Blue State Digital

BSD welcomes Welcome Back Veterans

Alex Kellner — 2009-07-02T18:02:27+00:00

Earlier this week, Blue State Digital helped launch a new look and feel for Welcome Back Veterans.

Welcome Back Veterans is dedicated to easing the transition for service members returning from combat overseas, focusing specifically on the challenges of finding employment and mental health care.

This is a big week for Welcome Back Veterans: their partner - Major League Baseball - is promoting the organization at stadiums and on TV and radio broadcasts across the country on July 4th. The proceeds from the sale of the red-white-and-blue caps that all 30 teams will be wearing will go towards Welcome Back Veterans.

The McCormick Foundation has also pledged to match fifty cents to every dollar donated.

One More Win: Senator Franken!

Lauren Miller — 2009-07-01T18:20:20+00:00

Last but certainly not least, Blue State Digital would like to congratulate its final winning campaign of 2008: Senator Al Franken of Minnesota.

Truth be told, Blue State Digital has always had a thing for Al Franken. He’s been a BSD client since the very beginning of our company in 2004 – client #5, according to one of our founding partners.

During his days at Air America, we worked with Al Franken on The Great American Shoutout, a coordinated protest in which people would shout “fuhgeddaboutit!” from their windows during President Bush’s acceptance speech for the Republican nomination.

In 2006, we launched his Midwest Values PAC website to help elect progressive candidates throughout the region. Long before “Dinners with Barack,” Al Franken told his online supporters that he’d call anyone’s crazy Republican friend if they donated $500 to the organization.

Then in 2007, we launched his Senate campaign website, AlFranken.com.

Al Franken is the first celebrity I remember seeing in a BSD office, meeting with our designers and developers about the look and feel of his own site. He also gave my favorite testimonial of Blue State Digital:

“I’d recommend them in a heartbeat, and that’s saying a lot, because when I think about them, my heart beats very quickly.”

On behalf of Blue State Digital, congratulations again, Senator Franken.

Obama Campaign picks up top awards at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival

Sam Graham-Felsen — 2009-06-30T14:00:42+00:00

This weekend, the Obama campaign recieved two major awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for its mix of new media, community and television advertising.

The 56th annual Cannes Lions festival brought together top professionals in the communications industry for a week long event designed to showcase, discuss and award the most innovative advertising of the year. The Obama for America campaign picked up two grand prix in the Titanium and Integrated Lions categories.

The Titanium grand prix is awarded to a campaign that involves a breakthrough idea. According to the Cannes rules, the award celebrates "work that causes the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward." The integrated prize is awarded to a campaign using three or more media that is of "high standard and state-of-the art."

During the festival, campaign manager David Plouffe addressed the Cannes audience and explained how the campaign integrated old and new technologies unlike ever before. "It was a historic marriage, in US politics at least, between digital technology and grassroots [campaigning]," he said.

Meet BSD: Questions with Chino

Alex Kellner — 2009-06-23T17:05:05+00:00

Chino was brought on to Blue State Digital as Director of Motion Graphics after his work on the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Prior to working with Obama for America, Chino spent a decade designing and making animations for film, television, Internet, mobile and outdoor audiences. He has been responsible for design and animation at the Food Network and the Walt Disney Internet Group, and has managed motion graphics teams at advertising agencies such as Draftfcb.

1. What first got you into motion graphics?

Motion graphics combined everything I enjoyed about storytelling and film, with the communication challenges presented in the art and science of graphic design.

2. Before working for BSD, you were responsible for creating motion graphics for the Obama campaign's New Media Video team in Chicago. Tell us about that experience.

I quit my job and moved to Chicago in less than two weeks, and when I got there I lived off of 3 lbs tubs of egg salad for about 6 weeks before realizing the possible health risks involved. I remember my first impression of the office -- an entire floor of a Michigan Avenue corporate high-rise -- as a friendly cross between a stock exchange and a college dorm. As part of the campaign's video team I was given the opportunity to animate, and in some cases, design variations of the "O" sunrise logo for constituency, rapid response, voter protection, and Get Out The Vote videos. You would be surprised how many different ways you can make the sun rise. Election night was a combination of joy, relief and indigestion.

