The IPDI Ideas Series presents A Brown Bag Book Discussion with Nate Wilcox and Lowell Feld, authors of Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics
Join IPDI and authors Nate Wilcox and Lowell Feld for a discussion about the issues and events presented in Netroots Rising. How is power shifting in American politics? Will the mid-term elections in 2006 be viewed as a major turning point in American political history? Bring a brown bag lunch, hear the top notes from NetRoots Rising, and discuss them with the author. This lunch is strictly limited to the first 20 people who RSVP to akellner@ipdi.org in order to encourage as much discussion as possible with the authors.
Wednesday, May 28 Noon-1:30pm The library of the Graduate School of Political Management 4th Floor GWU’s Media and Public Affairs Building 805 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20052 RSVP REQUIRED to akellner@ipdi.org
About Nate Wilcox NATE WILCOX is an award-winning political consultant and recognized expert in online communications. He is the co-author of “Netroots Rising” with Lowell Feld. Wilcox was online communications director for Governor Mark Warner’s Forward Together PAC in 2006, a consultant to Richard Morrison’s 2004 challenge to Tom DeLay which was the first campaign endorsed by DailyKos and Democracy for America and raised over $500,000 online. He founded the blog SaveTexasReps.com and built a grassroots organization of over 30,000 members to oppose the 2003 redistricting of Texas. In 2002 he was the Online Communications Director for Tony Sanchez for Governor of Texas, which Slate.com called “the best online campaign of 2002.” Prior to entering partisan politics, Wilcox was the first Director of Online Communications at Public Strategies, Inc. where he worked under former Texas Governor Ann Richards, direct-mail guru Dave Gold, Clinton advisors Paul Begala and Jeff Eller, future Bush advisors Mark McKinnon and Matthew Dowd, and Chairman Jack Martin.
About Lowell Feld
LOWELL FELD is founder and editor of Raising Kaine, the largest progressive blog in Virginia. In 2003, Feld was heavily involved in the Draft Wesley Clark movement, running two grassroots websites — Environmentalists for Clark and Hispanics for Clark. In early 2006, Feld co-founded the Draft James Webb movement, gathering 1,000 signatures and $40,000 in pledges for a Webb candidacy in just a few weeks. In July 2006, Feld joined the Webb for Senate campaign as its netroots coordinator, helping to raise more than $4 million online (out of about $8 million total). Currently, Feld consults for the South Dakota Democratic Party and the Judy Feder for Congress campaign. He is co-author of the book, “Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Progressive Bloggers and Online Activists is Changing American Politics.” In addition, Feld has 17+ years of experience in world oil markets as an analyst and team leader with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
About Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional “top-down” central broadcasters to new “bottom-up” decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb’s “rag-tag army” of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen’s senatorial bid.Veteran online campaigners Feld and Wilcox recount and analyze many other political campaigns in which netroots activism was decisive or instructive, including:U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s downfall. *Tim Kaine’s election as Virginia governor. *Howard Dean’s and Wes Clark’s presidential campaigns. *Ned Lamont’s primary victory over Joe Lieberman. The authors conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Netroots 2.0: Will the netroots hordes “crash the party” or will they work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite? The foreword is written by Markos (”Kos”) Moulitsas Zuniga, founding editor of the world’s biggest political blog, daily Kos.
About the IPDI Ideas Series book discussions
The Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI)is part of the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. Our mission is to promote the use of the Internet and new communication technologies in politics to enhance democratic values, encourage citizen participation and improve governance, at home and abroad; in short, to “democratize democracy.”
IPDI presents a series of regular, discussion-based events that explore technology policy and emerging issues in the technology and political spheres. Previous events in the IPDI Ideas Series looked at broadband policy and discussions about new research. Each event is designed to provide an forum for conversations about the ways in which technology affects politics – and vice versa – that are accessible both online and offline. This includes brown bag lunch conversations with authors, bloggers, and journalists about major themes in the politics and technology space.
The past month saw some interesting ideas – as well as some interesting predictions for the political tech world.
