1) Obama’s Facebook campaign
The massive success of Barack Obama’s campaign was the result of established methods of the new Internet political process coupled with high-power thinkers from various disciplines. Obama was present everywhere online – Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, and so on. Moreover, Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes worked for the campaign from early 2007. 1.5 million volunteers registered through myBarackObama.com and raised $600m from 3 million people. Making the most of technology, Obama’s team made issues personal and significant by giving people ownership of the campaign. Obama still continues to use online channels to connect with people all over the world, and is being called the net savvy leader of our times.
2)Big B’s Blog
Big B’s blog has turned out to be an immense hit in the cyber world, inviting comments from enthusiastic fans and critics alike across the globe. Fans are pleased to find Bachchan within their reach and are lapping up every detail about the life of their favourite icon, who is whetting their appetite by blogging with unfailing regularity. His command over the Queen’s language has been envied the world over. Bachchan is certainly going to have a tough time answering bloggers as they are not only querying Big B on his work, life and family but also filing details about their own life and seeking his advice on various issues as well.
3) Indian celebs on Twitter
Twitter has seen a huge Indian presence in the last year, with celebs from all walks of life connecting with their fans and detractors alike via their tweets. India’s most famous, and quite probably, the most followed, is none other than author turned politician, Shashi Tharoor himself, who tweets extensively about his diplomatic visits to other nations as well as his hometown in Kerala, where he goes to unwind and relax. From Bollywood, Gul Panag has been the most prominent figure, doling out advice on how to tweet to other celebrities. Other famous personalities in the Indian Twitterati include Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapur, Lara Dutta, and blogger turned novelist Amit Verma. (AP Photo)
A quick recap of the year gone by
4) L K Advani’s online campaign during elections
Following the resonant success of the Obama online campaign, LK Advani made the most of social media channels during his election campaign. During the campaign, the web was inundated with “Advani for PM” advertisements. Apart from promotions in social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Orkut, Advani launched his own neat and well-conceptualised personal website with details of his campaign trails. In an attempt to invite more visitors to the website, he emerged with his blog, which was updated at least once a week. This new-age way of reaching out to the common man received mixed reactions, with some hailing him and others panning him.
5) Twitter book to release by 2025
In what could be a very difficult way of penning a novel, Scottish author Peter Urpeth has decided to write his new book one tweet at a time on Twitter. He began posting on Oct 25th 2009. His tweets have no line breaks, if the tweet has more than 140 characters. The tweets from the novel, called MacKenzie’s Issue, are also archived on his blog. If he restricts himself to one tweet a day, the book could take as long as 14 years, if not more, to be completed. The novel tells the story of the last son of the MacKenzie clan and is set in Scotland.
6) Tommy, the tawny owl who tweets
Tommy, the female tawny owl, who has been uploading regular short messages about life in the barnyard on Totnes Rare Breed Farm in Devon, UK, is the newest sensation on Twitter, and possibly, the first animal (among many who are sure to follow) that tweets. Her bio on Twitter reads – “Despite my name, I am a female Tawny, and so I twitter (males say ‘twoo’). I am an observant, efficient and talkative bird.” Barrie Tolley, owner of the farm, claimed Tommy to be the only tweeting owl in the world. This gimmick has generated huge amounts of publicity for the rare breed farm.
7) Other animal celebs on the web
Not to be left behind, there were various other representatives from the animal kingdom who claimed their share of the web’s pie. There was Nora, the piano playing cat, who has the distinction of having a DVD out of her paws making music. Then there was Spaghetti Cat, whose love for all forms of spaghetti made headlines. In the health sector, there was Mr. Bumble, the obese skunk, who was put on a forced diet and became a spokesperson for healthy eating. And among rodents, there was the scene-stealing squirrel, which popped up just as the camera clicked a couple posing in the woods with blue skies and a pond as their backdrop.
8) Sita sings the Blues
In what was the most ingenious move of online distribution, American writer-cartoonist Nina Paley, attempted to spread the Ramayana to a wider global audience in her animation movie, ‘Sita sings the Blues’. The style of the narrative was very unique, in that she retold the story of Sita’s struggle during and after her life with Rama, by drawing parallels to her own marriage collapsing and the subsequent depression she had to live with. Paley took 5 years to complete this movie, which she did on her own laptop and allowed free legal downloads from the movie’s website, with the hopes that her talent would be noticed and she could carve out a new career for herself, which she seems to have successfully done.
9) The Balloon Boy Hoax
The Colorado Balloon Boy Hoax or Balloon Boy Hoax took place on October 15, 2009, when a six-year-old boy was wrongly believed to have floated away in a home-made balloon at altitudes reaching 7,000 feet, inviting world-wide attention. After an hour-long flight, the balloon landed about 19 km northeast of Denver International Airport. After the balloon landed, and the boy was found not to be inside, authorities began a manhunt of the entire area since it was reported that an object had detached from the balloon and fallen to the ground. Later the boy was revealed to have been hiding at his house the entire time. The parents are now facing legal action.
10) Savita Bhabhi banned by Indian Government
India’s first comic porn website, the very controversial Savita Bhabhi, was banned by the Indian Government earlier this year, labelling it adulterous and going against Indian values. The site, which depicts the sexual relationship between a woman and her brother-in-law, was ranked in the top 100 sites in India, but owing to the risqué context and content, this was taken down. Rumour has it that the movie rights have been bought and a movie on “The Life, Death and the After Life of Savita Bhabhi” is in the making. Its creator, Puneet Agarwal, who initially hadn’t revealed his identity, came out in protest when the site was banned.
Obama is a decent politician. One of few these days