Archive for May, 2009
Advocacy campaign sites are a distinct breed — whether about human rights or business taxes, they generally do the same things and even usually LOOK quite similar. Why? For one thing, hard experience: online organizers have now had enough years in the business to have a good idea of what works, so it’s relatively straightforward to put together a list of necessary features and handy extras. Another reason is time: advocacy sites are often created quickly, even overnight (for example, I designed and built this one in two days back in 2007), which tends to encourage a certain uniformity of appearance (creativity takes time!).
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May 29th, 2009
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Okay, I’m a sucker for pitches like these, I admit it:
“In response to Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court, mobile music site mSpot.com has pulled together a list of five (and certainly there are many more) ringtones that speak — or rather, sing — to the big news. The beauty of these ringtones is that mSpot.com allows you to edit up to 30 seconds of your favorite law-abiding tone — you don’t have to download what the carrier pre-selected.
“We went ahead and selected a few choice lyrics for you…”
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Daughter of Justice — The Undecided
“We live in a world with so few answers, where is the justice that she seeks? Who will end this poverty?”
- Courthouse — Chris Isaak
“People take their places, down at the courthouse / People stand in line to see you fall.”
- Ladies’ Choice — Zac Efron (from Hairspray)
“…shop around little darlin’, I’ve got to be the Ladies’ Choice, Ladies’ Choice.”
- Judgement Day — Whitesnake
“With only love to light the way.. on the road to judgement day”
- She’s the One — The Ramones
“Yeah yeah she’s the one.. When I see her on the street, you know she makes my life complete”
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Hmmmm, not a bad start (the Whitesnake and Ramones tunes counter Zac Efron, if barely…), but let’s see if we can do better. How about one for the Republican talking points?
- She’s a Rebel — Green Day
“She’s a rebel, She’s a saint, She’s the salt of the earth, And she’s dangerous”
Or one about Obama and identity politics?
- Black Dog — Led Zeppelin
“All I ask for an’ all I pray, Steady rollin’ woman gonna come my way”
You’re next! Leave results in the comments…
– cpd
May 26th, 2009
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Hmmmm, whatever WordPress function that handles URLs on this site seems to be broken — none of the article links are working right now. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, but for now it’s a bit hard to read anything here…
Update: We’re back in business after a relatively simple fix, but I’m still not sure what caused the underlying problem, which briefly made the site essentially unreadable. What were we saying about the glories of technology?
May 26th, 2009
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Update: Check out Henri Makembe’s related piece for a different angle on the topic.
Fascinating experience a few days ago — I got to do a presentation/discussion about online fundraising with a group of Democratic state-level staff, most in their 20s and 30s and most affiliated with state parties, state legislative caucuses and the like. The upshot: man, does it seem as though that world has changed since I worked for a member of the Texas Legislature in the early 1990s, and judging from this experience, we’re on the verge of a real explosion of online state-level U.S. politics.
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May 23rd, 2009
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Hi y’all, today’s discussion with Karen Jagoda is now online — listen directly [mp3], or check out previous editions of the Digital Politics Show. Our official topic was voter engagement over the ‘net, but Karen and I covered a ton of fun subjects ranging from Twitter to political organizing to building that all-important personal fan base. Give it a listen.
– cpd
May 21st, 2009
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STILL haven’t caught up on the online politics and advocacy blogs, but let’s clear the proverbial cache and make room for some fresh links.
- Congratulations to Adam Conner and Tanya Tarr!
- 6 in 10 Twitter Users Jump Ship Within a Month.
- White House Reaches Out via E-Mail on Health-Care Reform.
- 2009 email fundraising and advocacy benchmark report released. C.f. Highlights from the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study.
- Auto Buzz: Toyota Has Strongest Online Advocacy.
- Study Shows Social Media Releases Are Less Effective Than Traditional Press Releases, via Amanda Chapel.
- Be honest: We don’t want young voters. “Online politics is a big fat myth” (in Canada).
- Despite Tools, It’s About the Story.
- The day the bloggers won.
- House GOP using YouTube-based strategy against Dems in floor debate.
- The YouTube Confirmation: What Supreme Court shortlisters are saying when they think nobody is listening.
- BBC Twestion Time Takes Off with bbcqt hashtag: 3000 Tweets in one Hour.
- New York Congressional Campaign Used Rare Google Ad Tactic.
- Major Front in Va. Race Is Online: Candidates Court Facebook, Blogs in New Political Era.
- Tasteless tactics and the brands that use them (e.politics sad not to make the list).
