I am an advocate of solar power – but the biggest advocate? I don’t think I’d fit that bill, but maybe you do!

The new ‘Power the House’ campaign just launched to find the most devoted advocates of solar power and have them help get solar panels back on the White House. Using the many facets of social media, the Power the House campaign encourages the public to check their social-media-linked site to get their daily action plan and participate in a game that spreads the solar word.

Once completing solar missions around the social-sphere on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Foursquare, players can earn points and win GLOMANA merchandise, like a glow-in the-dark t-shirt.  If you’re really into the idea and campaign, earning enough points to become the ‘Ultimate Solar Advocate’ will score you placement in a nation-wide press release when the campaign reaches 10,000 petition signatures!

The lead company driving the campaign, Sungevity, sent a request to the Obama administration to accept their offer of a free solar power system and launched their site to encourage the public to join in with them.  Looks like there are some participants and I hope it succeeds to reach their petition goal soon!

Regardless of your stance on the healthcare debate, on Saturday the 7th history was made. Like so many others out there, I learned about this via Twitter. It was utilized successfully to help President Obama connect during his campaign and he has continued to use Twitter to communicate with his followers (all 2,620,260). This is the tweet shared after the vote:

Not too long ago, our access to politicians was limited to their “State of the (city, state, country) Addresses” and information shared through the press secretary. We now have unprecedented access thanks to social media. Some politicians are quick to jump into Twitter because they believe it will help them win elections. Others are true believers in the tool and how it allows them to connect with the supporters and non-supporters alike.

I am a big fan of lists so I’ve pulled together my list of the most interesting politicians to follow on Twitter. By interesting, I don’t mean that they have a similar viewpoint to mine, which means there are representatives from both parties and can lead to some entertaining updates. The list is in alphabetical order, enjoy!

• http://twitter.com/BarackObama
• http://twitter.com/Barbara_Boxer
• http://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley
• http://twitter.com/clairecmc
• http://twitter.com/EricCantor
• http://twitter.com/gavinNewsom
• http://twitter.com/joebiden
• http://twitter.com/JoeSestak
• http://twitter.com/schwarzenegger
• http://twitter.com/senjohnmccain

I noticed my Twitter friends were suddenly #tweetbumping today. So I researched it a little.

Apparently today is National Fistbump Day, commemorating the Obama fistbump that took place one year ago today.

Nearly a year later, a group of like-minded people have gotten together to commemorate Obama’s grand gesture, but also to take the fist bump to a higher level, one above partisan politics and social divides. For one day we are calling for Americans, and perhaps even all global citizens, to put aside their differences — be they class, race, religion or values — and show their respect with a little bump.

Sometimes all the world needs is a little human touch, a little flesh on flesh action, and a little understanding.

Well that’s all fine and good. But blogger Sarah Evans decided to take that one step further and unofficially partnered with the Fistbump folks to create #tweetbumps. Her theory is that fistbumps sort of leave those of us who spend a lot of time together virtually out in the cold.

Using Twitter also allows those participating to take this thing global and not only limit it to Americans. So, if you’re up for a good cause that costs you nothing, makes others feel good and takes a moment of your time.

And it’s working. I didn’t see it as a trending topic on Twitter – although I might have missed it. But a search for #tweetbump brings up a bunch of positive posts.

All you need to do to participate is blog something positive and use the #tweetbump hashtag. That’s it!

So, happy Tweetbump/Fistbump day!

__

Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Originally published at PR 2.0

Disclosure, I’m an adviser to PeopleBrowsr…

In early December, we released a public alpha of PeopleBrowsr, an attention-centered dashboard for managing your online relationships, brand management, and communication in Twitter and across multiple social networks – all from one place.

The public alpha is running incredibly well and thanks to everyone who contributed feedback, ideas, and recommendations, the public beta will be even more incredible.

If you’re a brand manager, communications or customer service professional, community manager, or on the product support or development team, PeopleBrowsr may very well be the most comprehensive, real time monitoring and engagement solution available today. My good friend Sukhjit, created a phenomenal video demonstrating how she tracked conversations, images, and videos related to the inauguration of President Obama on Twitter and across the Social Web – as it happened.

Hopefully this helps you…

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by Michelle Lentz

The Inauguration is historic in a multitude of ways, not the least of which is the sheer amount of new media coverage and access. Here’s our guide to some ways to interact with the Inaugural festivities.  The fun begins around 11:30 am EST.

Twitter

Follow the feeds for inauguration or Obama.

Use #inaug09 to show up on the NPR Inauguration Report 2009.

Follow the US Government or the Inauguration Committee.

Current and Twitter are joining forces again, as they did successfully during the Presidential Debates.  According to Current, “We will broadcast as many of your inauguration tweets as possible over the ceremony, in real time. We’ll also be streaming the event live right here.”  The hashtag to be picked up by Current is #current.

Streaming Video

Stuck at the office and not near a television? It’s alright. The Web will take care of that for you.