3. Why did you choose to go to OFA from the corporate world?

Right before I moved to Chicago to work for the campaign I was working at an advertising agency. I had become used to making clients' successes my own, despite what I may have felt about the product or the company. Joining the campaign was a rare chance where my client's successes mirrored my own values and ideas of success on a personal level. Working for an organization and leader you believe in is deeply satisfying.

Six important questions

What are the first five websites you visit every morning?
Gmail, NYTimes, Motionographer, Brand New, Infosthetics

Who is the most interesting person you are friends with on Facebook? Follow on Twitter?
Jakob Trollbäck - I've been a fan of his work for years.

Blackberry or iPhone?
Neither

Favorite political figure (past or present)?
President Barack Obama.

First screen name on AIM?
The same one I currently use

Favorite viral video?
This is my favorite one (warning: explicit language from a fox news), but this is a more family-friendly favorite of mine.

4. So, what brought you to work for BSD?

Being a part of the Obama campaign's New Media department really made me respect and admire Joe Rospars and the organization he built. When I was asked to be a part of another organization he helped to build, it was a no-brainer to give it a shot.

5. Being involved in so many different motion graphic designs, are there any that stand out as particularly fun to work on?

I haven't been at BSD long, but I really enjoyed working on the American Red Cross video for Target's Facebook contest. It was a project with a broad reach, generous creative latitude, and a concerted effort by the client to push the video in front of supporters.

6. You have developed motion graphics for film, television, web, mobile, and outdoor audiences. Is there any difference between these media? Any one you like better?

Understanding context, scale and resolution are really the dark arts of designing motion graphics across various media. The scale of movement and the amount of ambient noise a viewer watching a film experiences differs greatly from a passive viewer of outdoor advertising. And both of those viewers will have a completely different experience than someone watching videos on a tiny mobile screen riding the subway, or a viewer at home watching embedded YouTube videos on a desktop.

It's almost impossible nowadays to anticipate on what device and in what environment your animations will be seen. So the most important thing to remember is to make sure your story or idea is clear, relevant and compelling. The next step is to ensure that your images will degrade gracefully as playback scenarios change.

I think that the way video is consumed online has improved dramatically over the last couple years, but I still like the reach of television and its overall quality for viewing motion graphics. This will probably change as television technology plateaus at high-definition screens in living rooms, while Internet video expands to handheld devices and place-based screens.

7. You are the developer of the most comprehensive directory of motion graphics in the world, the Motion Design Directory. How did that come to take place?

I went to graduate school for animation on the West Coast and was completely obsessed with finding out every motion graphics studio in Los Angeles and comparing that with the number of studios in New York. Seven years later the list of 50 studios I had collected from both coasts grew to a collection of nearly 2,000 motion graphics studios and 500 motion graphics artists from around the world.

8. So, which city has more studios?

Right now, NYC and LA have almost the exact same number of motion graphics studios, with both cities being home to slightly more than 300 studios.

9. What are the major differences between creating a video for corporate clients compared to non-profit/political campaigns?

I think the biggest difference between corporate client videos and non-profit and political campaign videos, aside from the obvious differences in marketing and creative budgets, is the level of authenticity that the latter needs to have visually. That doesn't necessarily mean that there is less production involved, but videos for non-profits rarely benefit from over-the-top-looking graphics, whereas some corporate clients can gain a lot of value from visual complexity.

10. Is there any sector you have not done design or animation for that you would like to work with?

I'd love to do a music video. I had an internship with Universal Music Group when I was in college and it was great to see how the designers there would try to describe visually what the music artists were creating aurally. The link between sound design and graphic design is something that has always fascinated me.

11. What advice do you have for people who want to break into the motion graphics field?

Hone your craft as filmmaker/storyteller, editor, animator, and graphic designer, because the art you have chosen to pursue is a combination of all those roles. Update your reel often.

A Chino original graphic of his name

12. In a previous interview, we asked Murali why he went by just one name. Why do you go by just the one name - Chino?

Why not?

13. Okay, well whose “one name” is cooler, yours or Murali’s?

I wouldn't compare my name with Murali's --- that's such a question someone who goes by two names would ask.

What’s a way to get your city council to pay attention? Tell them 25,000 times

Eric Bull — 2009-06-19T20:11:31+00:00

Longtime BSD client Wal-Mart Watch has always run "site fight" campaigns directed at individual communities fighting to keep Wal-Mart out. In places like Tarpon Springs, FL and Cordova, TN - the campaigns have been extremely successful and helped concerned residents defeat Wal-Mart.

