e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — December 22, 2009

Clearing a cache very full of stories — we’ll catch up with the online advocacy blogs next time around.

• Conservative blogger wishes death on Bobby Byrd, joins Sen. Coburn in keeping it classy.
• Repubs, Dems scrub YouTube of online ads about party-switching Congressmember.
• MoveOn comes out against Senate deal, while the Obama mega-list is tapped to help push health care across finish line.
• When bloggers attack: Jane Hamsher has some choice words for Hadassah Leiberman, or, The anti-feminist attack on Hadassah Lieberman. C.f. MoveOn raises $1M from Lieberman ad.
• SkyGrabber: the $26 software used by insurgents to hack into US drones.
• Why I Parted Ways with the Right. A conservative blogger bails.
• Al Gore, the Internet and the Future of American Politics.
• China Imposes New Internet Controls. This is starting to sound like a rerun. C.f. The Battle for Press Freedom Moves Online.
• Italians organizing online against Berlusconi. What to do when the other guy owns the TV coverage, quite literally.
• Twitter-organized snowball fight + short-fused cop = bad scene on U Street..
• Organizing for Socialism. A conservative looks at OFA and MyBarackObama.com.
• Charities Cry Foul on Chase Facebook Charitable Giving Contest.
• As Obama’s Poll Numbers Fall, Criticism of Multitasking Rises. Terrible headline, but an interesting take on an internet effect.
• In Animated Videos, News and Guesswork Mix. No footage? Fake it!
• Internet Threat Desk at Homeland Security.
• Leveraging the Internet to Target Voters in 2010.
• 10 tactics that will dominate digital in 2010.
• Settlement reached in suit over missing White House e-mails.
• With The Rise of Social Media, No Privacy for Tiger Woods. C.f. Text Messages: Digital Lipstick on the Collar and Love Is Fleeting. A Text Message Is Forever.
• Terrorist recruiters leverage the Web.
• The White House Takes On Politico.
• (UK) Blogger profile — Bryony King.
• Please Tweet This Afternoon on ABC. Twitter + TV news = new advocacy target.
• Even the soybean farmers are into online advocacy.
• Introducing the Capitol Hill Tweet Watch Report.
• Jordanian Queen calls on online world to unite on behalf of 75 million out-of-school children.
• Zero For Thirty-One: Lessons From the Loss in Maine.
• Most Googled Senators. C.f. Political Google.
• AOL’s Latest Dumb Business Plan: Write stories based on search terms, mimic universe’s worst news site.
• Arlington (TN) mayor fires at Obama online: Tags president as a Muslim on Facebook. Best part: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” figures heavily in his reasoning.
• Can Anyone Stop Facebook? Twitter couldn’t. Google couldn’t…. C.f. Mapping Facebook’s Recent Global Growth Versus Rivals.
• The Twitter Holdouts: Why is more than half of Congress still not on Twitter?. Lack of filibuster option, no doubt.
• No Pick-Up In Twitter’s U.S. Traffic In November. Actually, traffic looks flat since June.
• More Sarah Palin//Facebook fun, plus Birthers.
• New York State marriage debate produces a YouTube star. C.f. Online Advocacy Masterclass: Sen Diane Savino on the NY Senate Floor.
• Join a Facebook Group and Save the World! Maybe.
• The Future of Mobile is Local — Look at Yelp.
• Bob McDonnell’s Online Advertising.
• Why Twitter is the Most Popular Word of 2009.
• The new leadership style of enterprise 2.0.
• Democracy is Online. Blast from the past! A Steven Clift paper from 1998.
• With Lure of Cash, M.I.T. Group Builds a Balloon-Finding Team to Take Pentagon Prize . C.f. DARPA Challenge Competitors Already Mobilizing Social Networks.
• You’ll buy more from web ads that know how you think .
• Why kids self-destruct with cell phones and online.
• How to Kill a Great Idea. Why Friendster failed.
• The Circular Logic of the Universe. Dude, whoa.
• Why Does Google Search Love Examiner.com?
• Washington Post Story Lab blog: A story comes to life.
• Geeking out over the Internet, e.politics, and web television.
• Supreme Court Takes Texting Case.
• How To Tell Your VoteBuilders From Your MyBOs, Your Catalists From Your VANs. Oldie but goodie.
• Shocking news: The world is stable!
• 5 Strategies for Online Donations and Online Advocacy.
• 10 Top Tips for Social Media Advocacy.
• Governor O’Malley talks jobs at online town hall.
• Powering a Green Planet: Sustainable Energy, Made Interactive. Cool way to show info, and see also this poll.
• NASA Uses Algae to Turn Sewage Into Fuel. Yum.
• Films of the decade: “Children of Men”.
• But what about the self-employed? Why your boss is incompetent: The Peter principle says people get promoted until they reach the level of their own incompetence — now mathematics proves it.
• Welcome To The Errordome. Post misunderstands Public Enemy, hilarity ensues (be sure to read the comments).
• Slide Show: 10 Views of Earth from the Moon, Mars and Beyond. Another cool image: Sunlight glints off liquid (hydrocarbon) lake on Saturn’s moon Titan.
• Mom, get your kleenex: Woman abandoned in Fairfax as a baby finds her rescuers. Via the ‘net, natch.
• And finally, Pair Find Stranger Asleep on Couch Cuddling a Bear.

– cpd

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Introducing Hope+, a New Online Social Network and Global Advocacy Tool

Organizing For America may own Obama’s supporter list (and be looking for people to help nurture it), but they’re not the only ones trying to follow his campaign’s example and connect people online to help change the world. Hope+ is a new site (currently in beta) that aims to build relationships between people around the world and channel members toward specific projects that need their help. It’s a similar model to that of Change.org, but focused more on the developing world, where a little support can often take projects a long way.

Like any socnet, the site will obviously live and die based on whether it can build a critical mass of users, a process that’s just beginning in this case. Swing by and check it out; I just joined. It’ll be fascinating to see where this goes!

– cpd

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Organizing For America Wants You! (If You Write Good Emails)

This just in from OFA, the organization that has custody of the magic Obama supporter list:

Housed at the Democratic National Committee, the DNC/OFA are hiring email campaigners. Email campaigners are responsible for planning, writing, and executing grassroots campaigns to advance the President’s agenda for change. Campaigns will primarily be driven through email and web tools and use fundraising, citizen advocacy, and local organizing to achieve our goals.

Want to apply? Just bounce over to the listing on the OFA site and toss your hat into the ring. Good luck!

BTW, it’s good to see them actively recruiting email writers — it’s a sign that the list is going to be more active moving forward, something that some of us have been waiting for.

– cpd

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