Journal: News & Comment

Live notes: John Edwards Gnomedex keynote

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

We've dropped from a president to a former candidate for vice-president, but he is here at Gnomedex. He says, "I came here primarily to learn from you."

• Using podcasting, vlogging, blogging: this is the way America is going.
• He was convinced about net neutrality.
• This stuff is important for the country and "in my own selfish way, to the political process."
• The potential to change our democracy, to get people involved.
• Less speaking at, more speaking with.
• Where are we today, where we are going, how or should we manage how we go forward?
• I want to come away knowing more than I did when I walked in the door.
• Recommending "Wisdom of Crowds," where people make better decisions in groups.
• Marc Canter: in the U.S., the Democrats need to get some balls.
• Do you hear it in your own voice when you slip into politician robo-voice?
• It's a long period of conditioning. You need to shed it to become normal again.
• The next president, or certainly the one after, is likely to be the single candidate who doesn't sound like a politician.
• I'm trying every way I can to be normal, but it is hard.
• I'm trying to recondition myself that when I get asked a question to actually answer it.
• We've been trained to do the wrong thing. I'm getting better at it, but it's not long.
• How do you as a politician create vibrant local bases to build and govern and change communities?
• What about people whose communities are virtual?
• "I don't know the answer to that question."
• Concerned that there is too much energy spent on strategy and not enough on doing things that matter.
• And yet, framing the language is important.
• But don't forget to focus on the problems that need solving.
• The people who decide the election are in the middle. You don't appeal to the people who decide with moderation.
• But language does affect substantive issues, from net neutrality to abortion.
• What will be the technology that affects the next election? How can it change the political process itself, rather than just amplifying what traditional campaigns have always done?
• The problem is two things: people don't have the information they ought to make informed decisions, and they're not engaged in the process.
• There's a reason people are cynical and distrusting, because they have good reason to be.
• Be able to follow presidential candidates around for the non-staged stuff.
• PT: let's get a paper record from voting machines, and source code.

 |