But its most recent local campaign might be its biggest yet: activating populations in the three biggest cities in the U.S.: New York, Chicago and LA (where Wal-Mart has almost no stores, but is looking now to start building).

So far, it's been a great success. In the past two weeks, over 25,000 letters have been sent to the city council members of New York, Chicago and LA - urging them to resist Wal-Mart's effort to build until a worker safeguard like the Employee Free Choice Act is passed into law.

Also, using BSD's state-specific "Speak Out" tools, more than 1,300 different state legislators across the country have received letters from the Wal-Mart Watch community urging them to push back on Wal-Mart plans until EFCA is passed.

Some of the letters have been approved by the writers to be posted on the Wal-Mart Watch blog, and many were exceptionally compelling and personal:

"I grew up in small town of less than 10,000 people SE Iowa. I saw first hand how our town square and small business were forced to close...Everywhere it goes, Wal-Mart forces local businesses to close and drains money from the local economy. It has also capitalized on the weakness of employee protections in our federal laws in order to keep wages low and benefits weak...Los Angeles should continue to block Wal-Mart -- but if the company must build here, the Employee Free Choice Act is essential for protecting Los Angeles' workers, families, and communities."

Other letter writers have already sent in the positive responses they've received from their representatives - promising to fight Wal-Mart every step of the way.

BSD is excited to help Wal-Mart Watch push this campaign to generate as much action and exposure as possible - and continue to find new and innovative ways to help empower Wal-Mart Watch constituents to make the company a more responsible corporate citizen.

A Blue State Digital love story

Lauren Miller — 2009-06-17T14:08:06+00:00

It's a classic love story.

Boy works for Blue State Digital. Girl works for Blue State Digital. Boy and girl reconnect after leaving Blue State Digital, fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after.

Congratulations to Tom Cochran and Erin Skinner, who were married this past Saturday at the Jefferson Memorial. Tom was Blue State Digital's first employee and lead software engineer, playing a critical role in the development of the BSD toolset. Erin was Blue State Digital's original client services manager, helping some of our very first clients get their web programs up and running.

While Blue State Digital won't accept full credit for this match made in heaven, we do appreciate getting mentioned by the officiant at the wedding.

For those of us who worked with Tom and Erin, this didn't come as a surprise at all - but it couldn't have happened to two nicer people.

Meet the interns

Alex Kellner — 2009-06-16T19:51:03+00:00

It’s summertime and that means that interns, co-ops and fellows are joining the BSD ranks for the next several months. Blue State Digital is excited to welcome these new additions to our team.

We have thirteen interns, co-ops and fellows joining us in our D.C. and New York offices, and we’re excited to showcase their impressive achievements and hobbies. BSD welcomes a debate team coach, two avid painters, a few cooks, and students of communications, political science, art, design, international economics, and much more.They come from everywhere, including Texas, New York, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Joey Appley-Epstein is a senior political science major at The George Washington University and has interned with BSD since 2007, except for a short break to work at the Federal Trade Commission.He focuses on research and content as well as new business development. When not working or in class, he enjoys hanging out in DC and Atlanta, spending time with his fraternity brothers, and watching college football.

How many peppers did Peter Piper pick?
I wasn’t there nor do I have a lot of pepper-picking experience but 6 sounds like a good guess.

Emilie Aries graduated from Brown University this May with a B.A. in political science. Born and raised in South Windsor, CT, Emilie has worked on political campaigns in CT, VA, RI, and NH, focusing on communications and new media. Besides politics, Emilie also loves the outdoors (hiking, biking, beach volleyball, running) and old TCM romance flicks.

When you were in kindergarten, what did you want to be and why?
First female President of the United States. When I heard there hadn’t yet been a woman elected to the highest office, I considered it a challenge.

David Berman grew up in New York City and is currently a junior at Brown University where he is working towards completing a degree in political science. He has also worked at Global Strategy Group where he performed research to assist in developing polls for campaigns in Ohio, California, Illinois and New York. David loves to play sports, basketball in particular, in his spare time.

What’s your favorite way to waste time online? (Not that we do ANY of that at BSD, of course!)
Sporcle.com, the most addicting site on the web

Joe Berman just finished his freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University where he is studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. For the past two summers, Joe worked on the IT team with the Obama Campaign. In his free time, Joe enjoys playing sports and listening to Classic Rock and Blues music.

