In conjunction with the paper, I will be moderating a live panel discussion this morning, Tuesday, February 24 at 9 AM EST at The Madison, 1177 15th Streeet, NW in Washington, DC. The event will also be available via live webcast.

The panel will focus on the online regulatory issues currently facing the healthcare industry, as well as the advances and the promise of Government 2.0. Participants include:

• Mark Gaydos, Sanofi-Aventis US Regulatory Affairs Marketed Products, Senior Director
• Sanjay J. Koyani, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Director, FDA Web Communications
• Christina Pearson, former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
• Jenny Moede, Waggener Edstrom, Healthcare
• David Almacy, Waggener Edstrom, Studio D (Moderator)

From the release:

Following the unprecedented use of social media throughout President Obama’s campaign, the new administration will bring a fresh perspective to digital regulations for healthcare. Companies will need to become educated on how new regulatory policies will affect their online communications. As the administration and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begin to review existing policy and move to create new guidelines, now is the time for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to learn how to effectively engage their audiences online to stay ahead of the competition.

Those who are watching online and may wish to ask a question may do so via Twitter by using the hashtag: #wehealth. Looking forward to great event!

UPDATE

Watch on demand video of the panel discussion.

Download the PDF of the Waggener Edstrom digital healthcare whitepaper.

This cycle, it seems that the former veep has gone from counting chads to tracking tweets via the global TV network Current, which he owns with business partner Joel Hyatt. Current has been on the air since 2005 and provides a variety of short programs, or “pods,” created by users called VC2 producers, as well as longer programs produced by the network.

This month, for the series of Presidential debates, Current TV teamed up with Twitter (despite Gore’s lack of a Twitter account), to create “Hack the Debate,” perhaps the first real attempt at interactive TV (something I’ve been promised since MTV launched in ’81).

Here’s how it works: As you watch the debate on Current TV, you see a real-time Twitter feed on the bottom third of the screen. Anyone can participate simply by “tweeting” with the correct tag (#current). As new “tweets” roll in, the others fade out and disappear.

Not to be left out of the mix, NPR announced its own Twitter debate tag (#factcheck). People were asked to use the tag to report inaccuracies in the pundits’ answers and to offer a link to an original source with the correct information. The American people had access to the truth a moment later.

These two examples raise an interesting shift in journalism, media consumption, influence and engagement. The traditional lines were totally blurred here. Although TiVo and I tracked the debate on television (can’t live without pause and rewind) and I listened to a traditional journalist pose the questions, I watched the debate primarily online, where I was more ENGAGED, CONTRIBUTED to the conversation and even found myself INFLUENCED by information from OTHER VIEWERS – not the traditional peddlers.

Here are some other interesting uses of Twitter that I’ve noted during this election season:

• Twitter launched http://election.twitter.com, which is specifically designed to aggregate tweets about politics, Campaign 2008 and the four main candidates.
• C-SPAN launched Debate Hub (http://debatehub.c-span.org), complete with a Twitter roundup, a blog aggregator, and searchable AND editable video clips. C-SPAN has also been quite interactive with viewers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/cspan) by proactively engaging and thanking them for tweeting, blogging or embedding its content.
• In advance of Gov. Palin’s visit to Los Angeles last weekend, the California Democratic Party asked people to send her questions via Twitter. Those who used the words “Ask Sarah Palin” in their tweets may have found their questions displayed on a roadside electronic billboard that the party set up in L.A. They also used Ustream.TV to Webcast live video of the billboard on their site, www.cadem.org.

I must admit that some of this activity resulted in a bit of information overload. However, it actually made the debates – dare I say it – fun! So, as next Wednesday’s debate between Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama gets underway, don’t just sit down in front of the television. Fire up your laptop and join in the conversation. Oh, and a warning to those who follow me on Twitter: turn device updates “off” – I plan to tweet at a furious pace!

David Almacy (@almacy) is vice president of Waggener Edstrom‘s Studio D group.  Ian Benson (@imb3), digital experience producer for WE Studio D, also contributed to this post which originally appeared on WE’s Studio D blog.

Update: Former Vice President Gore launched a Twitter account (@algore) on November 6, 2008 with just over 23,000 followers as of January 2, 2009. However, he’s only following one (@current, of course) and just nine tweets to date.

Kaushik’s blog, Occam’s Razor, is a must read for anyone looking to crack the Web analytics nut. After all, it’s all about metrics, right? In fact, I hear this ALL the time: “Dave, I get the Web, but I can’t seem to sell it to those above me. All they care about is the return on investment (ROI).”

I agree. Some things are fairly quantifiable like traffic referrals, page views, media download numbers, and blog rankings. However, other things aren’t as easily measurable such as specific actions that may result from those who read a blog post, watch a YouTube video or join a Facebook group.

Kaushik is currently traveling and sharing some of his latest thoughts. At a recent stop last week in Columbus, Ohio, Kaushik spoke with roughly 200 including marketing execs from Procter & Gamble, Victoria’s Secret, Coca-Cola and Timberland. Advertising Age covered his remarks and ran this piece, Google’s ‘Analytics Evangelist’ Explains Why Websites ‘Suck’.

(As a side, ironically, the article is no longer available on the AdAge site. A quick search for it yielded several results of those who posted on it such as Joe Marchese, Shel Holtz, and HotelMarketing.com - and they all link back to the original AdAge article page.  So much for analytics here!  Good thing I made a hard copy because I wanted to share it on Tuesday night with the students in my class.  For you younger readers, confused by what a “hard copy” might be, I suggest you check out Wikipedia.)

During his comments, Kaushik explained that the reason why so many Websites “suck” is because of ”Hippos” or the ”Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.”  Hippos may see something they like online or read about the latest Internet trend in the Wall Street Journal and then jump to a “Hey, we need that!” approach without considering site goals or purpose. 

Instead, Kaushik suggests that when developing sites, marketers should get away from the “what” and focus more on the “why.” One way is to engage consumers and assess their needs via brief online surveys.  He recommends asking questions such as:  Who is coming to your website? Why are they there? How are you doing? What do you need to fix?

This is right on. We often ask clients, “What is the business challenge you are trying to solve?” Once that’s determined, we can identify the best digital strategy to employ in an effort to tackle it. When the obstacles are clearly defined, then the solutions are the ultimate measure of success!