Cross-posted on techPresident
An online politics wrap-up article by Jose Antonio Vargas published in the Post this weekend has been working its way through the internet politics crowd over the past couple of days, being posted on Facebook, forwarded on Twitter and zapped via email. It’s a good piece, and it reflects the time that Jose has spent covering the online politics beat — he was one of the few mainstream journalists who really dug into HOW people were using the internet for politics this time around, as they created a profoundly new environment for politicians, journalists and activists alike.
I have to take my friend to task over the title, however — which in his defense, may have been written by a copyeditor rather than by Jose himself. “Politics Is No Longer Local. It’s Viral” sounds catchy, playing off the legendary observation that “all politics is local.” It’s also almost embarrassingly wrong, and a serious misunderstanding of the realities of the Obama campaign.
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December 30th, 2008
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Last article from the GW media school post-election panel discussion, I promise. We’ve already heard from Joe Rospars on the Obama campaign’s use of online video, along with NBC’s Chuck Todd on the future of corporate journalism, so let’s wrap up with what YouTube’s Steve Grove took away from two years of intimate exposure to the best and worse of online video campaigning.
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December 29th, 2008
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What’s the deal with Barack Obama and cigarettes? Despite a pre-campaign promise to Michelle, he still apparently relishes the occasional drag, and plenty of moralists would like to see him quit. Most recent case: CBN’s David Brody on This Week this morning, listing not-smoking as a New Year’s resolution he’d like to see the president-elect live up to.
Bah! Reminds me of what Lincoln supposedly said after critics accused Ulysses S. Grant of being a drunk and demanded his removal: “If I knew what brand of whiskey he drinks, I would send a barrel or so to some other generals.” In Obama’s case, we want the guy to save the world, but we won’t allow him an occasional self-indulgence? Let Obama smoke!
Tell you what, Barack — I live right up 16th Street from the White House, and you just give me a call when you really need that pick-me-up. I’ll hop on an S bus and pop down to help a neighbor out, all on the q/t of course (I promise not to tell the wife). I’ll even bring a six-pack and we can make an impromptu party of it — with politics off-limits and policy out of mind. And the rest of you, leave the man be!
– cpd
December 28th, 2008
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Merry Christmas! The turkey’s still in the oven, but these links are ready to serve.
- Ari Melber: Obama for America 2.0?.
- Plane Crash Kills GOP Internet Consultant.
- A cell-phone modification for on-the-spot disease detection and monitoring, via @mobileactive.
- Obama, Emails, and Blagojevich.
- Future campaigns, take notice: Obama Spent Less than 50% on TV Ads.
- Obama Count(ed) on Text Messages to Drive Turnout of Youth, Blacks.
- Mobile Marketing in ‘08: iPhone Was the Story.
- Social Media and the Federal Government: Perceived and Real Barriers and Potential Solutions.
- Center for American Progress “damage” control gone wrong: The Problem with Individual Disclaimers on Blog Posts, and Putting a CAP on Yglesias.
- GOP Leader John Boehner Solicits Stimulus-Skeptical Economists Over the Web.
- An interactive map of government bailouts, via @OpenCongress.
- The revolutionary potential of small-donor democracy, via @DavidAll.
- Todd Zeigler reviews Change.gov’s “Open For Questions:” “What we have here is very focused participatory democracy.”
- Bureaucrats for Change: Why Obama’s Inherited Web Team Gets It.
- The Obama Campaign’s Levels of Engagement. Hmmmmmm, sounds familiar…
- What We (Republicans) Can Learn From Howard Dean.
- YouTube Embeds — Invasion of the Search Boxes.
- Interest Groups, Bloggers Remind Obama They’re Watching.
- How and Where to Submit Online Press Releases for Maximum Search Engine Optimization Benefit, via Leslie Bradshaw.
- Micro Fundraising on Twitter: Red Kettle Campaign, Wellwishes cracks $2,000 mark. C.f. A Glimpse at the Future of Twitter Fundraising.
