[FRIAM] NYTimes.com: The Obama Connection

[Parks, Raymond]

tom at jtjohnson.com wrote:
...
> A column that, whether the author realizes it or not, reflects 
> emergence. (Hmmmm. Do we need a term the equivalent of "Realpolitik"? 
> Realemerg? Or whatever the German term would be?) -tj

   Emergentzy?  Or is that too Slavic?

   According to Google language services, the literal translation of 
Emergence Politics would be Auftauchen Politik, which sounds way to 
complicated to be a catch-phrase.

   Back to the NYT column - the author seems to conveniently ignore 
Howard Dean and Ron Paul.  They both have had great success at on-line 
fund-raising - but since they're from the Hilary generation, they didn't 
really take advantage of the networking.  Paul's supporters, in 
particular, seem to have had to do the networking on their own.

   One aspect of the on-line, social network culture that the author 
(also of the wrong generation based on his picture alone) ignores is the 
ephemereal nature of social networks.  Who remembers sixdegrees or the 
many other social networks that existed long before myspace or facebook? 
  They were all fads or just unlucky - some factor (butterfly wings in 
the web?) just didn't happen to push them over the threshold.  Heck, 
even the current social networking sites are being supplanted.

   Another aspect the author ignores is the fickleness of on-line social 
networks.  All it takes is a catchy rumour and suddenly the favourite 
son (or daughter) will be cast-off and ignored.

-- 
Ray Parks                   rcparks at sandia.gov
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