Is MTV About To Make A TV Show About Sexting?

It seems like every day there's another story in the news about sexting (news search results). It now looks like MTV is going to turn the 18 to 25 demographic's fondness for sexting into a reality TV show:

 MTV News put out a casting call for "people who appear to be between the ages of 18-25 to share their stories" about the latest teen trend: sending text messages or e-mails with sexual images or provocative words.

The network's documentary arm is looking for people who have engaged in sexting, are worried that their private pictures have been disseminated to the masses, have had relationships ruined by sexting or are facing legal trouble from engaging in the activity.

According to a new Pew Research Center study, 15 percent of cellphone owners between 12 and 17 have received nude or partially nude photos on their phones, while four percent admitted to having sent the images themselves.

Read more @ The New York Post.

Detouring Around Inaugural Phone Jams

The threat of possible "phone jams" in DC was all over the news yesterday. Many papers had their own take on how to lessen dropped calls and texts, including the New York Times:

With about two million people expected at the inauguration Tuesday, attendees can expect cellphone traffic jams. When too many calls try to fit on limited bandwidth, calls and messages get dropped (more on that here). Some texts never make it to their destinations or make it hours – even weeks – late.

There are a few things you can do to assure that your inaugural moment makes it past jammed lines. These strategies are worth remembering for any large gathering, from 4th of July fireworks events to New Year’s Eve at Times Square.

Click here to read the strategies.

Omama's Text Messaging Guru - Part II

Read below for Part II of a long Q&A with Scott Goodstein, who ran all of the text-messaging and mobile communications for President-elect Barack Obama's campaign. In this section, we finally find out how large Obama's cell phone list is and find out the real story behind that 3am Joe Biden text.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

Part I was published in last Friday's blog post.

Obama's Text Messaging Guru Talks To LA Times

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name the nation’s first-ever federal chief technology officer sometime soon. According to Obama’s website, the role of the CTO will be to “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century.”

It’s not surprising that Obama plans a major emphasis on technology. His presidential campaign relied heavily on the latest forms of communication -– like Internet social networking sites and text-messaging -– to organize volunteers, raise funds and get voters to the polls.

Scott Goodstein, a D.C.-based campaign manager, ran all of the text-messaging and mobile communications for the president-elect's campaign. The Ticket recently talked to him in detail about the campaign’s new media strategy, the size of its phone book and that much-talked-about 3 a.m. text message. Click here for Part 1 of the interview.

Rock the Vote uses SMS to reach youth

Rock the Vote ran a mobile campaign that drove 80,000 unique visitors to the organization's WAP site, tapping 4Info to power the campaign. 4Info helped Rock the Vote reach teens with messages about the importance of making their voices heard.

4Info offered to run the campaign as a pro-bono effort because the company is passionate about encouraging young voters to participate in the voting process regardless of party affiliation, and [they] know that mobile is one of the best ways to reach that audience.

Broadplay Mobile Deliver Obama's Victory Speech via SMS

Broadplay, a Toronto-based digital marketing agency with a focus on mobile marketing, offers access to President-Elect Barack Obama's victory speech through text message.

Users in Canada can text "Obama" to the Shortcode 123411 and receive his historic victory speech to their cell phones via text message. The Broadplay platform makes it "easy as 123" to receive information through SMS to all enabled cell phones and PDAs. This platform gives users the freedom to access information without necessitating the purchase of a data plan. On a standard-rated message basis, users experience the cost-effectiveness, convenience and usefulness of mobile data.

Read more.