Obama MySpace Snafu

TechPresident features a few posts from Micah Sifry on the recent Obama MySpace snafu. The short of it is this: volunteer makes a Barak Obama MySpace profile in 2004. Over time that profile grows to 160k friends. The volunteer gives freely of his time doing it (by his account 5 to 10 hours a day since the beginning of the year). The Obama campaign decides they want control, ask the volunteer how much he’d like to be compensated. He quotes a number around $50k, they say no way and go to MySpace to reclaim the myspace.com/barakobama url and loose the 160k friends and alot of good will in the process. The whole affair raises some interesting questions, perhaps most importantly, who over at the Obama campaign decided that 160k self identified and actively networked supporters weren’t worth $50k? And how will this episode affect Obama’s support on MySpace over time? Will his paid online organizing staff be able to rebuild the 160k friend network? It will be interesting to see how this shakes out in the next few weeks. In my eyes the reluctance to compensate the volunteer for the network, or the decision to not just outright hire him and bring him into the fold seems to be a tremendous mistake and perhaps signal the political consulting establishment’s skepticism or contempt for online volunteer...

Carbon Offsetting Under Fire

As an outspoken carbon offsetter, this past Sunday and Monday I found my inbox filling with emails from friends about the NYT Week In Review cover story on Carbon Offsets. The Times article compared carbon offsets to indulgences offered by the church and suggested that the industry needs a Martin Luther to come along and spark a reformation. The overwhelming message from the article, offered up not only my skeptics but also my some environmentalists is that carbon offsetting is just a feel-good consumer action that people can take while driving around in their SUVs and flying from coast to coast. Tom from TerraPass (where I have purchased carbon offsets for air and car travel) responded on the TerraPass Blog with a thoughtful piece that compares offsets to recycling. The offset industry is in its infancy, but even when it is mature, the idea is not for offsets to solve the problem of climate change alone, they are part of a broader solution that of course involves conservation and other changes in behavior. Already my measuring my carbon footprint from air travel has resulted in me combining trips wherever possible, and has influenced, in part decisions about where CivicActions is holding its next retreat. So don’t be a hater! See carbon offsetting for what it is, part of a broader solution. It represents something that we all can do to have an impact (like recycling, or using reusable bags or water bottles or coffee cups). There will always be people who point out the shortcomings of any of these strategies in an attempt to either maintain the status quo...