- A Global Online Community Is Created to Save Tigers.
- MySpace v. Facebook Advertising Showdown. Which Platform Is Better?
- Cutting through the noise on Capitol Hill.
- Don’t create fundraising that you like. Target your actual audience instead.
- HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works.
- Study: Almost 10% On Social Networks Via Mobile.
- The Sorry State of Blog Search Engines.
- Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner Wants to Tweet.
- Going from a Print Newsletter to Email: What to Leave Behind.
- Your Volunteers Make, Or Break, Web 2.0 Outreach — But You Have To Help Them Do It Right. C.f. Using Facebook for Your Nonprofit.
- Twitter Isn’t the Point — it’s the connection that matters.
- Why I’m Qwitting You On Twitter (I’m not the only one purging after a binge).
- Cool Flash Videos That Explain Social Media.
- New Insight Into Hill Cyber Hacking.
- Capitol Hill’s Favorite Words Of ‘08.
- YouTube Unveils Unique View Counts. Now You Can Tell If Your Mom Is Your Only Fan.
- Pulling Off Houdini’s Trick — Obama’s election-day tracking system didn’t work entirely as planned.
- Student Sentenced to 15 Years for YouTube Terror Video.
- Inside Europe’s strangest ‘theme park’: A secret underground base offers a terrifyingly realistic reminder of Soviet occupation, via @igeldard.
- Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions.
- Barney Cam Returns. White House goes to the dogs again, wacka wacka wacka!
- Adult FriendFinder Files To Go Public. When all else fails, invest in sin.
– cpd
December 25th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
A week or two ago, I happened to catch the C-Span broadcast of a fascinating discussion at Harvard’s Kennedy School — PBS’s Gwen Ifill moderated a panel including David Axelrod and David Plouffe from the Obama campaign and Richard Davis and Bill McInturff from McCain’s operation. The entire discussion is brain-food for any political junkie, but one segment particularly jumped out at me: David Plouffe gave an extended description of how the Obama campaign used volunteer-produced data to create computer-generated models of states — down to segments of a media market — to determine how the campaign was doing at any given moment.
And it wasn’t an idle mental exercise, since they used these simulations to make essentially overnight changes in how and where to concentrate resources, including candidate and surrogate visits. On the video, the critical bit starts right around minute 57, in answer to a question from a Kennedy School grad student about how modern campaigns use data; a transcript is below.
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December 23rd, 2008
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The Campaign 2008 discussion at GW’s School of New Media and Public Affairs earlier this month covered a lot more than just the importance of video in the Obama online machine: among other topics, the panel of experienced journalists couldn’t help but also consider the role and future of news outlets themselves in the political process.
NBC’s Chuck Todd put it most dramatically when he described how the press corps felt “outmanned” by the political campaigns, since they had fewer resources than before to cover more of everything — bigger campaigns, more states in play, more videos, more spin emails, more citizen activists, etc. The good news is that citizens demanded more information and better information on the political process, but the bad news is that the news organizations haven’t worked out a business model to make money off of that demand.
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December 22nd, 2008
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Home for the holidays? Here’s some light reading to distract you from your “beloved” kinfolk.
- The Revolution of the Online Commentariat. Will bloggers eventually dominate the campaign power structure? Hmmmm, let’s hear a skeptical take.
- Obama’s e-mails raise cash, concerns — I wanted Change, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
- The Huffington Post Slammed for Content Theft, via @Katrinskaya.
- Pentagon May Have Mixed Propaganda With PR.
- How would the Watergate investigation have unfolded in an internet world?
- Bush E-Mails May Be Secret a Bit Longer.
- Clean Coal Carolers Get ‘Bah Humbug!’ Response. C.f. Pigs can fly and “clean coal” sings.
- The auto bailout bill and campaign contributions — mapping the connections. Also check out this Krugman piece for a behind-the-scenes Republican email on the bailout vote.
- Batgirl v. the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- YouTube Gets a Facelift.