- When Did Your County’s Jobs Disappear? An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country.
- Social Media Study Finds Most Nonprofits Have Presence on Facebook But Raising Little Money.
- Political strategists launch online ad network for issue advocacy.
- Scourge of political cyber-squatting.
- U.S. Department of Blogging: What the rest of the government can learn from the TSA.
- Little Brother Is Watching You.
- Funny Anti-Gay-Marriage Ad Sparks YouTube Revolt.
- LEGO Battleship Yamato Completed!. Now we’re talkin’ AWESOME.
- Social Networks For 2009 That Web Workers Need To Pay Attention To.
- Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign to the Web.
- If politics were more like the internet… that would be a good thing.
- Turkish TV Anchor Dons Blackface to Address Obama, Internet Responds.
- The YouTube Presidency (good piece, though e.politics grows weary of the construction “the [insert web 2.0 trend or website] presidency/election/revolution,” but not quite as weary as of the phrase “perfect storm,” which now stands in for “perfect inability to avoid cliche”).
- A Clinton Carnival of Prizes.
- Choosing A Database? Mistakes To Avoid.
- Corporations see need to respond to Twitter.
- How Technology Won the Presidency, Part I.
- Email Compliments For Nonprofits (from the corporate world).
- Twitter for Activism Tool VS Strategy Debate and A New Twitter Activism Guide.
- Broken bloggers (in the UK) meets Don’t write off blogging.
- Liberals swap Wii fun for online fluff (in Canada).
- New Journal: International Journal of E-Politics. The academics want to play on our turf!
- Is Part of the United States in the Third World? (via Brad Terrell).
- Meet the brands that ‘get’ Twitter.
- Downing Street website hosts petition calling for Gordon Brown to resign.
- Obama & Fundraising: Lets get real!
- Always consider the source….
- In Egypt, a blogger tries to spread ‘culture of disobedience’ among youths.
- Palin’s online army marches on.
- So, why should I care about Facebook? Choosing the Right Social Media and Web Tools for Your Organization.
- A Tweeter in the White House.
- Candidates utilize Facebook, blogs in a new political era.
- LabourList: a turnaround strategy?
- Twitterjacking’ — Identity Theft in 140 Characters or Less.
- 10 Things Every Nonprofit Should Know About Social Media and Online Communications.
- Feds Go Online to Brief Masses About Swine Flu.
- Facebook copies Twitter, opens API to developers.
- Older Users Help Facebook Grow.
- Liberal blogs vs. the Obama administration.
- Beating Somali Pirates at Their Own Game.
- 7 ways to get more out of your creative.
- Victory gardens and online advocacy.
- Mobile Advocacy and Fundraising: Live Blogging 2009 NTC.
- Oklahoma Man Arrested for Twittering Tea Party Death Threats.
- Online Video: Viral Isn’t Everything.
- Flash activists use social media to drum up support.
- All You Need to Know to Twitter, via A Loyal Reader (thanks Pops!).
- Barack Hussein Obama’s un-American mustard choice riles the blogosphere.
- MySpace to Drag SocNet Ad Spend Down 3%.
- The View from Stanford: Why Video Marketing and Email Marketing Make a Perfect Match.
- 10 Things Every Nonprofit Should Know About Social Media and Online Communications.
- Nuts and Bolts of Online Social Networking.
- Middle-Agers Help Hulu Grow 490% Tivo killing your television ads? Maybe you should look somewhere else.
- ‘Power Moms’ Comprise 20% of Online Population.
- How Changing a Button Increased a Site’s Annual Revenues by $300 Million, via Violet Bliss Dietz.
- 13 Essential Social-Media ‘Listening Tools.’
- April’s Top 50 Websites: SocNets, Swine Flu Top-of-Mind.
- China and Russia v. the US Grid! Or is it just hype?
- Big Ivan, The Tsar Bomba (“King of Bombs”). Now this is real AND freaky.
- Hot New Video Game Consists Solely Of Shooting People Point-Blank In The Face. Yes, it’s satire.
- Maps of the Seven Deadly Sins in the U.S., another Brad Terrell find.
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to peer into history. A beautifully layered story, with an unexpected coda.
– cpd
May 21st, 2009
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You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after the last couple of Twitter frenzies, but what the heck — let’s dive right back into those shark-infested intellectual waters.
