Posts filed under 'Cell Phones'
- Update: The Obama Camp Dials It Forward. Post-primary conference call plays it subtle, while all is well in ClintonLand.
- McCain Launches Spanish-Language Website. Wonder how the Minutemen (no, not THE Minutemen) will feel about THAT one?
- Bury bad news with online press releases. Somebody forward this to Hillary Clinton. C.f. Craigslist Ad Of The Day.
- The critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin. From gin to sitcoms to lolcats, via Henry Copeland.
- Bunches o’ Studies and Stats on Nonprofit Marketing.
- How-To: 10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast.
- Two new guides to presidential online advertising from Clickz, Online Presidential Display Ads Leading to the 2008 Primaries and All Primaries Are Local: 2008 Presidential Campaigns Buy Local Online.
- The Tale of the E-mail. Hillary and Barack’s constrasting post-Indiana/NC notes. C.f. She’s Still In, And She’s Still In To Win.
- Pew Study Confirms Cell Phones Rule.
- Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth.
- Right now, I’m watching the President of the Utah State Senate on my desktop. Julie, you had me at “desktop.”
- Google Reader is becoming more of a social networking application.
- Twitter Post Rescues Jailed Journalist, but Egyptians ignore Facebook call.
- How the White House lost 5 million e-mails.
- Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao’s Poem Follows Olympic Torch’s Route Online.
- Matt Stoller on how liberals rule the web, and The Baltimore Sun on how Matt and friends raised 400K for Donna Edwards. Via tPrez.
- Phantom Obama Vote Appears on NJ Voting Machine.
- Web Ads from Left and Right Advocacy Groups Signal More to Come.
- Media criticism in context: “Yes, it would be nice if the press spent less time on inanities and more time on how candidates planned to actually run the country. But this view of the media is just too simplistic.” Via Salon.
- North Carolina Radio Host Reports Anti-Obama Chain E-Mail Distortion As Fact. C.f. Pennebaker: Clip Doctored, about the Mickey Kantor video distortion. (also via tPrez).
- Union-organizing emails get employees of a social networking site fired! Sent around by Michael Whitney.
- Clinton’s and McCain’s Gasoline Tax Holiday Reimagined as a Phishing Scam.
- National Intelligence Agency Breaks Out RSS Feed.
- 6% are Natural Born Clickers.
- Twitter frenzy! Using Twitter for Your Organization, Use TwitterFone For Easy Voice-To-Text On Twitter, and Political Junkies Congregate and Comment on Election Results Through Twitter. Plus, 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence and The Bivings Group Does Twitter.
- Yes, a Montana cattle ranch is using banner ads combined with search ads to sell their premium beef via the internet.
- 10 Valuable Tips for Shooting Web Video. Via Frogloop.
- Google, YouTube and the city of New Orleans try to host their own presidential forum. Via Mike Allen.
- Video: how primary-season attacks have been amplified in the general election.
- FBI Targets Internet Archive With Secret ‘National Security Letter,’ Loses.
- Harold vs. Markos. Not everyone wants a unified Dem ticket.
- META Keywords are Legally Dead.
- Be very afraid: Engineers find ‘missing link’ of electronics. Robots take next step toward world domination.
- A minute and a half with Shana Glickfield…is enough to spark any man’s dreams.
- Clone-tool war on nipples continues. Complete with tragic casualty figures.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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- Adding Video to Turn Dead-End ‘Thank You’ Pages Into Viral Marketing Campaigns. The Obama campaign finds yet another sweet spot for online recruiting.
- The Post Is Having A Rough Day. Spam attack!
- Reluctantly, a Daily Stops Its Presses, Living Online.
- Rev. Wright Baits the Soundbiters.
- The Internet Goes Green. The growth of the envirosphere, via Micropersuasion.
- Space war would leave destructive legacy.
- McCain: It’s “clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.” Fruits of a blogger conference call.
- Google Earth Outreach Aides U.N. Track Refugees and Save Lives.
- Beyond Bittergate, Barack Yields Success to His Supporters.
