First fruits of Netroots Nation — this morning, Chris Hughes and friend-of-e.politics (and new Obama campaign employee) Judith Freeman led an overview of how the nominee-to-be’s campaign has used social networking tools of all kinds to bring in new supporters, organize locally and (most importantly) put volunteers to work on their own. Let’s break down the tools and how the campaign uses each.
MyBarackObama
MyBarackObama is a “walled garden” social network, meaning that it’s a campaign-specific site and not a public social network like MySpace or Facebook. Whether it’s an actual social network with cross-connections among users has been questioned, but it and its million+ members are clearly extremely useful to the campaign. The critical point is that the MyBO features give participating activists tools to organize in their own communities, for instance by throwing house parties and fundraising drives, BEFORE the campaign has begun to direct volunteer activities from above.
Okay, I’m guilty: the first thing I did when I saw the New Yorker Obama-in-the-White House cover was laugh — I’m a sucker for satire, and that sucker is spot-on. If the target was to parody the crazy-forwarded-email-meets-Fox News view of the Democratic-nominee-to-be, they scored a very difficult headshot. To see what they were getting at, listen to New Yorker editor David Remnick (a man who hates to have to explain a joke) on NPR.
Yes, as threatened, e.politics is making its first foray into the Exciting World Of Online Video. Step One, create a YouTube channel, shoot a video and post it (Step Two will be more involved — inspired by the world of cable news, it’ll require a boob job and a lot of bleach).
I shot the short clip below with a FlipVideo Mino, which is smaller than my two-year-old Ipod and will hold an hour’s worth of web-quality video. Early Saturday evening I was walking up 18th Street in Adams Morgan (DC) and stopped off at Columbia Station to catch the end of a jazz set, which turned out to be a good test for the camera and microphone, since I was sitting on a partially covered patio in the bright outdoors and shooting into a much more dimly lit space inside. The results: one minute thirty of good music in a great setting.
Finally! After a few weeks of hair-pulling and the banging of heads on desks, the new TRCP.org is launched. We’re still adding some content, details and features, but the basic structure’s in place, and e.politics can finally break the shackles that have bound us to this laptop for approximately forever. The site’s running on Joomla and uses almost entirely native Joomla features, with a few plugins for special functions. But, so far at least, no high-end programming needed — my crude hacking was enough to get it working just fine. Time to send an invoice!
I’ve been working on relatively small and short-lived advocacy sites for so long that I’d forgotten how much work goes into an actual organization site — more content always equals more features and more customization. You’re also talking about an organization’s public front, which they’ll live with for years, so every little bit matters. Next time I do one of these, which’ll be a while, we’re crankin’ up the rate…. For now, back to consulting — design work is fun, but man it’s a tough way to earn a living.
Hey kids, it may look like we’ve been on vacation the past few days, but in reality it’s been non-stop action down here in the e.politics bunker. A client site is due tomorrow, and the process of getting that sucker built and running has provided painfully clear evidence that whoever invented computer technology had a cocktail of cruelty, evil and sadism instead of a heart, and dined regularly on rusted iron and broken glass.
And not even the Daily Show to keep us distracted — those lucky bastards took two full weeks off around the 4th of July holiday. Never fear: escape is close at hand, since the Daily Show site now hosts full episodes. And you have a good excuse to go, since the June 24th show featured a double-shot of online politics. The excitement starts around minute 8:40 with a look at John McCain’s online game Pork Invaders, and quickly moves on to some online gaming options the candidates haven’t taken, namely Fetus Pong and The Obama Universal Heath Care game, Yes We Cannon (see Jon running up the score below).
After the first commercial break, it’s time to deconstruct a new TV ad funded by our friends at MoveOn.org — or as Jon says, “brought to you by MoveOn.org — ten years of making even people who agree with you cringe.” Other highlights: a bizarre campaign ad for Texas Senator “Big” John Cornyn that’s perhaps a bit more Brokeback Mountain than intended, and a video tour of the Straight Talk Express (22-inch rims? Dayum!). Check it out.
Another resource page! This one’s for a New Organizing Institute training session for future campaign staff, activists and organizers. The topic: online video. The emphasis: blowing audiences away. The takeaway: video can be fun for you, me AND the political system.
Several conversations over the past few days have kept coming back to the same point: in the online world, things that seem cheap often aren’t, and things that seem expensive may actually be the cheaper alternative. For instance, Eric Rardin mentioned it in an email today, pointing out that just about any kind of “free” online outreach you can think of (blogs, list-building, social networking, etc.) actually takes a significant amount of time, and that a group or campaign looking to build a list may be better off buying names from a good opt-in source (such as Care2, the company Eric “coincidentally” works for).
We’re fixin’ to find out — as of this weekend, e.politics has entered the video world (or, at least we will have as soon as the camera arrives). I’m starting with a little-bitty Mino, Flip Video’s new, even-smaller camera that dispenses with disposable batteries and charges via USB. The ultimate goal? Some kind of periodic video show and/or video interview series, focusing on folks in the online politics field plus the usual pop culture/music/robot/zombie obsessions. The little Mino critter is most likely a gateway drug; once hooked, I’ll probably have to buy one of those pro-am video cameras that are a next step up the video food chain. Mmmmm, toys.
DC hosted blog royalty last week, as A-list tech blogger Robert Scoble came to town to meet with folks in the political world. Of course, it was an excellent excuse for a party, and a solid mix of tech nerds and online politicos showed up at classic Eurotrash hangout MCCXXIII, just south of Dupont Circle. Peter Corbett with iStrategyLabs was set up for video interviews, and he’s handily posted the results for us to enjoy. The clip below includes friends-of-epolitics Andrew Feinberg, Julie Germany and the Good Doktor Rosenblatt, along with a Very Special E.politics Moment right before Scoble comes on for the last segment.
Note: dig the “jump to a scene” feature — drag the slider along and you can move quickly from one interview to the next (I’m the next-to-the-last one, Mom). I don’t remember seeing this feature before, but I’ve also never used the site Viddler, where this thing is hosted.
