Archive for January, 2009
One of the more noteworthy developments in the online politics world over the past six months has been the enthusiastic embrace of the micro-blogging tool Twitter by conservative activists, particularly after the “Dontgo” movement this past summer. In that case, several Republican congressmembers camped out on the House floor during the August recess to protest the lack of a vote on expanded oil-and-gas drilling, and supporters vigorously chronicled their activities through short messages to the Twitter-using audience. Since then, conservatives have created Twitter accounts in droves (the e.politics Twitter feed has seen periodic bursts of Republican activists join), and Twitter has apparently come up repeatedly in the race for RNC chair.
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January 30th, 2009
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Cross-posted on Fem2.0
Quick: off the top of your head, name the most prominent voices in the progressive political blogosphere. Kos? A guy. Atrios? A guy. Josh Marshall? Glenn Greenwald? Jerome Armstrong? Ditto. The only top-level female bloggers in the general progressive political space who come to mind right away are Jane Hamsher and Digby — and apparently, when it was revealed that Digby is actually a woman, plenty of lefty blog readers and authors were startled. Of course, this obviously isn’t true for ALL segments of the progressive blogosphere (how many male “mommy bloggers” are there, for instance, and how many men contribute to feminist blogs [besides, apparently, me]), but when we’re talking about the general progressive political blogosphere — what most people think of when they talk about “the blogs” — the big names are predominantly male.
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January 29th, 2009
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Cross-posted on techPresident and K Street Cafe
At a New Organizing Institute presentation this morning, former Obama new media director Joe Rospars (last seen in these pages talking about the importance of good content to the campaign’s work) made a really significant point — his department was NOT a part of the campaign’s tech team. Instead, it was coequal with communications, field/grassroots, finance, etc., and was in fact just as much a client of the technology folks as, say, the press team was.
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January 28th, 2009
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The Politics Online Conference is coming in April and the organizers already want to know what YOU want to see (democracy? that’s crazy talk!). Let me pre-bias you in favor of a few of ‘em, since I proposed two and am part of the package for a third. To help out, just go to this online survey and rate the various suggestions. Want a hint? Scroll down just a bit and be sure to rate “Advocacy 3.0″ highly — Doktor Alan Rosenblatt is pulling it together, and it promises to be a Internet Advocacy Roundtable-style high-level thinkfest (I’m a-bringin’ my 3-D glasses so’s I can See The Future).
Then, scroll aaaaall the way down to the bottom (because I submitted them at the last possible second, as per usual) and check out my two ideas: “Barack Obama Made Me Sick! Viral Politics in the 2008 Elections” (clever title or a self-defeating one? we’ll soon know) and “Online Politics at the State Level,” two things you CLEARLY want to learn more about. Proposed session descriptions below:
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January 27th, 2009
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Check out this event Thursday: my old friend Hank Dearden has organized a night of progressive politics, technology, humor and beer at the excellent U Street-area hangout Busboys and Poets. Here’s the scoop:
NaturePath Productions presents XM’s most irreverent and informative original talk show, Left Jab, in a live recoding session at Busboys and Poets on January 29th. Join hosts Mark Walsh and Dave Goodfriend as they talk progressive politics, the environment, foreign policy, common sense business, beer, sports and all kinds of smack in front of a live audience. Left Jab guests have a included a wide variety of Washington insiders, including Howard Dean, Joe Trippi, Russ Feingold, Paul Begala… and now you! The conversation is smart, savvy, progressive, connected, entertaining, funny and candid in a way that you simply will not hear anywhere else on radio or television.
The event is part of Hank’s NaturePath speaker series, and it sounds like it’ll be a hoot (plus there’ll be snacks). I’ll see you there (be sure to get your ticket now), and don’t forget to keep an ear out for future NaturePath get-togethers.
– cpd
January 27th, 2009
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Ginormous post-Inauguration catch-up edition — fruits of a month of random browsing, obsessive clicking and a ton of Google Alerts.
