Online Now

A journey into the world of contemporary online social interaction...

Online Now from Pocket Jakes on Vimeo.

Meeting my first real 21st century politician.

I am currently in Bucharest, Romania for the Ro New Media Conference - a great and very well organized event around the usual subjects - internet society, social media, mobile economy et al. My presentation was about "Why Facebook isn't a Kids Birthday party". But I had to hurry a bit, because the speaker, who followed me, had a tight schedule: it was Victor Ponta - the Romanian Prime minister!

When I saw his name in the program, my first thought was: Oh well, another politician, who is using a "cool" Internet conference as a nice photo op, while knowing nothing about what is actually talked about there. Boy, was I wrong!

Mr. Ponta was introduced as an avid blogger (who does have a real(!) blog on Wordpress.com) and started his speech with a clear statement against ACTA, giving the reasons, why his government will not ratify it! Wow! He then went on and introduced his new "vPonta" iOS App, which launched today. With this app, he wants to establish a direct line between the Romanian citizens and their prime minister! Wow again!!

To be perfectly honest, I don't know anything about Viktor Ponta as a politician and have no idea how "direct" this line really will be. But what a contrast to most German politicians and their stance on ACTA or "direct lines"...!?

Two weeks ago in Berlin, Europe's biggest internet conference - the re:publica 2012 - wasn't important enough for even the Berlin mayor, Klaus Wowereit, to show up and say a few clueless words. For a similar conference in Romania the prime minister comes on stage, makes an intelligent policy statement and introduces a real, existing "government 2.0" app. What a contrast indeed.

Could Germany also get politicians like that - please?

Das war es dann wohl mit Apple… mal wieder…

Noch 30 Minuten bis zum Apple Event auf dem das iPad 3/HD vorgestellt wird und vermutlich noch rund 120 Minuten bis unzählige "Influencer" alle Welt wissen lassen, dass DAS ja nun echt nicht alles gewesen sein kann, dass alles doch so gar keinen Sinn macht, weil x oder y fehlt und man sich nun ganz sicher ist: Apple hat endgültig seinen Zenith überschritten!

So war es beim iPhone (Telefon ohne Tastatur? Kauft kein Mensch!), beim iPad (Ohne USB-Anschluss? So'n Quatsch!) und zuletzt auch bei iPhone 4S (GÄHN!). Und so wird es auch heute Abend sein.

Für alle die nachher wieder ins große Geweine einstimmen, hat John Gruber auf Daring Fireball schon mal die passende Antwort gepostet:

What would it take for the iPad 3 to be deemed an immodest update? A fusion energy source? Teleportation? A camera that sees into the future?

The Five Stages of a PR Disaster

A grim scenario more and more marketers have to face these days: There was this one thing, everyone at the strategy meeting agreed should not be mentioned in outside communication, because the customers are not supposed to know about it. Then suddenly people start talking about it, a negative comment shows up on the Facebook page, a potential shitstorm seems to loom on the horizon.

Tom Fishburn's great new cartoon depicts what happens next...

A Very Sad Day!

"RIP Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful. You changed the world. Things won't be the same without you."

@mg on Twitter