- Obama’s Database Will Make Him the Power Broker. Another persistent political following! “Like Mussolini/ And Kennedy…”
- The chummy relationship of campaign professionals and journalists in Washington. Or, getting scolded for making fun of McCain on Facebook.
- Schism Grows Between Obama and Liberal Bloggers.
- Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts?
- Subject Line, ‘From’ Address Crucial to Email Marketing.
- Who Stole the Plans for iRobot’s Battle Bots?
- YouTube vid inspires Obamacrombie t-shirts.
- Facebook as Weekly Evil.
- McCain on FriendFeed: “Considering the McCain campaign’s sometimes uneven online strategy, this is a step in the right direction.”
- Social Applications Dominate the Web.
- Gays, Lesbians More Receptive to Blog Ads than Heterosexuals.
- An overview of web mining in societal benefit areas.
- Top 10 Wireless Marketing Mistakes.
- 3 Top Tips to Improve Your Online Writing.
- Henry Copeland of Blogads: “As the social media winter looms, the winners will be the folks with strong relationships, low overheads, a strong commitment on innovation rather than coat-tail riding, and, most of all, a indelible passion for the business. We’re looking forward to seeing you after the bust.”
- Sorry Disney, But You’re Kind of a Skank Factory.
- DNC’s national cable ad buy. The RNC’s not so hot about it.
- Web Site Blames Sen. McConnell for Quorum-less FEC.
- The Twitter Disconnect. An introduction and how-to. Also, glimpse a hardcore Twitter-using life.
- Things Really Were Different Before Clinton-Obama. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin…into the future.
- Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall? HAL 9000 or black squirrels?
– cpd
April 28th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
As the Democratic primary process grinds on, the candidates’ supporters are using just about every electronic tool available to swing the race their way. Two cases in point from the Obama side: super.del.egates.us is a wiki-based contact list for voters to use to reach the precious unpledged delegates to the Democratic Convention, while Yrmomma4obama aims to help young voters (and those too young to vote themselves) to use text messages to persuade their friends and family to jump on the Obama bandwagon.
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April 27th, 2008
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- Trust in Peers Trumps the “A-List,” Study Finds. Definite implications for political marketing.
- Act Blue’s Record Take. They’re raking it in for candidates.
- Online Call Tools and the 2008 Campaign.
- Detroit Mayor Is Charged With Eight Felonies. Much to his surprise, text messages are stored somewhere. C.f., TXTmob Subpoena Shows the Hazards of Using Technology to Protest.
- French President Caught Monitoring Blogs: Mon Dieu!
- Voter Relationship Management: The Constituent Is the Customer. A look at the available tools, from the point of view of business CRM.
- With the Internet Comes a New Political ‘Clickocracy’. Jose Antonio Vargas’s new gig, writing think pieces (nice work if you can get it).
- In 2008 campaign, the Internet packs a powerful political punch. Frank Davies overview piece.
- Kenya: What a laptop and a video camera can do.
- Calling all women who tech and talk. Regular e.pol reader Jeanette Russell says, “Hey Ladies!”
- Local bandit eludes Indian police AND Google Earth. But he still can’t get his mom elected.
- Broad Concerns About Internet Voting. Guys are worried, too.
- “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has finally figured out how to raise funds on the Internet”. But still, a lot less than Obama.
- Chinese Authorities Place ‘Wanted’ Posters For Tibetan Rioters On Web Portals. Also, China Destroys Tibet’s Sacred Environment. When wrecking your own just isn’t enough.
- Over 1.3 Million Petition Signatures in 10 Days against Chinese actions in Tibet. China to petition-signers — um, yeah, we’ll get right on that.
- Magic Spy Smart Phone.
- Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Bets ‘Wikipedia’ Approach Will Transform Congress.
- McCain Girls Are Your New Jalopy. And more than a little hard on the ears.
- Raffle craze strikes innocent presidential candidates.
- Republican videos attack congressional democrats.
- The Press and Political New Media.
- Obama Utilizes Internet for Success.
- Cuba Lifts Restrictions On Personal Cellphones.
- Citizen Huff: How Arianna became the Matt Drudge of the Left.
- Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate.
- Blogger’s Rights, via Burt Edwards.
