How will President Obama keep Americans engaged?

[Pat Coyle]

The crowds and cameras are gone. The tuxedos and dresses tucked away. If history is any indication, many Americans will begin to focus more on their own lives, and less on others; but our new leader's message of hope hinges on our participation, not just our agreement.

So how will President Obama keep America engaged and focused on the "common good," and not drift back to our own special interests?

What strategies do you think he could employ in order to keep Americans not just believing in "change," but actively participating in making change?

And is there anything you are planning to do to make sure you participate in the process today, tomorrow and over the long term?

What can Smaller Indiana do to be part of the continuing solution?

Please share your thoughts here, or better yet, suggest some actions?

[David Monroe]

#Indiana has my vote because #Indy will get Indiana Jones and Independent films traffic. #Hoosiers will get the movie, the team, generic topics, etc.

Go #Indiana! (or whatever Amy chooses)

[Amy Stark]

#indiana is awfully long, isn't it? and the more letters involved the higher chance of the dreaded fat fingers.

How about a THREE letter acronym... that way it may pique someone's interest and they will ask, "What does that stand for?" A few nights ago #BSG kept showing up in my tweet stream. I was going to ignore it until I saw @davidinindy tweet something like, "Uh oh... I better leave now that the BSGs are here." Of course that piqued my interest, so I tweeted innocently, what is #BSG?

Three word something that ends up with a groovy acronym that no one has taken yet.

I'm still working on it. I only chatted about it now because Pat posted the initial blog.

[Jason Bean]

A couple of ideas perhaps?

#NewIN
#TechIN

[David Monroe]

#BSG was of course Battlestar Gallactica. It was beginning it's 4.5 season premier and since I don't have cable TV, I watch it online the next day and didn't want to be spoiled. :) So I did duck down into my Twitter-hole because I saw the tag.

#IND? It's the old mail prefix for Indiana? Tweet your peeps and get choices or create a Twitter poll for the finalists.

[Jason Bean]

IND is also the 3-letter airport code for Indianapolis, so wasn't sure if there might be confusion there. Also, if we want to move forward, should we be using an "old" reference to Indiana in the process?

[Nicki Laycoax]

I like #Indiana... I think it limits confusion and it's easy to remember. Once we start getting into acronyms, people might get confused...

David, has anyone created a poll?

[David Monroe]

Forgot about the airport, I don't fly so, wasn't at the front of my memory. Old isn't a bad word. Old just is. :)

My interest is in how we get the word out. Curiosity is one way, we can tweet it of course, blog it. Maybe we can create a #yettobenamedhashtag Group on SI? Let the State news tweets know about it as well. It absolutely needs to be in their RSS feeds.

Not all of us are technology gurus. So maybe a name that's all inclusive. My degrees may be History and Graphic Design, but I also follow tech trends, science, philosophy, book publishing, online gaming, TV & online media, etc... so my suggestion is we try keep it generically specific. (I now sound like one of my clients)
Generic to topic, but specific to Indiana. My cents there.

[David Monroe]

@Nicki I still like #Indiana too.

I have not created one, Amy may have or is planning too. Feel free. Use the 6 or so that have been bandied about and see. Let us know the addy and we can tweet it and blog it too.

[Nicki Laycoax]

Cool. Doing it now.

[Nicki Laycoax]

I am irritated with the FriendFeed streams into Twitter...

Auto DM's make me want to unfollow... Unless it's one of those cool customized videos which they have catered specifically to me. :)

I have opted to DM when I am having a convo with someone. If I go to someone's profile and they only have @soandso filling their entire page, it's difficult to see, from first glance, what they are about.

[Jason Bean]

I agree with everything being said for the most part. I agree that you don't need to wait for approval from Pat. I think the amazing thing about the Smaller Indiana community is one person hatches the idea and others just start running with it. Sometimes there's a benefit to slowing down and planning things out strategically, but many times I think we just need to stop thinking about something and just do it.

I agree with the statement about the key to things getting changed is for people to start listening. One of the things I think needs to happen for people to get involved is to stop waiting to be lead or told what they should be doing. I think the key for things getting changed and the average American citizen to stay involved is for them to stop waiting on the government to get started. If you see a need in your community, start doing something. Find others to share your enthusiasm and desires and get more done working as a team. But don't get caught up in the "in your community" part. Start with your neighbor, then your neighborhood, your coworker, and on and on. Focus on the small circles you're in instead of getting lost in the giant "movement" you're waiting to get started.

As for the hashtag, I've been trying to use #Indy on my comments and posts related to the city. It's nice and short and immediately identifiable by most people.

[David Monroe]

Look at you Amy, the Hash-tag Queen!! Seems like just yesterday you tweeted me (explain to Pat that that's not dirty *lol*) about why we were putting the # sign in front of words. The grow so fast! I'm getting verklempt, talk amongst yourselves!

You grabbed the lead on this topic, lead us, by example of course! ;) If you saw my comment above to Nicki, I voted for her suggestion of #Indiana and gave my reasons.