Some of our favorites:
E-VOTING
Is the idea that paper ballots insure secure elections a myth? Daniel Castro thinks so. In “Stop the Presses: How Paper Trails Fail to Secure e-Voting” for The Information and Technology Innovation Foundation, Castro gives the following three recommendations for e-Voting in the United States:
Congress and the states should allow the use of fully electronic ballots.
Congress and the states should require that future voting machines have verifiable audit trails.
Congress should provide funding for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to issue grants for developing secure cryptographic voting protocols and pilot testing.
PARTY MONEY
Small contributions from individuals were the principal source of fundraising for the national party committees, according to The Campaign Finance Institute’snew report, “Party Money in the 2006 Elections: The Role of National Party Committees in Financing Congressional Campaigns,” by Anthony Corrado and Katie Varney. Some of that money came from broader donor bases that the parties developing through fundraising programs – many of them online. The report found that the party committees
spent more money in 2006 directly supporting congressional candidates than they had in any previous election – devoting more than one out of every four dollars they received to these efforts.
DIPLOMACY
Will the next technology-fueled revolution occur in the diplomatic sphere? David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla argue that it will in “The promise of noöpolitik” for the August edition of FirstMonday. They argue that the information age will undermine classic diplomacy (based on hard power) and favor diplomacy based on soft power. They recommend that diplomats consider
Supporting the expansion of cyberspace connectivity around the world, including where this runs counter to the preferences of authoritarian regimes.
Promoting freedom of information and communications as a worldwide right
Developing multitiered information-sharing systems, not only to ensure cyberspace safety and security, but also to create infospheres for openly addressing other issues.
They also recommend creating “special media forces” to help settle disputes using information and coordination between diplomats and non-state actors, such as NGOs.
Earlier this week, we attended The Exploding World of Web Video at New Politics Institute. Check out their video project – an archive of the many different types of political web videos.
We were particularly interested in what Karina Newton, Director of New Media for the Office of Speaker Pelosi, said about the way video has become an important supplement to her web presence:
Everything we have in writing [on our website] we also try to have in video.
Karina has been using video for over a year to reach audiences that are not going to Speaker Pelosi’s website. Sometimes, even the driest archival-seeming footage contains gems, from blunders and bickering to inflammatory statements.
Karina points out that web video has become a way increase transparency and accountability in the House, and YouTube, the site Karina uses to post videos, has become a forum for both.
And video has become particularly good for rapid response – just as it has begun to be used in the world of political campaigns.
This week also saw the advent of a new political video site, CampaignAds.org, created by Republican new media strategist Laura Crawford.
Laura originally envisioned the site as a library of professionally-produced political videos into a vehicle for individuals interested in politics to post their own political content – for political candidates and issue advocacy groups.
CampaignAds.org also measures the top videos, which are tabulated through votes, and Laura wants to air the video with the most votes on television.
I asked Laura about her predictions for web video in 2008 – on and off her site. She said
All videos will have an impact. User-generated content will make news if it’s effective enough. What I’ve found most interesting when I’ve spoken at various places about advertising and the Internet, is that during Q&A, I’m always asked “Why do you have to do so many negative ads? Why can’t we just have positive advertising for a change?” Ironically, it’s the public who are producing negative advertising – ads that wouldn’t be approved even by the campaigns themselves. And they’re having fun making them.
One prediction I have is that there will be so much negative user-generated content that ads produced by the candidates will trend positive.
Trend positive? We’ve noticed something similar. However, we can’t seem to shake something Chuck Todd mentioned a few weeks ago: the presidential candidates, he told us, appear to be using YouTube more for opposition research (trackers!) and negative ads than positive ads.
One thing seems certain: armchair political quarterbacks like us tend to see web video and web video sites like YouTube (and CampaignAds.org) as an important part of the 2008 campaign. We have to admit that we, too, are infatuated with web video – perhaps a little too infatuated. We’ve even dabbled in the medium ourselves.