- Vote 4 me: 60 million cell users get spammed as (Indian) politicos go tech savvy, via PoliticsOnline.
- Bogus Trend of the Week: Teens and Bombs.
- MIT students build mobile applications in 13 weeks.
- Australia rallies to “Stop the Clean Feed”. C.f. The great porn war.
- Adapting your website for a mobile age.
- Alliance Tells Obama: Put Public Interest First in Picks for FCC, CTO.
- Only 16% of Students Read Marketing Email (mainly because it sucks, not because they don’t use email). Also, Demographic, App Usage Tools Go Live for Facebook.
- How to be a Twitter all-star.
- Gadgets that make you look like a jerk. Worth it for the intro photo alone (via Chris Cosart).
- Obama’s Road To White House Was Paved With Emails, while the ‘net helped McCain more than most realize (via PoliticsOnline).
- Subtle Internet Ads Send Targeted Political Messages — starring friends-of-e.politics Michael Bassik and Cyrus Krohn. C.f. The GOP’s Cyrus Krohn Has His Sites Set On Updating the Party’s Internet Connection.
- Could YOU be the Fundraiser of the Year?
- Salvation Army Benefits From Holiday-Themed iPhone Application.
- SocNet Ads Less Effective than Others. Meanwhile, Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Developers
- Online Jihadists’ Plan for ‘Invading Facebook’ How many points is “fatwa” worth?
- How To Think Like A Nonprofit Social Marketing Genius: What’s Your Brilliant Thought?
- Twitter Account Tracks Media’s Erratic Employment Pulse.
- The economics of moving from print to online: lose one hundred, get back eight, via @timoreilly.
- A Few Good E-Mail Discussion List Tools, plus A Few Good Donor Management Tools.
- How To Blog. Step one: begin typing. Step two: think.
- Media Matters on Sean Hannity: 2008 Misinformer of the Year. Hannity responds with a Left-Wing Obamamania Media Propaganda Sleaze Award.
- Romantic Comedies Can Ruin Your Life, a stern warning from Burt Edwards.
- Fertile women more open to corny chat-up lines. Hey baby, nice ovaries!
- Mobile Texting Plays Leading Role in Love, Dating 2.0. Keep your thumbs to yourself, buddy.
– cpd
December 21st, 2008
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Or, The Great State Of Texas, for those of you not familiar with the shorthand used by staff in the Texas Legislature (ah, my distant youth!) to describe that most cherished of phrases in the political lexicon of the Lone Star State. I DARE you to find a significant political speech given by a Texan on this sacred soil that does not contain those words.
You think DC has a shortage of parties? Try Palestine, Texas — unless you’re looking to party with some armadillos. Or you think that a late-night seven-hour roundtrip to the Houston airport to pick up your sister and your two (pre-school-aged) nieces is a party. Though after that trip last night (we got in at 4 a.m.), there’s one possum who lives near Grapeland who oughta be throwing a party, since he owes his life to decent brakes and better reflexes.
Anyway, E.politics World Headquarters has temporarily located to the hinterland; look me up if you’re passing through. Plenty of time to catch up on some writing, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise…
– cpd
December 20th, 2008
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Well, it looks as though the recession has hit even the D.C. area, which is usually immunized somewhat against bad economic times by the presence of the federal government and all who feed on it. The latest evidence — what happened to the drinks?
This December is turning up fewer and fewer companies in the online communications space willing to throw a REAL holiday party, i.e. the kind with free booze. Likewise, some of the professional organizations have canceled their annual soirées because too few people were signing up. Years of experience have taught me to sniff out an open bar up to five miles away just from the sound of the wind in the trees (a true fact), yet even I’m at a loss. Worse luck: the band’s only confirmed gig for the long Inauguration weekend (a party that Friday night) just disappeared — the event got called off for financial reasons. Now that’s hittin’ where it hurts!
