Archive for January, 2010
Hi folks, e.politics has temporarily relocated to Salt Lake City, camping out in a swankalicious hotel with a great view of the mountains (a nice change from sleeping on a park bench, believe you me). The goal, besides experiencing how The Other Half lives, is to help with an online politics training for Utah elected officials, along with David All and several other folks knowledgeable in the field.
One excellent bonus — we get to attend the Altitude Design Summit and hang out in the local design scene for a day or two, which should be both educational and fun all around. Trust me, I’ll take good notes during the training and at the conference and write up the juicy bits for all to enjoy. See y’all back in DC on Saturday — after which, I’ll have some very welcome additional news to pass along…
– cpd
January 20th, 2010
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Republican Scott Brown didn’t have much when he started running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, but he did have himself and the internet:
The fundamental dynamic of the race fell in place months ago, when Brown set off in a pickup truck for the only campaign the Republican could afford: retail, door-to-door. The campaign was so strapped for cash that aides described the $40,000 spent in the primary as a major hit. Brown could not afford to mail out absentee ballots, often so crucial in a close race. “So our program consists of e-mail and Facebook and Twitter,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a campaign official.
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January 18th, 2010
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Have a cell phone and want to help Haiti? It’s easy — just Text HAITI to the short-code 90999 and $10 will go to Red Cross and be billed to your account. Within 30 hours of launching the campaign, the Red Cross had already raised over $3 million and set a record for donations via SMS. Is this the beginning of a revolution in electronic fundraising?
The advantages of raising money this way are obvious: people’s phones are usually close at hand, meaning that we can move immediately to convert sympathy into action. And unlike most other forms of electronic donations, texting to a short code doesn’t require a credit card or even a bank account (a bartender friend of mine has neither but was still able to send in his $10).
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January 17th, 2010
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Be sure to check out Kate Harding’s recent Salon.com take on S.E. Cupp, a rising star in the right-wing punditosphere — and a non-blonde atheist, which makes her a bit of an outlier and a more interesting character than most of the cookie-cuttter talking heads that dominate Fox News. The most funnest part? Harding’s first paragraph relies on extensive quotes and paraphrases from Monday’s e.politics review of Tucker Carlson’s new “Daily Caller” site, including the excellent contributions by Josh Nelson (“a cross between ‘Politico, Drudge and the NY Post’”) and Roxanne Cooper (“Pajamas Media meets The Daily Beast”).
Kate links to the Huffington Post version of the article, which shows why it’s a good idea to publish articles like this one far and wide — you never know where someone’s going to find you. And while this means that Epolitics.com itself isn’t getting a direct traffic boost (or any Google Juice) out of the link, a quote in a top-level site like Salon never hurts. Very cool all around.
– cpd
January 17th, 2010
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Looking for something substantive to read over the three-day weekend? Check out Ari Melber’s new analysis of Organizing For America, the successor to the Obama campaign’s grassroots list, published over at tPrez and produced in association with Personal Democracy Forum. Ari’s done a terrific job of interviewing stakeholders involved in the evolution of the Obama organizing machine, including OFA members themselves and Congressional staff who’ve been targets of their activism.
In particular, Ari highlights the distinct differences between this “permanent field campaign” and the traditional activities of political parties between elections. I’m only partway through digesting the report, but this section of the conclusion nails the long-run implications:
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January 15th, 2010
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Earlier in the week, we saw how Charles Lenchner is using the document hosting/distribution site Posterus to help track MoveOn.org emails, and already we get to check out another cool advocacy-related way to put the site to use, in this case by Josh Levy (formerly of tPrez) and the folks at Free Press:
Over the past few days, we’ve been scouring the FCC docket on Net Neutrality looking for quotes from everyday people that illustrate the need for an open Internet.
Last night, we built an easy way to post those quotes in public. We’re now posting our favorite pro-NN quotes at http://fccdocket.posterous.com. They’re automatically retweeted via the Free Press Twitter account, with the hashtags #netneutrality and #docket, to get them to as many people as possible.
This way, people can follow and retweet as we uncover good stories. It’s just getting started, but it’s already getting some traction. Check it out.
Neato! Build the tools, and someone in the advocacy community will give ‘em a try. What’s next?
– cpd
January 15th, 2010
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Step back, this is gonna be a big one — with some amazing articles.
- Haiti Quake LiveBlog: LiveStream key news source; World Vision grabs Google Ad; PicFog live images. C.f. Red Cross Utilizes Text Messaging for Aid After Haiti Quake, Red Cross’ Communications Innovation in Haiti Disaster Relief Effort, Texts Raise $1.2 Million for Haiti, In Aftermath of Haiti Earthquake, Reports and Donation Appeals Flood YouTube, and Haiti and the (Blog) Politics of Disaster. Finally, Three ways to help Haiti.
