Along with Dennis Johnson, Karen Jagoda and Morra Aarons-Mele, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation this morning on congressional and local online campaigns for the assembled journalists at the Knight Digital Media Center’s symposium, Election ’08: Unleashing the Cyber-watchdogs (i.e., after a week of luxuriating in the California sun, it was time to sing for my supper and justify the trip). My notes are below; if they’re too cryptic, drop me a note for details.
How candidates are using the web
- find voters
- keep voters
- get them to do things
General
- more variation at congressional level than presidential, even more at the local level
- standard packages becoming available: DIA
- more experimentation from insurgents/challengers than the incumbents
- what you can see in public may not be the most important thing going on — don’t believe the hype!
Finding voters
- website as core
- going where they are: soc nets, online communities, blogs, search advertising
- new tools: video
Keeping voters
- using the channels their supporters use
- email, email, email — still the killer app
Mobilizing offline/online connection
- fundraising
- volunteer coordination
- distributed phone banks
- neighborhood activism: house parties, block walks
- GOTV
The natives are restless
- citizens are using new tools to shake up the process
- some of the most interesting stories will be there
- examples
Resources
- e.politics
- techpresident.com
- bivingsreport.com
- Wired/Threat Level
- The Caucus (Times), The Trail (Post)
– cpd