– cpd
December 12th, 2008
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Most coverage of Barack Obama’s online campaign has focused on its scale (13 million email addresses!), the amount of money raised and its use of social networking sites, including the public sites like MySpace/Facebook and the “walled-garden” MyBarackObama. According to Obama new media director Joe Rospars, though, many observers have been missing something vital that underlies ALL of Obama’s online outreach: good content.
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December 11th, 2008
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Clearing the decks — the results of several weeks of random browsing.
- How Hulu is Like Obama, via Andrew Golisg.
- Dear President Obama: There are a couple of embarrassing e-mails from my past that I think you should know about.
- What Next for Obama’s Network? C.f. Barack Obama’s grass roots in search of new turf.
- Plumbing the oceans could bring limitless clean energy. Note the U.S. military’s role — making a base energy-independent is a strategic advantage.
- In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?
- Google lets users edit search results.
- Challenged ballots: You be the judge. Via War Room.
- Who’s (loyal to) who(m) in the Obama administration: an interactive chart.
- (Washington State) Regulators: Is blogging lobbying? Suggested by Burt Edwards.
- Change.org wants your ideas for America, as do the Republicans. C.f. Daschle Begins Leading Health Care Reform, in part via Change.org.
- Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini are Seeking the GOP’s future on the ‘net — Kos responds.
- The King of Queens e-Politics.
- Does my “Fountainhead” turn you on, baby? Online dating for the Ayn Rand set.
- OMG, teens R “sexting.”
- Eric Holder Wanted ‘Reasonable’ Web Speech Limits.
- GovTwit Directory, via Nerdette.
- Politico/USC Post-Election Conference: Technology In Politics.
- Jordan’s Queen Rania has received YouTube’s first Visionary Award.
- Facebook 101 for nonprofits.
- A Few Good Donor Management Tools, plus E-Book: Writing Holiday Donation Emails.
- McCain camp lacked in high-tech.
- Citizenship 2.0. History lesson or subtle polemic?
- Web video ads are annoying and repetitive. Here’s how to fix them.
- Why Barack Obama should keep his BlackBerry.
- Let My Maps Be Your Geo Database.
- A step-by-step guide to Skype, the cheapest and easiest way to make a phone call.
- Some Indian politicos seem to think Obama that won with robo calls. Via Shaun Dakin.
- Build an Online Advocacy Network for Advocacy Success.
- From the BowlBots, a Christmas memory list.
- Video: Blue State Digital on How Obama Did It, via Guy Thierren.
- Technology Reshaping Campaigns. Overview piece.
- The GOP’s Southern problem.
- Who you callin’ stinky?Conservative bloggers, standing up for the unwashed masses.
- For World’s Sick, Care Via E-Mail.
- An interview with Allyson Kapin.
- Google’s Gatekeepers — censorship or opportunity?
- D.C. Police Agitate For Flood Of E-Mails.
- Obama, the billion-dollar man.
- Can governments get Google Earth to obscure images of sensitive locations?.
- Lieberman decision pits Dean against liberal blogosphere, plus Buchanan: The Kos crowd deserves a Cabinet pick.
- It’s Our Party and We’ll Blog if We Want To. Wonder if their party needs a band?
- A Quiet Obama Puppeteer.
- Study: Many Obama Small Donors Really Weren’t.
- Jarrett’s Life Lessons.
- Report from the Feminist Tech Exchange in Cape Town.
- Gunmen Used Technology as A Tactical Tool in the Mumbai Attacks.
- Spanish Inquisition left genetic legacy in Iberia.
- Rich countries carry out ’21st century land grab.’
- Campaign Spending in the Final Weeks.
- Copper Thieves Threaten U.S. Infrastructure, FBI says.
- Obama Transition Promises to Post Documents. Transparency via the internet.
- Sarah Palin: A digital superstar, plus Palin, Huckabee Lead GOP Contenders for 2012. God does truly love the Democrats.
- Why Professionals Should Continue to Blog in the Era of Twitter.