- Obama Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages.
- Lots of talk about the new Whitehouse.gov: New White House website raises the bar for everyone, Thoughts on the new WhiteHouse.gov, White House Web FAIL?, Latency Issues? White House Site Is Gorgeous …. But Slow, and Code Warriors Debate Whitehouse.gov Robot Commands (unfortunately, no giant fighting robots involved).
- Ah, here they are! Coming to the Battlefield: Stone-Cold Robot Killers. How soul-less murder machines might lead to a Pax Americana.
- RNC race boosts technology. C.f. Karl Rove Signs Up For Twitter, Tells GOP To “Master New Media” About Six Months Too Late.
- After Inauguration, Obama Celebrates with His Network, and lefty bloggers whoop it up across town.
- Obama Announces Grass-Roots Lobby, part of his Permanent Grass-Roots Campaign.
- Governing And Legislating In Web 2.0. National Journal interviews former New York Times futurist Michael Rogers.
- Will He Bring Change.gov We Can Believe In?
- (Obama’s) ’08 Campaign Guru Focuses On Grass Roots.
- Obama stimulus package to include website for citizen oversight.
- Oldie but goodie: e-Hail To the Chief — Obama Won With Web’s Help. Now, How to Govern Using That Community?
- The Wired Presidency: Can Obama Really Reboot the White House?
- Barack Obama’s Online Fundraising Machine. Good overview piece.
- Change.org Unveils ‘Ideas For Change.’
- More Groups Than Thought Monitored in Police Spying. Note how an undercover agent’s use of the wrong email address could have blown her cover, and how a database’s pre-existing categories drove the designation of groups as “terrorist.” C.f. Report: U.S. Surveillance Society Running Rampant (I’d comment but this microphone keeps getting in the way).
- The Year of Living Gloomily: The recession is bad enough. A relentless news cycle is making it worse, plus (Another) Bogus Trend of the Week: a Plague of Shoplifters!
- So You Can’t Pick the Hits. Neither Can Anyone Else. NO ONE can predict the future — and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
- Online petition to keep Mike Griffin in charge of NASA. Which failed — it might have helped if he’d have quit yelling at Obama’s transition team.
- The Right’s online petition: keep Gitmo open!, via War Room.
- President-Elect Barack Obama Falls Victim to Twitter Hack, as Weak Password Brings ‘Happiness’ to (Obama, Fox) Twitter Hacker.
- How Amazon.com hoodwinks the press.
- My Top 10 Social Action Platforms of 2008, via Josh Levy.
- What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting .
- Don’t Get Caught Wearing Identical Inaugural Gowns (good thing mine was custom-made).
- Obama’s Online Community Expands, via CQ Politics.
- Congress Gets Down with YouTube.
- Guerrilla Tactics at Oil-Lease Auction. Note that an immediate online fundraising campaign started for the perpetrator.
- YouTube Clips Unveil Oakland Shooting. “In the still evolving YouTube era, videos don’t just spread, they [can] rally a community.”
- Conservative (blogs) up in arms over Browner’s socialist ties.
- Building an iTunes for Newspapers.
- Video: New 3-D Fly-Through of Supernova Remnant. Kewl.
- Guide: Using video effectively.
- Online Threat to Kill Obama Leads to Arrest. Oopsie!
- Joe the Plumber, “reporting” from Israel for a conservative website.
- New Paths to Power Emerge in Iraq: Cleric’s Ascent to Local Strongman Illustrates Shift Underway. Fascinating profile.
- Why the Mediterranean is the Achilles’ heel of the web.
- Can CNN, the Go-to Site, Get You to Stay? .
- At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool. Using YouTube for research, via A Loyal Reader (thanks, Dad!).
- D.C.’s High-Level Social Scene Now Mingles Black and White. Note that those of us in DC’s low-level social scene have been doing that for a long time.
- Making connections, gadget to gadget.
