Mobile Diner® where wireless and washington meet….

According to a Rasmussen report, Obama now leads McCain by one single point. The race is in a dead heat… Or is it?

Many are trying to find other ways of gauging the election, beyond reliance on traditional polls.

For instance, Tech Crunch recently did an interesting article based on research by Hitwise – comparing the number of people accessing Obama and McCain’s respective websites by state, attempting to infer which candidate is more popular via web hits.

Alternately, there are some (relatively unscientific) methods, such as this Yahoo News Poll, that states that pet owners could be the deciding factor in the election (they apparently revere McCain).

The search for alternate polling methods makes sense considering that traditional polls are completely unrepresentative – utilizing predominantly landlines to survey voters – and leaving out the increasing number of voting age adults with only cell phones. According to PEW Research, 14.5% of American adults (a majority of which are the 18-30 demographic) cannot be reached by land-line. I call this neglected group the Mobile Millennial, and I predict they will come out in droves in November. Continue Reading »

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Michael Phelps is my hero.

After cheering him on for 8 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, I feel entitled to a little something in return - his friendship on Facebook.  AND yes, we have a mutual Facebook friend, (actually a friend of a friend) so I think I might make the cut…

Unfortunately, I am one of several thousand desiring a brush with Olympic glory, in what Valleywag has termed “Phelpsmania.”

Phelps recently told Bob Costas of NBC that he has over 7,600 pending Facebook requests and will no longer accept new friends.

As of today, Phelps’s fan page has an astounding 1,012,704 members (at least his fan club accepted me!) and is the most popular exempting Barack Obama’s page (with 1.34 million followers). Additionally, there are 465 fan driven discussion boards covering a myriad of topics from Phelps’s ipod music preference to a transcription of an AIM chat with the Olympiad.

We millennials grew up being told that the world was our oyster and we could be anything. For those of us who fall short of Olympic aspirations, connecting with Michael Phelps is a little way of vicariously sharing some of his glory. I know Phelps would probably like to maintain some semblance of a private life and keep the usefulness of his Facebook page. However, that doesn’t bode well for my pending friend request!

In the absence of my own gold medal, I for one refuse to accept defeat. I think I will try to friend Nastia Liukin next.. I’ll keep you posted…

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The US Presidential race seems to be in a dead heat. Yesterday, a Rasmussen Poll showed McCain and Obama tied at 44%. I see many people (myself included) disparaged by these figures – how can two very different candidates fail to polarize the election? Will the indecision of 2000 rear its ugly head in the ‘08 election?

People are starting to talk about this and Chris recently had a Twitter exchange with Erik Schwartz over at Foneshow on this same topic.

Could these numbers reflect inaccurate projections by antiquated polling methods – rather than real public opinion?

Pollsters do not include cell phone numbers in any random digit dial surveys. According to Pew Research, 14.5% of eligible voters have a cell phone and no land line. These voters are also predominantly young voters – the projected demographic to come out in droves in November. 6.5 million voters under 30 participated in the ‘08 primaries and caucuses. Millennials (born between 1980 – 1994) are engaged like never before – but their voice is not being heard.

The inaccuracy of polling, by mobile exclusion, may mean the race is not as close as you might think.

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has reported on the “graying” of land line users. Accordingly, Public Opinion Quarterly reports that 40% of adults under 30 years will use ONLY cell phones by 2009. Land lines are not a way to reach a majority of the public, as they were in past elections.

The youth of America, who are increasingly adopting a mobile only lifestyle, are under-sampled in current polls. Generation Y might be the dark horse that changes the course of the ‘08 election and pollsters need to adapt their methodologies.

I’m interested to hear, how do YOU think that cell-only users will effect the outcome in November?

How do YOU think pollsters can remedy this problem without infringing on the rights of cell-users?

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I was excited to attend RIM’s “Taste of BlackBerry” event last night at the Hotel Palomar where, besides throwing a great party, they demonstrated cool new applications developed for their BlackBerry devices, including the upcoming BlackBerry Bold. As someone who is always keeping track of my many gadgets, I love learning about new technology that will allow me to pare them down.

Here are some of the highlights from the event:

• The guys from Unify4Life impressed me with their app that turns your BlackBerry into a universal remote. The program is intuitive and easy to setup, and it allows you to replace 5 remotes with your mobile device! You have to buy a $30 transmitter box for behind your TV, but this cost pales to paying a professional to sync up your entertainment system. On a related note, their application lets you control about anything – from lights to your garage door (this feature is in beta).

• MLB.com mobile version allows fans to receive real time updates for a favorite team or fantasy roster. With this program, Nats fans (like me) can get pitch by pitch game coverage and instant batting analysis. In addition to stats, you can get links to watch game highlights right after they happen.

• The creator of Viigo showed me his free application that allows instant access to your selected topics, such as political coverage, entertainment or blogs. This app is also very user friendly, I could see my mom using it and that says something…

It’s an exciting time in the wireless industry. Watching all of these innovations come to life on the BlackBerry is more evidence that this is tool for the office and at home!

dish disclosure – Research in Motion is a client…

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