Right Blog

Discover What We're Really Made Of

2005-07-26T10:48:00.000-04:00

When I was in the fifth grade, NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle launch since the Challenger tragedy. In the middle of class, classmate Craig Thornton and co. stormed into homeroom from the computer lab with his arms in the air, shouting, "Discovery made it!"

Fast forward almost 20 years. After the Columbia tragedy, Discovery was again the first to travel back into space. It's so encouraging to know that in addition to having the world's biggest economy and mightiest military, we have an equal amount of courage and persistence.

Take a look at our daily dose of sanity that most of us willingly seek out - terror attacks, suicide bombs, the Axis of Evil, nuclear weapons, trade decificts, budget deficits, left wing nuts, right wing extremists, Dubya, Clinton, oil, ethanol, hurricanes, heat waves, kidnappings, obesity, tobacco, drug companies, tax increases, tax cuts (who got them and why), and global warming.

Yet us Yanks still have the gall to strap our bravest and brightest patriots to the back of a rocket to learn what's beyond our borders.

We just keep going, as we've done so many times throughout our history.

Wherever UBL and Al-Zarqawi are hiding, I hope they get word of what we did today and realize that they have no idea who they're messing with. Hopefully all Americans will feel the same.

These Two Were On the Debate Team....

2005-07-23T23:45:00.000-04:00

Proportional reduction in error, bivariate relationships, gamma, lambda, Yules Q....Some of you out there understand my inability to blog. Good luck on Wednesday fellow 202ers!

Another Day Off....

2005-07-22T21:20:00.000-04:00

Must Rest for a Day...Tired

2005-07-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

Lessig's Flash, Part I

2005-07-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

I will post again on the second half of his presentation, but I thought I’d report on some of my initial reactions.

Lessig did not need to ramble on for as long as he did. He could have offered more substance and less rhetoric. His message could have been summarized in far less than a half hour.

I believe that he has an important message that people should hear at least for the sake of forming an opinion, but his argument would be stronger if he had shown how copyright laws supposedly limit our freedoms.

He needs to offer actual specifics to back up his claims. He talks in generalities about how we are in less free society that is increasingly controlled, yet as time goes on it seems that I have more freedom than I ever have. I’m having a hard time relating to his claims....

2005-07-16T23:24:00.000-04:00

Owners, Not Technology, Drive Ethics

2005-07-14T21:04:00.000-04:00

In his book Persuasive Technology, B.J. Fogg identifies six key issues for assessment of the ethics of persuasive technology. They are:

1 - The novelty of the technology can mask its persuasive intent.
2 - Persuasive technology can exploit the positive reputation of computers.
3 – Computers can be proactively persistent.
4 – Computers control the interactive possibilities.
5 – Computers can affect emotions but can’t be affected by them.
6 – Computers cannot shoulder responsibility.

I realize that these are all important when considering the ethics of persuasive technology, but I think they really miss the heart of the issue.

Rather than the medium, I think that focus should be on the owner of the content and what that content is trying to do. Is the organization attempting a bait and switch technique? Do they use email signups as ways to collect large mailing lists and sell them to agencies that distribute SPAM? Do they actually tell the truth?!

I think that unethical activities should drive the discussion, not an understanding of the powers of technology. For example, websites for the United States Armed Forces discuss a tremendous amount of personal rewards that are available through military service. The sites are equipped with impressive visual design. It would be wrong to say that the websites are misleading in any way about the sacrifices inherent with military service simply because they are trying to persuade.

Just like in most other venues, when discussing ethics, content is king!

MoveOn....

2005-07-12T23:27:00.000-04:00

I was so happy to see FactCheck.org’s Creative Editing article that shows step-by-step how MoveOn PAC edited Vice President Cheney’s speeches to create the impression that the Vice President was making a point that he was, in fact, not making.

First off, I am curious to know if these actions are considered libel.

Second, I hope this does further damage to the already ridiculous credibility of MoveOn PAC.

Third, I believe that this action, as well as those of other groups who do similar things, should not be protected under the First Amendment. I suppose this is actually a spin-off of my first point.

It’s understandable that creative video editing should juxtapose sound and images to create a desired impression in the mind of the viewer; however, it’s unethical to do this to disseminate lies.

