I would like to congratulate the winners of the 2008 Golden Dot Awards, which were announced Tuesday, March 4 at the 2008 Politics Online Conference. This year was a great success for the Golden Dot Awards as we democratized both the nominating and voting process, bringing it to the public via the Internet. There were over 100 nominations and saw 4,000 votes in only a 5 business day-long time period.

Without further ado, here are the winners:

Technology Impact Moment of the Year- Ron Paul 4.2 Million Dollar Money BombOnline Politician - Obama
Online Dream Team - Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Best Website: Federal Candidate- Barack Obama
Best Website: State and Local Candidate- Daniel Biss
Best Website: Issue Advocacy Campaign- Team Darfur
Best EGovernment - Globalwarming.house.gov (Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming)
Best ECampaign Blog - Biss Blog
Best Political Coverage Blog - Marc Ambinder
Best Issues/Advocacy Blog - TreeHugger
Best Mobile/Text Message Campaign - Obama HOPE Campaign
Best Podcast - NYTimes on Politics
Best Networked Campaign - Barack Obama
Best Vlog - Playbook TV (James Kotecki)
Best Political Web Video - Yes, We Can
Best Political Animation/Mashup - In the Year 2007, JibJab
Best Online Collective Action Effort - Congresspedia
Best Online GOTV - Barack Obama
Best Online Political Application - I am Smoke Free, (Facebook Application)
Poli-Tech Innovator of the Year - Steve Grove, YouTube Politics
Best Political Advertising Campaign - Hillary Sopranos Ad

Congratulations again. If you have any suggestions for future iterations of the Golden Dot awards please send me an email at akellner@ipdi.org.

This post was guest blogged by Jesse Greenberg.  

Kudos to all the organizers of the Politics Online Conference for putting together an excellent program.  And special thanks to Julie Germany who invited me as a guest on IPDI’s blog.

I was fortunate to win Golden Dot Awards in the categories of Best Website for State/Local Candidate and Best e-Blog for my role as a communications advisor to Daniel Biss, Candidate for State Representative in Illinois’ 17^th district.  I was fortunate because working for the Biss campaign afforded me the opportunity to implement new political strategies needed to build relationships with voters, raise funds and construct the campaign brand.  Winning the Golden Dots affirmed that we’re on the right track. 

The candidate, however, did not see the value of attending the conference or receiving the awards in person and would not assist in supporting my trip to DC.  My argument for going was that this earned public relations was testament to the campaign running on a new model that utilizes technology to involve district voters in having a greater say in their politics than ever before.  We could build on this momentum, I argued, to achieve definitive, measurable results for the minor investment in going to DC.  Alas, my argument did not win this time.

I’m not sharing this because I have an axe to grind.  On the contrary, I wish the candidate only success.  Rather, I’m sharing this to demonstrate how difficult putting faith in politics 2.0 can be, especially on the state or local level where resources are often tight.  In that environment it is comfortable to fall back on the traditional ways of campaigning—canvassing, direct mail, etc.—that are often not as a good an investment (confirmed by Sara Parker, Edelman VP in the workshop, “Developing Mobile Social Software Applications”) but at least are more of a known quantity.  And despite having embraced new campaign strategies, this campaign found it difficult to let go of old campaign models.  This demonstrates it is going to take another election or two to really transform American politics down to the local level. 

My sense from the beginning was that politics 2.0 is applicable at the local level.  In fact, I argue new campaign marketing strategies can be more effective at the local level simply because the scale is so much smaller.  It is therefore easier to manage relationships and maintain relevancy to voters that is impossible to do in the same way in presidential or congressional campaigns. 

I’ll use this as an opportunity to challenge candidates running at the local level to use new campaign methods and bring down the barriers between candidate and voter.  We are in a climate today that demands a greater level of political transparency.  We must allow greater involvement from voters, many of whom a candidate does not know personally—and that’s ok. 

Lastly, local candidates need to trust new faces (Millennials especially) who bring new ideas to politics.  We’re the vanguard of change and despite our age, our perspective is fresh and helping bring about a new age of campaigning occurring most notably at higher levels of politics.  Thanks to the Golden Dots though, we’ve got a place that recognizes and rewards new thinking in political campaigns. 

