EchoDitto

Between my work on NewsJunk and PDF last week, I’ve been mulling over the state of political campaigning and technology. On the Dean campaign, the campaign’s blog – Blog For America – was a critical communications implement. We built a big daily readership and we thought of it like our own cable channel or major newspaper. There was an explicit understanding that it was our media outlet, and that Matt Gross, Zephyr Teachout, and Joe Rospars (among others) were our “reporters on the ground”, covering the campaign – inside the headquarters and out on the road.

I've been working on a new project with Dave Winer -- Newsjunk.com. For the last few months, I've been annoyed at how hard it is to follow the political coverage. News pops up in a lot of different places, and having single source to follow what's happening throughout the day has been an itch that needs scratching. Dave remembers the briefing books we had on the Dean campaign, a fixture of many campaigns. So NewsJunk.com started as a way to scratch the itch of the political news junkie, and a way to begin to build an open briefing book.

The eight ways to follow NewsJunk:

The Hill has an article today about Members of Congress trying to use Facebook. I am quoted:

Brian Reich, author of Media Rules! Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience, sasays lawmakers must focus on building relationships with other members by using innovative ways to communicate a common cause.

“It’s about what the audience on Facebook wants and expects out of a relationship with a member of Congress,” he says. “The key to having that relationship is a combination of things: information, some kind of experience, or stuff the audience really values.”

I have to admit that the idea of an “unconference” made me a little uncomfortable. No set agenda? No prepared presentations? No experts? What was there to prevent the entire thing from dissolving into chit chat about the best Woot items and JLo’s babies? The answer, I discovered, is a good-sized group of smart, thoughtful people with a variety of experience, who are willing to share new projects, discuss best practices, and admit to not knowing all of the answers.

So what did those smart people say? Here are 5 insights--one per session.

I published an article in the most recent edition of the NTEN newsletter about what I see as a lack of true innovation in terms of the use of technology to advance the political conversation this cycle.

Here is an excerpt:

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The web has certainly played a big role in this election cycle and is helping campaigns on both sides of the aisle collect millions of dollars in small contributions. But, the major campaigns have been slow to incorporate some of the best ideas from the last four years, instead relying on glossy new versions of the same old tactics and tools.

The 2008 campaigns have perfected some existing tactics and ideas... and technology is at a place now where some campaigns are able to operate more professionally and efficiently than ever before (the use of video being the best example). But there haven't been many earth shattering innovations, our democracy has not been revolutionized, and the prospect of radical change in this upcoming cycle remains limited.

After bitterly disappointing elections in 2000 and 2004, I took my leave of politics and decided I was no longer interested—if you'd asked me, I might have told you I was a registered cynic. This year's election, until recently, had largely failed to capture my attention. But as I watched the Iowa caucus results—and some caucuses themselves! How fascinating!!—I felt that political part of myself stirring again.

And after watching last night's primary results, I feel optimistic. What I'm feeling at this moment is the best of politics, that wave of emotion as the candidates remind you that we can make change, and we can make it together.

As everyone was finalizing their weekend plans last Friday, it was announced that Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change."

Feeling left out? Want a piece of the action? Well, he can't do it all by himself. Check out one of our recent projects and do your part today to take action to solve the climate crisis - take the 7-point pledge - created by the Alliance for Climate Protection. If you haven't heard of the Alliance, find out more while listening to Gore speak about his award.

Many of us were up late last night watching the CNN YouTube debates, excited at the prospect of a different debate format. Finally, the voters, people like you and me, had the chance to ask a question directly to a potential presidential candidate.

While most of us were watching the debates, quietly judging the merit of each question and wondering what would come next, AP was calling our colleague Michael Silberman to ask his opinion on the effectiveness of the debates:

"The greatest innovation of this debate is that we're seeing candidates respond to real voters instead of polished TV personalities," said Michael … "It's a win for the candidates who are at their best when addressing voters. It's a win for democracy, since average Americans outside of the early primary states now have the opportunity to ask direct questions of candidates."

So at one point or another, we’ve all heard the maxim that the digital revolution is going to change the way we do everything. Well... once again it has been proven right.   

The next victim of the digital age?  Ironically, it may be the art of war.