Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Rick on GoWalla...

Rick and his campaign always on the cutting edge when it comes to technology and new media (link). Excerpt follows...

Political campaigns are using display ads, mobile apps, Facebook pages, and Twitter, so it's no surprise they see potential in location-based check-in services. Gowalla is hoping political campaigns follow the leads of Senate hopeful Charlie Crist and Texas Governor Rick Perry in using offerings it introduced today.
I have no idea how effective this will be in 2010, but Rick does seem like he is always ahead of the curve on this stuff does he not?

Austin Carr of Fast Company takes a more cynical tack (link). Excerpt follows...

Politicians Desperate for New Campaign Technology Grasp Onto Gowalla

But will keeping on the bleeding edge of technology create an actual edge in the mid-terms? Not likely. Gowalla, for instance, has a fractional number of users than Foursquare--just some 300,000. Spread those users across each state, then divide that number by those who actually care about politics and those who are party-affiliated, and this new campaign tool cannot possibly have a significant impact. Take Rick Perry. How many Gowalla users are there in Texas? Of that number, how many are Republican? And of that number, how many are motivated enough by "check ins" and stamps to actually attend a Perry fundraiser?

"In certain places, there is enough density to move the needle," says Josh Williams, CEO of Gowalla. "This fall we'll see the early adopter crowd, who'll be dry running the technology and help us make a better product."

GoWalla is the company based in Texas, so Rick is probably just trying to encourage local entrepreneurs more than anything... plus it is just the cool factor and the hip factor and the wow factor... but the author is probably right... it won't probably be the game changer in 2010.

The future location applications... Four Square, GoWalla, even Facebook, Twitter, and others utilizing your GPS unit... may be very pivotal in 2012... you never want to get left behind on this stuff...

1 comment:

  1. To me, it makes no difference if it's a game changer. But it did make a new GoWalla fan outta me :)
    I also want people to know when I'm at the event of the nation's top Governor!

    ReplyDelete

Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.