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In 2000 at the age of 21, Lawrence and his colleague Fred Hsu used their collective expertise in online advertising, Internet traffic patterns and search engine optimization to create Oversee.net. Previously, he was with Startpath.com, an Internet startup that focused on Internet advertising and the technology and tactics that drive traffic to websites. When Lawrence moved from New York to Los Angeles, he worked at Smith Barney. In New York, he held positions at both Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney, learning the solid business practices that have become the linchpin of Oversee.net.

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Convening at the Digital Town Hall

Written on
Oct 6, 2006 
Author
Lawrence Ng  |
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Convening at the Digital Town Hall

Politics and political campaigns have already been permanently altered by online communication. Candidates are viewed by the world online long before a traditional campaign is underway. Additionally, candidates have the tools to mobilize more quickly than ever to ramp up an offline campaign. Both MoveOn.org and the Dean campaign showed us how easy it is to raise millions from $5 individual contributions.

Politicians, political commentators, and independent political bloggers are producing content that speaks to the current political atmosphere online. With a digital town meeting, we can now make the connection between politics and interactive advertising. Politicians and commentators already accepted in mainstream politics may not work with a network or private advertiser to place advertising, but political bloggers are often interested in online advertising because it takes advantage of the media with which they are most familiar.

There is one online source that is yet to be politically developed. Social networks generally do not address the needs of the older, wealthier, politically-active demographic. However, if we could connect this demographic with the younger audience already concentrated online, it would produce the kind of multi-layered communication that we want in a healthy social network community.

We have the opportunity to take social networks one step further — to real-world community involvement. Social networks bring together more people than any other single internet commodity, and they can do more than provide teenagers a transient hangout.

Let’s get adults involved. And how do we do that? Play adult “games.” No self-respecting thirty-five-year-old is going to join a glorified ‘Hot or Not’ contest, but that same person is interested in the future of his nation, even enough to become personally involved. An event like Campaign USA plays to the instincts of the modern adult — get involved, address an important issue, and compete for prize money to be donated to your charities. A social network can provide the means to affect the world in a very tangible way.

Adults engaged at this level can turn the tides in favor of informed, intelligent discussion throughout a social network community. Today it’s current election year issues; next year it may be education reform and health care debates.

Events of this sort signify the convergence of technology and the political process. Following the growth of political awareness and the burst of activity after the 2000 presidential election and during the 2004 election, we saw the rapid emergence of blogs and the credibility they pulled from traditional media.

Web 2.0 has the potential to reinvigorate democracy in its most authentic sense: empowering the individuals. Facebook is taking a step in the right direction, offering an “election” tab through their network that currently houses over 1,500 House and Senate candidate profiles; they’re spreading information. MySpace played a political role in this year’s May 1 “day without immigrants” boycott on California’s largest school district; they’re inciting offline action.





Reader Comments.

So many people see the web as a smaller version of TV, but that’s rearview mirror thinking.

You get it.

mh

Posted by Michael Hardner | 4:03 pm on October 6, 2006.

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