I turned to YouTube’s Steve Grove to explain why web video garners so many warm fuzzies from people like us.
The great thing about video in politics is that it’s a medium anyone can use. Video cameras, broadband access, and YouTube make is possible for both campaigns and voters to have a political dialogue across the same level platform. I think people feel empowered by the fact that they can capture and post political moments on video and contribute to the discussion in this way.
I think the 2006 election had several moments in which it became obvious that YouTube was changing politics in America. Moving forward both candidates and users will engage on YouTube in a way that I think will make the political dialogue much more authentic. Because online video on YouTube is an interactive experience, there’s something about video that strips away the pretense and really gets to the heart of who a person is. And that’s very important in politics as voters and candidates try to make informed political decisions based off the issues, identity, and experience of those running for office.
Another batch of videos from the 2007 Politics Online Conference. The first is our panel, “Total Constituent Impact: eCommunications in Elected Office.” Speakers on the panel included Steve Dwyer - Technology Director, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Jonathan Levy - Legislative Assistant, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Pepper Pennington - Press Secretary, Congressman Tom Feeney, Stuart Shapiro - President, iConstituent, and Alex Treadway - Director of Digital Media, National Journal Group, Inc. The panelists discuss using integrated, multiplatform communications, such as eTownhall meetings, newsletters, SMS, and email, in elected office.
The next video is Video A La Carte. Online, Mobile and On-Demand: What works and why. This panel features Bill Buck - President & COO, Cherry Tree Mobile, James Kotecki - Political Commentator, Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network, Jason Rosenberg - Strategy Architect, EchoDitto and Adrienne Skinner - VP of Online Strategic Sales, Comcast
Our second batch of video from the Politics Online Conference — this is one of our planery panels: So You Want to Build a Web Team: What You Need to Know Before You Begin. The panel features Jerome Armstrong - Forward Together PAC, Chuck DeFeo - Vice President and General Manager, Townhall.com and Salem News/Talk Online, Patrick Ruffini - Adviser for New Media Strategy, Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Exploratory Committee, Joe Trippi - Trippi & Associates and moderated by Chuck Todd - Editor-in-Chief, The Hotline and recently Political Director at NBC News.
Once again, our bloggers have chimed in on the panel:
ONLINE CAMPAIGNING and PUBLIC RELATIONS
“How to Build a Web Team” covered recruiting and integrating the web outreach staff to reaping new online opportunities to speak directly to voters. This panel followed a conversational, informal format which yielded a fair amount of consensus on the needs and opportunities - aside from debating whether which party had the most bloggers.
PANELISTS:
- Jerome Armstrong, Forward Together PAC, founder MyDD.com
- Joe Trippi, Trippi & Associates, JoeTrippi.com, Howard Dean campaign
- Chuck DeFeo,Townhall.com and Salem News/Talk Online
- Patrick Ruffini, Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Exploratory Committee
Moderator - Chuck Todd,The Hotline
-Recruitment: Online organizers should have offline organizing experience, eg local campaigns, fundraising,
communications outreach, to best fulfill the campaign goals.
-Integration: online campaigners should be involved all aspects of campaign. Online organizers need to talk to
communications, finance, fundraising, and other key campaign departments. On some level, there is a tendency
to think of web outreach as the “other” and those who can unleash the “magic bottle.”
-Senior-level Buy-in: Campaign managers and the candidate need to support and buy-into web campaigning.
Now, most campaigns have internet teams, but campaign managers restrict their freedom to utilize their skills
and creativity. The campaign needs to elevate the web crew with the other departments; they are not just
service entities.
More Venues for Campaign-produced Media
Campaigns need to be ready to respond to anti-candidate YouTube and other video viral campaigns quickly. They need to flood these portals with their own, pro-candidate, anti-opponent messages in the event of another “Macaca moment.” Presidential candidate, Gov. Mit Romey (R-MA) confronted anti-videos by posting an interview with a blogger onto YouTube.