- Website changes political climate. Reaching the young online.
- The Message Box: the Zone to Stay on Message. Fun with diagrams.
- Color-Coded Threat Level System In New Colors for Spring!
- Clinton’s Wiki-Warrior.
- Air America Host Suspended for Clinton Remarks. YouTube strikes again.
- Clinton Floats Delegate (Online) Petition.
- Obama inspires an online art explosion. “The Web has become a rich canvas for artists and candidates who know how to connect digitally.”
- Micha Sifry gets the Download from Joe Trippi.
- Democratic Lawmaker Vouches for Bush Administration’s Secret Plan to End Cyber War. See also DDoS Packets are Two Percent of Net Traffic, Report Says.
- Ed Markey’s Subcommittee has hearing on Virtual Worlds. He really looks stunning in that WoW Orc outfit.
- Latest sign of the impending Apocalypse: New Kids on the Block are reuniting.
- Science Link of the Day: “There you have it: the world’s most sensitive eyes allow them to be simple! And smash things! And it’s worked for 400 million years.”
– cpd
April 3rd, 2008
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- Update: Primary Season Signals Adoption of Online Ads by Political Campaigns. “Not only are those ads relatively inexpensive; they’ve allowed often cash-strapped campaigns to determine whether their dollars were well spent, before voters went to the polls.” Lots of details in this one.
- Politics and tax top US search league. Also note that Huckabee’s site outdrew McCain’s by 50% in January, and that Obama’s site had double the traffic of Hillary’s and four times that of McCain’s.
- Story on McCain’s Relationship with Telecom Lobbyist Sets Bloggers Abuzz. Nothing like a potential scandal to wake up the pajama-clad warriors — and set up a fundraising frenzy.
- John McCain Abuses Email. Lithe, blonde email in question denies all allegations.
- UK-Based Facebook User Figures Begin to Plateau. Facebook dons waterskis, prepares ramp over shark tank.
- The race online: Obama, rivals bring Internet campaigning to new level. Overview article from Frank Davies of the Merc News.
- Ralph Nader’s Bid for Presidency Meets with Negative Online Buzz. No love for Nader in the Lefty blogs.
- Googlebombing McCain. Via tPrez. Warning: he’s no stranger to flak.
- U.S. online search up 10% since last year.
- GOP politics in a nutshell. Dissecting a Republican online video.
- U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft. Juan Cole replies:
“The recent alarmism about terrorist activity in virtual worlds seems designed to prey on the fears of the Internet common among the Great Unwired. Most of the concerns are simply unreasonable.”
- Viva Obama!. Lots of citizen vids. But wait: here comes the inevitable online Obama backlash.
- Ad Age: Creatives Have a Crush on Obama. One reason that Obama-supporting citizen media is so good — plenty of it is created by professionals. Via ReelPop.
- How much millet can a cellphone buy?.
- Lost in Wisconsin. “Again and again, following Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign failed in basic on-the-ground organisation.” Also check out this reader comment about “Camp Obama,” Deconstructing an Obama Victory and Clinton on the ropes: How she got there (the last a Burt Edwards suggestion).
- “In Canon” Voter-Generated Content. Interesting model for considering citizen media.
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Domestic Wiretapping.
- Email best practices: What are the best days and times to send bulk email?. And, Using Images in Email.
- Map of the Political Blogosphere. Via Technology Evangelist, who argues that it shows the continuing value of having original content.
- Two Articles on Political Online Advertising. Eric Frenchman adds to Kate Kaye’s excellent Clickz reporting.
- EBay Boycott Ends Today; Impact Disputed. Online activism ain’t just political.
- Grassroots organizing online, post-Ron Paul. Top-down vs. bottom-up — the battle continues.
– cpd
February 25th, 2008
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Potomac Primary special edition — special because for once, DC’s vote actually matters.
- Update: Over the Horizon: User-Centered Online Politics?
- Hillary’s Valentine Email to supporters. Tasty treat or sickly sweet? Also check out the viral email that’s helping her.
- Michelle Obama Robocalls DC Voters, as does DC mayor Adrian Fenty. C.f. Rep. Foxx pledges no more robocalls.