For the first time, all of the 2008 Golden Dot Awards will be completely determined by a public vote. Today, the voting form is up on the website of our March ‘08 Politics Online Conference and will be open until 5pm on Tuesday, February 19.

I want to quickly highlight the nominees for Technology Impact Moment of the Year, the award that is given to the most influential event of the last 12 months. These four events should be judged on how they will effect the future of the intersection of the politics and technology worlds.

• $4.3 Million Dollar Money Bomb (Ron Paul): This was the first incredibly successful “money-bomb”, or one day online fund-raising effort. While in 2004, we saw online fund-raising take off, the September 2007 money bomb was the moment online fund-raising entered the mainstream of campaigning.
• Interactive Voice Response Technology (International Republican Institute): The IRI used Interactive Voice Response Technology (IVR) to track in real-time the elections in Nigeria much more quickly in years past. The process led creedence to Nigeria’s democratic process and utilized existing technology creatively for political interests.
  
• Faith in America Speech (Mitt Romney): Using online viral strategies and other tactics, the Romney campaign was able to secure a 7,500 person live-online audience for Mitt Romney’s December speech about faith. This was the premier example of online video deployment and framing of a message on the campaigns terms instead of the media’s.
• Hillary 1984 Video (Phil de Vellis): This parody of a 1984 Apple Superbowl Commercial was the first viral political video that didn’t involve a political gaffe (see: George Allen). The ad, which did not come from a member of the Obama campaign, spread quickly across the Internet with millions of viewers and also earning coverage on the traditional mainstream media.

Vote online today for this award and more to make this the most democratized Golden Dots in IPDI’s history.

If you have any questions about voting or about the Golden Dots as a whole please email me.

Today is the last day to submit nominations for the 2008 Golden Dot Awards, which will be presented at the ‘08 Politics Online Conference this March 4-5. The original deadline was today at 5pm, but we are extending the nomination period to midnight tonight for any last-minute submissions.

The Golden Dot Awards distinguish those who have excelled in the field of politics and the Internet during 2007.  You can find the online nomination form on the conference’s website. The categories for the 2008 awards are:

• Technology Impact Moment-of-the-Year
• Online Politician-of-the-Year
• Online Dream Team
• Best Website - Federal Candidate
• Best Website – State and Local Candidate
• Best Website – Issue Advocacy Campaign
• Best eGovernment
• Best Blog – eCampaign
• Best Blog – Political Coverage
• Best Blog – Issues and Advocacy
• Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign
• Best Podcast Series
• Best Networked Campaign
• Best Vlog
• Best Political Web Video
• Best Political Animation/Mash-up
• Best Online Collective Action Effort
• Best Online Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign
• Best Online Political Application
• Poli-Tech Innovator-of-the-Year
• Best Online Political Advertising Campaign

For more information on any of the award categories, you can also visit the conference website.

Last night, the much-hyped news segment on Facebook, was aired on 60 minutes. If you didn’t happen to catch it, you can find it here.

The interview didn’t elicit any new information to those of us who have been following Facebook and its spheres of influence from the beginning. However, it does signify a small landmark-of-sorts, in the sense that the traditional media rarely acknowledges web2.0. And 60 minutes is as traditional media as it gets.

In the interview Lesley Stahl mentioned, albeit briefly, Facebook’s influence on politicians and campaigning

Stahl: You know, it used to be, first, you went on “Face the Nation” if you were a candidate; then well, no, you went on “Letterman.” Now it seems the candidates have to be on Facebook. Are you changing the way candidates are running for president?

Zuckerberg: Well, I think because politicians can communicate with tens of thousands of people at the same time, it’s pretty effective for them in campaigning.