Candidates are using online video portals to send out a variety of their own media. Like all video footage, much political ad material was left on the cutting room floor. Candidates now can post videos and essentially have ‘built-in’ focus groups. Trippi noted that an unnamed campaign has started to hire their own “journalists” to disseminate their own message which the other panels condoned as serving as a new form of press releases and avoiding journalists’ pesky questions. Trippi claimed such content could be considered “news” and posted on Google News.
R&D in Online Campaiging
There was divergence on when to conduct online research and development. Chuck DeFeo felt R&D was inimical to the fast-paced, stressful campaign cycle. Republicans do it before general elections and focus on with online venues that already attract an audience, as opposed to starting or going to new online venues.
Conversely, Jerome Armstrong had Mark Warner, who has a technology background, go from blogging to the virtual world Second Life. “The political types did not like” - yet this is where an early-adopter can benefit from getting their first. Warner continued to check in himself and saw that other Linden people were still there even after the election.
Predictions for Technology in Politics
Moderator Chuck Todd asked the panelists for their predictions of online politics.
Jerome Armstrong - The new technology will carry the candidate who can be the online video version of Walter Cronkite. [Let’s hope it will be a woman this time.]
Joe Trippi - One candidate will hit the jack pot with small donations, whereby “5,000 women will give more than the 100 the big donors.”
Chuck DeFeo – We keep waiting for that 1960 TV moment for when the internet has arrived…it will be a series of moments, especially as broadband penetration brings more people into the process.
Pat Ruffini – We need to learn how to address unmet needs. Mobile can be the next frontier; how do we bring it into people’s daily lives?
NBC’s Political Director, Chuck Todd, was also interviewed by OnlineMaven.
This is our seventh in a series of interviews with industry professionals discussing the state of online politics. The Politics Online Conference is just around the corner; here we talk with James Kotecki, now a political commentator for Capitol Hill Broadcasting Netork. We talk with James about how the 2008 candidates are using online video and why the younger you are, the more faith you have in social networking.
This is our sixth in a series of interviews with industry professionals discussing the state of online politics. The Politics Online Conference is just around the corner; here we sit down with Jason Rosenberg, Strategy Architect for EchoDitto, discussing the utilization of the internet in politics, specifically in campaigns.
This is our third in a series of interviews with industry professionals discussing the state of online politics. We are little more than a month away from our 2007 Politics Online Conference; here we sit down with Cheryl Contee, Vice President of Issue Dynamics Inc., to talk about how Issue Dynamics utilized technology in 2006 and where she sees web 2.0 taking political activism in the years to come.
This is our second in a series of interviews with industry professionals discussing the state of online politics. Here, we sit down with Jeff Mascott, Managing Director of the Adfero Group, to talk about the impact of the utilization of technology on politics in 2006 and what we should expect in the years to come.
IPDI is proud to announce an all-star plenary panel during its Politics Online 2007 Conference.
Veteran politicos Jerome Armstrong, Rick Davis, Chuck DeFeo, and Joe Trippi will all join a discussion moderated by Chuck Toddabout the best strategies for an Internet team. “So You Want to Build a Web Team: What You Need to Know Before You Begin” will teach you the trade secrets of how to build a successful, in-house Web team. Before your next campaign, learn the “ins and outs” and “dos and don’ts” (and maybe a trade secret or two) of Internet team management.
Armstrong is founder of MyDD.com and a political strategist who has most recently worked for former Virginia Governor Mark Warner’s fledgling presidential campaign. Trippi is a longtime political strategist who has worked on the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Dick Gephardt. Both Armstrong and Trippi are responsible for Howard Dean’s domination of the Internet during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Davis served as the campaign manager for John McCain’s 2000 run and has been in the business of government and politics for at least two decades. DeFeo is the vice president and general manager of Townhall.com, a conservative, grassroots online forum, and Salem News/Talk Online.
Todd is the editor-in-chief of The Hotline, Washington’s premier daily briefing on American politics.
Make sure you don’t miss this all-star panel, part of POLC 2007. Reserve your tickets today here. For more information, visit http://polc.ipdi.org.