- Google threatens to leave China after attacks on activists’ e-mail. C.f. Google May Exit China After Ending Self-Censorship, Google’s Threat Echoed Everywhere Except China, Timeline: Google’s Rocky Road Into China, Q+A: What’s Driving China’s Latest Web Crackdown, What’s at Stake With Google’s Threat to Withdraw From China? and Google v. Baidu: It’s Not Just about China. From the horse’s mouth: A new approach to China.
- The Capitol Hill Twitterverse.
- The Supreme Court blacks out the YouTubing of the gay-marriage trial.
- [Republican] Scott Brown’s [Massachusetts] money bomb, as the Race to Replace Kennedy Gives OFA an Opening. C.f. OFA Under Fire.
- Charlie Crist’s Blocked Videos.
- How Much to Spend Online, and Other Tips from the McDonnell Campaign.
- On “Bloody Ashura,” Iran’s Wired Opposition Hits Refresh.
- Why You Need to Download the Real Time Congress App for iPhone now. C.f. Three iPhone Apps that Every Nonprofit Needs to Know About, A Couple of Do-Good iPhone Apps, (Candidate) Chuck DeVore iPhone App Review, and Mobile Apps Economy: A View On South Africa.
- My dad really likes this site — digs the usability and function.
- How can we counter educated, eloquent, well-connected Islamists?
- Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes.
- CIA Bomber Got His Start as a Jihadist Troll. C.f. CIA bomber as “cyber activist”, via Slate.
- The Mind of the Underpants Bomber, as seen through his online posts.
- Hoekstra Opponents Register PeteHoekstra.com, via Henry Coppola.
- What the Sunday Shows Need is a New Media Makeover. Nice work, Nisha!
- Going nuts over Facebook in The Great White North: Misplaced Doubts About Facebook Advocacy, Harper underestimates Facebook at his own peril and Facebook “Activism”. More news from Canadia: End of The Beaver (culture magazine changes its name; TeaBaggers next?), via A Reader Who Had Rather Not Be Named.
- 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook.
- Race and Social Network Sites: Putting Facebook’s Data in Context.
- [Conservative] Blogger Charles Johnson Got Threats After Breaking With the Right, and Relocated.
- Think-Tanks and the Reporters Who Heart Them.
- Illinois Political Campaigns Turning to New Media, via this guy C.f. New technology no “political silver bullet” in South Carolina and NJ Governor’s Race Yielded Small Online Spends.
- Fall Of The Republic – The Presidency of Barack H. Obama. Perhaps a bit over-done?
- Lowlights of a Downer Year, by Dave Barry. C.f. This Modern World’s 2009 Takedown.
- The Year That Was 2009, Texas Political (Online) Videos Edition, plus Top 20 Social Media News Stories of 2009.
- Best (Issue) Campaigns of 2009.
- The best viral video of the decade, and Atomic dogs: The making of an internet sensation.
- How Big Is Your Audience? Kind of a personal question, dontcha think?
- Raytheon adapts Sidewinder for air-to-ground mission. Random news from the world of missilery.
- New U.S. Foreign Policy: Building Social Networks.
- What Pepsi Ditching the Super Bowl Signals for Online Brand Advertising. C.f. Social Marketing Gone Awry: Pepsi Refresh Needs To Refresh Its Security Settings.
- Interactive strategies that will flourish (or flop) in 2010.
- Casey Johnson’s grief tweets.
- Arianna Huffington’s latest online crusade, plus a critique.
- Transitioning to a digital news world.
- Top 10 Recommendations from a New Media Manager.
- When journalists go native on the Net.
- Rhett & Link Turn ‘Local Commercials’ Into Internet Love.
- Blogger’s Twitter Account Implicated in TSA Leak Hunt, while TSA Withdraws Subpoenas Against Bloggers.
- China Blocks Wired.com With ‘Great Firewall’.
- Did the RNC Launch a URL Shortener? Turns out, nope.
- The Madness of Crowds and an Internet Delusion.
- Matrix: Breakdown of Advocacy Marketing.
- Vote Now: Send a YouTube Activist to Davos to Meet with World Leaders.
- The Art of Retweet Birthday Party: Enlist the Help of Your Top Retweeters.
- Facebook to Surpass MySpace in Ad Revenue Sooner than Expected, as YouTube Helps Vevo Overtake MySpace Music In The U.S., Friendster Strikes Deal With Yahoo Southeast Asia, and MySpace Replaces Embedded Imeem Playlists With Ads.
- Listening Posts: The Six Free Listening Tools You Cannot Do Without.
- (fake) McCain and Obama Pound Each Other on Twitter.
- Study: How British MPs Really Feel About the Web.
- Leveraging Social Media for Online Advocacy.
- Web 2.0 Managed News?
- Is Your Nonprofit Ready for Facebook Currency?
- Guides to Sharing Content via Social Networks.
