e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — May 10, 2011

May 10th, 2011

So THAT’S what a month’s worth of Quick Hits looks like.

• Gingrich to announce for president via Facebook and Twitter. Update: An appropriate response.
• Understanding the Staggering Spread of Keith Urbahn’s bin Laden Tweet and Bin Laden Killing Sets Twitter Record.
• Osama conspiracy theorists find a home on the web. Plus, The Osama Raid Situation Room meets Photoshop, and the collective genius of the internet is up to it.
• Barack Obama’s online army quietly gears up, and c.f. BarackObama.com 101 and Obama ’12 Has Its Digital Director. Plus, Barack Obama reelect’s first job: Reconnect, and How Obama Wins: The Strategy.
• DNC and Obama Spent Half Million Online This Year.
• GOP’s Digital Operations Not Ready for 2012, Insiders Say.
• Average pundit no better than a flipped coin (and significantly less valuable).
• Colbert (and friends) take John Kyl to task on Twitter.
• GOP Uses Wonky Videos to Push Budget Agenda, as Scott Brown Goes on Web Defensive Against League of Women Voters.
• Sarah Palin’s website sparks White House buzz. C.f. Why we need to take Michele Bachmann seriously. “And that following has been built, in part, by what is a relatively new phenomenon: Cable news and the Internet, which has enabled first- and second-term House members to enjoy a level of national visibility and celebrity that would have been unthinkable just a generation ago.”
• Romney’s announcement video a total snoozer.
• GOP presidential hopefuls try to defuse their ‘fatal flaws’, which are lovingly preserved on the internets.
• Democratic Consultant + Video Camera + South Carolina Tea Party Rally = Oy.
• Senators Prep For Online YouTube Video Debate.
• Why Location-Based Services Will be the Killer App of the 2012 Elections, via Alex Priest. (Color me skeptical.)
• The Obama Internet guru who wasn’t. Lies, damn lies, and total bullsh*t.
• How the DCCC “bought” media coverage with a few radio ads.
• The first Facebook skirmish of the 2012 election.
• Many College Facebook Users Say Web Advocacy Better Than In-Person. Note: the children are our future.
• Georgian woman cuts off web access to whole of Armenia while scavenging for copper, via Sarah Lai Stirland.
• Cisco to shutter Flip: What does this mean for PR and marketing pros? Alternative: Give Flip Cameras a New and Better Life
• Fighting the Mississippi Floods with Facebook.
• Announcing “Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits.” Pre-order now or regret it later.
• The Art of the Fundraising Video, and Inside the Hill: The Power of Online Video.
• White House Rolls Out Obama’s Immigration Speech with Hashtags and House Parties.
• Politicians Seek ‘New’ New Media for 2012 Run.
• NationalJournal Profiles Mindy Finn.
• Korea’s e-People wins U.N. Public Service Awards.
• Social Media Monitors Measure Singapore Election Buzz.
• Twitter CEO Goes to Washington, meets with senators, congressmen to discuss analytics service.
• The Wall Street Journal Launches a WikiLeaks Competitor, SafeHouse.
• Karl Rove’s own personal Wikileaks, and the internets now have More Pentagon Papers Donald Rumsfeld Doesn’t Want You to See.
• Japanese Youth Step Up In Earthquake Aftermath, using social media to organize themselves.
• How Nigerian voters, especially the young, are using technology to prove a point..
• Harry Potter fans organize online to save the world.
• Interactive Map: America’s Changing Demographics.
• Looking Down on Deforestation: Brazil Sharpens Its Eyes in the Sky to Snag Illegal Rainforest Loggers.
• Technologically-challenged MPs ridiculed online – Video (in New Zealand). Meanwhile, the ANC puts ward candidates online in South Africa.
• Detained Chinese artist a Twitter god.
• ‘Juvenoia,’ Part 1: Why Internet fear is overrated.
• Part II of Advocacy Live – Connecting Online Advocacy and Fundraising.
• Microsoft hosts an “applications for good” hackathon in DC.
• Content Fuels Social Media Interaction.
• How Joan Walsh ignited a Twitter race brawl. C.f. Everyone seems to think I’m at war with the wife of a famous novelist on Twitter. I don’t even use Twitter!
• As its Star Trek videos launch, Social Security tries to connect with younger citizens.
• Cancer charity tidies up Wikipedia.
