2. The Old Way:
Martin Luther King and
250,000 Supporters
March on Washington
for Racial Equality and
Civil Rights.
MLK gives his famous
“I Have a Dream”
Speech.
3. The New Way:
65,000 Teabaggers March on Washington for…. What, exactly?
Teabaggers give their infamous comparisons of the President to everything from Hitler to Mao, Fascist to Communist.
15 Seconds of Fame = 15 Seconds of Nonsense
Did you know: TEA is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already.
5. readers' comments
Reform or Else Back to Article »
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Those concerned with fiscal responsibility should be worried about what will happen if proposed health care legislation
doesn’t pass.
The New Way:
E-comments by the
hundreds.
- You can move to the top
if you get recommended by
enough Readers. Then,
you’ll appear in Readers’
Recommendations on the
New York Times.
- On Huffington Post, a
commenter can get fans
too!
Comments are no longer being accepted.
24 of 359 Readers' Comments
All Comments Highlights Readers' Recommendations Replies
2. HIGHLIGHT (what's this?)
nancy jones
Arkansas
December 4th, 2009
8:57 am
One of those " centrist senators " represents me and my state. If she is considering voting for this legislation, she might as
well go ahead and look for new employment now, because there is no way we will send her back to Washington D.C.
You admit in your editorial that " most" of the uninusured are healthy. So why do you want to cut medicare for the elderly
to force " healthy" people into a government scheme?
I believe that Senator Lincoln is smart enough not to take the bait, but, if she does, her career is over.
Recommend Recommended by 139 Readers
4. HIGHLIGHT (what's this?)
Ruskin
Buffalo, NY
December 4th, 2009
8:57 am
If you're a senior and you are on Medicare, you better be afraid of this bill.
Well, Senator Coburn, I am a senior and I am on Medicare, and what I am afraid of is a continuation of the status quo, and
here's why: recent personal experience of hospitalizations in France and Buffalo NY have shown me conclusively that
identical treatments cost utterly different sums - in France, I had to pay about a thousand dollars a day; in Buffalo, Medicare
had to pay more that twice that amount. The irrefutable documentation of this statement can be made available to Mr
Krugman or Senator Coburn, or anyone else for that matter.
Without a public option we will be at the conjunction of two irresistible forces - the universal desire of the sick to receive
the best treatment they - or their insurers - can afford; and the universal wish of investors to see the greatest possible
return on their investments. THAT IS THE STATUS QUO. If it is not ended, it will bankrupt the nation. No ifs, ands or buts.
Guaranteed.
Recommend Recommended by 781 Readers
6. The number of corporations that own most media in the U.S. is 1/10 th what is
was just 27 years ago. Still think you can get a fair hearing from the
Mainstream Media?
7. 2010: Where things stand today
• We have access to more than 1 trillion web pages, 100,000 iPhone
apps, and send more text messages a day than there are people on
the planet – Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
• Newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years while
unique readership of online news is up 34 million in the last 5 years
– Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
• Technorati tracks 48,524 blogs as of 12/1/09
• The Average Nightly newscast is 17 minutes long, includes more
commercials, promos, and “soft” news. It is ‘All The News We
Want You to Know.’
• To get noticed today, you must use the New Media…and it may still
not be enough.
12. Don’t go it alone!
Use ExpertAggregating sites
like E-Lance to
find professional
Freelancers
13. Create your own cover from professional art, plus cover
and spine title
14. Some sobering statistics from Nielsen Bookscan, a company that in
2004 tracked the sales of 1.2 million books in the United States:
15. However, there are exceptions...
Brain Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor’s personal story: My
Stroke of Insight went from POD to Traditionally
published New York Times Bestseller
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Plume (May 26, 2009)
Amazon Sales Rank: #600 in Books
Lesson Learned: Use your personal experience to sell
the book, not the other way around. The book is only
a tool for activism.
16. Start your own Blog –
free from Goggle Blogs
(Click on Create Blog to get the page at right)
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
18. Social Media: Facebook –
much more than a Biography.
Facebook has 350 million users and
more than 6 billion minutes are spent
on the social networking site each day
(worldwide)
-- Easy to make Friends, but hard to get
their attention!
-- Lots of tools and gadgets
-- Ability to log into other sites via
Facebook account. You don’t have to
remember your password on every site!
-- Cross-post articles and comments to
Facebook & to your FB Friends
-- Advertise your products; e.g. a book
-- Post favorite links
-- Post links to your e-campaigns
19. Create a Goggle Group for posting discussions,
Action Pages, files, and Member Profiles.
24. Daily Kos
Advantages:
-- Larger
Readership than
OEN: #28 in
Technorati, Top
100 in US Politics
-- Ability to include
polls easily with
articles (diaries)
Disadvantages:
-- No Quicklinks
-- I am not a Senior
Editor!
27. Biking
E-Campaign:
Close the 38-61 street Gap in
the East Side Esplanade.