What’s been your best day in college?
My best day in college has got to be the Monday after parents weekend, not because I was finally free again, but because I got to see the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band put on a six hour concert for the Obama campaign at Penn State.

Conner Finlay will be a fourth year student at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. He is currently studying Applied Networking, Security, and Systems Administration with a minor in Criminal Justice. While at school Conner participates in the Security Practices and Research Student (SPARSA) organization, works at the school's data center, and plays intramural soccer (5-time champion). In his free time he like to play sports and hang out with friends.

When you were in kindergarten, what did you want to be and why?
When I was in kindergarten I wanted to be Boston Red Sox player. I am from the Boston area, so I grew up watching the Red Sox.

Vanessa Koch is entering her senior year at Carnegie Mellon University where she studies communication design. Last summer she interned with Troika Design Group working on various broadcast branding projects. She spent her fall 2008 semester studying design in Florence, Italy. She enjoys photographing people and places and traveling the world.

If you could have any job (existing or newly created) in Obama’s White House, what would you choose?
Color expert for choosing Obama's ties

Matthew McKnight was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He earned his B.A. in English from Morehouse College in 2008 and is currently studying journalism at Georgetown University. When he’s not working or in class, Matthew enjoys running, listening to jazz, and reading.

What are your three favorite television shows?
Seinfeld, Good Eats and Jeopardy!

Originally from Connecticut, Shana McMahon graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in International Politics and International Economics. Currently she is pursuing a master's degree in PR/Corporate Communications from Georgetown University. Outside of work, she is an avid fan of UConn basketball, enjoys most sports and loves to travel any chance she gets.

If you were any tool in the toolbox, which would you be and why?
Monkey wrench, because I have always wondered how they came up with that name!

John Patrick is a graduate student in the Human Communication Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton. His emphasis is in persuasion, argumentation and social influence. In his free time John likes to play and write music, coach debate, and paddle around in his kayak. His past jobs have included Jungle Cruise Skipper at the Disneyland Resort and professional journalist. He will begin working as an adjunct professor of speech communication at the University of La Verne in the fall.

If they made a movie of your life, who would be cast to play you?
Keifer Sutherland, because people actually stop me on the street to tell me I look like him. They also say Tom Green sometimes. I prefer the former.

Lucas Pattan is from South Carolina by way of Texas and is a rising junior at New York University where he's studying history and public policy. He has worked for the Clinton Foundation, Mayor Bloomberg's Office, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Office, and as an intern with Congressman Patrick Kennedy. He's an avid rower, biker, cook and a huge fan of NPR’s "This American Life."

If you made it to the Miss/Mr. USA pageant talent round – what do you do to knock out the competition?
Take the time to switch out the questions normally posed to contestants and replace them with questions from Trivial Pursuit.

Mike Schneider is from Hillsdale, NJ and is a senior at Colgate University. Prior to joining BSD, he launched two businesses and served as the eCampaign Coordinator for Christopher Shays’ congressional campaign. After that campaign was trounced by BSD’s toolset, Mike was eager to come aboard.

What are your top 3 favorite television shows of all time?
Toss up for first and second is between Nickelodeon GUTS and Legends of the Hidden Temple. After those, Lost and Entourage tie for third (yes, I realize that’s 4).

Matthew Stern is an aspiring artist who is currently attending the Art Institute of Washington. Much of his time is consumed by very serious business, which is comprised mainly of painting. In his free time (of which there is very little) Matthew enjoys drawing pretty pictures and painting.

What’s your favorite cartoon character and why?
I’m a fan of the Joker, because he always has a fashionable exit strategy.

Linda Yang hails from Texas and studies public policy and international affairs at Princeton University. She is a self-taught designer and new media specialist because she spent her youth on the Internet. She likes to eat, dance, paint, eat, DJ, write, eat, travel, read, eat.

What’s your favorite viral link or video?
I love videos by Improv Everywhere and flash mob dance videos, most especially Hammer Pants Dance!

Emilie Aries helped compile and write this blog post.

New media in the Old World

Laura Olin — 2009-06-15T12:58:51+00:00

When Gov. Martin O'Malley set out for a five-day trip to Europe last week, he wanted to make sure the people of Maryland could come along for the journey.

