Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
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Last updated 12:32 p.m. HST on May 2, 2011. See end of post. Ryan Suenaga, “Hawai’i’s best known Apple II Geek and social worker.” A Blogger. A Twitter user and Facebook friend to many. He’s shared hundreds of personal stories, from his job as a social worker to his love...
Once again, social media played a key role in reporting and distributing information during a crisis. In the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan, communities around the Pacific Rim braced themselves for the inevitable tsunami waves. In Hawaii, the “#hitsunami” hashtag aggregated thousands of posts from news media,...
By most accounts, global carmaker Audi’s high-profile Twitter campaign was a success. Great press, thousands of Twitter mentions, $25,000 going to charity, and glowing quotes to put in a press release. But for some of us, it was a failure. Which is a pity, because it could’ve been something truly...
Honolulu designer John Garcia has been named one of ten finalists in a groundbreaking social media campaign by Audi. He moves onto Round 2, which kicks off on Monday, and with the help of the Hawaii social media community, he and his supporters could win $25,000 for charity. I was...
Hawaiian Airlines is launching its new service between Honolulu and Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. And I’ll be among the people aboard the inaugural flight, leaving shortly after noon today. I’ll be representing the geeky, social media contingent, along with Burt Lum (“digital ronin” and my Hawaii Public...
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...
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