• Bloggers File Class-Action Lawsuit Against Huffington, HuffPo, AOL. C.f. The unpaid writers’ lawsuit against the Huffington Post is bunk.
• (Global Online) Ad Market Recovering Despite Shocks in Japan, Middle East.
• Live Tweeting the Civil War: Showdown at Ft. Sumter.
• Obama’s debt speech, as a word cloud.
• As technology evolves, the (Texas) Senate starts to change, via Tprez. C.f. Hacking Small Town America: The Unexploited Market of Tyler, Texas, which is dangerously close to the hometown of e.politics.
• New Rules in India Tighten Limits on Online Speech. Meanwhile, China bans time travel (online).
• Social networking and energy conservation: What went wrong?
• Public Service Announcement to candidates: Renew your domain name.
• A history of advertising, from the POV of body-anxiety. “Listerine targeted men and women, but the phrase “often a bridesmaid but never a bride” was made famous by the company’s ads. In one 1925 image, a woman reads another woman’s wedding announcement with a troubled expression on her face. ‘Her case was really a pathetic one,’ the copy intones, describing the woman as nowhere near marriage ‘as her birthdays crept gradually toward that tragic thirty mark.’”
• A brief history of bombs.
• Three Cheap Tools to Measure Blogs and Social Media.
• Politico helpfully illustrates depressing absurdity of current news cycle.
• 5 fantastic examples of interactive video.
• How to enchant customers, audiences, and viewers.
• Despicable Them: Rising Above a Rotten Reputation, A situation with which e.politics has a great deal of experience.
• Judge Throws Out Koch Satirical Site Case.
• Video: Redistricting Spells Danger for Democrats in 2012.
• Obama’s Facebook “Townhall”: What Exactly Was That?
• 50,000 Nonprofits on Twitter!
• Hot New Trend: Posting The Data Apple Secretly Collected On You.
• Iran says second cyber attack hits country.
• True or False: “Digital revolutions are bad news for autocrats.”.
• Is Capitol Hill tuning out social media? A response to Social media not so hot on the Hill.
• Group Texting: Useful or Hype?
• Wikipedia’s “Macaca” Problem.
• Limits of (Russian) e-politics: Why Alexey Navalny won’t win an election anytime soon.
• Welcome to the Brave New World of Persuasion Profiling.
• Chuck Norris Plagiarizes Hatred of Muslims in his online column. Say it ain’t so!
• Adults scarred by sex ed website. “Alarmed lawmakers are trying to shutter MariaTalks.org for its crude teen slang.”
• The New Media ToolKit. “This curated collection of online tools, tutorials and resources is designed to help nonprofits and ethnic and community news organizations navigate the often intimidating and ever-evolving new media landscape,” via Margot Friedman.
• The shortcomings of Facebook “likes”.
• Blog Carnival on Fostering Nonprofit Innovation.
• Tip: Integrate New Media and Field for events.
• How can we use #PrivChat to press for #privacy rights?
• AP falls for fake press release.
• Enlisting cats in the budget wars. Vote right, and the bedspread lives.
• Netflix Declares Peak DVD.
• Retailers Retool Sites to Ease Mobile Shopping.
• An Earth Day pep talk.
• Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing.
• Digging For Votes: An Analysis Of 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Use Of New Media (some poor bastard’s thesis).
• Fugazi to Create Website With Every Show They’ve Ever Played. Finally, a good use for digital technology.
• David Hobby: A Baltimore Sun photographer who took a buyout, started a blog, and changed the photography business forever.
• It’s a Small World After All: A slide show of aerial photography, from pigeon-mounted cameras to Apollo 17 and beyond. C.f. 50 years of photos of human spaceflight (note: Twitter mentioned), and a cool space shuttle infographic.
• Visualizing Landscapes: In the Terrain of Water. A little something for the design nerds.
• The Greatest Musical Satirists of Their Generation: The rude, hilarious, surprisingly sweet musical canon of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. C.f. Using the web to build a worldwide choir.
• Finally, a DIY machine shop: Four essential tools you can build from recycled parts. A write-up of the latest project from A Loyal Reader (nice work, Dad!).

– cpd