With the governor outfitted with a digital camera for stills and an HD "Flip" camera for video, BSD created a map for MartinOMalley.com that would track the governor along each leg of his trip - and Team O'Malley took it from there.

Using the Flip camera, blog posts, Flickr, and Twitter, they created content daily - sometimes even hourly - that gave Marylanders a seat alongside the governor as he exchanged ideas and innovations on topics including economic development, sustainable growth, and cybersecurity.

On the shores of Normandy for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Gov. O'Malley stood on "Dog Green" beach and described in a video dispatch what young soldiers of the Maryland National Guard must have seen when they landed on that sand over half a century before.

Next up was Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Maryland's partner in the National Guard's State Partnership Program. The program's aim is to bring together U.S. states and their National Guard units with new and emerging democracies so that they can collaborate and exchange ideas.

Updates on the governor's Twitter feed indicated that it's succeeding. "Met this am with the co-presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina," read one Tweet. "Their enthusiasm for their relationship with Maryland was a revelation." Another read: "Am now at the bosnia-herzogovinaian emergency ops center modeled on Maryland's center. Tangible application of our partnership with them."

The governor stopped in Estonia to learn about the country's innovations in cybersecurity - well-documented with Flickr photos and another Flip camera video:

Finally, Governor O'Malley reached his last port of call: Stockholm, Sweden. There, he learned how Stockholm city planners transformed an industrial wasteland into a green, thriving, and kid-friendly neighborhood by making sustainability a major goal from the very start of the design process. In the video the governor shot in front of a once-polluted urban waterway that is now clean enough to fish from, Marylanders could see - and judge - the progress for themselves.

Congratulations to Gov. O'Malley and his team for making new media and the Old World a winning combination.

Intensity on the ball field

Scott Zumwalt — 2009-06-12T20:57:12+00:00

Darkness fell over our nation's capital last night when the BSD Online Tools recorded the final out in 20-15 slugfest against the Shadow Boxers. The victory marks the second win in franchise history and brings the Tools record to 2-0.

In what ended up being a two hour and ten minute slugfest, the BSD Online Tools withstood a intense battle on the ball field against Senator Barbara Boxer's formidable team.

It was the very first at bat which set the tone for the entire game. Andrew Rothman hit leadoff and took a healthy cut, rocking a fastball into center field. As the Shadow Boxers ran after the ball, Rothman had his eyes set on one thing: home plate.

Ten feet away from a home run, the ball came sailing in from the outfield. Rothman, the pitcher and the ball crashed into home at the same time. The result? A 1-0 lead.

A lead that the Tools held on to the entire game...a lead borne from intensity. Here's to Andrew Rothman, our BSD Player of the Game:

On the ground in Lebanon

Andrew Rothman — 2009-06-12T19:15:00+00:00

Photo by Deborah Hakes

For the past few weeks, Blue State Digital teamed up with The Carter Center to bring the organization's election monitoring efforts to a global audience. The Center -- which was founded by President Jimmy Carter to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope around the world -- sent a team of 60 international observers to Lebanon to assess whether the elections were free, fair, and peaceful.

As Election Day came and went, The Carter Center website featured daily blog updates from the field, including stunning photos and insightful stories like this:

Hundreds of women crammed the hallway (women vote in separate lines from men) and most said they waited hours to vote. The officials were only letting one voter at a time into the polling station, which is the law, but a statement had gone out earlier in the day by Minister of the Interior Ziad Baroud saying to speed up the process by increasing that number to three.

The women seemed somewhat reassured by our presence, or at least happy that someone was taking note of their situation. Our observers interviewed many women in line, and President Carter addressed them briefly to say that the situation should hopefully improve soon, with the line moving faster.

BSD and The Carter Center also sent a series of email updates before, during, and after the vote -- including two from President Carter himself. On Election Day, the email list received an unfiltered video update from President Carter, who took a moment from observing a polling station to provide his unique take on the election's progress:

In the end, the election went very smoothly, with high turnout, few problems, and results that were accepted by all sides. But the value of monitoring the vote -- Lebanon's first genuinely competitive, free, and fair election since 1972 -- cannot be overstated. And the partnership between BSD and The Carter Center gave people around the world a window into these important monitoring efforts. The observers on the ground were backed by many thousands of supporters -- a strong illustration that the world was indeed watching.

