e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Archive for February, 2010

The VAN Now Hosts Campaign Websites and Provides CRM Services to Dems

New addition to the “Winning in 2010″ discussion of website/CRM vendors — the Democratic Voter Activation Network (VAN) is now hosting campaign websites and providing CRM services to candidates, alongside such other Dem campaign packages such as Wired for Change/DLCCWeb. The VAN is much better known for its work behind the scenes providing voter-information databases to help candidates with phone-banking, block-walking and other grassroots outreach, but they’re now providing the additional site-hosting/mass-messaging services that most campaigns need.

This move adds to an array of integrated online campaign packages available to Democrats; Republican candidates seem to have access to such technological riches (they more often have to piece together a web presence using software and services from several vendors). Which R vendor will jump in and fill the gap? As a Dem, I can hope that the answer is, none of them…

– cpd

1 comment February 25th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Now Updated: How Candidates Can Use the Internet to Win in 2010

As promised, a new version of the recently released guide to using the internet to win elections in 2010 is now available, so download it today — don’t wait for the rush. Changes since the initial e-book version include plenty of detail edits and links to new articles, plus whole new sections on Google Ad surges and internet-enabled field organizing that reflect lessons of the Brown/Coakley race in Massachusetts. Cool!

Of course, please spread the word to your political contacts via all available channels, including but not limited to blogs, Facebook, Twitter, email, YouTube, Digg, IRC, smoke signals and semaphore. Thanks!

– cpd

Add comment February 24th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Slight Change in Plans

Hey y’all, disregard that earlier message about rewriting Online Politics 101 — that endeavor’s still in the hopper, but a quick update to How Candidates Can Use the Internet to Win in 2010 has taken precedence. Between RootsCamp this past weekend and some revealing articles about the Brown/Coakley race over the past month, lots of juicy new info has been flowing into the e.politics bunker of late, and the 2010 guide would really benefit from some additions. Look for that within the next couple of days, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise.

– cpd

Add comment February 22nd, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

An Early Peek at the Politics Online Conference

RootsCamp’s surely gonna rock this weekend, but it’s not the only great online politics event sitting on the horizon: be sure to head over to the all-new Politics Online Conference site (big improvement over the old layout, y’all) and check out the initial agenda. Lots o’ great topics, and a clear departure from some of the stuffier panel titles of past years. Nice work, guys! See you April 19th.

– cpd

Add comment February 19th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

“Call Me Barbara” — Carly Fiorina’s Microsite Adventures Continue, Painfully

Also published on The Huffington Post and techPresident

Not content to have started the “Demon Sheep” meme that gave such joy to so many earlier in the month, California’s Carly Fiorina decided to relaunch her “Call Me Barbara” microsite this week — said “relaunch” apparently consisting of a single Twitter post. But what the heck, it gives us a chance to tear the site to shreds with great glee and no little abandon.

First, just the facts (ma’am). The site’s raison d’être is to highlight incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer’s upbraiding of an Army general for repeatedly referring to her by the female honorific rather than as “Senator” during a hearing — pretty thin gruel for a scandal, though not Boxer’s best moment as an elected official. But thin gruel pretty well defines “Call Me Barbara,” a website that’s as sloppy as it is light on content.

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Add comment February 19th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Ready for RootsCamp?

Whoo hah! It’s time for one of my favorite events in the online politics world, the latest incarnation of RootsCamp. Drawing Democratic online political staff from around the country and “organized” on the fly in classic unconference style, it’ll no doubt focus on this year’s elections — a perfect opportunity to spread the word about a certain recent e.politics e-book (hint: look to the right). Plus, RootsCamp gathers a ton of really good folks to learn from, and I always walk away with pages of notes and a widened perspective. Should be great fun and mentally nutritious to boot.

P.S. Don’t forget the pre-party Friday night!

– cpd

1 comment February 18th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Quick Hits — February 17, 2010

Let’s keep this one to a manageable size and catch up with the advocacy blogs next time.