- Vietnamese Authorities Rein In the Country’s Vigorous Blogosphere. Jerks. C.f. Syria blocks personal blog of Human rights activist.
- For Israeli Blogger, Conflict Spurs Mixed Emotions.
- Israel Defense Force Invades the the Blogosphere.
- Why the Ideological Melting Pot Is Getting So Lumpy. Political polarization = personal branding?
- A Political Blogger’s Reading List.
- Ethical nonprofit marketing with social media. Now, doesn’t that just take all the fun out of it?
- Can You Nail an Email Pitch to A-List Bloggers?
- “Hell on Earth” — Joe Trippi’s using Twitter to draw attention to Zimbabwe.
- Edelman’s social media lessons from Obama’s campaign, plus Obama’s Guide to Social Media (and How to Crack it) and How Obama Did It — Lessons for Bloggers and Webmasters.
- Google Sees Continued Strength in Online Political Ad Spending.
- Micro-blogging on the rise. Politics and Twitter, an intro.
- Social Nets — A Fundraising Distraction?
- Patch-Through Call Services — Finally Ready for Prime Time?
- New media douchebags explained, via j_ro. Hmmmm, a few of these lines hit a little too close to home…
- FBI re-uses seized porn. Recycling is all the rage, baby!
- Terror, Anthrax, Explosives and More in Free, Downloadable ‘Counterterrorism Calendar.’
- Save Your Ass With Social Media.
- And finally, I’m in yr ofice, adminsterating yr youth media.
– cpd
January 26th, 2009
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E.politics may only have earned about $40 total from Google Ads so far, but sometimes they yield something even more valuable — a story idea. In this case, check out the ad (screenshot below) that appeared on the site about 10 days ago:
The ad showed up only a day or two after former (Republican) Congressmember Portman announced that he would run in 2010 for the Senate seat currently held by George Voinovich, who is retiring. The ad links through to the main Portman site, which is currently set up with an emphasis on list-building, as the front page demonstrates:
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January 25th, 2009
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The difference between Inauguration 2009 and its equivalent eight years ago was so vast that it’s hard to know where to start. The entire public mood of the city inverted — we endured mobs of party-goers instead of protesters, and did so with joy and consideration (locals would almost line up to give visitors a patient description of how to get a pass for the subway). The mood was infectious — I bet that even the Republicans were smiling.
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January 22nd, 2009
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Here at e.politics, we may cling to our victrolas, our morse code and our Windows XP, but some people in the online world look a little farther ahead. For instance, along with co-founder Marc Andreessen, Gina Bianchini at Ning has been working since the company’s 2005 launch to put the ability to create online social networks into the hands of people and organizations around the world. The results? You too can build a MySpace or Facebook, my friend.
Unlike general social networking sites, which create a common river of profiles in which everyone swims (think our individual networks of social connections as groups of rafters floating on the current), Ning has built a platform on which anyone can build a defined online community of people interacting around any issue or interest. A MyBarackObama.com in every garage! Of course, as with blogs and so much else online, many of these erstwhile communities will fade for every one that thrives.
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January 15th, 2009
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What do we mean when we say that something on the internet is “viral?” I ask because the word shows up in such different contexts that people don’t always seem to be talking about the same thing. If you’re in the communications world (political or otherwise), these differences in understanding can really matter — particularly in conversation with a client. So, what IS “viral,” and what does it have to do with a Mentos-and-coke video on YouTube?
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January 14th, 2009
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New Year’s resolution! Time for some routine site maintenance — let’s bust out the dustrags and polish up the silverware, and maybe take out the trash on time for once.
Unfortunately, E.politics Video has ended up on the dustbin of history for the moment, since it never really got started despite the best of intentions. After one good interview posted (plus a classic joke) and another interview in the can waiting to be edited, I sputtered out. Part of the problem was time, since editing a clip adds dramatically to the amount of work required to get it online, but part was also technology: Windows simply sucks for video editing (I gotta download codecs???) and I haven’t been quick enough on Craigslist to pick up an older Mac yet (don’t want to spend too much, either). So, I stripped the video section out of the sidebar until better days arrive.