What a movement looks like

Nicole Haber — 2009-06-12T14:22:37+00:00

Andrew Sullivan's blog the Daily Dish posted an entertaining YouTube video from the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington.

In the video one bathing suit-clad audience member starts to dance by himself, and eventually a huge dance party forms around him. With over 770,000 views as of 10:15 this morning, people are asking, “how did he do it?”

Here at Blue State Digital, not only do we know how this dance party started, we have a name for it: grassroots organizing.

Bathing suit man, we salute you. And kudos to the Sasquatch Music Festival for featuring this user-generated video on their homepage and embracing this bottom up dance movement!

Hope still stands

Dan Thain — 2009-06-10T17:06:26+00:00

BSD London started working with the HOPE not Hate campaign in mid-January, with the goal of stopping the fascist British National Party (BNP) from winning a breakthrough in the European elections - and building an organic grassroots campaign.

Hope not Hate was faced with the perfect political storm - a public disillusioned with politics, an economy in turmoil and a naturally low turnout in European elections. The BNP could win a seat with just 8% of the vote.

Everything was against us - and everything was supporting the BNP.

Hope not Hate fought back with the most sophisticated New Media campaign in British politics. Starting with a small email list of just 6,000, BSD tools and strategy increased Hope not Hate's active constituent base by 700% in just four and a half months. The campaign's online fundraising increased by 1000% and we mobilised more activists than all of Britain's major political parties combined.

By opening up the organisation Blue State Digital and Hope not Hate bought thousands of new people into the campaign. Through email and on the website, Hope Not Hate shared campaign briefings, poll results and even made videos starring, and about, the rapidly increasing HOPE not Hate movement.

My favourite moment of the campaign came after we launched the events tool. Before BSD's involvement turnout at HOPE not Hate campaign events was often as low as 5-6 activists per event. After a series of personalised and localised emails promoting the events we hoped we could increase this turnout to 20.

67 people attended the first event. Most had no history of political activism. All had heard about the event through our email campaign.

This story was repeated across the country - thousands of people turning up at hundreds and hundreds of events. And at the end of the day this is what BSD is about - mobilising and organising people to take real world, vote winning action.

Supporters were given engaging, action oriented content.

And they gave real, tangible results.

We built local networks throughout the country and - through BSD's grassroot events tool - organised events and campaigns in the areas where HOPE not Hate had never organised before.

As well as turning out record numbers of activists Hope not Hate also used our online networks to cause carnage within the BNP's internal ranks. By organising and directing public pressure BNP rallies, fundraisers and campaign events were stopped. In one week alone Hope not Hate activists landed over 7,000 complaints to Clear Channel - a billboard company actively profiting from spreading the BNP's message of hate.

When BSD teamed up with Hope not Hate, the general consensus was that under the present political climate the BNP would win 5,6 or 7 seats in the European Parliament. When the MP expenses scandal exploded, the BNP began briefing that they expected to win 12 seats.

Ultimately the BNP won two seats - a terrible result for Britain.

But in both of these seats the BNP's vote actually dropped - hope had beaten hate. The BNP won seats because the major political parties failed to turnout their vote.

On election night Hope not Hate had a range of campaigns prepped and ready to deploy as soon as the results were announced - no matter what they were. 15 minutes after the first BNP win was declared the campaign launched a "Not in my name" petition. 72 hours later well over 50,000 people have signed up.

And you can add your name here: http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/notinmyname

While the result was disappointing - Hope not Hate stopped a BNP breakthrough.

This campaign proved that this form of campaigning is as effective in the UK as it is in the US. By opening up an organisation, by treating supporters with genuine respect and giving them a stake in the campaign, any membership or supporter based organisation can make real and tangible gains; whether they be a book club, a political campaign or an NGO.

Hope not Hate didn't rely on gimmicks. They didn't rely on Facebook or Twitter. They used email and BSD tools as their sole method of mobilsation and tapped into the genuine contempt the British people hold towards the BNP.

Now the fight against fascism continues - Hope not Hate and Blue State Digital will take on the BNP wherever they turn.

And now Hope not Hate has about 90,000 friends to back them up.

BSD makes its playbill debut

Lauren Miller — 2009-06-08T20:37:26+00:00

BSD wraps up a special project with the Tony Awards to create an online conversation with Broadway fans.

