Archive for September, 2009
Hey y’all, if you missed the sound of e.politics parachuting into the FDH Lounge on September 2nd (hello, Cleveland!), never fear — they’ve posted the audio in their archives, so swing on by and give it a listen. The first hour or so is sports talk, then they hit the variety part of the show: a rock and roller, a veteran wrestling writer, the guy who wrote The Wrestler and Big Fan, and then me! Host Rick Morris and I talked for at least half an hour, covering everything from Ted Kennedy to conspiracy theories and propaganda to health care policy around the world. We didn’t always agree, but we had a good time doing it, so don’t miss out — the segment’s in the third hour, right around 2:26 on the slider.
– cpd
September 16th, 2009
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A couple of new resources to check out this week: first, Heather Mansfield has launched a new blog focusing on how nonprofits can use online social tools. Heather’s an expert at using online social networks for advocacy and fundraising, and her NonProfit Tech 2.0 site will join a healthy ecosphere that already includes sites like FrogLoop, Beth’s Blog, Community Organizer 2.0, NonProfit Marketing/Getting Attention and of course e.politics.
Next, and speaking of social networks, National Journal and New Media Strategies are unveiling one this week that’ll be limited to congressmembers and congressional staff. Though it’s officially intended to encourage communication and collaboration among staff, we can only hope that it’ll end up being a source of embarrassing photos for years to come. For more, check out the Project 3121 blog and the initial announcement.
Elsewhere in the consultasphere, Democratic campaign firm NGP Software has absorbed Patton Technologies, and I’ll see you at the celebratory happy hour tonight. Finally, longtime Grassroots Enterprises go-to guy Mike Panetta has gone out on his own (watch out for those rough waters, buddy), and he’s already holding trainings on Facebook Pages for Advocacy and Public Affairs Campaigns and Twitter Strategies for Public Affairs Professionals. Check ‘em out!
– cpd
September 15th, 2009
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A little news on the e.politics bidness front — I’ve spent he last couple of weeks wrapping up the last of three sizable design/technology projects that kept things busy down here in the bunker over the summer, and so should have a couple of sites to show you guys shortly, pending final reviews and approvals.
In the meantime, idle hands are the Devil’s tools! And believe me, ol’ Satan and I are close enough friends as it is. Fall’s not empty, with several speaking/training gigs looming, plus various consulting clients who’ll need love from time to time, but it’s the big projects that really keep the mortgage paid and the staff fed around here. So keep your ears open for folks who need online communications training, consulting or strategic guidance, and of course good old website design and construction (Drupal and WordPress in particular) as well. Thanks for your help!
– cpd
September 13th, 2009
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Also published on techPresident and K Street Cafe
The most fascinating aspect the fallout from South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You Lie” moment during Barack Obama’s healthcare speech? What it reveals about the changed world of politics in an internet age.
Since Wednesday evening, Democratic and liberal organizations, websites and email-list-owners ranging from Daily Kos to Wesley Clark to MoveOn to the the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have pounced on Wilson’s outburst, pushing their readers or supporters to donate to Wilson’s Democratic challenger. In a pre-internet era, this could not have happened so quickly, effectively or visibly:
How many of those offended by the heretofore little-known Wilson’s outburst — a sense of offense riled up by not only progressive blogs but the DCCC and other Dem organizations — would have, in the pre-Internet age, have searched for a stamp and sent a check to Miller for Congress? Not many, that’s how many. Now, that outrage can be channeled with a few clicks.
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September 11th, 2009
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Also published on techPresident
Update: As of noon today, Wilson’s Democratic opponent has seen $200,000 flow into his coffers via online donation site ActBlue, in part due to advocacy on Lefty blogs. Ouch! | Update 2: a couple of hours later, PoliticalWire was reporting that the opponent’s total had passed $300k, at a time when Wilson himself is deeply in debt. Ouch, again.
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That was quick — remember the congressmember who yelled out “you lie” when President Obama contended in his speech last night that his plan wouldn’t give government-supported health care to illegal aliens? Rep. Joe Wilson’s fellow travelers have already started a Facebook Fan Page on his behalf (“Barack IS a liar! Rock On Rep. Joe Wilson!”), no doubt trying to capture some of the same energy that some have expended on the comments section of Dana Milbank’s Post article on Wilson’s shouted comments and others during the speech.
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September 10th, 2009
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Ah, sweet technology — a few weeks ago, the RSS feed for e.politics started acting a little weird. I use Google/Feedburner to distribute and track RSS subscriptions, and back in mid-August, the stats suddenly quit updating, making it impossible to see which articles were being read via RSS. Feedburner’s been clunky off and on since I started using it, so at first I assumed it was a bug that would stick around for a day or two and then magically fix itself. No such luck, and after a little while it became clear that Feedburner’s daily email update (which reaches 120 people, or about 10% of those following the site via RSS) wasn’t arriving.
