furtherandfaster

Barack Obama at 100 days - true to archetype?

 Now he's achieved his first 100 days as president it might be interesting to review Obama's archetype again. Is he all he promised to be? Dr Janis Wilson runs a consultancy around archtypes. Here's here take on Obama. Visit archetypology.net to find out more about her work. Here's an archetypal profile which Janis sent me at the time Obama was inaugurated as president. Download Barack Obama - An Archetypal Brand Success

Obama and Google

Thanks to Jon Howard for twittering this piece from the Google blog  yesterday - tracking how Google is used - this is the pattern of related word searches during the time of the inauguration which shows how audiences while viewing searched for more information about the individuals involved.

It can also be used to size the audience because of the overall drop in Google searching giving an indication of traffic. A lovely glimpse into how data can be used to tell stories.

great meeting

On reflection I thought the inauguration ceremony was a great meeting. I suppose it was a ceremony rather than a meeting because no decisions needed to be made or (we hope) had been made earlier! But it moved briskly, it felt informal - it was brilliant television which made you feel as if you were right alongside those on the platform who were mostly looking very relaxes and interacting with each other.  Everything said was spoken well and clearly and to my mind used plain language.  I wasn't aware that US government did God in public - I thought he was the elephant in the room - and the elephant got addressed twice.

It contrasts with the last time we had a change of power in the UK. After an undignified struggle behind closed doors with wild uninformed speculation in the press, an unelected man shrugs off the other wannabes and goes to tea with the Queen. A few days later she comes into Parliment to say what he has told her to say.  I think our American friends did it rather better. And in a way all of us could understand and appreciate. And they were quick about it. Good meeting.

Obama who else?

Spent a happy late afternoon watching the inaugural - the first time I had ever bothered to do so. Fabulous.  Also a first since I was twittering at the same time - funny to think that when the Dubbya got in last time that this wouldn't have been possible. So lovely to be picking up on the various voices. And the Herdmeister - got to the wordle of Obama's inaugural speech. And then it was about checking out the fresh changes to the white house website as the changing of the guard has taken place.

But then I got to thinking about a president with an 80% approval rating - in Europe we have been so Obama friendly I really haven't taken any time to listen to the detractors. And found this gem of a site which is a reminder that there is always an alternative point of view and that the paranoid are still with us (and have guns). Its weird to move from an inspirational speech and a new inclusive administration to Barack Obama the Antichrist - where all the calls for unity and the nationalising of banks are of course a scurrilous plan to deliver us into the jaws of hell. We even have Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy - lieutenants of Satan calling us for a new world order. And no less a figure than Jacky Mason is warning us that more people are worshipping Obama than God. I'd love to offer this as brilliant satire but the author of this really is as mad as a hat. I must go - the hounds of hell have locked into my iphone and can track me down. Why would Government agents need to plant RFID tags under my skin - when they already have Steve Jobs doing the surveillance for them?