Jon Henshaw's Open Salon Blog

Will Socialism Save Capitalism?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:10:53 -0400

There are many variations of the definition of Socialism, but this one seems to capture the type of U.S. Socialism that's being proposed and implemented today.

A political philosophy advocating substantial public involvement, through government ownership, in the means of production and distribution.

It seems ironic that the andidote to unbridled capitalism – one where most of the wealth is distributed to corporations and the super-rich, and regulation is sparse and unenforced – is its mortal enemy. If there's something we've learned in this crisis, it's that if Capitalism fails, Socialism will be there to pick up the pieces. At least until Capitalism can get back on its feet and then look at Socialism to tell it, "I never knew you."

Socialism seems like the sweet grandparent or gullible parent that does everything for their child, only to have their Capitalist child spit in their face every time they reach a point of not needing them anymore.

Getting My Privacy Under Control On Facebook

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 07:09:16 -0400

I've ignored Facebook for quite some time, mainly because I thought it was for a younger generation who liked to also text each other every five minutes. However, I've been engaged on the site a lot lately. What got me interested were all of the friend requests that I started receiving. For some reason, all of my old friends from school and places I've lived in the past started to come out of the woodworks.

It didn't take long until I had a lot of friends – many of whom are simply acquaintances or friends I barely know anymore. That's when I started getting concerned about my privacy. I found myself posting a lot of photos of my family and updating my status at least once a day (the free Facebook app iPhone didn't help that habit). Fortunately, Facebook makes it easy control your privacy settings in Facebook. I made this screencast video that shows you how easy it is.

Video originally published on Sitening, an SEO & Online PR agency.

Obama's FISA Vote

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 19:07:37 -0400

By now, most people (who are remotely interested in politics) know about Obama's support for the recently passed FISA bill. Although I don't know every detail about the bill, I wasn't excited to learn about his vote. Especially the exoneration of the telcos.

However, I can't help but think that his vote was 100% strategic. Strategic in that Republicans and neocons won't be able to use it against him during the election. I'm also inclined to believe that Obama's strategists have plans for spinning that vote in the coming months towards their advantage.

Learning New Things Can Be Hard

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 21:06:20 -0400

Learning new things can be hard, especially when you're asleep. During our vacation, my two-year-old son has had to sleep in a "big-boy" bed instead of his usual crib. So far, he's doesn't quite have the hang of it yet.

Traditional Advertising Online = FAIL

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:08:13 -0400

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 had some interesting comments on the state of online advertising. His thoughts were in response to new research from Jakob Nielsen, where he discusses the ruthless nature of how Web users currently interface with online content.

"As media companies struggle to figure out their digital future, the elephant in the room is that they have only been able to monetize online audiences for pennies on the dollar compared to traditional media. Here’s why: Traditional advertising formats FAIL on the web. By traditional advertising formats, I mean display ads, video ads, and any other ad whose format and value proposition approximates or imitates that of an offline advertising format."

For example, comparing the ad revenue per impression online versus that of print publications will show just how large the discrepancy is. If the same model was used in print, all print publication would be non-existent. Furthermore, users not only have banner blindness, they have banner aversion. As Scott pointed out in Nielsen's research, when users go online, they know what they want, and advertisements are an unwelcome distraction. He concludes his opinion piece with this suggestion for improving the effectiveness and value of online advertising.

"We need to invent new forms of advertising on the web. But it’s more than that. Facebook introduced Beacon as a new form of advertising — but it didn’t create a lot of value for users."

"Online advertising must create value for users or it will create little or no value for advertisers."

"This would seem self-evident, but it has not been the case with traditional advertising, which was developed for CAPTIVE audiences, and web users are increasingly anything but captive."

The response to Scott's articles was met with a lot of different ideas to tackling the the online advertising dilemma. This was my Online PR take on the whole thing:

"I think the future of online advertising – beyond the AdWord/AdSense buyer with intent model – will involve the old school method of clever product placement. The “editorial” won’t be about the product, but the product will still exist within the editorial. The future of modern online advertising will rest in the hands of streamlining the process of integrating product placement with high quality content. In my mind, it won’t be much different than what movies and print publishers do today. It’s just that nobody, except for a few players, have truly created a brokered process that can be easily integrated with mainstream advertisers and generalized publishers (niche blogs, etc…)."