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September 9th, 2009
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After Labor Day, catching up with the advocacy blogs, and more.
- Presidential (campaign) Expenditures — note how little goes to online media.
- How to fake a grassroots uprising. C.f. How To Identify Astroturfers And Front Groups, via Craig Newmark.
- Texas Republicans’ Google Ad FAIL.
- Targeting Sarah Palin’s Supporters on Facebook.
- Questions for Andy Hunn of Political Ad Net, Resonate Networks.
- Traveling Indian Food Truck Advocacy. Learning from the REAL pros.
- White House Will Post Visitor Logs Online.
- SwingVine Keeps A Pulse On What’s Trending On The Web.
- An Interview with Sarah Koch from Facebook Causes.
- Fighting for the Right: The WorldNetDaily story continues.
- Google Shines a Deeper Spotlight on News. Via A Loyal Reader (thanks Dad).
- State 2.0: lessons for e-politics from networked journalism.
- How a Small Nonprofit Used Social Media & Crowd-Sourcing to Win the 2009 Global Giving Challenge.
- Online Marketing Best Practices from the Obama Campaign. M&R moves in on our turf.
- Four Tools for Managing Twitter Followers.
- Twitter and News Organizations.
- Twitter: “pointless babble” or peripheral awareness + social grooming?
- Nonprofits Still Far from Connecting Twitter to Tangible Activism.
- Diebold Unloads Beleaguered Voting Machine Division.
- Story on the internet too good to be true? Shocker.
- Social Media Anger Management Tips.
- TechCrunch and the New New Journalism.
- Friends, not editors, shape internet habits, via Nisha Chittal.
- Building a Facebook Fan Page – California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) Case Study.
- White Paper: Engaging the New Influencers.
- Strategic Blogging for Nonprofits.
- A Data Picture is Worth More Than 1,000 Words.
- How not to write headlines that will motivate donors. C.f. How NOT to Raise Money Online.
- Web Content is Really Hard to Write. E.pol concurs most wholeheartedly.
- Women in/and political blogging Redux.
- 3 Proven Ways to Make an Impact When Message Control Is Out of Your Hands.
- How to Run Advertising in Google’s Content Network.
- Political Consultants Wade Into Search Engine Ad Fight.
- Gurus Are Not Enough: A Call for Organizers and Organizing in Social Media.
- Eric Explains: XML.
- Cyber titans of Silicon Valley turning to politics.
- On the dangers of social media, part I: Are You a Twitter Oversharer? Beware, You Might Get Twaxed.
- On the dangers of social media, part II: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help.
- Japanese PM’s 80s pop tunes strike a chord with online fans. No word on whether they were written by Venusians.
- Which is faster at transferring data in South Africa — the internet, or a pigeon with a memory card taped to its leg?, via Noel Hidalgo. My money’s on the bird.
Still not done with your post-holiday procrastination? Travel back in time for more Quick Hits.
– cpd
September 8th, 2009
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If you didn’t have a chance to catch Wednesday’s FDH Lounge radio show, they’ll be posting the link soon, and I’ll let you know when you can swing on by the archives ’cause you oughta give it a listen. Host Rick Morris and I talked for at least half an hour, covering everything from Ted Kennedy to conspiracy theories and propaganda to health care policy around the world — all we needed were some robot/zombie references and we’d have hit just about everything of worth in this sweet wide universe.
One thing that made it particularly fun is that Rick and I disagree a ton politically (though we may be closer together on Eagles football), but we can still talk about issues and personalities reasonably and with good humor. In part, I think it’s because Rick is at heart a libertarian, and as long as I’ve known libertarians I’ve enjoyed hanging out with them.
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September 4th, 2009
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Voting for panel ideas for next Spring’s South By Southwest Conference/Festival ends tonight (Friday) at midnight Central Time, so now’s your last chance to ead over to the easy-to-use SXSW Panel Picker and give your thumbs-up to my submissions for the Interactive and Music conferences. Both presentations would be based on ideas in the Obama e-book, but the Interactive panel would focus on online marketing, promotion and brand-building, while the Music panel would look more at how bands and musicians can find and mobilize fans.
Also, be sure to check out Interactive panel ideas from Julie Germany, Lynn Stinson, Amanda Marcotte (note flame war in the comments), Julie Blitzer, Sarah Granger, Kyle McLellan, Mary McClelland and Meghan Warby, all of which look really interesting. But wait, there’s more! Allyson and the Frogloop Folks (hmmm, they should form a band) have linked over to a bunch of good politics- and nonprofit-related panel ideas, giving you even more opportunities to spread warm fuzzies to all. See you in Austin!
– cpd
September 4th, 2009
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Hey kids, plug in your hi-fi tonight and get ready for an audio extravaganza, ’cause e.politics is back on the radio! Internet radio that is, on the FDH Lounge broadcasting out of Ohio (hello Cleveland!). I’ll go on around 8:30 Eastern, with the crowd already warmed up by a rock and roller, the former Onion editor who wrote The Wrestler and Big Fan, and an actual pro wrestler — I’m not sure if we’re talking topic synergy or topic whiplash, but it’ll definitely be worth a listen.