– cpd
December 10th, 2008
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You know, all this “hope” talk lately has been getting to me. Maybe it’s my father’s roots in Louisiana, where the cash is in the freezer, or perhaps it’s my mom’s ties to Arkansas, where outsiders just don’t understand the special relationship that can exist between a building contractor and a politician. And then there’s my own time as staff in the Texas Legislature, a period highlighted by the prosecution and resignation of the fourth House Speaker in a row(!) for ethics violations.
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December 9th, 2008
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One of my favorite online politics events is happening this weekend, and I just can’t hardly wait: RootsCamp is coming to town, or at least to the northeast quadrant of town, and this year e.politics is pleased to be a sponsor. If you’ve never been, RootsCamp is an un-conference sponsored by the New Organizing Institute that brings together online organizers after the elections to compare notes, share stories and plan for the next go-round. Lefties only! (Sorry, Republican readers — you should have your own, but only if I can come, too.)
And this time around, they managed to sucker me into putting up enough cash to bring some “deserving” young campaign worker to town to participate, so you should no doubt expect billboard-sized photos of the e.politics staff to be displayed in every room, as is only right and proper. Should be a hoot! I’m writing down a couple of session ideas right now, and can already taste the Saturday-morning mimosas.
– cpd
December 9th, 2008
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So there I was, sitting innocently around the e.politics bunker, wondering how to pass the time now that the election’s over and the economy’s going to hell (already switched from champagne to Pabst Blue Ribbon, FYI). Wait, didn’t I have a client site to build? Oh, yeah — and a new content management system to go along with it.
After building three Joomla sites from scratch this year and relearned Wordpress to work on a couple others, why not add a third CMS to the list? After all, I clearly haven’t had enough jaw-clenching frustration and anger in my life lately, and figuring out Drupal’s quirks should nicely make up for that lack.
So far, though, so good — despite the usual weaknesses of open-source “documentation,” I got that sucker installed on an actual server and turning out real-live web pages late last week. Now for the content, the design, and the features that turn it from a flat outline into a usable site. MUCH easier than Joomla so far, though it’s hard to say whether that’s because of Drupal itself or because I’ve learned enough from the other CMS’s to speed things along. The site should be live within a few weeks, so keep an eye out for the announcement. And if my good experience so far turns out to be premature, listen for the distant sound of the gnashing of teeth.
– cpd
December 8th, 2008
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If your skies were clear and you happened to look southeast Monday evening soon after sunset, here’s what you might have seen:
The bright crescent is the Moon, the brighter “star” is Venus and the dimmer dot is Jupiter, here in a rare visible close conjunction (a church in my neighborhood is in the foreground). In reality, the two planets were somewhat more similar in appearance than this image suggests, but Jupiter must have been just barely bright enough to trigger the iPhone’s CCD. I remember reading an article about backyard digital astrophotography in a science magazine 20-plus years ago; now I have a device in my pocket that can pull it off, albeit only with the most brilliant objects in the sky. Another detail — when you blow the image up, you can kind of make out the fact that Venus is showing a crescent phase, just as the Moon is. Astronomy is way cool.
– cpd
December 3rd, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident and K Street Cafe
Now that the details are slooowly creeping out and we have a clearer idea of the Obama election team’s online numbers, what conclusions can we draw for the future? Right off the bat, Jose Antonio Vargas’s recent piece in the Post suggests something critical: online communications campaigns should consider offering supporters tiers of potential engagement.
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December 2nd, 2008
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This just in from a friend in Georgia, who’s a little disheartened about how today’s senatorial runoff election seems to be going:
On the plus side, I did get three personal calls — one from Bill Clinton, one from Michelle Obama, and one from the President-Elect himself — urging me to vote for Jim Martin. There must be something wrong with our phone, though, because they all just kept on talking to me even though I tried to interrupt them multiple times. Each time, we got cut off as soon as they finished their pitch. I guess they had a lot of other people to call…
Nice! Though I doubt they were as good-looking as the robocalls around here…
– cpd
December 2nd, 2008
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