As Americans head to the polls today, I am struck by something that I think is pretty profound. For the first time, the Internet is really changing the way this election day is unfolding. Not just for Americans, but for everyone.

Sitting up here in the Great White North, I often wonder why the U.S. elections are such a big deal to non-Americans. Well, people say that the U.S. President is the most powerful man on the planet. I guess that is a compelling reason. As one of the closest neighbours, what happens down there definitely affects what goes on up here. In the past, I remember tuning in to CNN on the night of the election to hear the results. Sometimes, if I got tired of the rhetoric, I’d turn over to the CBC to get the Canadian perspective. That pretty much summed up my consumption of election coverage.

Now, the Conversation Age is upon us…and this changes everything. Here’s why:

You’re all Reporters Now. Christopher Penn of Marketing over Coffee and the Financial Aid Podcast is live on location this morning at his local polling station taking photos with his “nikon and flash”. Someone asked him if he was a reporter. I’m not sure what he said in reply, but I definitely would have said yes! His photo report is online at his blog here. What Chris is providing is a real live account of people’s experience, with no spin, no rhetoric, and no flashy advertisements. He’s capturing a moment and sharing it with the world. And we’re lapping it up. Beats the hell out of CNN, if you ask me. If you see Chris today, buy him a coffee. Or six. He’s working hard to get the real story to you. 

The Body of Influence has Changed. People are influenced by many factors when it comes to deciding who to vote for. Number one is probably the media, only because they are the loudest. Unfortunately with current media biases in the major news networks, this becomes an ineffective way to get the whole truth. Secondary is by listening to the candidates themselves, which can be equally confusing once the spin doctors do their work. Third, we listen to the people around us. We have discussions at family dinners, in coffee shops, over the water cooler…and we learn from others what the issues are and are influenced one direction or another. Well, people, the space around the water cooler is a lot bigger now. Even if you have never used Twitter before, go to Twitter Search (you don’t need an account) and type “vote”, or “Obama”, or “McCain” in the search field. There’s your body of influence now. 

It’s Gone Global. I know some people will be out of sorts with this one. The world does NOT have the right to vote for the U.S. President, obviously. Some would say that it’s inappropriate to even ask this question. After all, do I really want to know or even really care what people on other countries decide? If this was done for Canadian elections, I might say, “It’s my country, my leader, my choice”. But three guys in Iceland decided to ask the question anyway and set up the site “If the world could vote?“. As far as game changers go, this one is by far the most profound in my opinion. Not because it gives people in other countries a voice. But because it allows a snapshot of public opinion in the blink of an eye. This tool allows people from all over the whole world to voice their opinion. Forget the U.S. elections. Imagine the applications of this kind of tool. And the implications.  

Well, that’s my take on the transformation that’s happening around us. It remains to be seen if the influence of the Internet will really have an impact at the end of the day on who gets into power. But one thing I do know – it’s definitely going to be an interesting ride from here on in.

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Back in the late 1990′s, I was working for a gigantic telecommunications company in Canada. “Convergence” was the buzzword of the moment, and the company was on the bleeding edge of converging cable, Internet and telephony into one big pipe. At the time, the average person didn’t really understand what this meant. Now, 12 years later, convergence is here. There are still many regulatory issues to work out, but the technical challenges have pretty much been addressed. The pipe is now big enough to carry all the information we could ever need, in whatever format we need it. 

However, it’s one thing to jam everything in the pipe. It’s entirely another to get people to figure out how to work with all of it. 

There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere lately about the line where citizen journalism ends and traditional media begins. Christopher Penn is talking about it.  Mizz Information is talking about it. I’m not really talking about citizen journalism here, though. (Or am I?)

It used to be that mainstream media (radio and television) largely ignored what was going on in cyberspace. Though they might have been searching through other mass media web sites to find information, they were not really spending much time, or putting much effort into what was happening in the blog or social media space. However, I’ve noticed a shift in this lately. The most popular example of this is CNN’s use of Twitter. Rick Sanchez and a whole host of other journalists are using it as a source of information now. Susan Ormiston of the CBC has “Ormiston Online” where she is “trolling the blogs, Twitter and YouTube” for information about the Canadian elections.

Additionally, if a radio or TV show producer wants to have an expert on to talk about Square Dancing in Orleans, Ontario, they are more likely to find that expert by doing a Google Blog Search than anything else. 