The Future of Actually Having an Idea

2005-07-11T17:02:00.000-04:00

"The choice Lawrence Lessig presents is not between progress and the status quo. It is between progress and a new Dark Ages, in which our capacity to create is confined by an architecture of control and a society more perfectly monitored and filtered than any before in history. Important avenues of thought and free expression will increasingly be closed off. The door to a future of ideas is being shut just as technology makes an extraordinary future possible."

This is one of the final paragraphs dedicated to the summary of Lawrence Lessig's book The Future of Ideas, a book that I hope I will never read.

Has he not just advertised his book on the Internet? Has he not posted excerpts from that book on the Internet? Has he not linked to his own website from the site dedicated to his own book? On his website, does he not allow users to blog their free thoughts (he would have to, based on his preaching)? And are you, my faithful readers, not reading this rant on my own blog that I created using free Internet publishing software that is currently available to anyone with access to a computer?

My point is this - what does he want from society that he is unable to do now?

2005-07-09T19:33:00.000-04:00

Making It Usable for Teens

2005-07-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

Nielsen’s Usability of Websites for Teenagers doesn’t offer the best news for keeping teenagers interested in online political campaign information.

The fact that they don’t want overuse of animation and scrolling is good – we don’t want to do that anyway. The news that they don’t like reading is unfortunate.

What can we do to get this non-voting portion of the population interested?

We can make photo galleries more than just a page full of pictures. Each image should be complete with captions. The images should represent the candidate’s public service experience and the various aspects of the issues platform. Each caption can be a hyperlink to longer explanations of the issue platform so that the user can choose to read the details. At a glance, the gallery should visually tell a story.

We can also have an issues page that offers short summaries of each issue with links to extended platform details on that issue. At least they will have a general idea of what the candidate stands for.

A True Quagmire

2005-07-06T23:27:00.000-04:00

The African-American Blogging Thing is a blog that closes with the following point:

At any rate, there are a lot of African-Americans blogging, but it’s not explicitly political. Figuring out how to change that is a lot of the challenge, but it’s not a simple problem, because blogging is representative of existing dynamics as much as it is a new system to change those dynamics.

Save your energy, because there is no problem to figure out. It’s a blog! You either blog politically or you don’t. You’re either interested or you’re not. If you have access to a blog, then you have access to the political information necessary to contribute to the discussion. The only social dynamic to this exists in the author’s head.

If you blog, you have the following options: constructively contribute to the discussion, write something indifferent, or troll. As campaign managers, we do our best to inspire and persuade, but the ownership lies with the citizen. It is that simple and it should be that simple.

Lower-Literacy Usability Benefits Everyone

2005-07-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

Jacob Nielsen’s Lower-Literacy Users article offers great tips to improve usability for web users with low literacy.

In his study he notes that both low and high-literacy users achieved a higher success rate and greater satisfaction in less time when testing a website that was redesigned using his guidelines.

This shows that you can craft a design that is more accessible to all users without sacrificing the quality of your news/message.

This is extremely important for political campaigns. The improved usability will encourage visitors to remain at your site longer. It’s in our interest to make the content accessible. Perhaps many web users, regardless of literacy, are visiting a campaign site just straighten out all the political spin from the offline campaign. In that case, a streamlined design, simple navigation, and prioritized information are precisely the means to achieve their goal.

Nielsen’s tips to improve usability for lower-literacy users are simply good business sense for campaigns to reach out to all of their consistent and would-be supporters.

eFly on The Wall

2005-07-02T19:56:00.000-04:00

In his book Congress Online, Professor Johnson discusses the importance of displaying voting history for members of Congress.

My representative from Pennsylvania, Jim Gerlach (R-PA 6), provides this service on his website. It’s a gold mine for citizens who wish to hold their elected officials accountable. Not only does he indicate his vote on key issues, but he shows whether or not the bill passed as well as his position on legislation that is currently being debated.

Other than being a fly on the wall during staff meetings, there’s no better way to know of how your representative is behaving than to view their voting record. Additionally, you can tell if they break from party lines to vote for legislation in which they, or their constituents, believe.

Members of Congress should ensure that their staff keeps this portion of their website updated so that curious citizens will be satisfied. If they don’t already offer it, then they should consider jumping on the bandwagon very soon.

Please Don't Throw Away Your Stamps

2005-07-01T22:41:00.000-04:00

Dennis Johnson discusses the problem of email overload in his book, Congress Online. He mentions that many representatives are reluctant to respond to constituents via email. He also includes a nice quote by columnist David Silverberg: “E-mails convey information but paper letters convey gravitas.”

