Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
Hawaii voters approved the change from an elected board last year, but it will take legislative action to determine how the new system will work. On Friday, Sen. Jill Tokuda, chair of the Senate Education Committee, is hosting a “Twitter Town Hall,” or “Twitterview.” She’ll be taking comments and answering...
Ryan Higa, a Waiakea High School graduate now attending film school at UNLV, is the first person to hit 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Higa’s “Nigahiga” channel crossed the threshold yesterday well ahead of fellow YouTube stars Ray William Johnson and Shane Dawson. Notably, channels for individuals largely outpaced companies,...
The race for Hawaii governor between Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona has been a contentious one. A stream of dueling press releases has dominated the headlines, political ads have blanketed the airwaves, and hordes of signwavers have lined nearly every street. But...
To island democratic voters, “Abercrombie & Schatz” sounds like the ticket to a brighter future for Hawaii. But for many people, “Abercrombie & Schatz” also sounds like a clothing line. On Saturday night, as it became obvious that former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie was going to trounce former Honolulu mayor...
Hawaii’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Daniel Akaka, have less than stellar “Digital I.Q.” scores, according to a new study by researchers at George Washington University and New York University. “Digital I.Q.” was defined as “an individual’s online competence including his or her presence on...
On Saturday morning, I cracked a tooth. Having not seen a dentist in over a decade, and having shunned the dental profession most of my life, I had no idea what to do. Being the hapless nerd I am, I immediately tweeted about it. Fortunately, I received a flood of...
The “Breath of Life” blew out a big candle last night. One year ago, the Polynesian Cultural Center unveiled its new evening show, “Hā: Breath of Life.” The ambitious, 90-minute production took three years and $3 million to prepare. And by all accounts, it was worth it. The show staged...
If you build it, will they come? Today, the technology needed to create an online social network can be found anywhere, but filling it with an active, loyal community still takes something special. Tomorrow, I’m honored to say I’ll be moderating a conversation about “Community Engagement on the Web.” We’ll...
Local businesses that want to better understand the benefits and potential risks of social media now have two new resources available to them. Companies that need a basic primer can now turn to a new guide released last week by a Honolulu staffing firm. And those who’d like to explore...
“Where are you?” is the next “What are you doing?” Twitter has built a game-changing tool based on the latter question, launching the era of the “statusphere” and the “real-time web.” But when it comes to predicting paradigm shifts, my money is on ubiquitous (and perhaps unavoidable) geolocation. It’s literally...
Tourism in Hawaii, like tourism worldwide, is down. The mainstream media is fading. Meanwhile, social networking and social media are on the rise, and people are looking for fresh voices and hungry for different experiences. As I reported last week, the Hawaii Tourism Authority launched the “So Much More Hawaii”...
A group of bloggers and vloggers will be touring Hawaii next week as part of a “social media tour,” as local visitor industry officials reach beyond the mainstream to spread the word about Hawaii travel. It’s been dubbed the “So Much More Hawaii” tour, and it will include visits to...
From the heady, shaky days of Howard Dean to the triumphant ascent of Pres. Barack Obama, there’s no question that the web is a vital tool for organizing and fundraising. Social networks have turned the grassroots into netroots. If you’re running for office today, you need to have “presence.” You...
Hawaii Rep. Neil Abercrombie is hoping to move from Washington D.C. to Washington Place in Honolulu, today making official his long-anticipated run for governor. True, it was the worst-kept secret in local politics (I blogged it as a sure-thing in November, and I was late then!), and every media outlet...
The Honolulu Twestival was yesterday. I was one of the organizers. It figures that after I implored everyone to help publicize it, the event is over by the time I mention it for the first time here. But where I fell short, many others excelled, and the evening was a...
Blogs.com is built to showcase “the best in blogs,” and the wonderful folks at Six Apart (who are also behind TypePad and Movable Type) have been building a fantastic collection of reviews and links. One of their key features are “Top Ten Lists,” which have been compiled by dozens of...
The Hawaii Science & Technology Council will present “Web 2.0: Local Internet Ventures with Global Reach” on Friday, Dec. 12. Representatives from three local web companies will talk about their entries into the social media space: Rob Farrow from Chi.mp, an online identity management platform. Lorenz Sell from Blue Lava...
Manoa Geeks — the Web 2.0 inspired social geek gathering I now help organize — is upon us! Come on down Thursday evening to Thirtyninehotel in Chinatown to talkstory and catch up with what’s going on in Hawaii’s vibrant tech scene. There’ll be food, drink, and lots of cool stories...
PodCamp & WordCamp Hawaii kicks off tomorrow at the Hawaii Convention Center, which will make the next two days utter nirvana (or, perhaps, “nerdvana”) for geeks and geeks in the making. New media and the social web will be explored and discussed in a free event that welcomes everyone — from the evangelists to...
Honolulu is the nation’s fifth largest “blogging market,” according to the results of a survey released today (PDF) by the consumer shopping experts at Scarborough Research. The firm says 12 percent of adult Oahu residents are bloggers, which they defined as adults who have “read or contributed to a blog...
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