Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Thumbtack Obsession


I am still obsessing about this little gizmo.

So, imagine that you have a strike. Hand out a few dozen of these things to picketers with iPods and Hey! Presto!: instant strike podcast with interviews and feedback from the lines.

Or do what CGIL did, and send out a few folks, each with a small bag of these (and at $13US minus the bulk discount you can afford to). They hand them out like candy to people with iPods in view at a demo or march, along with a card encouraging them to record their thoughts and those of their co-demonstrators and activists, then send them along to a specified e-mail address.

Instant audio record of the demo, some useful campaign material perhaps, and just as importantly, a broader, deeper bit of feedback than you'll normally get from such.

5 comments:

John said...

But what's a poor Mac hater like me to do? Anyway, at least the Thumbtacks might not be as anti-worker as the iPods themselves:

http://goodelectronics.org/news-en/protest-against-apple-computer-taiwan/

http://www.allbusiness.com/professional-scientific/computer-systems-design/3921510-1.html

People in glass houses though - I'm also still obsessing about my new toy, the iPhone killing HTC TouchHD, which is an amazing tool for mobile activists - I've used it to tweet and twitpic live from events with the ceTwit app, and blog/comment on the move, as well as features like satnav, RSS client, video, office apps, media players and voice recorder (with a built in mic, natch).

Derek Blackadder said...
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Derek Blackadder said...

I may try testing it with other MP3 players (though I expect most are made on the same assembly line as my iPod).

The key here is the cost of this thing. At that price you can hand them out like candy. One of the participants in a workshop I did last week at the annual Canadian association of Labour Media conference is already looking into a bulk buy.

It'll be interesting to see what a couple of hundred cost on a unit basis and what kind of response he gets if he hands them out looking to turn a pile of members into podcast contributors.

John said...

very true. on a cheap-date tech tip, I've been impressed with my recent playing about with this: http://www.theflip.com/

Not as low a price as the thumbtack natch, but an all in one piece of kit that shoots 'good-enough' video and has the USB connector and simple editing/upload software all built in, so you can file from any computer.

A couple of dozen of those to key activists might also spark something good off.

Derek Blackadder said...

What's the retail price on that? Here I've seen similar for $120CAD. Not exactly something you hand out like candy, as you say, but pretty cheap nonetheless.