Google notes that of the people who failed to vote in the last presidential elections, 10 percent said the reason was that they did not know where to cast their ballots. Now, thanks to the wisdom and foresight of Google, there are no more excuses. Think back to 2000 and even 2004, now think about how much the Web is having an impact not only on the presidential election, but in our knowledge of the candidates, the issues and the controversies.

Here’s the quick tutorial Google provides for using Google Vote:

watch?v=QUn0hMIMy5M

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Image via Wikipedia

Imagine my surprise and delight this morning, when the feed that tells me where my blog users come from read: “Kenya.”

Since I’ve had this blog, I have never had a reader from the continent of Africa, much less from Kenya. I’ve been watching my Google Analytics map closely, and I feel so grateful and amazed when I see hits from Europe, India, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea. (I even had to look up a couple of countries.) But for a long time now, the one continent that’s remained dark on my Analytics map has been Africa. Until today.

Coincidentally, I read Webomatik this afternoon, and learned that although Africa is the second largest continent in the world by population, only 5.3% of Africans use the Internet. In contrast, 73 percent of North America’s population uses the Internet.

The good news is that Africa has experienced one of the largest growths in Internet use between 2000 and 2008 — a huge 1,000 percent — and today more than 51 million people are using the Internet in on that continent, according to Internet World Stats.

Still, use of the Web in Africa, a continent of 955 million people, accounts for only 3.5 percent of the world’s Internet use.

Makes you think. Meanwhile, an appreciative shout out to Kenya.

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A lesson for your classes this week — the power of the Internet during a crisis or catastrophe.  The latest example of how the Web joins in to get vital information out is the Gustav Information Center, a wiki created on Ning by Andy Carvin. This wiki, which I joined (see my widget at the bottom of my sidebar), is providing news updates, weather maps, photos, forums and videos. Teams of people are working on getting the word out to families, pet owners and others on a minute-by-minute basis.

It would be a great class lesson to examine the online efforts of individuals and groups to get the message out instantaneously during events like hurricanes, tornados, natural disasters or large-scale violence.

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I’ve signed up to participate in the Bloggers Unite initiative on Nov. 10. This worldwide initiative will benefit Refugees United with information, which leads to empowerment.

Refugees United is a non-profit organization that helps refugees relocate family and friends through the use of the internet. It provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family members. By registering with nicknames, scars, former locations and other markers only identifiable to family and close friends, everyone can remain ‘invisible’ to all but their relatives.

The Refugees United search engine is the first of its kind. Visit Refugees United to see how it works and to learn more about the work that Refugees United is doing. You can also read the Refugees United blog.

Here’s what Bloggers Unite says about this effort:

It is very difficult to reach refugees in remote areas. By advancing the power of blogs, bloggers are effectively placed in a position to fulfill a job that could not be done without the power of the internet and the skills that bloggers possess to quickly and effectively raise the necessary awareness and aid about critical social causes. We hope you will join us, as together we harness the expression of the blogosphere to reunite family members who have been separated from each other.

Bloggers who participate will blog about any refugee issue to help shed light on the plight of refugees and the hardships they endure around the world. If you have a blog, join the effort.

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OK, so Peter Shankman is a handsome New Yorker with a pretty interesting blog. He writes a lot about keeping in shape, so that’s cool.

But wait — Shankman has a website, helpareporter.com. Not helpareportergethisfactsstraight.com, not helpareporterwriteasentence.com, not helpareporterwithgrammar.com, and not helpareporterfindajob.com. Now there’s an idea.

No, Shankman’s site permits PR folks (and the general public, I guess) to sign up as potential “sources” reporters can query. If you sign up, you get daily emails from Shankman, who does you the big favor of sending reporter queries your way, in case you can provide sources, names, phone numbers, ideas. I guess Shankman’s playing the buff middle man between the Great Fourth Estate and the unwashed masses of PR people. His website also warns us (because God knows we’re so out of control) not to spam reporters with unrelated, baseless attempts to get our “clients” some air time or two inches in the Business section.

Here’s my question — where’s helpaPRperson.com? I dunno, but it seems to me (I “represent” public school districts in New York) that PR people need a lot more help than journalists. I’m always wondering what’s happened to the press and where they’re all hiding. I’m always searching for a warm body with the least bit of interest in education stories. As a former journalist, I know a decent story idea when I see one or pitch one. But there’s never a reporter in sight, at least not in my neck of the woods. What’s a PR person to do? Start a blog? An ENewsletter? Use the Web to manage his own message? Now there’s an idea.

BTW — if you want to helpaPRperson, you know where to find me.

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They’re starting out immediately with an online membership poll — see the right-hand column on the home page. It’s a smart, forward-thinking move that is likely to encourage and perhaps re-ignite participation and collaboration.

Image via Wikipedia

I just recently learned that I will be presenting a Gold Mine session at the National School Public Relations Association conference in Washington, D.C., titled “School PR and Social Media,” without web access in the meeting room. Yikes!

Apparently, NSPRA’s being asked to pay huge prices for use of the Internet at the hotel, particularly in its large meeting rooms. That’s not very nice — and we all thought the Internet was for everyone. In addition, because it’s a big hotel, the only way you can pick up wireless from a meeting room is by perhaps doing your entire presentation with your laptop by the window.

Oh well. This will be interesting — a presentation about using social media without Internet access. Screenshots, here we come!

Take a look at my eHow article, which provides you with step-by-step instructions.