Twestival: The aftermath

Image via CrunchBase

I have to admit that Thursday's Dubai Twestival was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a bit like meeting old friends I'd never met before.
@BinMugahid and @Esperanca, the two Tweeters I've known the longest since moving to Dubai, were both there. With his characteristic humour and honest takes on life, love and women @BinMugahid is probably one of Dubai's best known Tweeters and definitely its most original. @Esperanca, on the other hand, is a vault of information and does a great deal to steer people away from the oh-you're-on-Twitter-you-must-be-a-bespectacled-overweight-geek-with-no-friends-in-the-real-world image. It was also a real pleasure to meet @PKGulati who was responsible for bringing Twestival to Dubai. As he tell it, "It all started with a Tweet..."
Other people (Tweeple?) I bumped into were @CarringtonMalin, whose SpotOn PR did a brilliant job spreading the word about Twestival and @Abhamalpani, my counterpart from ASDA'A Burson Masteller. I'm really surprised that, besides ourselves (Weber Shandwick), SpotOn and ASDA'A, other PR agencies working in Dubai appear to have ignored Twestival, when they should have been all over it. I could be wrong about that (it was impossible to meet everyone at the event) but I'm sure that it was only these three agencies that devoted time and resources to pitching in to help for the event. If I am right, however, that doesn't say much about the region's PR industry.

Social media and global conflict

I distinctly remember Operation Enduring Freedom when the media was abuzz with 'embedded' journalists reporting from the front line, which was then considering a near revolution in conflict reporting.
A couple of posts ago I had mentioned, very briefly, the role Twitter played when Bombay was being held hostage. Another year, another conflict and social media is playing an even bigger role in getting stories out from a war zone.
CNN yesterday interviewed Palestinian blogger Fida Qishta (who has overnight become a a spokesperson for her people). The broadcaster's iReport website, which allows citizen journalists the opportunity to upload their opinions and news stories, has more than 450 short video clips voicing opinions about the conflict.
Significantly both sides are maximizing the use of social media to win the online propaganda war.
The Israelis have set up a YouTube channel, the IDF spokesperson maintains a blog and Twitter feed, and the Israeli consulate in New York recently held a news conference on Twitter.
Not to be outdone, individual Palestinians and the Electronic Intifada have taken on the well-oiled digital might of the Israelis with live blog posts, gruesome images and news updates to share the tragedy with the rest of the world.
Al Jazeera's new media team launched a live Twitter feed with breaking news from Gaza, joining what is already a huge online conversation where opinions are voiced and news is broken in 140 characters or less. #Gaza is the most talked about subject on Twitter as I write this post.

If anything, this use of social media is revolutionary and may just set the standards for communicating in times of crises. The last few months have seen Social Media move from the sidelines (a marketing tool used to communicate with youngsters, geeks, superfans and other assorted target audiences) to a far more mainstream role (presidential elections and war). This is perhaps just one of many signs of things to come.

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Politics 2.0

Just saw a Mashable post on how Arnold Schwarzenegger is using Twitter, a widget (below) and YouTube to push California legislators to pass his budget.



In many ways social media has come of age in 2008. Far from being perceived as a waste of time or a gimmicky marketing tool, political use of social media seems have given it a new air of respectability and seriousness. And politicians using social media are seen as being in sync with web savvy voters and open to interactive dialogue with their constituents.
While Barack Obama is the perfect case study of a public figure's use of social media, it wasn't just leaders in the West that embraced the Internet. In the Middle East we have Queen Rania of Jordan whose YouTube foray has won her accolades.
On the eve of a whole new year (not one that looks particularly bright) I wonder what 2009 will hold for social media. I guess we'll just have to wait and watch. But one thing's for sure...this isn't just a passing fad.

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Was 2008 the year of the smartphone?

Image via CrunchBaseThe BBC's Mark Ward reports that 2008 was the year of the smartphone, citing the launches of "iconic devices such as the iPhone 3G, Google G1, Blackberry and Nokia N97" as evidence.

What's also really interesting is how social media-on-the-go is far more common now than it was last year. Personally speaking, since getting my Blackberry earlier this year, I spend a lot more of what would have been downtime (for example, waiting for a cab or bus) on Twitter or Facebook. I would think this has to do with a combination of technology (i.e. smartphones) and the fact that services and hardware seem to have become a lot cheaper than they were last year.

Any thoughts?

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The importance of being on Twitter

Telegraph.co.uk has an interesting piece of analysis on Twitter by Robert Colvile. Its interesting because Colvile seems to have largely missed the point.
In describing Tweeting as "a chore for the overloaded web surfer - another means of being bombarded with useless information," Colvile hasn't quite done justice to what is already an important social media tool.
Twitter's suddenly found itself in the media limelight (again) after Mike Wilson twittered away while escaping from a burning plane that crash landed in Denver. While terrorists held Bombay hostage, locals were tweeting eyewitness reports. At a less extreme level, Dubai Tweeter Binmugahid is looking at setting up a Twitter-based traffic alert system to help users get around the city's chaotic traffic. Twitter was used extensively during the US elections by candidates, journalists and ordinary people.
My point? Twitter is not just "a chore." When used properly it can be an important source of information. Whether or not you receive loads of "useless information" is entirely up to you because you decide who you follow and who you don't.
And yes, Twitter is full of people who want to share an evaluation of their lunchtime sandwich in 140 characters or less. But then, that's the most wonderful thing about the Internet...you don't have a gatekeeper who decides what gets said online.

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