It's not unusual to see Blue State team members at a political fundraiser or nonprofit happy hour. But yesterday BSD made a special appearance - at the 63rd annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

Blue State Digital's Lauren Miller and
TJ Helmstetter at the Tony Awards

For the past few months, BSD has been working with the Tony Awards to create a new, more engaging online communications program. Our work has focused on reinvigorating the Tony Awards' email program to encourage a new generation of theatre fans across the country to watch the ceremony, and create an ongoing conversation that keeps fans interested year-round (not just the month before the show).

After all, the principles of BSD's online communications strategy aren't limited to political campaigns. Creating a two-way communications program that engages supporters and empowers them to take action isn't limited to the ballot box. A conversation can happen with anyone - whether it be Senator Kennedy or Neil Patrick Harris.

By allowing theatre buffs to "talk" with some of Broadway's biggest stars - and get a back stage look at the plays, musicals and performers involved in the show - fans can be part of the ensemble cast.

This isn't BSD's first brush with stardom; BSD has already worked with the Sundance Film Festival and award-winning documentaries like "Trouble the Water". We're excited to have expanded our work in cultural institutions like the Tony Awards, and can't wait for the next red carpet.

PS - We had a blast talking about marriage equality with Anne Hathaway, rocking out with Constantine Maroulis, and singing "9 to 5" alongside Jane Fonda. Thank you Tony Awards for your hospitality!

Meet BSD: Questions with Chuck Hagenbuch

Alex Kellner — 2009-06-04T18:01:34+00:00

Chuck Hagenbuch is the lead of the software infrastructure team at Blue State Digital - overseeing the development of BSD's Online Tools and integrating new technologies into Blue State's core services. During the election, Chuck led the development of the mass mail backend server that powered the 1.3 billion email messages sent through BSD. Prior to coming to Blue State Digital, Chuck founded Horde - an open source communication and collaboration application framework, of which he still leads the development. He is one of the longest tenured members of BSD's Boston office.

1. How often does technology surprise you?

All the time. It's easy to be jaded by the pace of technology, but I can remember having a 50 Mb hard drive that must have been the size of War and Peace (hardback, large print). Now I carry around twenty times that amount of storage in a little postage stamp that costs $5 at CVS.

A technology that isn't quite there yet but that definitely amazes me is 3-D printers. Being able to print a cell phone - it's beyond just-in-time inventory; your only physical inventory becomes printing materials. Some day the Star Trek replicator might not be as far fetched as it seemed.

2. What is your favorite tool in the BSD Online Tools suite?

I think the Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool is the best incarnation yet of BSD's mantra that online organizing is about getting people to do things in the physical world. It also has some pretty cool programming in it for things like quickly doing geographic proximity search (to find voters near you).

Neighbor-to-Neighbor was a great tool during the election for getting people who had never done political work before involved in work that had previously been done entirely inside the campaign. It's the kind of thing that came from the top down in the Obama campaign - people want to be involved, we just have to give them tools that let them do the work. And it's really interesting to see what some of our clients are thinking about doing next with it.

3. Which programming languages do BSD's tools use? Why are the ones we use better for our purposes than others?

Six important questions

What are the first five websites you visit every morning?
Personal webmail, work webmail, UserFriendly.org, ESPN. All the other regular reading is through my feed reader.

Who is the most interesting person you are friends with on Facebook? Follow on Twitter?
Facebook troubles me in terms of privacy, so I'm behind the curve there. Twitter I follow through RSS, but not personally.

Blackberry or iPhone?
iPhone. I just haven't bought one yet. Someday, though, it will be mine.
Favorite political figure (past or present)?
John Adams, who in addition to being a Founding Father, left a legacy here in Massachusetts that includes a constitution that even now puts us at the forefront of equal rights.
First screen name on AIM?
The one I still have now.
Favorite viral video?
Currently this Swiss Drum Corp video

Our main programming language is PHP, which we use for all of our web pages and a lot of our backend infrastructure too. PHP has a huge community, and it's easy to point to some of the biggest sites on the internet - Yahoo!, Flickr, Facebook - which are built on it. That means that there are a lot of smart people writing about how to scale large websites using PHP, and that's a great resource for us.

