football).

Brain workshop – Brain Workshop is a Python implementation of the Dual N-Back mental exercise. This exercise is the only mental activity that has been scientifically shown to improve your short-term memory (working memory) and fluid intelligence.

View your mind – is a tool to generate and manipulate maps which show your thoughts. Such maps can help you to improve your creativity and effectivity. You can use them for time management, to organize tasks, to get an overview over complex contexts

Sweet Home 3D – Sweet Home 3D is an interior design Java application for quickly choosing and placing furniture on a house 2D plan drawn by the end-user, with a 3D preview.
What are the ones that you find interesting?

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is something that I talk about at a high level when I deliver social media training. Here is the long version of this story.

• Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd)

This license is the most restrictive, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

• Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the by-nc-nd license, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.

• Attribution Non-commercial (by-nc)

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

• Attribution No Derivatives (by-nd)

This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

• Attribution Share Alike (by-sa)

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.

• Attribution (by)

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, in terms of what others can do with your works licensed under Attribution.

There is a lot more to CC than these six categories. There is an organization called CreativeCommons.org, it’s a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

They are based in the U.S.A therefore it’s unclear if all their licensing rules apply globally.

There is another category called CCO that applies to your own work that you can waive your rights and make it completely available to the public without restriction to copyright and database law. This category applies to scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content.

We all need to earn a living, so who would be crazy enough to use these licenses?

The best known example of course is Flickr, they have incorporated these licensing into their offerings.

Wikipedia, Google and Open course ware. The most interesting one is a band called Nine Inch Nails, who released some of their songs for FREE as well as a limited tired step version of other products, services etc…This had an amazing effect whereby they had a sold out tour and sold their other products as well.

If you are thinking of incorporating CC into your business or otherwise, there are great guidelines on how to go about this. Since we are here in Canada, then how do we know if all this is relevant to the laws here. I am happy to say that we do indeed have a CC Canada.

Facebook Applications

There were many Facebook applications e.g. Barack Obama supporters, Barack Obama for President, Barack Obama fan, Barack Obama – Yes, We Can, Obamagrams,Obamarama …..  Some were developed by his campaign team and the rest by others because they have a lot of time on their hands.

A custom FB application called Obama was created.  This application lets you share the news items, blog posts, speeches, videos that most inspire you to support Barack Obama.

The official facebook page has the Obama application button installed with the call to action button”find out where to vote now”.  It also offered favorite stories and videos targeted at this audience.

Facebook Page

Numerous facebook pages all linked together.  His official page had 3,667,117 supporters.  So every time any information was listed here it was easily accessible to 3 million people!!!

Favorite Pages

His team was very open to various groups taking his logo and adapting it towards their needs.  These special interest groups were linked to his Facebook Page via the Favorite Pages option thus providing one stop shopping.

YouTube Box

This application posted the relevant videos fromYouTube here.  Not all videos where here but targeted videos by his team.

Notes

Updates on where Obama was going to be on various TV shows, venus etc..updates on issues, policies, guest posts, inspirational posts to raise further funds.  Fun items like update your profile pictures.

On voting day a link to the polling application was posted here.

Photos

Numerous photo albums highlighting not only his personal life but his campaign trail starting in Springfield.  This is well done as it shows his policital side as well as his more human side.

Now who’s not gonna love this…  check out the comments….

Posted Items

Before his Election Night speech, Barack sent out a message to his supporters.

“I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack”

If you are just an ordinary citizen the chances of the President elect sending a personal note are close to none.  With his FB channel he was able to thank everyone for voting for him.

Supporters

Over 3 million supporters on facebook alone!!!!  All these people gave their feedback, posted videos, photos etc…

Events

Select events were posted here, not a whole lot but enough to generate interest.

His online presence  was similar in the other social networking sites with targeted messages going out in these channels.  This form of communication where the barriers are broken down and the average joe can provide their feedback is very powerful.

These various sites are still being used my his team during the transition and it remains to be seen how they will morph as he takes office soon.

I have mixed feelings about this, on the one hand I am thrilled about thise social media channels.  On the flip side I have a bit of concern that they could be used to push his agenda.  So the other politicians and special interest groups should take the time to also participate in this space so that the American people are getting a well rounded picture and not that of a sole individual.

I had explored Barack Obama’s web strategy which was very well implemented and executed.  The success of his campaign was not only due to his website but his social media strategy which made his team connect with people and share information.

Barack Obama had some tough challenges to face as a candidate, he was relatively unknown and inexperienced in the political scene.  So how were voters going to pay attention to him?

He thought grassroots and made sure he appealed to the individual by establishing a connection with them.

The three major goals of the campaign that the social media strategy was build upon were

• Fifty State Strategy
• Targeted the dissaffected center
• Focused on small donations

These goals were tied into the web strategy, new media strategy, traditional media and all three were interlinked very well.

Barack Obama had a presence on many social networks, this way he was able to reach a wide range of individuals that participate in these spaces.

A common look and feel was maintained in these spaces that tied in with the branding of his website.

Each site was updated with the latest on where Barack was going to be, what his platform was and updates from the campaign trail, this went a long way to engage and motivate potential voters.

Videos of off line activities were posted instantly to YouTube, Facebook etc.. and cross linked on all these sites as well as back to the Blog.

This gave potential voters in these spaces the opportunity to communicate their views, issues and their personal campaign stories.

