If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Join ‘em: Baltimore Sun Offers Blogs to All Maryland Candidates

by Henri Makembe on July 30, 2010 | View Comments

Also published on epolitics.com

Call it innovation, call it self-preservation, call it a traffic scheme, but the Baltimore Sun, one of the leading papers covering Maryland politics, has made the decision to offer a blog to every legally registered candidate running for office in the state of Maryland. The offer is bi-partisan and covers both Federal and state candidates. The paper’s site states the following:

The Baltimore Sun is offering free blogs to political candidates in key races this year. It is up to the candidate to decide whether to accept the blog invitation and to decide how often to post on the blog. The Baltimore Sun does not edit any candidate’s blog, and it is not responsible for any content posted by the candidate or the candidate’s representatives here.

Technology is the enabler

What makes this experiment by The Sun plausible is the advance in technology in recent years. During the last election cycle, the same experiment would have been nearly impossible. The staff and time required to implement such an idea would have far exceeded any benefits the paper would have derived from the endeavor – both in terms of money and readership. The advent of WordPress Mu changed that equation for The Sun and similar organizations. Used by the likes of Harvard Law School and Le Monde, WordPress Mu is an open platform powered by WordPress that allows site administrators to maintain multiple blogs (even with separate domains) from the same installation. This solution has drastically cut the cost and time required in creating and hosting multiple blogs.

Opportunity for candidates

The Sun’s experiment is not only beneficial to the paper, but also to the candidates –many of whom are running for obscure seats in the state legislature. For these candidates, having a blog on The Sun‘s website is an enormous platform to get their ideas and thoughts in front of a wide audience. Individuals who would not normally venture to a candidate’s site can now see excerpts on the homepage of The Sun and in other prominent areas throughout The Sun‘s website. Moreover, this experiment gives candidates a way to establish a more credible web presence. Many candidates have awful websites that get in the way of presenting themselves, their ideas and policies in a clear, concise and thoughtful manner. This opportunity allows candidates to be judged for the quality and depth of their ideas, and not their web-building acumen. Lastly, it allows the media more accessibility to challengers thus somewhat leveling the playing field with their incumbent counterparts, who stand in the media spotlight brighter.

It’s not all gravy

While this effort by The Sun is a promising one in theory; in practice, it leaves many questions unanswered. For instance, will Sun columnists feel the pressure to link to blog posts on their site instead of other articles on the web? Will the coverage of candidates who do not sign up for a blog be affected? How will the paper handle criticism from politicians on its on pages? Will blogging on the site give the impression that candidates received endorsements from the paper? In addition, the fact that The Sun stands to make money from ads on blog posts written by politicians, will not sit well with many readers and voters. These questions will not be answered by executives at the paper in a breakfast meeting while enjoying sandwiches and lattes. Instead, we will have to work through them together. Bloggers, the paper’s Ombudsman, competing media outlets and the voters—those who stand to benefit or lose the most from this –- will have to work together to develop a system of checks and balances to keep the paper accountable.

Moving in the right direction

Despite the many unanswered questions this experiment by the Sun should be encouraged — even celebrated. For the last couple of years, many have been predicting the slow and certain death of newspapers. Well, it appears that they will not quietly into the night. And for that I, for one, am glad. Our democracy stands to benefits if we can find more ways for old media and new media cohabitate, especially at the local level.

You can view the candidates’ blog at here.

Category: Blogging, Campaigns
Tags: Baltimore Sun, Blogging, E-politics Articles, journalism, Maryland Politics

Vote for Colin Delany (@EPOLITICS) FOR “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet & Politics”

by admin on July 28, 2010 | View Comments

PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum have announced this year’s list for nominations of the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. More than a decade old, the award "seeks to recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online."

One of this year’s nominee is Colin Delany, Editor of epolitics.com (where I’ve guest blogged several time).

Colin Delany is the self-described "host" of epolitics.com, a website devoted to documenting best practices, tools, techniques, and learning experiences from his time working on the web since the mid-1990s. Delaney’s debrief on the Obama’s use of online organizing, "Learning from Obama" is a widely distributed account of the wildly successful strategy and methods used during Barack Obama’s 2008 bid for the presidency. Delany is also the author of several other white papers on internet politics.

In an industry full of self promoters with little to show, Colin is one of the few that has consistently put out good work for a long time. Moreover, he does so in a way that benefits not just his clients but the entire community. And while there is a number of impressive individuals on the list, I think Colin is deserving of your vote. So as they say, vote early and often.