As mentioned previously, Current will be streaming the Inauguration, with tweets interspersed.

Hulu.com will be streaming the event, courtesy of Fox.

Joost.com will be streaming live and currently offers an Everything Obama channel, in case you need an early fix.

Ustream is streaming live with their trademark conversation surrounding the stream. They’re also offering streaming to your iPhone – Inauguration on the go.

The ever-reliable C-SPAN will offer four different live feeds.

CNN.com is live streaming, with Facebook status updates. As far as I can tell, it’s sort of like Twitter and Current. RSVP via the Facebook event.

Traditional Media

Of course, all of the traditional network stations, as well as the 24/7 news channels are broadcasting the event. But there are some interesting additions.

Nickelodeon will be broadcasting from the event so that your kids can learn about the event in a fun way.

The coverage will show up during commercial breaks and, most prominently, during the periods between regular shows in prime-time. Nick will offer a retrospective of past presidents taking the oath of office and interviews with young people about Obama’s election and his inaugural address.

NPR: NPR will be broadcasting live all day, but has also fully embraced social media. All week they’ve been tracking normal, everyday people who are heading to DC for the Inauguration, just hoping to get a seat or having been lucky enough to score tickets. They are running the Inauguration Report, and its user-generated content. Tag tweets, YouTube videos, and Flickr with inaug09 or dctrip09. (For tweets, add a # in front of the tag, ie,  #dctrip09.) You can also download their iPhone app from the social networking section of the iPhone app store.  They also have an app for Android (search IR09). Finally, you can send a text message to 66937 with the required tags, including the #.

MSNBC is sending the Inauguration to a movie theatre near you. Well, maybe near you. The coverage will display in 27 theatres across the nation. Tickets are free, but you have to buy your own popcorn for the four hours you’re there.

Comedy Central still has Indecision 2008 up and running. They’ll be live-blogging all day tomorrow, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will br broadcasting live tomorrow evening.

Flickr & YouTube

Not only does NPR track Flickr images, but others have groups/photos as well.

The Inauguration Committee, showing they are quite plugged in, has a Flickr account using Creative Commons licensing.

The Inauguration Committee also has a YouTube channel with everything from prep videos to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Flickr has started an Inauguration 2009 group for everyone to share their inaugural images.

Blogs and Sites

Obviously, Change.gov is on top of things with every sort of social media available to them. He is the first Social Media president after all.

The Inauguration Committee has a fairly extensive site, mostly to help you with your visit to DC. But it also has a great blog with everything that’s happening behind the scenes.

Random Fun Things

Obamicon.me: From Paste Magazine, you can turn yourself into an icon, based on the art from Shepard Fairey’s iconic poster.

Atom.com brings us the Inauguration Speech Generator in the style of Mad Libs. Remember Mad Libs?

And we cannot forget to learn from the past, lest we be condemned to repeat it. Hulu and iCue bring you 23 separate Inaugural speeches from Presidents past, starting with McKinley.

—

Contact Michelle on Twitter or via email at michelle [at] writetech [dot] net. Find her online at Write Technology or Wine-Girl.net.

by Brian Solis

Credit: Barack Obama on Flickr.

My latest post is live on TechCrunch, “Is Obama Ready To Be a Two-Way President.” It examines the transformation of people from mere voters into “customers” in order to create a true two-way era of politics, cut through party lines, and increase approval ratings across all offices. The New Web creates the foundation for people to participate in a crowd-sourced governance.

Highlights

Where there’s victory, there’s also opportunity…

Over 46% of American voters and 22 states sided with John McCain. Either way you look at it, it’s still a significant portion of America who didn’t believe #change or #hope were attributes of the Obama campaign. These voters believed their future lay with another candidate.

Politics aside, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or member of the Green Party, we can not overlook the power of real world community relations combined with the reach and engagement of online social communities and networks.

Online tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter contributed to the netting of record-breaking campaign funding and the staggering galvanization of a younger generation of first-time voters who truly made an impact and a difference.

My question is, what if these same social media tools where deployed to not only communicate “to” constituents, but also to listen and interact with supporters as well as those who don’t currently endorse the President-elect?

I argue that if Obama dedicates a team aside from the outbound crew that “pushed” content through social channels in order to strategically reach, listen to, and embrace the 46 % that voted against him, he might be able to run a truly democratic term and head into the next election with a record-breaking approval rating – curtailing the necessity to campaign while in office in order to focus on the issues we elected him to fix – while also cultivating the country for greater future prosperity.

Winning over, conservatively estimating, 5% of voters who were on the fence but ultimately voted for McCain, accounts for almost three million votes.

This isn’t just about broadcasting content through new channels or merely soliciting feedback, participating in popular networks or actively listening, it’s the ability to identify and internalize themes to precipitate change and earn support through action – not just words.

It’s the art and science of stripping down the politics to reveal truth. This is a political ecology rooted in sociology and conversations. People shouldn’t only have a voice during an election time; listening and responding should be an ongoing practice and process of any office.