- Ron Paul Rallies Supporters via YouTube.
- Dueling Washington (State) GOP Web Sites. Huckabee die-hards launch online offensive.
- What, No Flowers? RNC Sends Valentine E-Cards. Mike Turk’s not in love.
- Moroccan Man Jailed For Fake Facebook Profile. It’s good to be the king, but don’t pretend to be his younger brother.
- How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free.
- Not every site needs to be a social network.
- Why Google keywords cost more but deliver less.
- A cellphone in every pocket.
- Putting Candidates Under the Videoscope.
- Predicting the return of predictive journalism.
- Georgia Perspective on the Evolution of Media and Politics. From an MTV voter turnout organizer.
- Catch-22: Communicating with Congress. Interesting — mass emails may actually be being heard.
- Nokia creates its own mobile advertising network.
- TSA Reads Blog Comments, Changes Policy.
- Google News Goes Local With Neighborhood Headlines.
- Super Tuesday’s Gadgets: Touch Screen Monitors, New Notebooks, and 3D Graphics Drive TV Coverage.
- A New Online Fundraising Record on the Horizon. C.f. Money, Money, Money.
- But do donations predict a state’s final vote?
- Despite Web success, Obama loses Silicon Valley.
- Wired’s Guide to Starting a Viral Political Campaign on YouTube.
- Start a Nonprofit and Join Election ‘08 YouTube Free-For-All. A new route for 527s and similar outside political groups.
- MoveOn delivers Obama $500,000, plus 500,000 messages to friends.
- Political Blogging Scholarship. Please don’t feed the animals.
- Video Games for Social Change.
- Matt Stoller Fails to Consolidate the Netroots. Food Fight!
- Presidential fundraising doubles in 2007.
- Lolcats meets Obama: Yes We Can Has (cheezburgers).
I does haz no understanding of why this is as funny as it is. Via tPrez.
– cpd
February 12th, 2008
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The Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas is reporting on the Obama campaign’s election-day SMS strategy, clearly aimed at boosting voter turnout:
Early this morning, Sen. Barack Obama sent the first of three text messages to supporters who’ve signed up to his messaging program and live in the D.C. area. It’s a jam-packed message, starting out with an Obama quote, then asking supporters to forward the text to their friends. Most importantly, the text provides an 866 number to call to find your polling location. All you’d have to do is click on the number on your cellphone to make the free call.
Jose has detail about the campaign’s ability to target messages by zip code, and also about how quiet they’re being about the size of their list and its response rate. Texting for turnout isn’t an original idea, but this campaign seems focused on implementing it well — a part of the campaign that future online political professionals will look to as a model?
– cpd
February 12th, 2008
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Mmm, mmm, do I love me a Super Tuesday party. Or two. Or three.
- How the web followed the Super Tuesday results. C.f. Twitter/Twittervision/Google Maps Super Tuesday Mashup and Internet political buzz super for democracy (note quote from e.politics — and Google didn’t pay a dime for it).
- Obama’s Wired Tuesday Push. Missed this one yesterday.
- Super Tuesday: How We Got Here. An excellent history lesson from CQ. Via Political Wire.
- Silicon Valley Donations: Microsoft Loves Hillary; Google, Obama.
- Edward Cone: A reality check on Web politics. This guy’s been paying attention.
- Results on the Web and on Your Phone. Politics is a relentless pursuer.
- Matt Drudge Starts Posting on YouTube. Reputed Clinton love-fest clearly over.
- Obama, the Internet and the Decline of Big Money and Big Media. Did the ‘net make a successful Obama campaign possible?
- With No Clear Winner, Spin Wars Fierce
- Most apt image from Super Tuesday.
- Clinton May Self-Finance Campaign.
- Super Tuesday, Internet Style: How We’re Using the Web In the 2008 Elections.
- Are Democrats raising more money online than Republicans because they are more Web-savvy or popular?
- Local (Chicago) Democratic Candidate Launches Online Video Satire.
- Media Celebrity Launches World’s First Online Political Talent Community and Magazine. Warning: press release. But will it find you a job? (We’ll see.)
