Government co-creation?

The merits of co-creation (getting the customer actively engaged in the innovation and production process) as business policy have been mentioned a couple of times in this blog and are the subject of my research focus at this moment. The idea of government co-creation might sound unlikely but those who followed the approach of Barack Obama towards the Social Media as part of his campaigning strategy will not be surprised if they see these media becoming the key of citizen participation to public governance resulting in a transparent, innovative and open administration. I read the very interesting analysis of Micah L. Sifry in the Nesta site calling for the Reboot of Britain. Maybe more governments (and many corporations) need a reboot; I suggest this site.

How Social is your Brand? II

In my post of 23 March I mentioned the Virtue - 100 Top Social Brands Index. As you possibly remember the nr 1 social brand (i.e. the brand most mentioned in Social Media) is iPhone followed by CNN and Apple.
In the site of Vitrue you can now find a very useful gadget measuring and comparing the "socialness" of brands. Interestingly the name of the American President Obama seems to be more popular in social media than even iPhone.

Academic Advices for the new American President

Like the vast majority of the people on this earth I was delighted with the victory of Barack Obama and the transition of power two days ago. Most people expect from Obama to address a number of hot issues like the environment, the financial collapse, the world peace and the civil / human rights from a totally different perspective than the George Bush and his friends. This will help restoring the image of the US, so badly battered by the naive, arrogant or even stupid policies of the previous administration.
The change promised by Obama must be drastic on political level to begin with. As an Athenian myself I was glad with the advice of Josiah Ober, professor in Classics and Political Science in Stanford on "how Barack Obama might benefit from re-visiting the tenets of Athenian democracy as he begins his presidency".

Ober notices: “First, remember that the original meaning of democracy was not “majority rule.” When we Athenians invented it, democracy meant “the capacity of the Demos – that is, the People -- to make things happen.” There is a big difference between the majority and the Demos. You are now the leader of the entire American Demos, not of a party or a faction. You need to find ways to stay in touch with the Demos. That will require a lot more than good opinion polling. No matter what anyone tells you, democracy is not just about aggregating popular opinions, or individual preferences, or special interests".

Obama's history and functioning so far indicate that he is open to listen and put such ideas into action.

American elections 2008: A victory of change (in politics and marketing)

The overwhelming victory of Barack Obama in the US elections yesterday encapsulates the desire of the American people for change in their country, sharing the opinion of the whole world. The personal charisma of Obama, his message of change both in internal and external politics and his promise to make Americans proud to be Americans again gave him the victory over McCain who focused on what he would not do rather on what he would do if elected, gambling on conservatives’ fear for change as one of his main assets.
Next to the factors I mentioned as main contributors to the victory of Obama we should not forget his impeccable campaign strategy that could become a marketing textbook case; anyone who questions the change taking place in the marketing world should study this case carefully. This campaign made a very strong case for what some of us call New Marketing with the individual customer, the Internet and the Social Media playing the central role. Those who doubt about it can read a lot in the press or simply have a look to the online proposition of the Democratic Party as long as it is online. It is a state of the art example of how the New Marketing approach (combined with the perfect “product”) can attract, mobilize and motivate many people and particularly the new generation that for the first time in the American history played such a decisive role in presidential elections.