Come 8:30, we’ll be discussing online politics, Ted Kennedy, the health care battle and of course a certain e-book that’s been flying off the shelves lately. Should be a hoot! Tune in live wherever fine audio streams are served, or check back later for the archive.
– cpd
September 2nd, 2009
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Also published on techPresident
Watching Obama’s online army creak into action on health care reform is painful, particularly for someone who wrote about the ruthless efficiency of his online campaign for president. The enemies may be somewhat different this time around, even if their tactics feel familiar, but the biggest gap is between Obama’s grassroots politicking then and now.
The ability of the townhallers and death panelists to grab the attention of the media and chattering class caught many by surprise, but that kind of surprise didn’t seem to matter so much to the Obamans a year ago. Remember Sarah Palin’s VP nomination acceptance speech? The next day, Obama’s fundraisers played their list like a musical instrument, ginning up more political donations in a 24-hour-period than anyone, ever.
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September 2nd, 2009
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Late-summer links, fresh off the grill.
- Update: Online politics leads to offline activism. In other news, the internet can be used to raise money! And promote issues! Plus, water is wet! Okay, okay, go straight to the source for the full story, which is that the demographics of online politics mirror those of real-world politics in the U.S.
- Update: Bloggers against Journalists, yet again: the strange case of Klein v Greenwald (be sure to check out this genius reader comment on Klein’s piece).
- Bloggers, Emailers pounce on Bob McDonnell in Virginia.
- Hutchison’s Search Engine Sneak. In Texas, politics remains a contact sport — even online.
- Does Florida’s Google Ad Flap Really Matter?
- US Dems fill inboxes with 419 scams, via Jon Henke. Better lock down that email port, kids.
- Bloggers Raise Funds For Public Option
- ActBlue hits $100 million in donations, while Fundraising Site ActBlue Is Top-Spending PAC
- Democrats unveil “GOP Translation Machine”, via tPrez.
- White House Takes New Media Missteps. C.f. White House Email Program Stumbles, and Conservatives Get in Their Kicks.
- Live by the Facebook, Die by the Facebook: New Ad Targets Palin’s Friends. C.f. Palin’s Facebook Megaphone: Big and Getting Bigger.
- Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor.
- Women Who Tech.
- TV Ads vs. Social Media.
- Blue State Digital Takes Over the World.
- Politweecs.
- 3121: The Social Network that’s Just For Congress.
- Cap And Trade Used To Build E-Mail Lists.
- The Social Media Revolution.
- 5 Under-The-Radar Marketing Bloggers You Should Read.
- Why online protests fail IRL.
- Five Tips to Ramp Up Your Nonprofit’s Fan Pages.
- Best Practices for Mass Emailing.
- Why there will never be an Obama in Europe? (Take with a sizable grain of salt.)
- Republican New Media Caucus Sets Up Shop. C.f.
Are Congressional “New Media” Clubs Missing the Point?
- Targeting Barack Obama via email — to stop him picking on video games.
- Blogging as Political Action.
- 9 YouTube Features You May Not Know About, plus How to Get More Views for Your Video.
- Transparency Site Lets Idahoans Track State Spending.
- The Message Is the Medium: Learning from Obama’s Ubiquity.
- Macaca Day 2009: From George Allen to Claire McCaskill, Video Trackers to Town Haters.
- ACORN And Conservative Paranoia . C.f. Racism Is the Prime Cause for Debunked Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory (via Sarah Conner), In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition: Birthers, Town Hall Hecklers and the Return of Right-Wing Rage, and Lincoln’s Prophecy for the GOP.
- Birthers of a Nation: How the Obama “Birth Certificate” Issue is Playing Online.
- It’ll take a lot more than the internet to change China, via Sara Lai Stirland.
- Astroturf: Exposing the Fake Grassroots. Nice widget! C.f. Astroturf Doesn’t Have Roots, But Do Protests?
- The “future” of news will be social, ultra local.
- Seattle Times sez, bloggers need to watch what they say, via Burt Edwards.
- Liberal bloggers admit conservatives have upper hand on Twitter, via David All. But wait, Dems strike back!
- Tapping the Twitterverse (in California).
- What the Business Sector Can Learn from Nonprofits.
- The Trouble with Slacktivism.
- Arianna Huffington Isn’t Bullish On Paid Content.
- 1in10: A case study in social media campaigning from Amnesty UK.
- Gamal Mubarak Wants to be Your Facebook Friend, via Nisha Chittal.
- Bloggers v Mainstream Media, Round 1362.
- Controllers bid farewell to long-lived Ulysses probe.
- The biologist who broke the Berlin Wall.
- Physics “humor.”
– cpd
September 1st, 2009
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