- Barack Obama online exploits. Evidently, he’s putting Canada to shame.
- Amateur Online Music Videos Do Huge Traffic, Give Candidates Free, Positive Exposure. C.f. Obama song resonates on the Internet.
- DARPA Nabs Big Bucks for Mach 6 Planes, Giant Robotic Blimps, Next-Gen Networks. Shape-shifting planes battleship-sized blimps hovering at 65,000 feet = airplane-geek heaven.
– cpd
February 6th, 2008
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Yay, Super Tuesday, the most wonderful time of the year. The following Hits will be updated throughout the day. See also yesterday’s list.
- Update: Just got a Drudge Siren email alert, and apparently Obama is “large” in the exit polls. It’s gonna be an interesting night; I’m off to the parties.
- Update: The Inside Story of Obama’s Online Music Video.
- Update: In an Internet First, Americans Abroad Cast E-Votes in Democratic Primary.
- Update: Barack Obama’s Web Site Overwhelmed During (Last Night’s) Clinton Appearance.
- Update: US Voters Using Google to Find Polling Places.
- Update: The Rationality Gap: Campaigns Way Behind the Online Advertising Curve. Alan Rosenblatt: “For 10% of their ad budgets they could dominate the web.”
- A brief distraction: Venn diagram of the British Islands. Thanks to Chris Cosart for a helpful find.
- Update: A Clinton campaign conference call is a study in spin. Check out the ending — a Fox debate?
- Update: I Hope It’s a Hoax. The (politically) provocative e-mail that “Chelsea Clinton” is sending around.
- Update: Obama Leads in Online Buzz, Favorite Sites by Visitors’ Party Affiliation Issued. Which candidates are dominating the online discussion?
- Update: Does web traffic tell us that Obama and Huckabee will win big today? Josh is skeptical, and for good reason. More from the tPrez Daily Digest, including lots of nonrepresentative online polls and a look at Barack Obama’s hockey stick.
- Update: AZ Robocall Hits Obama On Social Security.
- Update: Primary Jam. Excellent WSJ interactive guide to this year’s primary election pile-up, and a good demonstration of how to present information with technology.
- Update: The E-War: Dems: All Hillary Wire, All the Time. Hillary’s election-day email blitz. More on the expectations battle from Slate.
- Update: McCain Tops the Democrats in Media Coverage.
- The Early Word: Super Fat Tuesday. Good overview of what’s ahead.
- The Opposite of Interactivity. Zephyr Teachout’s not so impressed with Hillary’s online/offline national town hall, but PoliticsTV’s Dan Manatt likes it better. C.f. Checking in With the Politically-Active Social Networking Generation and Clinton On Message, and On Television. Update: Also, Creating Those Hallmark Moments.
- Romney Internet-Only Ad Ties McCain to Clinton. See also McCain, Romney Unveil New Attack Ads.
- New HRC Mailer Hits Obama On Economy. Direct mail = probably the oldest form of database-driven politics.
- Push Polling, Robo Calls and Other Telephonic Shenanigans.
- Obama’s $28M Online. Patrick Ruffini on the death of offline fundraising. Update: That $32 million total for January turns out to be more than twice that of the Clinton campaign.
- Students On How Social Networking Is Transforming Politics.
- Web Graphics and Social Media Bring A Bird’s Eye View of Celebrity Presidential Endorsements.
- The Web and the Race For the White House. Overview of online support.
- Ron Paul’s candidacy shows the potential (and limits) of online politics. A short email interview with the candidate.
- In Election of Change, TV Gives Voice to Insiders. No insurgency on the airwaves.
- On The Road Again, And Again, And Again. Life of an embedded political journalist.
- Shifting Loyalties: Obama Winning Big Edwards Backers.
- Bill Clinton on Hillary Clinton’s Web 2.0 presidency.
- Facebook Used to Mobilize Against FARC. “In Colombia, a Facebook page dedicated to protesting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, that country’s largest rebel group, is helping organize thousands of people in cities around the world for demonstrations.”
- Lots of Super Tuesday cell phone sounds at RingTones08.