For a deeper review of the subject, please read the unedited version at PR 2.0 (includes links to downloadable printable PDF and Word formats).

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by Brian Solis

Al Gore closed the Web 2.0 Summit with a powerful, inspiring, and uniting keynote that earned two standing ovations and honorary residence in the hearts and minds of Silicon Valley’s catalysts for innovation and change.

He opened the session in response to the first of two standing ovations with a sense of humor, but also a reaffirmation of what brought us together dating back to his Presidential bid in 2000, “Wow, what a week.” The room erupted into applause.

“It couldn’t have happened without the World Wide Web, without the Internet,” Gore acknowledged.

Al Gore documented this election as nothing short of, “the electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are created equal.”

“It would not have been possible without the additional empowerment of individuals to use knowledge as a source of power that has come with the Internet,” he proclaimed.

His vision for the Web is its sense of “purpose,” which is how we can take the evolution of not only the technology that defines it, but also the people who use it to communicate with one another. “I believe Web 2.0 has to have a purpose,” Gore observed.

Gore envisions a sense of purpose and promise in what he called “World 2.0:” Web 2.0 used for social betterment.

“Just as Barack Obama’s election would’ve been impossible without the new dialogue and new ways of interacting, the only way climate change is going to be solved is by addressing the democracy crisis, and the country hit a great blow for victory this week, but we have to take this issue and raise it in the awareness of everyone,” Gore said.

Gore continued later during his interview with conference organizers Tim O’Reilly and John Batelle, “I think that it is very much in its infancy, barely beginning, and I think that we are not many years away from television sort of sinking into the digital world and becoming a part of it.”

His continued “purpose” is to advance the democratization of media, where people are in control of not only what they consume, but are also empowered to create, distribute, and influence through media.

Al Gore

More at PR 2.0.

For more pictures from Al Gore’s presentation at Web 2.0 Summit, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

During day one of The Web 2.0 Summit, we were treated to an incredibly eye-opening conversation between billionaire investor John Doerr and John Heilemann, a contributing editor at New York magazine. Heilemann had just flown in from Chicago where he spent time with Barack Obama. Believe it or not, Obama had a couple of questions for Doerr that he channeled through Heilemann.

This is where the conversations begins.

Obama requested Doerr’s recommendation for chief technology officer of the United States. Within seconds, Doerr replied with ease.

“Bill Joy,” he said quickly.

Joy is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, in which Doerr was an early investor and is now a partner Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Doerr added, “It would be a sacrifice to lose him to the Obama administration, but there is no greater cause.”

Obama’s second question sought Doerr’s guidance on which single policy issue would most help entrepreneurs.

Again, with a prompt and convincing response Doerr jumped, “Kickstart research and innovation in the energy sector.”

He then focused on the fact that the US also needs to invest in graduating a greater number of capable professionals. His goal is to double it from 30,000 to 60,000 graduating in physical sciences and engineering. Doerr highlighted the fact that a majority of students are studying from foreign countries. After they graduate, we send them back home, “what kind of foreign policy is that?” he quipped. His advice, “Staple a green card to each diploma!”

The conversation traversed a multitude of subject matter. One such discussion focused on the financial crisis.

His observation is that Silicon Valley and technology is a big part of the economy. But that venture capital investments and startup performance are not to blame this time. He also said that the mortgage industry is not solely responsible either. We’re enthralled in a “crises economy” according to Doerr.

“People lost faith in our government, leaders, and they lost faith in their money,” Doerr believes.

Doerr continued, “Wall Street and Main Street are intertwined. Kicking people out of their homes makes no sense at all. What lenders should do is revalue their homes, issue a new 30 year mortgage and have them restart their lives in their existing house.”

Mr. John Doerr also discussed the startup market.

“There’s been a lot of activity that doesn’t deserve to be funded,” Doerr exclaimed. “Good ideas will still get funded, but it’s a buyers market, not a sellers market, so terms are going to be different.”

His main concern nowadays is how can his team get those companies to produce a return.

“Google is just not going to buy a lot of these startups, so who else will?” he asked.

He warned startup founders to get ready for a longer haul than most anticipate. To help startups survive the financial crisis, he offered the following 11 tips:

1. Act now

2. Cut once, cut deeper than you need. You only want to do this once – use a scalpel, not an axe

3. Have or secure 18 months of cash

4. Defer facilities expansion and expenses on technology infrastructure

5. Evaluate R&D priorities and focus on what truly is necessary and important

6. Renegotiate all contacts – you’d be surprised that everything, right now, is negotiable

7. Everybody in the company ought to be selling

8. Pay people in equity in addition to reduced cash

9. Secure cash – treasuries. security backed agency loans

10. Figure out the leading indicators of your business dynamics so you can react quickly

11. Over communicate without sugarcoating

“Most importantly,” he added, “do not cut hope. We will emerge much stronger.”

Pictures from the Web 2.0 Summit Day One are available in my album on Flickr.

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