e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — May 7, 2008

• 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

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Quick Hits — April 24, 2008

• Espionage Against Pro-Tibet Groups, Others, Spurred Microsoft Patches.
• New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China.
• In every measure, Obama clobbers Clinton online. Also, Barack Obama Takes Lion’s Share of Online Video Viewerships.
• Obama Uses YouTube To Lobby The Public After Losing Pennsylvania.
• Notes from the eCampaigning Forum 2008.
• Cuddle Parties: When Touchy Feely Goes Goofy.
• Why Democrats Rule the Web.
• Smug Alert in SF. Thanks, Slate
• Lost in the Smoke-Filled Room: Unexpected Talent. On the benefits of a primary process. C.f. The Primary ‘Bounce’.
• Government to Seek Terrorists in World of Warcraft: The Full Proposal.
• Welcome to the high-tech age of consumer jihadists. Suggested by Burt Edwards.
• Look Ma, I’m on CIA.gov.
• Anti-war site lets you spend $3 trillion your way.
• Obama’s GOP Shadow.
• Laughing Baby vs. the YouTube Commenters. C.f. The vile state of Internet discourse knows no borders.
• Colbert Snags Clinton, EdWORDS and Obama in One Cast.
• Fight, prefrosh, for social justice — via e-mail.
• Newspaper Ads Drive Online Research, In-Store Purchases.
• Online Advocacy — Using Petitions for List Building.
• Obama Talks About (Internet) Rumors.
• MTV News Still on the Edge of Political News. Kurt Loder rides to the rescue one last time.
• Twitter Away Your Life With Social Networking. And, Is Twittering Sustainable?
• The Twittering Class and the Primaries.
• Tips for success in a Web 2.0 world.
• Do Progressive Techies Have a Google Blind Spot?
• Drive additional web traffic with email.
• Facebook Chat — distraction or benefit?.
• Sick Profits Video Contest. User-generated content goes to the doctor.
• Despite Negative Press, Facebook Is a Powerful Agent for Social Change. But wait: 51% of Donors ‘Not At All Interested’ in Social Networks.
• The New Guards: The Players. A look at potential Republican MoveOn equivalents. C.f. MoveOn.org Asks McCain To Drop Pastor Who Blamed Victims For Katrina.
• EEN’s Avatars Campaign Brings Online Marketing to Life. Online/offline connection.
• Huckabee to follow in Robertson’s footsteps? Yet another independent audience?
• Radiohead Launches Social Network.
• Nerd alert or sublime beauty? Full Earthrise and Earthset in Hi-Def, from the Japanese Kaguya lunar orbiter. I can see my house from here! Via Space.com.

– cpd

Add comment April 24th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Inbox Deathmatch: Obama vs. McCain

Cross-posted on techPresident

It’s always fun when dueling campaign emails arrive in the e.politics inbox only minutes apart, particularly when they’re so gently massaging the same issues-of-the-moment. Today’s edition: Obama vs. McCain. The weapons: “bitter” vs. “out of touch.” The immediate stakes: the contents of thousands of wallets. The long-term stakes: the public perception of each man, and ultimately his electoral fate. Today, Barack hit first, fast and jujitsu-style, seeking to define his San Francisco comments as a hymn of love to the great America heartland and his rivals as shady opportunists for trying to take advantage of them:

But our opponents have been spinning the media and peddling fake outrage around the clock. John McCain’s campaign, which will continue the George Bush economic policies that have devastated the middle class, called Barack out of touch and elitist. And Hillary Clinton, who is the candidate who said lobbyists represent real people, didn’t just echo the Republican candidate’s talking points: she actually used the very same words to pile on with more attacks.

Bonus points for the McCain-Clinton combo strike! Four head-spinning minutes later, John McCain went to DefCon One and dropped the E-bomb — the dreaded charge of Democratic Elitism:

If Barack Obama is the Democrat nominee in the general election, the American people will have a clear choice between two different visions - Senator Obama’s liberal, elitist philosophy and John McCain’s faith in the small town values that continue to make America great. John McCain will not forget them or write them off. Neither should Barack Obama.

Who will win this contest of wills, this battle of generational champions, this struggle for the Very Soul of Middle America? Don’t touch that dial…

– cpd

Add comment April 14th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Quick Hits — January 14, 2008

• Obama Gets Mobile Right. Hooray for technology!
• Or maybe not. Backlash over anti-Obama email in New Hampshire
• Someone’s keeping the faith: Email details Huckabee’s Michigan evangelical turnout operation.
• Clinton’s Fund-raising Takes Off Online Post New Hampshire. Edwards not the only one raising money in a hurry.
• The Chuck and Huck online fundraising spectacle: “Just another barbecue/political fund-raiser/rock concert/ninja demonstration.”
• Bloggers for Fred Thompson. ‘Bout all he’s got left these days.
• Hillary Clinton Joins Paid Search Advertising Game. Putting those $$ to work.
• On the list-building benefits of Kerry’s Obama endorsement.
• Barack Obama’s Blue Period. Campaign site redesign as artistic statement.
• Kos pushes Romney in Michigan, sparking a voter fraud claim. Others are pushing a vote for “uncommitted.” More on Kos messing with the Midwest, as other bloggers bestow blessings on their chosen candidates.
• Attack on Huckabee Moves From YouTube to Boob Tube. C.f. Huckabee Campaign Responds to Victims Voice Video.
• Comedian Starts a Wiki To Track Attacks on Obama.
• Kenyan website uses Google Earth, SMS to track post-election violence
• CIA would like to read your emails.
• Blogging That Makes Me Wanna Cry. New finding: mainstream media are not the only ones who suck.
• Moveon.org To Launch New Group of Web 2.0 Tools To Unleash Your Inner Activist. C.f. Power Tools.
• Surprise: Congressional Websites are Still Awful
• Campaigns & Elections magazine threw a redesign party and didn’t invite us. Update: we’re invited to the next C&E party, and drinks are on them.
• Inside Googleplex DC. A pre-unveiling-party glimpse at the new digs (note: we get to go to this one).
• The ongoing tragedy: Right-Wing Babe of the Day

– cpd

Add comment January 14th, 2008 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us

Dems Forming Distributed Online “Rapid Response” Team

Cross-posted on techPresident

Something interesting just dropped into my email inbox — an invitation to join a Democratic Party online rapid response team. My mission, should I choose to accept it:

This special PartyBuilder group will help serve as the eyes and ears of the Democratic Party during the campaign and will allow us to share information on the Republican candidates as it breaks. Please, only use the listserv and blog for rapid response purposes.

From the invitation email:

As a member of the PartyBuilder rapid response group, we’ll send you important information about the 2008 Republican presidential candidates — when they mislead voters, completely change positions on the issues, or pander to special interests. Then, you can help get the word out to your friends, family and neighbors.

You can also contribute to the research effort by fact-checking their statements, studying their records, and watching for campaign gaffes.

This is a group effort, and this work is essential for showing the American public the true nature of the Republican candidates.

Looks as though Kos isn’t the only person asking peeps to record everything — no doubt, a bunch of large-membership organizations or sites with big audiences will end up doing the same. Candidates under a microscope! More political crowdsourcing! Pretty soon, no one will be able to run for office but big cute happy puppies….

– cpd

Add comment June 13th, 2007 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us