Archive for October, 2006
Micah L. Sifry and Joshua Levy over at Personal Democracy Forum have an excellent compare-and-contrast piece about MyGOP and Partybuilder, new online organizing applications from the RNC and DNC. They look in detail at these new tools, primarily from a social networking point of view, but also considering factors such as ease of use and overall effectiveness.
A quote from their introduction:
(more…)
October 18th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Two interesting strategy papers from the New Politics Institute that I’ve been meaning to write up for a while: Use Search and Engage the Blogs.
I think they’re on target with their blogger relations advice, particularly their emphasis on working with local blogs. Electoral campaigns and local or regional advocacy campaigns should start connecting with local bloggers as early as possible, both as a channel to reach potential supporters and as a way to begin to shape the public discussion about the political race or issue.
(more…)
October 17th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
The latest of Alan Rosenblatt’s Internet Advocacy Roundtable discussions covers mobile advocacy, a popular topic this week. Contact the Internet Advocacy Center for more info.
Advocacy in the Mobile Age
The US is starting to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to using mobile phones for non-voice applications, and it is a good thing for advocacy and political campaigns.
(more…)
October 16th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
MobileActive has released a new strategy guide to using mbile phones to register voters, monitor elections and turn people out to the polls. And there’s more to come (from their press release):
The MobileActive series of Strategy Guides is designed to equip organizations around the world with the know-how to deploy effective mobile campaigns for a variety of types of activism and advocacy. Other guides in the series will focus on issue advocacy, fundraising, humanitarian and disaster relief, and mobile organizing.
Mobile phones are a tool to watch — forward-thinking campaigns should be getting supporters’ cell numbers now, even if they don’t have specific applications in mind yet.
– cpd
October 16th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Quick Hits goes local!
- Candidates go online for young voters. Staten Island Advance looks at candidate MySpace profiles in races in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Social networking, den of sin and lair of iniquity: the article notes that “a number of profiles on Fossella’s list are laced with profanity or feature scantily clad men and women” — despite the fact that this particular candidate has supported requiring MySpace-blocking software for schools and libraries in the past.
- Creating a forum for ideas. Ventura County (CA) Star is setting up a local blogging network to supplement its existing discussion forums and reader comments. Another publication that understands how to use social media to build and keep an audience.
- ‘Bloggers’ are modern pamphleteers. A look at Louisiana political bloggers from the Baton Rouge Advocate. The steady expansion of the blogosphere into local and regional politics is a trend to watch.
– cpd
October 15th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
A good article almost slipped by while I was on vacation: Mike Dorning at the Chicago Tribune wrote an excellent overview of the current state of online electioneering, hitting everything from viral campaigns to microtargeting to good old-fashioned email lists. The lead focuses on a Maryland Comptroller candidate who built 80% of his volunteer base on MySpace and then turned around and won the primary against a two-term incumbent. The article doesn’t expressly state that the MySpace-recruited volunteers are the primary reason that he won, but Justin Perkins at Frogloop is happy to make the leap (hah!). Well worth a read.
– cpd
October 12th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Mary Joyce, whom I met a couple of weeks ago at an event tied to the release of Person to Person to Person, is asking for help on a research project. She’s particularly looking for folks in the developing world, but comments from other online advocacy practitioners would be welcome.
I was recently hired as a consultant by the NGO Res Publica to help them complete a research project for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the topic of “e-advocacy in the global south”. Specifically, the report will look at the possibilities for citizens and civil society organizations to use digital technology (particularly the internet and mobile phones) to assist in activism campaigns in developing nations.
(more…)
October 11th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Six Apart is hosting an event at the Hotel Monaco next week that looks interesting. Early registration ($75) has been extended through tomorrow, so sign up now and save some cash. Topics include:
- Corporate Blogging: Building your Strategy and Establishing Policy
- Best Practices: 2.0 Politics and Advocacy
- RSS Tools: Managing Information Overload, Podcasting Tools and Techniques
– cpd
October 11th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Sanford Dickert, former Kerry campaign CTO, has launched a great new site called PoliticalWarez to look at the technology of online politics. From the site’s mission statement:
PoliticalWarez is Politics 2.0. Our mission is to identify, profile, test and even help develop the technologies, applications, services and devices that will define the next generation of political activism through application of technology and community.