- Political Campaign Tweets: Twitter, Candidates & Elections.
- The Ideal Internet Candidate?
- Why You Shouldn’t Accept Every Facebook Friend Request.
- How to Avoid a Facebook Photo Tagging Fiasco.
- Russia Plans to Save Earth From Rogue Asteroid; ‘No Nuclear Explosions,’ Space Chief Promises. This won’t end well.
- Barack Obama’s Facebook Feed: Christmas, health care, and what’s next for the underpants bomber.
- Dig this reader addition to a comment thread: apparent sizes of the planets when seen from Earth.
- Non-random fact of the day: Divorce Rate Higher in States that Ban Gay Marriage. Hey gays, no need to keep trying to undermine the institution of marriage — straight people have that totally covered.
- “Real improvements in human societies almost always come inch-by-inch, without any grand map of a perfect world. If you demand perfection, you can only be disappointed; if you demand improvement, you can succeed — and build enough hope to fight another day.” (The Casanova of Causes).
- “Time to state the obvious: Never before in the history of our country have there been more outlets for really stupid people with a lot to say. Blogs, Twitter, radio shows, talk shows, news shows — a million and one blowhards pile on to the same story du jour, and our confederacy of dunces is dumber and louder than ever.” (Palin: Crazy like a Fox News pundit).
– cpd
January 14th, 2010
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Good news! One of my favorite events in the political space is coming to DC on February 20th, and you should join on in — but only if you’re on the Lefty side (sorry, Republican friends and readers!).
RootsCamp is a unique opportunity to take a step back and meet organizers in all fields to talk about successes and lessons learned. We want you to be part of the discussion at RootsCamp, engage other progressive organizers in meaningful ways, and gain new insights. We’ll gather together on February 20-21 in Washington, DC, to bring organizers together across issue areas to share successes and failures in an open space where you set the agenda.
The conversation will be fast-paced and engaging, and will cover all aspects of organizing work — including new media, field, and data/technology. Come with your organizing challenges, leave with solutions that will make your organizing stronger, and create a network of new friends committed to growing our movement.
RootsCamp really is a tremendous chance to learn techniques and tactics from people on the proverbial front lines of politics, and a whole lot of fun to boot. Plus, several of my tight friends in the online politics space were originally RootsCamp connections, and you never know who’ll be next. Sign up now!
– cpd
January 13th, 2010
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My friend Charles Lenchner has a fascinating new obsession — he’s keeping track of advocacy emails from MoveOn.org and publishing them for the larger advocacy community to check out. The goal? To study an unusually effective list and get an idea of their tactics over time, including subject lines, content, narrative arcs and all of the other elements that go into a successful email campaign.
Of course, it’s almost impossible to get a full picture from the vantage point of a single recipient because MoveOn segments its list, sending different messages to different people depending on their interests, demographics, location or past actions on behalf of the organization (anyone trying to follow the Obama campaign’s email outreach in 2008 had the same problem). Still, Charles’s project has the potential to be a great resource for the broader advocacy community and a learning tool for all of us struggling to break through the inbox clutter and get our messages read. Nice work!
– cpd
January 12th, 2010
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New website alert! Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller officially launched this week, taking its place alongside Politico, HuffingtonPost, Slate, Salon and a host of internet publications fighting for political eyeballs and online ad revenue. The early verdict? Nice work on the business front (the site’s initial advertising inventory is apparently sold out), but that situation’s unlikely to last unless this sucker ups its ante on the content front.
For starters, the front page seems to feature quite a few stories until you realize that everything NOT labeled “The DC Exclusive” is a reprint/teaser from some other publication. Even several of the “Exclusive” stories are essentially derivative: “Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel admits weak messaging on health care from White House” does little more than quote his appearance on an MSNBC show, while “Liberal Ezra Klein and conservative George Will: Harry Reid wasn’t wrong” is an even better example of copy/paste substituting for actual journalism.
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January 11th, 2010
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Also published on The Huffington Post and techPresident
Are Democrats doomed in 2010, with an energized Republican Party capitalizing on a backlash against a young president’s ambitious agenda to seize control of Congress a la 1994? Not likely — particularly if Democratic candidates learn from the Obama campaign and use the internet to help make sure that their supporters are the ones who show up to vote in November.
First, the background: the party of the president in office essentially always loses seats in the mid-term elections (2002 was a post-9/11 one-off), a tendency likely to be reinforced in 2010 by the fact that so many Democrats rode the Obama wave to win marginal districts in ’08. Plus, this year many progressive activists are turned off by what they perceive to be a failed healthcare reform bill, while others oppose Obama’s expansion of the war in Afghanistan. Add into the mix on the other side a fired-up movement of Tea Partiers and Sarah Palin fans and you have what looks like the recipe for a massive Democratic defeat in eleven months.
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January 7th, 2010
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