BlogHer - Senate Races - Comments

I'm a recent MSM refugee, online division

9to5to9 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:46:04 -0600

And I haven't seen any research along those lines. It makes sense that off-site embedding would increase traffic, though, because virtually any link to a media site does.

The challenge would be figuring out how technically to do it. That was a huge interactive that ate up a lot of screen space, and I don't know how many sites would want to give up that type of real estate. However, a widget that would have, say, updated electoral college votes and offered a click-through to the full graphic would have been viable. Probably even highly marketable in a day when outlets are growing increasingly disenchanted with The Associated Press.

Why things like that don't happen is a topic for another long, painful blog!

Debra Legg
9to5to9

The dancing in the streets and the fireworks

alyssaroyse — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:20 -0600

I wanted the best of all worlds.... Spent the early part of the returns in a bar with thousands of other people watching huge screen TVs. Then raced home to be with my daughter by the time West Coast Polls closed so that we could see him declared together. And it was so great. We - along with all of our neighbors - went out on to our deck and screamed and jumped and cheered. There were fireworks set off all over the place. Apparently I missed hte hours of dancing int eh streets on Capital Hill (I live in Seattle.)

But what got me the most were the reports the next day. Thousands of people dancing in the streets until the wee hours of the morning - no arrests, no property damage and they cleaned up after themselves. Considering that we usually only see people in the streets like that when they are "protesting" and there is so much damage and violence, i was really struck by the power of people being joyful and peaceful and hopeful.

And yes - those holograms were just STUPID. Couldn't get a sense of the scene.... Frankly, the whole MSNBC set with the hologram columns (from every architectural era) and hologram maps..... stupid.

And yes - Nate Silver is a god. (and a damned cute geeky boy too! yum!)

____________

Alyssa Royse

Just Cause It: A Web Site To Save The World

Start Her Up: A Blog for Women Entrepreneurs

Being There

rebellious thinker — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:50:03 -0600

I went decidedly low-tech, I just watched MSNBC and CBS. I didn't even turn on my laptop, I wanted one focus. The best thing, at 11 when Obama was named President-elect, no comments were needed, MSNBC just kept the cameras on Grant Park and the eruption of joy there. That made me feel as close to being there as possible.

Laura, www.RebelliousThoughtsofaWoman.com

County-level info and 538 will be studied by a lot of folks

Kim Pearson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:14:37 -0600

The New York Times folks have been consistently impressive for the quality of their

interactive graphics and storytelling. I wonder whether there's research on whether news organizations get more traffic from making their interactives easy to embed on other sites. That's not something I see the NYT doing.

And Nate Silver's probably got a long line of folks who want his ear right now. I'll bet a lot of folks will be looking to replicate or improve on his methodology.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Great photo!

Kim Pearson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:59:32 -0600

And yes, I completely get what you mean about the way it feels when a bunch of bloggers are working together on a big story. I experienced a bit of that myself, as my students and I were doing live coverage across Mercer County, New Jersey. It's a heady experience indeed.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Love this

Jill Miller Zimon — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:37:37 -0600

So I was in a room with 25 or so bona fide social media geeks at NPR - several NPR staffers included and pretty much of all us panned that holographic thing. We had three tvs on and a huge map on a wall that showed the NPR website page with a map and some other numbers and stats.

If you've ever blogged a big event with a group of bloggers, well - I think it's kind of a weird experience! We're all working hard, concentrating hard - Shireen Mitchell was doing an interview w/someone in Israel, someone else was doing an interview with Cuba! And the NPR crew was trying to keep track of what we were all doing while they continuously monitored the votereport maps and comments.

Overall, it was a great experience - the sense of dedication in the room, dedication to what? Well, consuming and producing information but also being together. It was social media that brought us together, via our computer-tended lives, but in person - it was completely corporeal. And Shireen has my tears on her shoulder to prove it. :)

Here's a photo of us - you can see Shireen, Jill Foster, Laurie Writes and others you may know (I'm the faux blonde on the left with her hand over her mouth - probably looking at something happening in Ohio):

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

CNN here, though I surfed

Mata H — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:16:08 -0600

All I wanted was the most current results. I would surf back and forth among the networks until someone declared PA and OH. After that my favorite widget was my telephone, as I made and got calls from friends about our joy. Oh, and the other fave widget -- the Kleenex box. Cried my eyes out.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool

i loved all the tech

Virginia DeBolt — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:13:30 -0600

gizmos. Loved 'em. I also loved the chatter on Twitter. I watched about 5 different maps but liked the county results in the NYT map especially well.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Twitter and NYT

9to5to9 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:41:25 -0600

Two things had my attention most of the night: The magnificent map/election returns graphic on the New York Times homepage and Twitter.

I had the television on, mostly CNN though MSNBC and FOX once in a while when my husband grabbed the remote, but it mainly was background noise. Things were coming at me far more quickly through my existing network on Twitter. Time and time again, a tweet would beat a MSM news alert by 10, 15 minutes or more. And that's forEVER in breaking-news time. Plus I'm lucky that my followers/followees include people in several battleground states, so I'd been treated to "boots on the ground" updates during the final week of the campaign and into Tuesday night.

I did love the NYT graphic, though. It updated frequently, though cautiously as is the NYT way, and offered a wealth of information. You could click down to the county level to see who carried in the presidential race. I still was playing with it Wednesday morning, checking out places I used to live to see if I'm still as out of step with them as when I lived there. It was a simply amazing piece of mapping/database work.

And I agree on FiveThirtyEight.com. Impressive!

Debra Legg
9to5to9

Great Overview

Maria Niles — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:16:40 -0600

I did not care for the holograms and doubt that the expense was worth it.

Also, one point about Nate Silver (I love FiveThirtyEight) is that he predicted the national percentage and was only off by .1%. My guess is that is because much of the polling data focuses on this horse race rather than electoral votes and that he had more and better information to work with on that front.

BlogHer Contributing Editor
PopConsumer
Beyond Help

Ugh

Erin Kotecki Vest — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:51:27 -0500

That proposed rule scares the hell out of me. Glad to see Clinton going after it.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain

What a difference...

sara_callow — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:35:08 -0500

Hillary and Sarah Palin... It occurs to me that *this campaign*, Hillary has been brilliant despite her husband, and according to McCain in the debate, Palin partially because of her spouse.

I also thought the debate was pretty lopsided and will hopefully lead the Democrats into a landslide win this November.

Broken Corset

She's just brilliant, isn't she

Mom101 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:34:21 -0500

What an asset she'll be to the Obama administration and to all of us.

Mom-101

capatilism is great but not when corporate lobbyists have

Crunchy Carpets — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:17:42 -0500

more pull on the government than the rest of the people.

currently there is no reason for the high gas prices...it is all politics and profitmaking

Look for me at http://crunchycarpets.com or check out the ladies at www.wetcoastwomen.com

Why is Exxon-Mobile posting record breaking earnings?

DavidKohlberg — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:06:57 -0500

Exxon Mobile posted a record breaking 12 billion in revenue. It does not cost as much as people think to refine the oil into gas. I believe in capitalism, however i believe that the oil companies are competing to lower prices. There is definate collusion and the government needs to step in.