- Super Tuesday Gladiators. “Billy, do you like movies about gladiators and Hillary Clinton?”
– cpd
February 5th, 2008
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Mega pre-Super Tuesday edition. Are any Giants-sized upsets coming our way in the political world?
- Update: Concise, insightful Super Tuesday video slideshow overview from CQ, including some great photos and clever graphics. Via PoliticalWire.
- Update: Anti-Illegal Immigration Forces Rally Against McCain. Anti-McCain email goes out to 1.5 million people.
- Update: Drudge takes on both John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
- Update: The Super Tuesday Strategy Review. Using Google Maps to track the candidates and decypher their plans.
- Update: More news on the Obama surge from the Cafe Press primary: “After being nearly tied two weeks ago in weekly candidates sales (Obama at 28%, Hillary at 26%), now as of last week, Obama has surged to account for 48%, while Hillary is down to 19% of weekly candidate sales.” More here, and thanks to John Hlinko for the tip.
- Update: Why Google only tells you what you already know. Do online searchers look to reinforce or challenge their views?
- Update: Is Barack Obama “Dean on steroids”? (Via tPrez)
- Update: Tracking superdelegates via wiki. (Via tPrez)
- Campaigns Experimenting Online to See What Works. Excellent overview article from Jose Antonio Vargas.
- Senate candidates learn the pitfalls of online politics
- Super Bowl Super Tuesday Spots. Note Obama’s geo-targeting, prominent cell phone signup and site URL.
- Does money translate into votes?
- The Smart Mobbing of Super Tuesday
- Hillary Clinton’s Online/Offline Town Hall. She’ll take questions via email, text and video, with Bill and Chelsea (among others) hosting satellite town halls around the country.
- The New Rules of Politics. Karl Rove weighs in.
- MTV/MySpace Postmortem: Change vs. Experience vs. Ron Paul.
- US campaigns go networking on the net.
- Bush asks for $6 billion to fight the terrorists online
- Huckabee Endorses Fire-And-Brimstone YouTube Competitor ‘GodTube’
- Another Ethical Scandal Plagues Novick Campaign. A vicious Wikipedia defacing.
- Obama’s $32 Million Haul. More here and here.
- Republican Presidential Candidates Unleash YouTube Ad War. C.f. Romney’s Latest Ad; McCain’s on the Web.
- Republicans make Fox News sick. “To recap New Hampshire for Fox News: Hannity was pursued by a Republican mob, O’Reilly got into a shoving match with an Obama aide, and CNN grabbed more viewers. Now that’s a week to remember!”
- The Day After. The end of the Edwards campaign, through the eyes of his blogger outreach staffer.
- Move Over YouTube, Here Comes YouBama. “An Obama video becomes an automatic hit on YouTube when it’s uploaded.”
- Genuinely inspired, the Facebook generation is turning out to vote in record numbers. Will they make a difference?
- Moveon Endorses Obama.
- On-The-Ground Organizing. The ‘net can’t do everything.
- Track the ‘08 Money Chase
- San Francisco Mayor, A Clinton Backer, Says They’re Going To Go After MoveOn Members
- 3D Electoral College
- Political Attack Ads Easy to Find Online. Getting nasty in North Carolina.
- Check Out Politics Schmolitics. Political humor from Daily Motion.
- Online Boors Ill-Equipped To Assess Political Hotties
- Chicago Tribune suspends comments on political section of website. “But some comment boards seem to attract and enable the vitriolic and brutish; they represent the very worst form of online communication.”
- Democrats Flood States With Ads as Tuesday Nears
- MTV’s Choose Or Lose Taps Local Reporters To Cover Presidential Election. Via tPrez.
- Steve Garfield’s Super Tuesday Coverage Plans With The UpTake. More technology than I can take.
- Google Works to Torpedo Microsoft Bid for Yahoo, and Microsoft fights back.
- Why did the Fred Thompson Blog Work?
- Library of Congress on Flickr
- How to Herd Organic Search Traffic to Your Blog.
- FTC Commissioner Explores Facebook, Makes Friends.
- White House Under Seige? Don’t piss off Google.