Category: Announcements
Tags: Colin Delany, epolitcs.com, politic Online, World eDemocracy Forum

CiviCRM v Hosted CRMs: Why hosted CRMs are better suited for campaigns

by Henri Makembe on July 23, 2010 | View Comments

A few weeks ago, Riche Zamor, Principal of SocialContxt, penned two guest posts (here and here) offering CiviCRM as an alternative to hosted CRMs. In his posts Riche sets realistic expectations for organizations and campaigns seriously considering using CiviCRM. For the most part, I agree with Riche. My only point of contention is that campaigns, especially local and small campaigns, should really go with the hosted CRMs. I reached that conclusion for the following reasons:

Set-up time

Downloading, installing and configuring CiviCRM to meet the needs of a campaign can be rather time consuming. Moreover, setting up CivirCRM the wrong way can result into restarting the installation and configuration process entirely. This is a waste of time and can be a very frustrating experience. In the middle of grueling campaign season, very few campaigns have staff and resources to afford this. On the other hand, many of the leading providers of hosted CRMs can be setup and ready for use within 24 hours (the time it takes for your DNS to propagate). Most, if not all, the serve side configuration can occur with very little input from the campaign (they may need to provide their URL).

Just-in-time patches

Secondly, no matter how great a piece of software is, it will break. Sometimes it doesn’t behave like promised; other times it doesn’t behave expected or intended and most times unforeseen use cases come up. Companies providing hosted CRMs have systems and method of communications in place to address such situation all hours of day. Most will work with a campaign to provide a temporary solution to a problem while they work to implement a more permanent solution, which they will deploy live as soon as it’s tested. While the CiviCRM may be very active and responsive developer community, this type of attention and service cannot be counted on.

Native Integration with third party campaign software

Thirdly, leading providers for hosted CRM for campaigns have native integration with must-have campaign software like NGP and VAN. Moreover, developers and project managers at each of these firm have develop mutually beneficial and cordial relationships which allow them to work through quirks change changes in their respective software much faster than an open source developer to would.

Customer service

Lastly, very few campaigns are tech savvy enough and comfortable with technology to forgo the handholding that many of the hosted CRMs firms provide. Being able to contact an individual to ask questions or to use as sounding board or a scapegoat is simply a safety net that most campaign managers are not ready to part with. Rightly or wrongly, that is current state of affairs when it comes to technology and campaigns.

Again, Riche is right to recommend CiviCRM as an alternative for hosted CRMs. However, I believe that only organizations with the capacity, technical know how, and time to plan and implement database solutions should truly consider it an option. Campaigns, especially local ones, lack all three pre-requisites, which is why I recommend they go with hosted CRM package. If you disagree, please share your opinion in the comments.

Full Disclosure: I’m currently employed at Blue State Digital, provider of hosted CRM solution to campaigns, non-profits and corporations.

Category: Campaigns, Tools
Tags: CiviCRM, CRMs, hosted CRMs, Tools

Reminder: Download and Read ClickZ’s Digital Political Campaigns 101

by Henri Makembe on July 19, 2010 | View Comments

ClickZ's Digital Political Campaigns 101 As the campaigns across the country kick into full gear, ClickZ’s Digital Political Campaigns 101 guide can serve as a go to resource as campaigns managers scramble and struggle to navigate the world of new media (especially if they don’t have a good new media director on staff). Edited by Katie Kaye, the guide contains straight forward and simple advice from practitioners on both side the of the ailes. Contributors to the guide have participated in many of the recent highly publicized and contested elections including the 2008 Minnesota senatorial election, 2009 VA gubernatorial election, and 2010 MA special election to replace the Late Ted Kennedy.

Topics of the guide are as follow:

The Money Bomb: Smart Online Fundraising
Online Ad FAQs: How to Use Online Ads to Win Political Elections(includes Bonus Tips on Creating Killer Ads and Landing Pages)
Build Your List and Put It to Work List Building, E-mail and Voter Mobilization
Social Media Ain’t Rocket Science: Demystifying the Role of Social Media in Political Campaigns (includes The 10 Commandments of Campaign Social Media and Twelve Steps to Social Media Campaigns That Don’t Suck)
Beyond the Talking Head: How to Make a Great YouTube Video
Transforming Online Engagement into Real World Activism: A Q&A with Rob Willington
Your Online Hub: Keys to a Successful Campaign Website
Getting Buy-in: Tips for Scoring Budget for Digital Initiatives

Whatever your role on a campaign, head to click’z website, download the guide (PDF) and find ways to incorporate the advice of these experts in your campaign. If you need some extra help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.