Current frontpage articles include a Podcasting 101, a look at Yahoo groups, and a discussion of a good tool for online fundraising. Well worth checking out, and another good tip from reader Ha-Hoa Dang.
– cpd
October 10th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
- ‘Puppets’ Emerge as Internet’s Effective, and Deceptive, Salesmen. Beware the meat puppets! Excellent article by Frank Ahrens in the Post about astroturfing social networking sites, i.e., setting up fake profiles to sell a product. One idea that clearly works: have your campaign involve a threesome….
- Congress in 30 Seconds. Roll-your-own ads using prepackaged audio and video clips. Excellent use of social media concepts.
- Nice campaign microsite. This one jumped out at me as a good balance of content — a sudoku game, viral-wannabe video, information in quick bursts with links to more detail. The only thing they seem to lack is a mechanism for collecting emails, but that may have been a conscious choice.
- Google Snatches Up YouTube for $1.65B. I suspect you guys might already have heard about this one.
– cpd
October 10th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Oh Hill staffers, so dewy-eyed and young, when will you learn that IP numbers are easy to trace, email is eternal, and that Google can reunite stolen words with their source in seconds?
A superfun article by Aaron Blake in The Hill has a slew of examples of Congressional staffers being busted for online misdeeds and misjudgments. The hijinks range from plagiarism to racist comments to downright dirty tricks, all of it committed in easily traceable digital form. Let’s all deface an opponent’s Wikipedia page from our office computer! Or post inflammatory material “anonymously” on a blog! Or forget that we wrote on our MySpace profile about thinking that all Republicans should be killed….
Thanks to the PoliticsOnline Weekly PoliTicker newsletter for the tip.
– cpd
October 9th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Hey kids! I’m off for a few days, heading to Kansas to see what’s wrong with the place (hint: it’ll involve a serious shortage of liquor once we’re through with the joint). Two of my best friends are getting married to each other, and seeing as they also just happen to be my comrades in Burning Sensation (DC’s most startling sonic entity), we’re gonna be forced to whoop it up in classic style.
In the meantime, if you haven’t read Online Politics 101, now’s your chance to give it a try:
- Download the PDF [2.4 megs] — right click and “save as” to grab your own copy. You can’t hardly beat the price.
- Or, follow the links to the right to browse by chapter.
See you next week.
– cpd
October 5th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Well, Capitol Advantage sure as hell stirred up the nest when their study of advocacy email deliverability rates hit the Post on Monday. In the days since, other vendors have been scrambling and practitioners have been debating, but it’s also become obvious that the research seems to have significant flaws that skew the results in Cap Ad’s favor versus its competitors.
(more…)
October 5th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Former Congressman Foley has now learned what so many politicians and corporate executives have found before — emails and IMs live forever. A whispered conversation can be forgotten and a piece of paper burned, but digital communications are almost always stored somewhere, either on the sender’s or recipient’s computer or on a server in between.
I’ve often been asked by colleagues and clients to create a “secure” website, one accessible only to those with the right username and password. I’ve always replied that password-protecting a site is easy, but keeping the contents private is not — passwords can be forwarded and so can any downloaded document. My rule of thumb: never put anything online that you wouldn’t mind seeing written up on the front page of the New York Times.
Ironically, the data you need to keep can be dangerously fragile, as anyone who’s had an un-backed-up hard drive crash knows. Digital media deteriorate or become obsolete, and the one Photoshop file you desperately need is buried somewhere in a stack of unlabeled cds. But, the universe being what it is, that incriminating email will almost always find some way to come back to life.
– cpd
October 4th, 2006
Trackback
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Next Posts
Previous Posts