- Australia wild party child turns party pro. My teenaged near-namesake uses MySpace to promote a party, 500 “friends” show up and do $20,000 worth of damage. Delanys everywhere are extremely proud. Via my friend Doug McCammon.
– cpd
February 4th, 2008
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A quick update from the technical side of online politics:
- Grassroots Enterprises has put out a new virtual phone-banking tool they’re calling PhoneTheVote. Virtual phone banks replace a roomful of volunteer callers with a distributed network of activists calling on their own cell phones or VOIP connections and coordinated online. Other applications like this are already around, often as custom-builds; look for virtual phone banks to become more and more common as the software becomes cheaper and easier to implement.
- The federal Election Assistance Commission has put out standards for electronic voting equipment and is asking for comments from the public. The topic is a yawner for a lot of people, but considering that we’re talking about the technology behind the most fundamental act of democracy, it’s something to pay attention to. At the very least, you can start thinking about how YOU’D corrupt the system if given the chance. Vote early! Vote often!
- For every online ad, there is a landing page — or at least, there probably ought to be. Landing pages are where people go when they click a Google ad, follow a link from an email action alert, type in an address from a TV ad, etc., and they might just be more pivotal in the process of converting curious visitors into supporters than most of us think. The folks at Marketing Sherpa have spent years studying how to set up landing pages to maximize the customer/supporter conversion rate; the second edition of their Landing Page Handbook is the result (only, um, $497). Warning: the process of tweaking landing pages may bring out the obsessive and experimental sides of people otherwise quite mild and reasonable of manner.
That’s it for today’s News 4 Nerds; if you require an antidote, try this.
– cpd
November 13th, 2007
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Interesting findings from a new study of the use of text messaging to send day-before-election reminders to vote — 5% ain’t bad, and it sure was cheap ($1.56 per vote vs.$20-$70 for other methods). Conducted by the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project, Working Assets and researchers from the University of Michigan and Princeton, the study looked at the effects of SMS GOTV reminders in the 2006 general election on a group of 4000 people selected at random from a pool of over 8000 new voters. Researchers checked polling records to see how many texters had voted and compared that with the control population. According to the actual paper, the 5% difference was statistically significant, and follow-up questioning of participants showed that positive responses far outweighed any backlash.
A couple of observations — as people sign up for more text notifications, they may not be as effective as in this example, and obviously we’ll want to see follow-up work on different populations. Still, it’s good to see some initial confirmation of the idea that text messaging is useful for building last-minute turnout. Note that campaigns and state parties may want to coordinate their text outreach, since people may recoil from receiving more than one go-vote-dammit message on their cell phones (a barrage of ten of them would suck). Let’s be careful not to poison the well before we’re finished drankin’ from it. Thanks to Mike Connery at Future Majority for the initial tip.
– cpd
September 13th, 2007
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Cross-posted on techPresident
In honor of his announcement last night, I just checked out Fred Thompson’s official site, and I gotta say, very slick Flash interface, guys. A few bugs here and there, though — when I clicked on some of the stories on the main panel at the top of the front page, I got error messages (better check that Action Script). Here are some general observations:
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September 6th, 2007
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A fascinating story on yesterday’s edition of NPR’s The World focused on the rise of international video-sharing sites, and in particular on their political effects in Asia. In China, where the existence of a half-dozen video sites makes it difficult to police political content, people are uploading statements and using video to publicize political issues, including local ones. In Singapore, where political content is banned entirely on local television (I wonder how they handle satellite…), citizens are coming to depend on web video for basic content such as coverage of rallies and speeches. In both cases, the anonymity of uploading is key, since it helps to protect activists from retaliation.
Combine this story with recent coverage of the role of cell phones in organizing protests in Vietnam, China and The Philipines (terrific detail in that last one, btw), and we can see the new tools of political advocacy taking root where they might just do some good. Viva La Revolucion!
– cpd
September 6th, 2007
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- Users’ Online Time Spent Mostly on Content - Not Communications, Commerce. Content is king!
- Tech Savvy Protesters take on China, but when is it appropriate to spam the Great Firewall?