Update: @BarackObama, the president’s Twitter account, asks supporters to turn their icons into a jobs graph.
Recovery Act – Year One and Interactive Map: One Year After Recovery, plus Making Sure Everyone in America Has Seen that Pelosi Jobs Chart and For stimulus ads, Dems, GOP go high-tech. Finally, Stimulating Hypocrisy: 111 Lawmakers Block Recovery While Taking Credit For Its Success.
Sarah Palin Knocks Twitter, Calls It ‘Little Twittering Thing’, via Nisha Chittal.
Rubio Raises $720K In Moneybomb Fundraiser. C.f. GOP sends out fundraising e-mail — in Pelosi’s name.
Web Ad Plays Off Palin’s Hand Notes.
National Survey Finds Majority of Journalists Now Depend on Social Media for Story Research.
3 Reasons the Future of Your Nonprofit Depends on Social Media. C.f. Social Media Adoption By U.S. Small Businesses Doubles in a year and New Facebook Statistics Show Big Increase in Content Sharing, Local Business Pages.
Conversation on Blogs: It’s Mostly a Myth, via Amanda Chapel.
AdSafe: User-Generated Content Can Be Hazardous to Brands.
The Internet vs. Obama. Special Interest 3.0: Does online organizing make it harder to govern?
How digital ads helped turn CNN’s Lou Dobbs problem into a PR nightmare (more on this shortly).
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks. Though they may want a second opinion: War game reveals U.S. lacks cyber-crisis skills. C.f. Google’s Diplomatic Alliance With U.S. Carries Risks.
Hackers Hit Europe’s Carbon Market.
China Alarmed by Threat to Security From Cyberattacks, as Political hacktivists turn to web attacks.
Iran Takes Fight to Opposition Online.
Reuters acts responsibly; rightwing bloggers dazed and confused.
Few teenagers embracing Twitter, report finds. For once, the damn kids ARE staying off my lawn.
A face for politics: New study shows we can tell Democrats from Republicans in head shots.
Don’t Touch That Dial! A history of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook. Books are evil! And so’s everything else that transmits information, apparently.
G.O.P. Group to Promote Conservative Ideas. Modeled on the Center For American Progress and its direct outreach, including online.
Fundraising 2009 — was it good for you?
Needless Delays and Filibusters Run Amok: A Case Study. White House blog as bully pulpit. C.f. Adding More Twitter to the White House Press Mix.
Leveraging Love and Tech to Organize on Valentine’s Day: Online Tools for Progressive Clergy to Advocate for LGBT Community.
Japanese astronaut sends valentine via Twitter.
Student’s Facebook Tirade Against Teacher Is Protected Speech.
Time Spent on Facebook Is Soaring.
Number of Cell Phones Worldwide Hits 4.6B, via Infodiva.
3D images of the sun on your iphone.
GPS reaches battlefield artillery rockets (except that you still need to point them at the right target). C.f. U.S. curtails use of airstrikes in assault on Marja
7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress.
Thirteen Lessons from “Too Fat to Fly”: Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Air, as Southwest, Smith Clash Illustrates Blogs’ Marketing Role.
Key to victory — The (New Zealand) campaign in cyberspace.
Twitter etc and the (British) election: Is it worth the risk?.
Typos may earn Google $500m a year.
Help Apolinar Gonzales Save Idealist.org.
Facebook’s DC office introduction to Washington party (the e.politics invitation was apparently lost in the mail).
“Miss Me Yet?” Bush Merchandise a Hit Online. But only among those with very short memories.
If Kim Kardashian gets $10,000 a tweet, last week she made…
The improbable persistence of Ozzy Osbourne. Improbable? Only if you foolishly doubt the power of the Ozz.

– cpd

1 comment February 17th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Time to Update Online Politics 101

Here’s a quick President’s Day pledge — give me a week or three and I’ll get out a new version of Online Politics 101. Last updated in the summer of 2008, it’s getting a little long in the tooth, as a couple of readers have pointed out lately in the most gentle of fashions. A rewrite will have to compete with a few other priorities in the e.pol bunker, but let’s see what we can get done before the snow melts around here.