What is happening here is really another form of convergence. It’s convergence of content. The lines are quickly becoming blurred as to who is creating content. If my Dad (see Square Dancing above) can create a blog with quality content that appeals to a certain audience, then isn’t he ulitmately doing what mainstream television and radio has been doing for years? More and more often these days, mainstream media is going to the Web to get their information. They are still creating their own content, but the foundation seems to more and more be coming from the online creators. 

Much like the regulatory mess that technological convergence created, this convergence of content is creating some other interesting debates. Where does citizen journalism end and mainstream journalism begin? What are the risks of “everyman” now being the “man on the street”? And, if the media is using my content ( e.g. when Rick Sanchez or Susan Ormiston uses my Tweets on air), should I be compensated? 

Your turn…

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I have to admit, I like Donald Trump. Sure, he’s arrogant. But his understanding of business and how to make money is phenomenal. He’s truly one of the best.

Here’s the thing; the secret to Trump’s millions is not some magic secret that the rest of us aren’t privy to. He thinks like a rich person. It’s that simple. Thinking like a rich person isn’t really that difficult. Here’s how I see it:

See Opportunity in Everything
The Donald was just on CNN talking about the financial crisis that is occurring around the world right now. Larry King asked for Trump’s advice to the “average American family” in weathering the storm. Without pausing, Trump said “Now is the absolute BEST time to buy a house.” Now, this may seem counterintuitive, in a country that is reposessing more houses than it is selling. But, he is absolutely right. As Trump says, the banks now own all of these houses they don’t want. Now is the time, if you have the means, to get a REALLY good deal on a house. The banks want to offload these places to people who can afford them, and they will do it for cheap, and they will definitely finance you to do it, because they already have the money! 

The point is, when everyone else is talking about what they can’t do financially, rich people are talking about what they CAN do. See beyond the crisis, and find your own opportunities to succeed.

Focus on the Solutions, Not the Problem
The reason Trump is so rich is because he is a really exceptional problem solver. He spends his days meeting with people, talking on the phone, and flying around the world making deals. His job, every day, is to identify problems and then come up with solutions. He thinks, “How am I going to buy this company?” then he reasons, “By selling this this and this”. He thinks, “How am I going to survive this financial crisis?” then he reasons, “By keeping my money in gold and oil.” Problem solving. It’s how real businesses survive long term. It’s how rich people do business. And, it’s how you can really start to succeed. 

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Rich people are rich because they see the whole picture, all the time. They don’t get caught up in details, petty arguments, and they definitely don’t have time for people who waste their time. Sure, they can still be friendly and polite (well, maybe not in Trump’s case :-), but they always have a mission – to do what they need to do to grow their business and turn a profit. And that means staying out of the weeds. How to do that? Delegate. Eliminate unnecessary communications. Delegate. And then delegate some more. 

I’m not professing to be the resident expert on becoming rich. But I do believe that with the right attitude, anyone is capable of achieving whatever success they set out to achieve. That could be wealth, it could be fame and popularity, or it could be to carve out a nice, comfortable existence for you and your family. Whatever your motivation, it’s what you make of the situations that occur in your life (even those that are out of your control) which will ultimately determine the outcome. 

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A 4.0 earthquake rattled the San Francisco area last night. I was up late, hanging out on Twitter when it happened. I follow many people on Twitter from the San Fran area, so the sudden influx of earthquake-related tweets was at once fascinating and a bit disconcerting.

Fortunately, it was a minor quake and there doesn’t appear to be any reports of injuries or damage. Having lived through many a quake myself (I lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands, where a fault very similar to California’s San Andreas Fault exists), I can definitely relate to the jolt that even a minor quake like this sends through you.

At the time of the quake, I jokingly tweeted “San Fran earthquake on Twitter. You heard it here first, folks! Where is CNN?” Much to my surprise, I received this response from @flourish:

@flourish is Trish Higgins, and she’s a Producer at CNN. It’s the first time I’ve ever asked “Where’s CNN?” and CNN actually answered me!

This past weekend, sitting in a hotel in Indianapolis, I was watching with great interest the coverage of Hurricane Gustav on CNN. Frequently, they would throw to a reporter, sitting at a desk, reading through piles of..you guessed it…Twitter posts, from people in the hurricane zone.

This is it, people. It doesn’t get any more live and on location than those people who are living it at that second. CNN knows this, and is seizing the opportunity in a big way. The immediacy of micro-blogging has great power. You can dispatch all the camera crews in the world, but none of them are going to be able to get the reaction of someone sitting in their chair AS an earthquake happens. Twitter, on the other hand, has the power to do this.

This is the new news gathering. The world is changing before our eyes, in 140 characters or less.

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