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Obama Maximizes the Online Experience, Part I of II

Today is a monumental day. It's Super Tuesday and for the candidates who have been tirelessly campaigning, today is a very big day. I like to keep politics out of our business blog, but I have been smitten with how Barack Obama really gets "user experience" online.

In somewhat of a pictorial blog post today, I leave you with this... If you want to understand what an exceptionally executed user experience looks like today... use Obama for President's website as a roadmap for success.

From the emotive visual presentation of the human experience of this man, his family, his vision for America, you get...

Obama for President

 

From the elemental navigation, providing multiple paths to answers or action opportunities, you get inspiration and direction on how to engage...

From the well organized issue-based verticals of information, you get answers on topics to help you decide on matters important to you as a citizen...

To find video as your first opportunity to see, hear, and learn more. To have "Yes, We Can" looping in your mind hours after your visit, you get impact...

Next, you have the opportunity to read current updates and make comments on the Obama Blog to keep the conversation going...

To fully engage and retain your most loyal followers, Obama for President offers a way to stay connected, to personalize the experience, to store, share and stay completely connected with my.obama.com.

Obama for President puts every best practice in to play here. It is a website, which excels in everything fundamental and simplifies the progressive tactics to make engagement easy and compelling.

Obama for President is a checklist for all things in good user design. In Part II, we'll continue this post to show you how Obama leverages "free media" and understands the value of the Social Web.

Additional Resources:

• Obama Maximizes Reach on the Social Web, Part II of II

Net Neutrality Legislation - No Decision Likely This Year

As reported on News.com, the battle over net neutrality regulation is likely to be stalled until next year. With only a few weeks left for this session of Congress and mid-term elections around the corner, Sen. Ted Stevens, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, announced that the revamp of the massive telecommunications bill may be derailed this year due to the rift over net neutrality. Read the article for more information.

Google CEO Weighs In On Net Neutrality

An interesting article was posted today on Enterprise Open Source Magazine on this week's keynote at the SES (Search Engine Strategies) Strategies Conference & Expo by Eric Schmidt, Google CEO.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Tackles Net Neutrality and AJAX — Schmidt touched on net neutrality during his keynote presentation, noting that Google remains steadfastly opposed to legislation being pushed by the telcos and now moving through Congress that would establish multi-tier Internet pricing. He said Google will be able to handle any increase in its costs if this legislation ultimately becomes law, but it remains opposed to it on the principle of maintaining the status quo 'neutral' environment.

Schmidt's take on AJAX was also very interesting. Definitely a worthwhile article to include in your industry reading.

By Avery

Net Neutrality Regulations - Who Needs Them

By Avery

Sen. Ted Stevens sets forth his position against net neutrality regulations in a brief and succinct manner, posted at 27B Stroke 6.  The audio is posted at Public Knowledge.

I'm glad he cleared that up!

Rocketboom Takes Stance On Net Neutrality

By Avery

RocketBoom has this to say in regards to net neutrality. Apparently, the email campaign of Google is garnering some support for net neutrality.

Net Neutrality Vote - To Be Continued

By Avery

No votes were cast on Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee.  Further debate is scheduled for Tuesday, June 27, 2006, with a vote likely to take place at that time, according to CNETNews.com.

Net Neutrality in the House

By Avery

Actually, it is no longer in the House of Representative. The House soundly rejected the net neutrality regulations set forth in the amendment offered by Rep. Ed Markey in a 269-152 vote on June 8, 2006. Of course, this was just what Verizon Executive VP Thomas Tauke was hoping for, as he told CNET News.com.

Now all eyes are back on the Senate where a hearing is scheduled on Thursday, June 22, 2006 to vote on net neutrality legislation. Originally, it seemed that net neutrality regulations in the Senate bill had no chance. However, Sen. Ted Stevens, Chairman of the Commerce Committee, in a recent amendment to the bill has included a "bill of rights" so to speak (nine (9) of them to be precise - see pp.144-151) to address the concerns. This was done in negotiations with Sen. Daniel Inouye, a net neutrality advocate.  Not surprising, Sen. Inouye still believes the recent amendment does not go far enough.  However, it goes just as far as I predicted legislation will go.

In that regard, I anticipate this amendment by Sen. Stevens to be approved on Thursday. It is going to be tough for net neutrality advocates to push through any legislation with language that is stronger than what is in this amendment.

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Net Neutrality - June 2006 Issue

By Avery

It will be an interesting next few weeks as the debate over net neutrality regulations takes place in committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives.  Sen. Ted Stevens, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, announced to the cable industry that he would be releasing a revised version of his committee's broadband communications bill which will include net neutrality language.  Of what degree? Well, we will see.  A hearing on the revised version is scheduled for June 13, 2006.

Meanwhile in the House of Representatives, Rep. Ed Markey has released an amendment to his bill, which has included net neutrality regulations from the onset.  His bill, as originally drafted, was voted down in April. It seems this amendment was released not only to try to gain more support to get the required votes, but also in response to the bill introduced by the House Judiciary Committee.

It is still to early to tell which of the six introduced bills out there (three in the House, three in the Senate) has the real edge.  However, if Sen. Steven's revised bill does indeed include net neutrality regulations (although I am sure they would be a lot less stringent than the net neutrality advocates would like), I would opine that it would garner the most support from both sides.  Not by much though, because as stated earlier, it is still early and no one is going to concede to0 much just yet.

My prediction is still on target for fruition.

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Turf War over Net Neutrality

By Avery

Round Two of hearings on net neutrality in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation took place this morning (Thursday, May 25, 2006).  At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee approved, by a 20-13 vote, a bill which would enforce net neutrality through antitrust regulations.  Interestingly, it appears that the bill was approved due to a battle over turf that has developed.  I am sure as this debate contiues other committees (House Financial Services Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee, etc.) may attempt to lay claim to some net neutrality turf.  This would appear to favor net neutrality advocates.  One of these committees has to favor regulation (at this time, it appears to be the House Judiciary Committee - although maybe for their own agenda).  With elections nearing, this could get ugly.

Also, Teresa Valdez Klein over at Blog Business Summit notes that this debate has made for some odd bedfellows.  Has hell frozen over?

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Net Neutrality - Round Two in Senate

By Avery

Round Two of the Net Neutrality debate takes place tomorrow at the hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.  The subject of the hearing is the draft Amendment to Communications Act of 1934 (S.2686) sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AL), specifically, net neutrality and interconnection.  The draft amendment is void of any net neutrality regulations, but does call for the FCC to submit an annual report to the committee on any development and/or impact on the flow of the internet.  Essentially relagating the FCC to a "security guard" of net neutrality - watch, observe, and report, but do not intervene.

The hearing is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. (Eastern) tomorrow, May 25, 2006.  Paul Misener (VP, Global Public Policy - Amazon.com) and Tom Tauke (Executive Vice President - Verizon) are scheduled to testify.  There should be a few good soundbites from these two.  The others listed to testify are:

• Timothy Regan (Senior Vice President - Corning Incorporated)
• Ben Scott (Policy Director - Free Press)
• Roger Cochetti (Group Director, U.S. Public Policy - CompTIA)
• Earl Comstock (President and Chief Executive Officer - CompTel)

It will be interesting to see how the recent submissions of other draft bills (in separate committees) aimed at net neutrality impacts the testimony and hearing.

Round Three is scheduled for June 13, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern), with the Full Committee Markup Hearing scheduled for June 20, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern).

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