So here’s the scoop: the opinion editors at the McClatchy newspaper chain have accepted and just published an op-ed column about Twitter and journalism and politics that I wrote with a little help from some friends. Actually, with a lot more than a little help from some friends, since without long-time reader, occasional contributor and friend-of-the-site Burt Edwards the piece wouldn’t exist at all. First, he spotted the opportunity for a Twitter op-ed in the marketplace of ideas, convinced me to write one and helped beat the results into usable shape. Then, he and a colleague launched the little bird that landed it at McClatchy. Now THAT’S a friend.
So, welcome new readers of McClatchy papers and websites, and check out the articles below for more from e.politics about Twitter. Or, try the ongoing series detailing Obama’s online campaign in 2008 if you’re more into the political side of things. And of course, there’s always the Twitter itself to keep us together.
– cpd
May 20th, 2009
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Update: Apparently, there’s been a format change since the last time I was on Karen’s show — it’s now pre-recorded instead of live. I’ll post the link as soon as it goes online.
Apologies to Wall of Voodoo for that headline, but if you’re gonna massacre a song, at least massacre a classic. In any case, if you’ve been suffering from the recent drought of articles on e.politics, here’s a chance to get your fix — I’ll be on Karen Jagoda’s Digital Politics (internet) radio show this Thursday afternoon at 3 pm Eastern, to talk about social networking, Twitter, political activism and just about anything else that comes to mind. We’re scheduled for a 30-minute chat, so when the time comes, go get you a good cup of coffee, pull up a chair next to the computer speakers and settle in for a decent spell. Can’t wait until Thursday? Check out Karen’s past shows — an impressive range of topics.
Plus, keep an eye out for another announcement later this week — exciting times these days down here in the bunker.
– cpd
May 19th, 2009
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Part Five of a six-part series
Obama’s platform may have envisioned a grand reform of the political system, but the primary change he brought to political fundraising was to do more of it than anyone in history:
3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less. The average online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more than once…Obama also raised millions from traditional campaign bundlers — rich, well-connected fundraisers — but the bulk of the more than $600 million that Obama raised throughout the campaign was through the Internet, aides said. (Some of those bundlers, of course, also arranged for donations to be made online, so there is some overlap.)
“Obama Raised Half a Billion Online,” Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post, 11/20/2008
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May 15th, 2009
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Whew, this whole earning-a-living thing has proven to be surprisingly time-consuming the past couple of weeks (how you people with “jobs” manage I’ll never know), but at least someone in DC appreciates the value of a free lunch: the folks at Democracy In Action are giving away a year of their constituent-relations-management software service at no charge to a worthy environmental group. Oh the fun you could have! Free mass emailing/action alerts, online donations, event-management…why, it makes ME want to start an enviro group right down here in the e.politics bunker.
Details are available on the DIA site (the deadline’s May 22nd), and don’t forget that a mere few hours spent with an expert consultant might just help you get the most out of any new communications tools that happen to come your way….
– cpd
May 15th, 2009
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Like why it’s been so quiet on this site the past few days — as the note and flyer below (washed ashore yesterday in a bottle) suggest, other side projects are afoot, much to DC’s ultimate chagrin, embarrassment and that awkward next-day phone call….
First war and economic disruption, then plague, and now it has come to this: after a year-and-a-half in remission, Burning Sensation has returned to smite the unwary of DC and its surroundings with the Swift Sword of Rock and Roll justice.
Yes, the region’s favourite purveyor of kick@ss “musical” extravaganza is coming to Tonic in Foggy Bottom on May 29th, fully prepared to Shock and Awe with an array of tunes and stage antics guaranteed to Blow Your Pants Clean Off and blast your soul clear of warts, blemishes, stains, rashes and any irregularities remaining from that unfortunate incident with the…well, never mind.
Don’t take it from me, though: check out this trustworthy flyer, which you should immediately print and post on every available surface at your abode, hangout, haunt or place of employment.
More details to follow…
– cpd
May 10th, 2009
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Hey y’all, sorry to be AWOL for a bit, but sometimes life demands it — more e.politics coming shortly, including the long-awaited conclusion to the Obama campaign series. In the meantime, let’s get a drink — as I write this, I’m heading over to Hank Dearden’s Capital Cabal Washington Wednesday at Topaz in just a bit; details below.
Washington Wednesday
When: Wednesday, May 6th, 5:30PM – 9:00PM
Appetizers, drink specials, parlor tricks, jammin’ door prize swag, including: tickets to see “The Civil War” at our wonderful Ford’s Theatre, and a registration to the Online Marketing Summit on May 14th here in D.C.
Topaz Lounge at the Topaz Hotel
1733 N Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036 – Dupont Circle area
– cpd
May 6th, 2009
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