During this show, Michael Hackmer wraps up talking about the iPhone, discusses INCEPTION and some the latest movie blockbusters and Maryland’s decision to start regulating disclosure for campaigns using social networking sites.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Democrats have launched the “Accountability Project“, which is designed to use the power of the web to showcase embarrassing or “gotcha” audio and video of GOP candidates who speak in public forums.

Apparently impressed with the viral nature of Senator Allen’s infamous “Macaca” moment in 2006 that helped tilt a close VA senate race to Jim Webb and the Democrats, the DNC is encouraging Americans to upload audio and video of Republican candidates that embarrasses them or diminishes their stature in some way. The other aim is to challenge candidates in terms of what they say and hold candidates accountable if they do not tell the truth.

If they don’t tell the truth? When has a politician ever done that, eh?

The website also will feature schedules of various GOP candidates, as well as copies of their mailers. According to the DNC – this will help people keep an eye on their “shadowy tactics.”

But perhaps one of the most interesting features of this site is that users can download materials. So, while both the Democrats and Republicans will use video of their opponents to extract the misleading statements, the broken promises, insults and mind-numbing policy statements, the Accountability Project is really more of a campaign resource center – providing Democratic candidates and sympathetic political groups with access to opposition flyers, audio and video that they can download and form into attack ads of their own. For campaigns operating on shoe-string budgets, this site could be a God-send.

The ability to maximize every penny during a campaign is critical. But if you have citizens and political operatives uploading video and audio content for you, that is a time-consuming and costly expense you no longer have to shoulder – freeing up campaign coffers for get-out-the-vote initiatives and other projects.

While I personally am working to build the Reform Party in effort to improve the political discourse to the serious challenges we are facing today, I do recognize smart political strategy when I see it.

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It is a truly foreign concept to many of us here in the US, but in many countries throughout the world, the use of land mines is a serious issue.

Many terrorist organizations use land mines to kill and create chaos in whatever twisted campaign they are waging. The people who suffer are children and other civilians, many of whom are killed, or seriously injured – losing legs and other limbs. The physical and psychological torment of a country-side covered with mines is a major impediment to security and domestic peace.

One country that has grappled with the issue of combating land mines is Colombia. In fact, though Colombia has become increasingly secure, Colombia was second only to Afghanistan in the number of victims caused by antipersonnel mines in 2009.

But Colombia has made many strides at eliminating land or antipersonnel mines – many of which are laid by the leftist FARC. And recently, the Colombian military found and destroyed 775 antipersonnel mines, allegedly placed by the FARC or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

This latest triumph is not just a victory against FARC, but its a victory for the people of Colombia. It gives the people a chance at a better life.

As we go through our daily lives, we should recognize the hard-fought efforts of people all over the world who are fighting to provide greater safety and freedom.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On the advice of Micheal Mullen I decided to start exploring Empire Avenue, which is currently in beta.

Essentially, Empire Avenue is an influence stock exchange married to an advertising platform. The higher your level of influence, either as a person or an organization, the more you can convert your influence into advertising opportunities and gain revenue. At first thought, this almost like turning your personal or corporate brand into a commodity not unlike a television show. Your level of influence will end up being determined by the number of viewers or consumers of your content. Whether or not you garner “prime-time” advertising dollars will depend on your level of reach.

Empire Avenue believes that this kind of connection between advertisers, consumers and influencers has not yet been realized online. In some ways, it seems like the system is valuing reputation based on the feeds you claim are your own and the number of people who view those feeds and value you on the stock exchange. An interesting concept to say the least. It commoditizes social media output.

Of course, this does not necessarily mean that your content is of any tangible value in the real world (what’s that, right?). A lot will depend on the audience in the marketplace and what “they” believe is of value and what is not of value. When the system opens up, a tech-savvy group of initial traders could help to keep the content meaningful, ala, “no Justin Bieber tweets, please.” But if the market trading influence on Empire is too tech-centric, it could end up limiting the market entirely and stunt its growth and value for advertisers.

Advertisers want to reach the most amount of people possible, therefore, they are going to want a diverse exchange – and tap into a wide array of content providers / influencers and their audiences.

It will be interesting to monitor this platform as it emerges from BETA and launches. With so many media platforms emerging and more and more people becoming media platforms in and of themselves, the importance of expanding your personal brand, maximizing your reach and interacting with others is just another professional necessity. Using the marketplace to assign a “monetary value” to your image – could be a very effective tool to solidify your professional worth.

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