- Social networks not just for kids, as Boomer site pitches own political tent. See what all those Cialis ads have led to?
- Building a Successful Internet Presence.
- Sidestepping the ‘macaca’ moments. Politicians’ desperate desire to be boring.
- Democratic Advisers Take Posts in Group Opposing Wal-Mart.
- Cost of Saving the Climate Meets Real-World Hurdles. On problems with the selling of carbon offsets online.
- As Billboards, Public Phones Always Work. Does advertising assure the survival of pay phones?
- Army Reports Brass, Not Bloggers, Breach Security. “It’s clear that official Army websites are the real security problem, not blogs,”
- More military threats: Russia Orders Long-Range Bomber Patrols. Backfire bombers, coming soon to a backyard near you.
- How Google Works. Nice visual overview, suggested by my NET colleague Erica Peth.
- Which Presidential Candidates Have Mastered Google?
- Mobile Advertising is Irritating. Shocking news from the world of marketing.
- More fallout from Wikipedia edit tracking: Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs, and find out about The Feds Who Edit Wikipedia. Lamest Wiki story, as noted by tPrez and about 10,000 NY Times commenters: Messing With Iowa.
- 13 Winning Ways to Make Enemies in the Press. Never too early in the week for self-sabotage.
- Rule #1 In E-Politics: Don’t Attack The Bloggers. But what if they’re annooooooying?
- Three Strategies for Thriving on the Decentralized Web.
- The continued usefulness of direct mail in the Internet era.
- A Simple Yahoo Pipes RSS Filtering Example.
- Investing In Netroots Innovation.
- Cheap media, cheap ads. Seth Godin takes on a common mistake.
- Facebook Opens Email Up A Little; I Want More. C.f. Newsweek’s take on Facebook, via David All, and Facebook rules for the rest of us (when is a poke not a good idea?).
- EmergencyCheese: A Citizen Journalist gets a taste of MSM.
- Beware the Dark Side of PR 2.0. Spoilsport.
- The Untold Story of the Cheney ‘Quagmire’ Video. The making of an Internet hit.
- Why the YouTube Election Should Evolve into the Gaming Election. Because we have 14 months to go and desperately need a distraction?
- Late addition! Google Maps are now embeddable, via Rochelle Robinson.
- A final sad note: the geek community loses a founder, as Joe Engressia, Expert ‘Phone Phreak,’ Dies. The first guy to manipulate the phone system by whistling in perfect pitch, he was an original hacker — you gotta love someone who picks a city to live in because he likes the quirks in its phone circuitry.
– cpd
August 21st, 2007
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The online advertising world is moving so fast that I can’t hardly keep up with it — just in the last few days, the MarketingVox e-newsletter has delivered a slew of stories that suggest new opportunities for campaigns and advocacy groups to spread their messages online:
- Social networking advertising frenzy. eMarketer predicts some $900 million in advertising on social networking sites for 2007 — and $2.5 billion by 2011.
- Behavioral targeting. Yahoo’s introducing ad targeting based on users’ online activity to their advertising network, and MySpace plans to do the same for ads on its site — trying to get a more valuable slice of that soc net advertising pie.
- Online purchasing of offline ads. Google radio and print ads are useful, but what about TV? Ebay’s TV time purchasing system is getting some use, and the “Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) said 21 broadcast groups and two rep firms have signed up for TVB’s new ‘ePort’ eBusiness platform, which will let advertisers, agencies, broadcasters and station reps electronically send media proposals for stations’ airtime, Web sites, local digital channels and other digital platforms.”
- Going mobile, locally. Gannett is complementing its hyper-local focus with 100 locally targeted sites optimized for cell phones and including ads.
- Wanted: political advertising. Online ad network BlueLithium is packaging its services with political campaigns and advocacy groups in mind, though Clickz sounds a bit skeptical about whether or not they’re offering anything new. Nice quotes from online politics veterans Michael Bassik and Eric Frenchman.
Special bonus article! Be sure to check out yesterday’s Wired piece on Google search advertising by the presidential campaigns. What opportunities are they missing? Who’s doing it right?
– cpd
August 17th, 2007
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