– cpd

Add comment February 15th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Up Close and Personal with Snowpackalypse Now; Plus, Boxless Has a Fan Page

Whew, talk about one hell of a week: the new day job heated up almost as fast as the weather cooled down, as DC smothered under the arrival of several feet of snow since Friday. Today was extra-fun, with blizzard-strength winds blowing so much powder that the snowplows had to sit it out for a while. Not e.politics, though — duty (and a sense of adventure) called. I was scheduled to be at a conference at the Capitol Hill Hyatt for a couple of hours this afternoon, and impressively enough, it was still on even though most of DC was shut down — they’d arrived between the big storms and just ran their show right on through. And when a Texan gives his word, a word has been given, especially if the trains are still running underground…it took an extra 45 minutes or so, but I got down to the Hill from Mt. Pleasant and have the photographic evidence to prove it. Excellent trip!

One other awful risk this week — it was time to learn to build and customize a Facebook Fan Page, so I used long-time e.politics associate Boxless as a guinea pig (guinea turtle?). Why the risk? He’s got so much charisma that who knows WHERE this might end, particularly since I listed him under the category “model.” Ladies beware, — his charms are as indisputable as they are inscrutable, and you’ll join his list of Fans at your own peril. Just look at those spots!

– cpd

Add comment February 10th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Scott Brown Used Google for Field Organizing, Not Just Advertising

Here’s one angle of the Brown campaign that hasn’t gotten much attention: Brown’s folks used free Google online tools to help organize grassroots voter outreach and to collect field data.

But Brown aides also used Google spreadsheets and forms to collect information from volunteers and supporters, essentially using the search engine’s products to create their own version of what Obama’s campaign team built for themselves during the 2008 election cycle. They had software on iPhones and BlackBerries that drew on their voter target list and used a volunteer’s GPS location to provide a list of which doors to knock on, a script for interactions with voters and a form to fill out responses, eliminating the need for paper get-out-the-vote walk sheets. On Election Day, they used Google Voice to run “voter fraud” hotlines, where supporters could call in to report any alleged chicanery by Democrats.

Brown’s reliance on Google advertising has been widely covered, but the grassroots organizing angle took place behind the scenes and was harder to spot. This aspect of his campaign can be just as much a model for future candidates, though, since it shows yet again how cheap or free online collaboration tools can help a shoestring operation punch far above its weight.

– cpd

3 comments February 4th, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Carly Fiorina Launches One Attack Site, Is Target of Another

Also published on HuffingtonPost and techPresident, and check out Christopher Beam’s piece on Slate.com for more of the Demon Sheep’s continuing adventures

Put this one in the “hoist with her own petard” category: in the same week that Republican ~~gubernatorial~~ senatorial candidate (and former H-P CEO) Carly Fiorina launches an attack site against party rival Tom Campbell (“a.k.a. Taxin’ Tom”), state Democrats put her squarely in their cross-hairs with an online hit-job of their own.

Fiorina’s FCINO.com (“Fiscal Conservatives In Name Only”) takes Campbell to task over the mortal sin of increasing taxes, featuring a very exciting wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing video that includes the Robot Sheep Of Doom shown in the image to the right (full video clip below). The site’s basically a one-pager, with a brief summary of the charges against the accused along with the clever extra of a “Report a [FCINO] Sighting”] button, of course matched with an equally prominent donations button.

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4 comments February 3rd, 2010 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

OMGGOPWTF.com Turns Republican Weirdness into Cash for Progressive Organizations

For a quick laugh and a chance to raise money for some good Lefties, but sure to head over to OMGGOPWTF.com. Here’s how the site works, according to Madeline Stanionis:

Each week, we post five questions about the latest conservative kookiness in the news. We invite people to take the quiz, and every correct answer will equal $0.10 for the featured progressive organization of the week. AKA conservative claptrap = lefty cash! Yay!

Good fun all around! And since they’ve raised hundreds to thousands of dollars for the chosen organizations, be sure to contact Heather Buchheim if yours might want to participate.