While clearly these observations aren’t earth-shattering, it is nice to see a slight departure from mundane horse race coverage, and attention being paid to innovation in the campaign process instead. 2007 was a landmark year for Facebook, but it certainly wasn’t the only online application or website that deserves recognition for its achievements in the political and technology spheres. To fill that void, I want to mention IPDI’s Golden Dot Awards which will be presented at the 2008 Politics Online Conference this March 4-5. The Golden Dots recognize the best and most exciting online achievements and ideas in the 2007 calendar year in the following categories:

• Technology Impact Moment-of-the-Year
• Online Politician-of-the-Year
• Online Dream Team
• Best Website: Federal Candidate
• Best Website: State and Local Candidate
• Best Website: Issue Advocacy Campaign
• Best eGovernment
• Best Blog- eCampaign
• Best Blog- Political Coverage
• Best Blog- Issues and Advocacy
• Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign
• Best Podcast Series
• Best Networked Campaign
• Best Vlog
• Best Political Web Video
• Best Political Animation/Mash-up
• Best Online Collective Action Effort
• Best Online Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign
• Best Online Political Application
• Poli-Tech Innovator-of-the-Year
• Best Online Political Advertising Campaign

If you feel that you, your organization or company or anyone else that you know should be honored for their online political achievements in 2007, please go to the Politics Online website and nominate them. Nominations close on January 30, 2008. In February, the winners of each award will be voted upon by the public on the POLC website.

The Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet has narrowed down our shortlists for the 2007 People’s Choice Awards for Impact Moment and Online Politician of the Year. Please vote for these awards at the bottom of the post – one vote per person. Voting will close at noon on the first day of the Politics Online Conference, Thursday March 15th.

IMPACT MOMENT

George Allen’s “Macaca” Moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL3Q9gUEvtA
What started as an off-color cheap shot to a small group of Allen supporters turned into a deep hole that Allen could not find his way out of. Thanks to the timely videotaping by a dedicated intern and the power of online video, Jim Webb is the new junior Senator from Virgina.

The DeVos Campaign for Governor (Michigan)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/06/michigans_devos_is_capturing_t.html
Doing everything they could to convince voters that Michigan could be on the cutting edge once again, the Richard DeVos campaign was the first major campaign to put out a video ad and website specifically for mobile. The campaign also went web 2.0 by asking for user-generated campaign ad content. The DeVos campaign was able to be where all campaigns may end up in the future.

Ned Lamont’s Connecticut Democratic Primary Victory
http://www.nedlamont.com/
Though it did not lead to a general election victory, Ned Lamont bucked conventional wisdom and defeated not only a sitting incumbent Senator, but a Senator who just five years earlier had been the party’s vice presidential nominee. Lamont led the charge by Democrats on the War in Iraq that lead to landslide victories in November 2006. The War in Iraq continues to be the issue in Congress.

POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR

Ned Lamont
http://www.kirkdorffer.com/ontheroadto2008/2006/08/lamont-and-netroots-prevail-over.shtml
Ned Lamont did what has become virtually the impossible in American politics – with a strong netroots campaign, Lamont defeated an incumbent US Senator in the primary election. Lamont’s tech savvy as a former television executive was important in the campaign; Lamont’s network of blogs helped build momentum and raise funds for the previously inexperienced politician.

Mark Warner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQZlA5eLh4
Before dropping out of the 2008 Presidential race, Mark Warner was looking to build support early with a new and innovative idea – Warner held a press conference as an “avatar” in the online game Second Life, the first American politician to enter Second Life. There were strong indications that Warner was prepared to invest heavily in a fully-integrated, corporate-style campaign structure; in addition to virtual video games, Warner also embraced the blogging community by becoming of the first politicians to signup for YearlyKos, used cell phone technology in a voter registration text messaging campaign, and was one of the first candidates to use Facebook. Though Warner did not continue as a candidate, he has paved the way for future candidates to explore the power of virtual worlds.

Dick DeVos
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/06/michigans_devos_is_capturing_t.html
DeVos asked for supporters to submit their own web videos to the campaign and saw the importance of a new technological opportunity in mobile. Though he eventually lost to Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm, DeVos broke new ground through his use of technology in his campaign.

Jack Kingston
http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/1100
Congressman Kingston has been at the forefront of the Republican modern media revolution. Kingston was one of the first Republican members of the House to start his own blog. He became a regular on Comedy Central and preached the virtues of podcasting and interactive Web sites with ‘pizazz.’ The aim: reach young, hip, technologically savvy voters who seldom read newspapers or watch traditional television news.”