Other changes: I tightened up the sidebar navigation, moving the search form up and the content widget down, theoretically making it easier to take things in at a glance. I also moved up the Google Ads, which you should click on with wild abandon, and temporarily hid the blogroll, which is currently two years or so out of date (about a third of the sites are dead). Finally, I updated the About page with new or upcoming events and publications. Very cool to get these changes knocked out — these are the sorts of things that nag at you every time you look at a site you run, and fixing them feels as good as cleaning the bunker. Now, about that cat box…
– cpd
January 12th, 2009
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At today’s Wiki White House at Google (also sponsored by the New America Foundation and Wired), Ellen Miller made a great point: as far as government information goes, “public” information should ultimately mean “online” information — citizens should not have to dig through paper in some government office to find out what an agency (or an officeholder) is up to. And the data quality and the presentation matter, because if the information is functionally unavailable even though technically online, it’s not really available. Government databases should be designed to be interoperable with other government databases and with outside data — which as NAF’s Sascha Meinrath pointed out has the potential to open government to real crowdsourcing.
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January 9th, 2009
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Paper is my nemesis — it lives in poorly organized stacks on too many horizontal surfaces in my life. Much as I hate how it smothers the desk, paper is still an offline tool that marketers shouldn’t ignore, even in a digital era.
For instance, websites may have turned traditional glossy fold-out brochures into wastes of dead trees and money, since they can deliver the same kind of overview information more efficiently, flexibly and to a larger audience. But smaller handouts and leave-behinds can help drive traffic to a website if they’re put in front of the right people — think palm- or business card-sized pieces left at a conference booth or passed out at an event. And despite the demonstrated power of online fundraising, plenty of nonprofits continue to use direct mail because it still works for them (though a new group would probably want to skip mail and go straight to building an online list).
It’s really just another example of integrating your tools, with offline marketing helping to drive online traffic of many kinds, from advocacy list-building to product sales to music promotion. Of course, you can green-up your paper materials by printing them only on-demand and by using recycled materials when possible. And also note that smaller pieces may require even better creative work than usual, since they’ll need to be both noticeable and comprehensible at a glance. But of course, that’s usually key to getting noticed at all in the clutter these days.
– cpd
January 8th, 2009
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Getting back to writing has been the most difficult part of recovering from the holidays — it’s felt a little like the HAL shut-down sequence from 2001 in reverse, only slower and requiring more caffeine.
Design work started first, since I had layouts due to a client on Monday, which was equivalent to having final exams after the New Year — out of mind for a short while, then suddenly painfully real. Except that in this case the “studying” part was a lot more fun, since the goal was to fire up the visual part of the brain. Just about any created work would do, provided that it was made with enough logic or style to open the eyes — this time, I started with some late ’50s Westerns and The Terminator on cable (home sick on a Friday night), then hit the National Gallery and the Hirshhorn, and finally went through out a couple of big books of propaganda and music posters. Something must have worked; designs turned in on time and the client hasn’t screamed yet.
Music has been relatively easy, too, since even just a few minutes of drills and scales can help — practice is a habit, and consistency matters more than intensity. It’s also something that I do alone, trying to make my mistakes BEFORE I play in public. But writing is different, since when I write, I write in front of people, without a net and with all the attendant pressure. Pressure to perform, to avoid clichés (see “without a net,” above), to have ideas, to do WELL, and also to keep doing it, since once you start you create an expectation that you’ll continue, both in yourself and in your readers. And who wants to want to let either audience down! (A stalled blog is a tragic sight).
So, every restart becomes a conscious choice, done with the consequences fully in mind. In a very real way, it’s a classic act of faith. Welcome to being human.
– cpd
January 7th, 2009
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