Two years we highlighted the UK government’s decision to shun social media and opt for magazines and television in educating the young of Britain about the dangers of Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea and other sexual diseases. This decision flew in the face of research showing that most young people took advice about sexual matters from their peers (=social networks) rather than from information campaigns of any kind. The decision has had disastrous Continue reading →

It has long been rumoured that much of the success of the Bush campaign in 2000 and 2004 was down to their superior understanding of social networks. Now a chance remark (highlighted by Valdis Krebs) by Bush’s campaigning guru Karl Rove on Obama’s election campaign draws attention to this. Barack Obama’s manager admitted to the New York Times that he wanted an “army of persuasion” modeled explicitly on the massive Continue reading →

Budget airline Easyjet announce that load factors are up – that means they are selling more seats per plane than last year. Decoding this one gets the impression that the “recession” so far is pushing people to get better prices for discretionary spend items (like holidays) rather than making them cancel their plans. It is bad news for businesses selling high end products to those on a middling income (cf. Continue reading →

Brian Stelter profiles Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who has played a key part of generating the grassroots-up political support for Obama.

Microsoft has struggled to convince users of Vista’s superiority to XP. And there continues to be a demand for the old OS. As of 1st July Windows XP is officially no longer being shipped by PC suppliers, but Dell have announced on their small business blog an ingenious way of downgrading to XP Pro after buying Vista. Gamers can also access the “bonus downgrade” for a fee of between $20 Continue reading →