The best part was that communication from the campaign team was maintained consistently and constantly during the election especially on the voting day.

The team was also very open and encouraged people to take the logos and customize them towards their own causes and promoted their causes.  This openmindness was also part of their viral success.

The call to action buttons to link back to the website, raise funds and vote were easily accessible through each of these networks.

Here are some brief stats and facts from some of these social spaces.

Custom MyBarackObama.com social network

2 million profiles, 200000 offline events planned on this site.  4000000 blog posts, 35000 volunteer groups, 70000 people raised $30million on their personal fundraising pages.

The official facebook page had over 3 million supporters hence one update was easily accessible by this group.  These people were also able to comment and give their feedback.

There were more than 500 groups and more than 300 applications.

Barack Obama channel with the latest videos from speeches, meetings, rallys etc.

148304 subscribers, 25024 friends,

1827 official videos, 139,000 related clips.  The Yes We Can music video was viewed more than 14 million times.

Photos from every possible campaign office etc…

7127 contacts, testimonials from around the world

Following 167849 and had about 162425 followers.

Here are some special Barack Obama and Obama or McCain tweets

1088437 friends.

Linked in is a social network for professionals.

He had 500 connections here.

Connect, connect, connect

Having friends, fans, connections etc… with people in these spaces Barack Obama was able to connect with over 5million people online.  Inspire them to raise funds and finally vote.

Through this mesh of social networks there were over 1billion emails sent, 7000 different messages targeted to specific audiences.

The basis of a good social media strategy is to use on line tools to make real-world connections between people. That is exactly what was achieved by Barack Obama’s campaign.

As a social media consultant I am very excited to see the future developments on barackobama.com.  For now Change.gov has been launched and it’s g0al is to get the people of the US to share their stories and goals.

If you want to share in the inauguration ride then check out TripVerde-Obama.

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This post only covered a few of the many social networks that Barack Obama had a presence.  Here are a few more to explore on your own.

Enjoy.

As I look back on 2008 there were many interesting happenings in social media (new media).  There were many achievements with the steady growth of various social networking sites and launch of new sites.

However, the most important use of social media had to do with the past election down south, which caused quite a stir not just nationally but globally. People couldn’t stop talking about the election and wherever you were on the internet you couldn’t help but see Barack Obama. His ability to raise money and the large voter turnout was something that no other politician was able to achieve before. One of the biggest reasons for this was a very good web and social media strategy.

The basis of any web or social media strategy is to link specific goals to the interactions on the website and the social spaces. Integration of the internet into a hub, barackobama.com

Goals

The three major goals of the campaign were

• Fifty State Strategy
• Targeted the dissaffected center
• Focused on small donations

These goals were tied into the web strategy, new media strategy, traditional media and all three were interlinked very well.

Barackobama.com

A well designed and concise website making all campaign material very easily accessible to everyone. Great attention to logo and branding in general. The logo was designed by a company that did not traditionally design political logos, hence a fresh and clean look.

Call to action button, please donate, was easily found on the website regardless where you navigated, thus enabling small donations.

Downloadable campaign music, logos and tag lines, website and chat, widgets for updates to websites, posters and signs, support tools, flyers and documents, videos, desktop backgrounds and campaign forms.

MyBo

MyBO offered online tools for instant local organizing. This enabled people setting up campaign offices to do so very quickly and effectively.  This gave the opportunity for people to co-create and evolve the brand.  For example there were some fun events organized by people like a “yes Wii Can” Wii party and voting machines haloween event.

Personal Fundraising

The most notable feature of the website was the ability to raise micro funds. Small amounts of donations from many people. Thus the campaign did not have to rely solely on the large donations that were the norm in a traditional political campaign.

People prefer to donate to friends more than to charities and the website addressed this emotion.  Personal fund raising pages for people to keep track of the funds they raised.

Obama Mobile

GPS to find the nearest field office.  Custom ringtones.

iPhone App

iPhone application was sheer genius and had quite a few iPhone features.

Call Friends – a volunteering tool for talking to people you already know.  Your contacts are prioritized by key battleground states, and the abilito to make call sand organize results in one place

Call Stats – see nationwide Obama ’08 call friends totals and find out how yoru call totals compare to leading callers
Get Involved – find and contact your local Obama for America HQ
Receive Updates – receive the latest news and announcements via text messages or email
News – browse complete coverage of national and local campaign news
Local Events – find local events, share by email and get maps and directions
Media – browse videos and photos from the campaign
Issues – get clear facts about Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan fo ressential issues facing Americans

Obama Store

A lot of swag.

Blog

On February 8th 2007 Joe Rospars announced that he was the new New Media Director and that he would be using the blog to communicate about the campaign, evolution of the website and more.  This particular post received 194 comments!!!

The Blog was hosted on the website which lends to a more personal touch. People could set up their own blogs on barackobama.com to chronicle their campaign experiences.

This blog became very popular quickly and it focused on the issues as well as the more personal side of the campaign.  You Tube videos as will as flickr photos were integrated into the Blog.

Posts that responded to what was being said in the blogsphere.

BarackTV

Videos of all off line events, debates, speaches that were posted on YouTube were easily accessible here.

Digital Landscape

Barack Obama had a presence on numerous social networks where a common look and feel was maintained throughout each of these sites .

It also has a RSS at multiple locations for those that like their RSS readers.

I will discuss his Social Media Strategy in detail in the next post.