I absolutely agree with Silverberg’s assessment. There is a certain feeling that you get when you receive a letter in the mail. You feel that someone actually took the time to think about you.

This is not to say that it’s wise to overlook the clear benefits of efficiency and speed that email correspondence provides. Email is an operational necessity. When response turnaround is managed well, it sends a positive signal that lawmakers value constituent feedback.

There needs to be an appropriate balance between the two forms of correspondence. While email is extremely efficient, the sentimental and traditional value of the paper letter should not be forgotten.

Metrics - Post Them Now and Often

2005-06-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

Nielsen's reporting of the Ten Best Government Intranet websites has some keen insight on the value of company intranets. I was particularly interested in the section about reporting metrics.

Displaying project metrics on the intranet is a great way to induce competition among various departments. Not only does it keep everyone on the same page, but departments with similar operational processes can have their efficiency measurements posted on the intranet so that each group can compare themselves with one another. It's a great way of ensuring accountability and improving productivity.

In larger organizations it's one of the most effective ways of reporting performance. Graphs that show improvement or deterioration in project or company performance are efficient ways of providing meaningful summaries to employees. In addition to just information, they can serve as fantastic supporting backup for mission statements and policy changes.

This is not just important for government services, but also for non-profit organizations and corporations. I think that each organization can get the most out of it by soliciting regular feedback from their employees.

One at a Time

2005-06-29T16:09:00.000-04:00

The video in class last night about narrowcasting inspires some thought about the benefits of this communication technique.

Striking a chord with the voter about their one or two chief political concerns is a good thing. If the voter is willing to listen, then it strikes a dialogue that leads to volunteer activity, public discussion, and voter turnout.

Another positive thing about narrowcasting is that it doesn't dominate the general political discussion during the campaign. It aims at groups in a very specific way, but it's only one fraction of the general message. That's very reassuring, because by and large the public will hear the general message that is intended for all Americans. This reinforces the idea of America as one community. We can start with careful aim and then motivate the citizens to join the general discussion....literally one at a time!

Thank God For the Bush Pyramid

2005-06-25T23:01:00.000-04:00

The Multilevel Marketing of the President by Matt Bai offers some great insight to the Bush grassroots campaign of 2004.

Although the article goes into extensive detail about the organizational structure of the campaign, what was most striking to me was that it highlighted a very important part of grassroots efforts – dedication to a cause. Bai writes:

“And even if the volunteers themselves exceed expectations, it's worth remembering that, unlike unions or City Halls, this new kind of machine has nothing tangible to offer to voters -- no jobs or wage increases. Bush's machine relies solely, in Mehlman's words, on ''love and belief in the importance of the president.'' No union boss would bank his future on that.”

For one thing, this excerpt describes my feelings as a volunteer during the campaign. While I’ll admit that I did not exceed expectations, I certainly remember being very proud to be part of something that is very good.

The organizational structure that Bai describes is really a good thing. A presidential campaign (last year’s in particular) is not necessarily the right time to get experimental and let your volunteers have free run at doing whatever they want. There has to be order; this helps to ensure that the online message is consistent with the offline message. The Bush campaign didn’t manage your own personal discussions, so I was fine with its rigid structure.

In fact, I think the structure made me more passionate about supporting the president. I had clear direction of what to do and what to talk about. It’s not that they didn’t let me think for myself. They just provided focus that directly related to all of the campaign coverage at the time.

Workin' on the Superhighway

2005-06-24T12:35:00.000-04:00

I’m performing some maintenance on my blog and used the Help section of the website to guide me through the process. I thought I would post the links that I used incase any of you are interested in doing the same thing.

If you want to post a book, or basically just a massive post with chapters, here’s how.

Create a drop-down box for your archives to conserve space on the sidebar.

Add free polls to your sidebar (polling of available subjects, a non-probability sample poll for all of you PMGT 202 junkies taking a breather from Wednesday's mid-term).

I'm slowly doing maintenance over time, so if I find anything interesting, I'll post it here. Let me know if you have any questions or better ideas!

Flip-Floppers Beware

2005-06-24T00:40:00.000-04:00

The Marketing of the President podcast deserves separate attention from Matt Bai’s article. In this blog, I’m focusing on the technical importance of the podcast.

