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‘Obama Online’ shows what’s possible for businesses

By Laura Mead

 

Yesterday undoubtedly marked a special day in history as President Obama hosted the first ever live presidential chat.  In the form of an online town hall meeting, he addressed questions from citizens across the country.  As the whitehouse.gov portal ‘Opened For Questions’, Americans didn’t hold back – a quick peek before showtime yesterday showed over 90,000 people submitted more than 100,000 questions, ranging from legalising marijuana to create jobs and stimulate the economy to the reasons behind spending billions bailing out Detroit rather than supporting small businesses or higher education. 

 

Not only were Americans encouraged to submit questions but also to vote on those questions submitted by their fellow citizens.  It’s no surprise that this was hugely popular with more than 3,500,000 votes tallied already. 

 

It’s really a brilliant idea – an online portal that lets Americans voice their concerns directly to the President while sharing their fears, concerns and views with each other at the same time.  And, with a platform to disseminate information and engage directly with the American people, Obama learns first-hand what is most important to the general public while giving the American people a way to feel more involved, motivated, and that they are directly capable of influencing public opinion and government decisions.    

 

Take it one step further and surely there’s a lesson in here for the business world.  In today’s economy where competition is stiff and budgets scarce, businesses should really look to follow in Obama’s footsteps, taking advantage of technology to get a better understanding of what matters most to customers and to get information out to those people – whether employees, customers, partners or the media – who need it as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

 

He may be a hard act to follow but Obama’s latest social networking initiative certainly sets a great example for anyone ready and willing to ride the tech bandwagon. 

Financial crisis is separating the IT wheat from the chaff

By Ingrid Daschner

 

'Crisis? What Crisis?' asked the British band Supertramp in 1975 on its eponymous LP. This is also the question being asked by numerous IT businesses. After all, every crisis has its winners, and some vendors – particularly those in mission-critical sectors like IT security – are certainly winning at the moment.

The fact is that investment decisions are more thoroughly thought through in times of financial strain and limited budgets. This undoubtedly separates the wheat from the chaff. Whilst in times of plenty firms will spend money on all kinds of gadgets, when navigating the troubled waters of recession, they will focus on the proven essentials.

 

And while some vendors slash their marketing budgets in recessionary times, now is not the time to shy away from a bit of publicity.  Indeed, as market conditions get tougher still, differentiation becomes even more important. 

 

For example, under the title 'Die Mutmacher' [The Encouragers], the March edition of the German magazine IT-Business showcased positive news stories from the IT trade fair CeBIT, and in response to its 'call for papers' it has received a flood of contributions.

 

It seems there is still lots of competition for column inches from many successful and optimistic IT firms – not just a few isolated good news stories.

 

Online feedback forums for public services - good or bad?

Kathryn Mills-Webb vs Tom Kirkham

 

Following this week’s announcement that Gordon Brown intends to let citizens provide feedback on UK public services via the internet, two seasoned JK debaters offer contrasting views of the new proposals.

 

FOR: Kathryn Mills-Webb

There’s no doubt that greater transparency is needed in terms of how public services are measured and reviewed.  At the moment, if you have a complaint about a particular organisation, you have two realistic choices.  You can either phone them up and have a 45 minute argument, only for your grievance to be logged, filed and forgotten – without ever being seen by anyone in a position of authority… Or you can call up the Daily Mail and attempt to induce a national scandal…

 

The new proposals – if properly executed – could put an end to both the unsubstantiated mud-slinging currently engaged in by politicians, the media and the public at large, as well as the pass-the-buck, hide-the-culprit culture that does seem to propagate much of the public sector. 

 

While a line needs to be drawn in order to protect against unprovoked, irrational attacks on individual public sector employees, the new system can provide a meaningful, open platform for feedback and dialogue on public services.  It can offer a means of lavishing justified praise on the many organisations performing to a high standard, as well as identifying legitimate failings without over-stating the problem and thus wasting more of the taxpayer’s money setting up independent inquiries and review committees to investigate what went wrong.

 

AGAINST: Tom Kirkham 

You can’t evaluate your local hospital or council in the same way as you would a hotel or an eBay seller.  I know there’s a current obsession with trying to offer citizens more choice and flexibility in their public services, but any suggestion that the public sector can replicate current online buying habits seems insane. 

 

You can move between eBay, Amazon, Tripadvisor and Travelsupermarket within seconds; the fact remains that we don’t have total mobility in the UK – you can’t just move from the outskirts of Newcastle to a village in Dorset on the basis that the local GP got a decent write-up.  It would make much more sense to invest this time, effort and cash in remedying some of the deep-rooted failings that we already know exist, such as the public sector’s appalling record on IT project delivery.

 

Also, think about a typical customer service department, and the ratio between the letters of complaint and letters of praise they receive.  As technology has progressed – particularly online commerce/services, which now offer unprecedented ease and immediacy – people simply expect services to work, and it’s when services don’t meet their expectations that they are most likely to vocalise their feelings. 

 

Rather than providing a balanced perspective on public services, the new sites could just turn public sector complaints departments into open online forums, serving only to offer a soap box to the sizeable percentage of the population that don’t seem to have sensible and realistic expectations about anything!

 

CONCLUSION

Both participants veer seamlessly between offering brilliantly articulated, insightful perspectives and indulging in demented rambling.  However, Ms Mills-Webb wins, as Mr Kirkham is afraid of her.

 

Want mass brand awareness? Advertise that you’re recruiting

By Alexandra Radius

 

What do you need to create a really good media buzz? The latest evidence would appear to indicate a nice island in the Pacific, plenty of money and good communications skills. 

In early January, a tourist information office offered a six month job contract as an island caretaker, based on Hamilton Island, off the North Eastern coast of Australia.  For a salary of $104,000,the caretaker will enjoy flexible working hours and the opportunity to explore “one of the world’s greatest natural wonders”.  

 

It’s pretty safe to stay that the media stunt worked with some people going so far as to hand deliver their application to the Australian embassy in their country while others translated their application into six different languages (not sure what the benefit of that was). The website was a victim of its own success.  Just one hour after going live, 350 applications had been posted and 250,000 connections registered. The next day the site became almost inaccessible.

 

To date, “the best job in the world” has been advertised on more than 1,300 blogs and the website has received more than 2.3 million visits. And when you Google search "The Best Job in the World ", 29 of the first 30 results speak about the job offer from the Tourist information office!

 

Faced with the worst economic recession in many years, people obviously need to dream and the idea of escaping the global turmoil on a paradisiacal island and getting well paid for it   seems like a pretty attractive option. Hell, even in an economic boom the offer would still be enticing! However, if you haven’t already applied, you’ll just have to wait until the next ‘best job in the world’ comes around. The 50 finalists were announced on Monday March 2^nd and this number will be whittled down further to eleven candidates with ten chosen by the tourist information office and the final candidate voted for by the public. The finalists will be flown out to Australia to be interviewed with the winner revealed on May 6^th.  It looks like the buzz is not about to abate any time soon and Hamilton Island is now most definitely on the map.