e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — November 29, 2006

• 2008 Candidates Search Web for Next New Thing. Writing in The Hill, Jonathan E. Kaplan gives a solid overview of social networking, YouTube and other new political tools. One nice twist — measuring and rewarding supporters’ online zeal. A tip from my NET colleague John Anthony (never trust a man without a real last name).
• Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense. John Markoff in the Times looks at the potential of artificial intelligence to mine the depths of the Web for answers to normal human questions — Web 3.0 awaits. One bummer: IBM is only looking at the “six billion documents that make up the non-pornographic World Wide Web” (they’re missing out). A Ha-Hoa Dang suggestion^TM.
• Crash The Parties. USA Today contributor Don Campbell touts Unity08′s attempt to build an independent third-party movement using Internet tools. Hmmmm, pardon me if I’m skeptical — the rising online applications depend on bottom-up creativity, social media-style, and this endeavor has a utopian, top-driven air about it (like some other sites I can think of).

– cpd

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Event: Online Strategies in the 2006 Election

In DC this Friday, The Center for American Progress is hosting a discussion of what worked and what didn’t in the online component of the 2006 elections. The panel looks like a good cross-section of lefties — Megan Matson from Mainstreet Moms Organize or Bust (a grassroots organization), Tom Matzzie from MoveOn, Benjamin Rahn from ActBlue and Jessica Vanden Berg, Jim Webb’s campaign manager. I’ll be there, notebook in hand. And if you show up early enough, they’ll feed ya. Bonus!

– cpd

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