techPresident - Mobile - Comments

even if this had cost them $$

Dan Ancona — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:18:30 -0400

It would have been so worth it perception-wise. Seemingly little things like this go into the hopper of what people perceive about a campaign and the candidate behind it. Field is exactly the same way: the CW is that you can only get 3-5% out of even an awesome field campaign, but the perception cost to not having a field presence is much higher.

And as you point out, this is really the first app to effectively unlock the contact-list social network and put it to some use. That's not a trivial milestone.

Outreach to the creative class

Luigi Montanez — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:18:04 -0400

I view this more as a work of outreach rather than of field organizing. Specifically, the campaign is targeting those hip iPhone users who (1) Have some money to donate even in this economic climate and (2) Have probably not yet been hardcore volunteers.

The call-your-contact-list tool is kind of a gateway drug to traditional phonebanking. It's easier to start out by calling people you know, and then by November you can be making GOTV calls to strangers across the country.

The iPhone app also exploits the creative class's "bright, shiny thing" syndrome, where we love to play with new, cool stuff. If that gains them some extra donations and extra visits to their local field offices, then it was well worth it.

What do you mean why?

David All — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:12:03 -0400

A few reasons:

1. Because he can.

2. He has the resources.

3. He has a record of online results that shows the bean counters that every dollar he puts into his online effort proves fruitful.

4. He'll jump to the top of every news story about tech + politics which is quite a bit -- owning the lede -- because he's now taken the game about 20x further than John McCain.

________________________________________
David All
http://davidallgroup.com
http://techRepublican.com
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UPDATE: LIVE EXAMPLE

Justin Oberman — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:06:18 -0400

Nancy Scola just blogged about a real life occurance of everything this article talks about. http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/29486/rnc_protestors_mastering_m...

Justin Oberman
www.mopocket.com

Not talking about a Revolution

Justin Oberman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:19:15 -0400

Not talking about revolutions

Justin Oberman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:18:23 -0400

Luigi. Your points are extreamly valid and I could not have said it better myself. To some degree the Obama style mobile campaign models mirrors the Obama campaign style in general. However, I was not talking about a mobile revolution, per say. I was just talking about mobile viral use on anything. The groundswell could be about anything. The point being that we have no way of knowing how or when it will take place. All I know is that when it does it will make what Obama is doing now look like infomercials and it will be all anyone is talking about and, unfortunately, try to copy.

I am not saying that the Obama campaign does not want this kind of organic viral mobile campaign. Who wouldn't. I just think that, believe it or not, they do not have the stamina or passion to have one. I think that is what you are saying also.

Generally speaking, There just is no formula for Black Swans.

Justin Oberman
www.mopocket.com

The United States is not like the others

Luigi Montanez — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:12:42 -0400

I think how mobile technology is used in the context of activism mirrors the social and political climate of a particular country at a particular time in history. The Philippine, Ukrainian, and Spanish examples above all occurred at a time when those respective governments severely betrayed the trust of a majority of their citizens.

That's just not happening here. Yes, there are (somewhat) organized movements of those who believe the current Bush administration is deserving of being overthrown, but that sentiment is just not shared by the vast majority of the country.

Frankly, I don't think a popular mobile revolution will ever happen here, because the U.S. system of government simply isn't as corruptible as that of other countries, and won't need to be overthrown. That's why we're so silly come election season. ;-)

Obama's frontpage doesn't forward to mobile site

Tino — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:40:45 -0400

Re Katrin's last comment: Maybe this is intentional, after all the mobile site is extremely stripped down compared to the mobi version. Even with my Nokia I'd prefer the content-rich unformatted version over the optimized but too restricted mobile site. iLoop's job could have been way more impressive if they'd optimized most of the original content for mobile access, though I guess that wasn't their decision...

Just a simple download

Michael Tate — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:56:11 -0400

If a campaign were to use exactly what I described, they would probably not have your mobile phone number. It is just a simple download onto the mobile phone.

Do Not Text Regulations

shimanepdf — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:50:59 -0400

Thanks for the post. Very interesting.

Did you see the introduction of the "do not text" registry last week in Congress ? (does not include political texts at this time).

More at my blog: http://thinkdodone.typepad.com/ccd/

I do see, however, a chance for misuse by campaigns, much like they have overused robo calls (now the top contact tool according to PEW).

Thoughts?

--
Cheers,

Shaun Dakin – CEO & Founder
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
-- A non-partisan, non-profit program by Citizens for Civil Discourse
Register Your Phone Number Now for Free: http://www.StopPoliticalCalls.org/

live stream

Tex MacRae — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:53:31 -0400

The live stream is run by the Ron Paul 2008 National Youth director. It's accompanied by live chat and text messaging where supporters have input in where he goes, what camera views they prefer and who he interviews. We (as in supporters) were present through the livestream backstage at the debates, in the Spin Rooms and in the campaign "War Room" getting updates on Carol Paul (who was hospitalized for a heart condition at the Iowa Straw Poll) directly from Dr. Paul.

iPhone = mobile?

Joshua Levy — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:15:26 -0400

Ron Paul's campaign created a custom version of its site for the iPhone, much like Digg and Facebook have done. While this was a good idea, it's not what most of us mean by "mobile technology." Mobile means creating mobile campaigns that utilize shortcode and text messaging to create a dialogue with supporters.

Not sure where live-streaming (which was pioneered by the Dodd campaign) fits in with that...

Yes, they do.

Tex MacRae — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:43:48 -0400

>>>Unsurprisingly, no Republican candidates have used mobile yet.

*rolls eyes*

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/iphone

The entire Iowa Straw Poll was live-streamed here:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/snippets/3/

Every rally and debate since Mountain View's rally has been streamed live on the web.

I don't know why I bother posting here, though. There's no conversation and no feedback. Kinda weird for a blog that's supposedly about Web 2.0.

FFN

Tim Tagaris — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:40:50 -0400

Again, in Ned Lamont's campaign we bridged that gap in a very serious way using a program envisioned and created by the campaign called "Family, Friends and Neighbors."

Essentially, it made the voter file public and allowed people to look up their family, friends and neighbors and then send them a physical, personalized postcard -- paid for by the campaign.

People would send postcards that contained a bit of information about the candidate, then said stuff like, "Hey Grandma, you should really check out Ned Lamont. He's running against Joe Lieberman and is the one candidate in the race who wants to end the war. I miss you, grandma. Hope to see you soon. Love, Tom"

Anyway, we sent out over 100,000 of these IIRC.

Tim

Internet 2.0 for Government?

Peter Erickson — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:22:49 -0400

I have a MyDD diary up that mostly poses a lot of questions. I'd be really curious about everyone's thoughts here:
The internet has been seen as a tool for further transparency, as a new means of disseminating information, but what about all the other things it could do for government? Just as political campaigns are now discovering that a website is no longer about merely posting position papers and photos --- but about fostering contacts between supporters, engaging them in the campaign, soliciting ideas, and creating new possibilities for interaction with their candidate, it's time that we expand our thinking about the role that the web can play in honest and open government.
Obama just might be starting to applying these same lessons not only to his political campaign but to his style of governance. In the diary, I try to work out a list of Obama's proposals for opening up regulatory hearings, making his cabinet officials more accessible to the public, etc. It seems like a start anyway.