Although I had to download software just to listen to it, it’s unbelievable that we can listen to these podcasts and form an opinion about their message with remarkable ease. The fact that a link can bring you to a message from weeks and months ago brings the power of archiving to the power of persuasion.

It’s extremely useful to your cause to make it easy for your visitors to access past interviews of either your candidate or your opponent. Bush/Cheney 04 ran past TV interviews from the late 1990s where John Kerry was calling on members of Congress to support a regime change in Iraq. For anyone that needed to be convinced that the flip-flopper charge was legit, this technique worked perfectly. You saw him with your own eyes calling for the same regime change that he was denouncing during his campaign.

Access to this type of information is extremely important for voters, especially for the volunteers who are out reaching out to persuade.

Digital Fireside Chats

2005-06-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

FDR would have loved the podcasts.

Amy Gahran’s article What is Podcasting and Why Should You Care? really gets the brain cells moving. The Internet is already a cost-effective way of getting your message out to the voters, and the Podcasts only improve on that.

It’s now possible to hold short, medium, and long versions of issue ads online, as well as weekly “radio” addresses. Volunteer action centers can now have both printed and spoken action item assignments, creating more of a “team huddle” feel to complement the volunteer experience. This will create substantial opportunity to emotionally connect with voters.

If the old fireside chats were used to console and guide the nation during tough times, then they can certainly be used to inspire the campaign and the voters during the election cycle!

If I Only I Had Thought of That During the Debate!

2005-06-20T23:27:00.000-04:00

Don’t you hate it when you’re in a debate and then when it’s over, you suddenly have the greatest comeback ever? If only you could have been smart enough to say it earlier!

Well I’m convinced that we can do our best to avoid this with our newsletters. How do we fix a bad newsletter? We’ll send out a better one tomorrow.

We had a great idea with a terrible subject line, so everyone deleted the email. Send it out again with a good subject line and make an update with the content.

Did we ask for money when we should have said the other guy is a flip-flopper? Send out another one with the flip-flopper message.

Did we make 3 sound policy arguments but failed to connect emotionally with the voter? Send out another one to show how those issues will affect mom and pop, and this time, mean it.

It seems to be a medium of the numbers game; we can constantly improve the product as we learn.

Direct Web Traffic From Your RSS

2005-06-19T18:23:00.000-04:00

The article Why Webfeeds Beat Email Newsletters made a great case for going with an RSS feed as opposed to an email newsletter, but I’m curious to know if this is an even better way of determining how successful you are in reaching out to voters.

The prospect of aggregator services directing traffic to your site is fantastic, but we need to focus efforts to get the visitor to read all of the information and either respond to it or pass it along to a friend.

Once a visitor has arrived at your webfeed newsletter, it would be good to direct web traffic using links to pages that allow you to forward the post to your friends or to respond with a comment. The traffic on those pages could then be tracked to see which messages received the most traffic. You could then tell how effective you are.

The Most Awesome Subject Line Ever

2005-06-18T22:25:00.000-04:00

Jacob Nielsen’s article about newsletters during the last week of the campaign brought back some memories from the last presidential race.

During my time in Florida, I would call my parents everyday to say hello and I remember them being very annoyed with all of the phone calls from the grassroots organizations. One day it was a recording from John McCain, the next day it was a Kerry volunteer. As the countdown progressed, so did the number of calls...and so did the aggravation.

I think that the important lesson from the Nielsen article is for the campaign to try to put themselves in the voters' shoes. Voters may not be interested in the election during that final week, especially if the hype surrounding the election is exhausting. I can't imagine that the last week of the campaign is a great time to ask for money (though I'd be interested in seeing fundraising results). I think it’s much more constructive to concentrate on Get Out the Vote initiatives during that time.

If I was distributing those newsletters, the subject line would be absolutely indicative of the intended message. It’s not time for the title to persuade them to read the entire newsletter; it’s time to tell them to “Vote for Bush on Tuesday” or to “Remind 5 friends to vote for Bush” so they don't have to read the newsletter.

A Little Dem Perspective Needed

2005-06-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

For my strategic campaign, I’m working on the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, Phillip Puckett.

I’m interested in gaining a little perspective from the left as I put the campaign together. Are there any Dems out there willing to exchange some ideas via email, blogs, or perhaps meet before class? If any of you are working on a Republican campaign, I’d be more than happy to offer some GOP perspective.

Thanks,
SEPARight