Commentary

He May Not Have Invented The Internet, But Al Gore Has A New Algorithm That Could Change The Way You Use It

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, February 28, 2013

Fresh off his centimillion dollar deal to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera, Al Gore once again turning his attention to the Internet. And once again, it's to help educate people about climate change. The effort, dubbed "Reality Drop," incorporate online social media, a "news-driven digital platform" and a "sophisticated algorithm" intended to reinvigorate the global debate surrounding climate change.

The platform, which was developed by Havas' Arnold Worldwide unit, feeds real-time coverage of climate stories throughout the day, attaches them to "climate myths," which are then organized by a “heat” algorithm.

“'Reality Drop'”gives players the tools to push back against misinformation by engaging climate change deniers in debates in the comment threads of the articles themselves, or spread the word and activate their social networks," the agency said in a statement announcing the game-like platform.

“When we sat down with Al Gore to talk about ways to move the climate change conversation forward, media coverage had declined sharply over the past three years,” stated Pete Favat, managing partner and Chief Creative Officer at Arnold. "We had to custom-design a strategy that wouldn’t just find the right people passionate about this topic, but also make it easy for them to speak up and take part in real-time discussions that work in our digital culture. Traditional advertising just can’t do that.”

"Reality Drop" players begin as “rookies” and earn points when they participate in and respond to online conversations about climate change. Re-tweets, shares, likes and comments earn users points that unlock new levels, improve rank and win badges, such as “Carbon Crusher,” “Shining Beacon” and “Order of the Green Circle.” By sharing with their social networks, participants move up the ranks, and if they are good at “dropping reality”, could ultimately become a “Chief.” But definitely not a commander-in-chief.

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4 comments about "He May Not Have Invented The Internet, But Al Gore Has A New Algorithm That Could Change The Way You Use It".

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Randy Kirk from Randy Kirk & Associates, February 28, 2013 at 6:29 p.m.
If and when the climate gets warmer, folks will start to pay attention again. .8 degrees in 120 years is not much of a radical change. Hard to convince anyone with a brain to get excited about global warming when that is the total extent of the change. Now, you have to convince the unwashed that this pattern is going to be ongoing. Except it has now stalled. Hmmm. I'm in marketing for 40+ years. I wouldn't want the job.
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Pete Austin from Fresh Relevance, March 1, 2013 at 4:38 a.m.

If you want people to take you seriously, don't start with a lie. Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet. Status: False. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Robin Haftiz from Open Mind Strategy, LLC, March 1, 2013 at 3:48 p.m.

A little warmer = a whole lot more extreme weather. It doesn't even take a brain to get 'excited' about flooding, drought, and storms.

Alex Lekas from PTI Security, March 1, 2013 at 7:48 p.m.

we could just try being honest about Al and admit out loud that he is as interested in money as all those folks he claims are evil. Perhaps for his next trick, he can some causation between man and climate because, right now, the science doesn't even show correlation.