Pictures taken from bike ride
along “The Gap”
Note: Include Name, Email
address, Group Affiliations on
all documents
31. Use Google Groups to Promote your cause and provide a free forum for your group
You can even post files!
32. Narrow your appeal just to those interested in your
specific cause.
* Home * About * The Greenway * Close the Gap * Events * Get Involved
East River Greenway Initiative
East River Greenway Initiative
33. Create an Online Petition from Change.Org that will be emailed to selected
representatives every time someone signs it
34. 1. A Petition to Create a State Bank in California
(like North Dakota has) – 573 Signatures!
2. A Georgist Petition to establish a Single Tax
on Resource Intensive Industries – 133
Signatures to every member of Congress!
35. Measuring Success –
It’s often hard to tell how much your campaign factored into current
success, but it is all part of the pie.
There’s no way to know when you will reach critical mass!
1. There are Gubernatorial Candidates supporting a State Bank in Florida,
Oregon, California and Illinois.
2. New Mexico will move its money out of New York banks and back to New
Mexico local banks.
3. Several state legislatures are considering the issue.
4. There is a ballot initiative to create a Land Value Tax in California (Sec.
of State initiative #1413, A.G. File No. 09-0051) and abolish most other
taxes on production. http://www.prospercalifornia.com/
36. Sometimes you just have to get out and meet people!
From Transportation Alternatives Close-The-Gap Protest Ride, November 2009
37. And then suddenly, when you least expect it…things fall into place.
Preliminary Design Committee announced for Closing the Greenway Gap
Editor's Notes
If you want to change the World, you’ll have to change the way you interact with it. You’ll have to use the New Media.
MLK 1963 March on Washington – coherent message, respectful, though charged up crowd. There’s nothing wrong with this approach and it was certainly effective. Do you have a quarter million friends?
Teabagger 2009 March on Washington – incoherent, mutually antagonistic purposes, hostile and flamboyant, unclear message. On the other hand, they certainly got noticed by the media, which is apparently the main goal. Now that they see you, now what? Think fast, you only have a soundbite to get your message out there.
Letters to the Editor. Oh, that your letter was as carefully selected as Dear Virginia’s! Most experts consider this letter to the Editor the most famous Letter to the Editor in history. Did it change opinions? You decide. Virginia was a contemporary of Henry George!
E-letters, so much easier to write than handwritten letters, now pour in by the hundreds, even thousands, and appear online as e-comments, often ignored, but sometimes rated higher by readers.
You may indeed get read by hundreds of people if your e-letter is selected by Readers or Editors in a major media outlet, but competition is fierce, and even the best letters are here today and gone tomorrow. You’ll need to save a copy of your letter to reuse on similar articles in the future, with slight modifications.
Just 5 corporations own the majority of U.S. media. Yet, there are too many MSM news outlets, with too little differentiation, all covering the same story because it is cheap, easy, and doesn’t require much thought. The most outrageous display gets media attention.
Problems with the Mainstream Media
There are too many MSM news outlets, with too little differentiation, all covering the same story because it is cheap, easy, and doesn’t require much thought. The most outrageous display gets media attention. Commentary passes for investigative journalism.
CNN is ‘Headline News’ only, obsessed over with superfluous hi-tech graphics.
Fox News is Propaganda for the Right and deliberately incendiary for ratings.
MSN & Fox are both more commentary than Investigative Journalism.
Always try to get a traditional publisher first. If nothing else, it’ll force you to write a higher quality book. Try to get an agent.
If you do self-publish, go with one of the more well-known Print on Demand publishers like Lulu or Createspace (a division of Amazon).
Work on you book description, include pictures and enable Look Inside and Frequently Bought Together. Fill out your Author’s Bio.
Be sure to get independent reviews.
Set up Lists with other authors to include your book. People read what other readers recommend!
You can sample anyone’s work and see recommendations by (un)satisfied customers.
You’ll have to be very precise, including calculating the spine width, to put together a cover.
Consider the time and effort that will go into a book before you launch into it.
There are thousands of blogs. Will yours get noticed?
This is the new Google Group for Common Ground – New York City. Anyone can join!
Alternative News sites – if you can’t get an audience, use a site that already has one! This is Op Ed News’ front page. Op Ed News is a Technorati Top 100 Blog.
Let’s include everything we’ve learned and some new things to create an E-Campaign
Go out in the “field” and take some pictures. A digital camera can make anyone look like a professional photographer.
Keep up with group members even when not meeting. Post files and discussion topics, or articles you’ve read.
These are my pictures from a hazard patrol.
Select a General Category, like Global Warming, to place your petition under.
Use Chang.Org to set up specific recipients but be prepared to do a lot of typing!
There are many avenues to success. Be open to all of them.
Don’t forget causes are ultimately about people. Don’t get too wrapped up in the e-media!
Sometimes things just fall into place unexpectedly – like when the Governor sets up a study commission on your cause.