4. For people who are illiterate in tech jargon, how would you explain the Horde Project?

Horde is a large open-source software package. I started it over ten years ago when my college's student computing group needed a webmail interface to avoid losing users to Hotmail. Now it has a full email, calendar, contacts, and tasks suite plus the underlying application framework, tools for developers (source browsing, cross reference, bugs, wiki), tools for building websites (photos, forums, ads, content publishing), and a ton more.

5. Why do you like working with frameworks?

I compare this to making a chicken salad. Not using any building blocks - like a framework - means you've grown the lettuce and raised and then butchered the chickens yourself. You'll learn a lot doing it, but it's going to take a long time, and if you don't get it right your salad will be missing some key ingredients. The other extreme is you go to McDonald's and the salad doesn't taste great and isn't sustainable. Using a flexible framework lets you start with good ingredients and then put it together yourself, the way you like it.

6. You came to Blue State from Zend, which provided professional services for companies like Google, PayPal, and Portugal Telecom, why did you decide to turn your attention to political and cause-based organizations?

I found Blue State with a blind web search. I'd been freelancing for half a year, and wanted to get back to an office environment. The chance to work somewhere where I could get paid to make a difference in causes that I believe in was very appealing, and combined with the technical challenges of handling a presidential campaign, it's genuinely a dream job.

7. What are some of the challenges creating software for all of the different types of clients we have - political campaigns, unions, issue advocacy, corporate, sports, entertainment?

Different kinds of clients have different usage patterns, different organizational structures, and different amounts of data. We have to be very careful not to write a single client's point of view into our tools.

An interview of Chuck Hagenbuch
and Leigh Heyman at
the 2009 mySQL Conference

8. You and Leigh Heyman recently gave the keynote at the MySQL Conference. What was that experience like?

It was a privilege to get to talk about the work that so many talented people did. We even got a compliment from Monty Widenius, the creator of MySQL, on our creative use of merge tables (a specific MySQL feature that we used in the mass mailer). The rest of the conference was great too, if a bit overwhelming; most days there were 10 presentations going on at once. I came away with a huge set of notes on things to do over the next year as we move BSD's infrastructure forward, which I'm really excited about.

9. On a lighter note, I hear you enjoy baking. What's your specialty?

Rhubarb custard pie, my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother's recipe. Before I left for college my mom made sure I knew how to make pie crust the way my grandmother did. I usually don't use the lard, but I actually have some really nice leaf lard in the freezer that my sweetie rendered in our crock pot. Drove the dogs nuts trying to figure out where we were hiding the pig.

10. How does someone technical like yourself find ways to introduce lay-people - such as your family and friends - to technology in order to improve their lives?

If I'm really excited about something I'll tell people, but most of the time I assume that if my friends or family have a technical need that they want help with, they'll ask me. If I hear someone talking about a problem or a frustration they have, and I know of a potential solution, I try to offer it. But it's really easy to come across as a know-it-all as a techie talking about tech, and a lot of times people just don't care. On the other hand, most people are happy to listen to one babble about one's children, so that's a safe topic to stick to.

11. Fairly recently you become a father. Has that changed how you approach your job?

Having a daughter has made it even more important to get better at prioritizing. I have to make good decisions about how to spend my time, because just staying late to finish isn't an option most days. For better or for worse, though, working at home after the baby is asleep does happen.

Red Cross wins 26% of $3 million pie; Target adds nearly 100,000 new Facebook fans

Laura Olin — 2009-05-29T18:52:09+00:00

Earlier this week, Target gave Facebook's 200 million users a chance to support their favorite nonprofits through the social network - and they took it, in a big way.

Through a challenge called "Bullseye Gives," Target gave Facebook users the power to determine how it would distribute $3 million among 10 nonprofits, including BSD client the American Red Cross. The more votes a nonprofit received, the bigger slice of the $3 million pie it would win. Users could vote once every 24 hours over a period of two weeks.

To help the Red Cross motivate supporters to vote early and often, BSD's motion graphics samurai created the video below. It illustrates how users' clicks on Facebook in support of the Red Cross would directly translate to life-changing help for thousands of people every year:

The Red Cross finished with 26% -- nearly $800,000 -- of the $3 million pie.

Earlier today, Gail McGovern, President and CEO of the American Red Cross sent this message to supporters:

Because of you, victims of disasters will get crucial help in their time of need, military members and their families will be connected during a personal crisis, children will be vaccinated against deadly diseases, patients will receive potentially life-saving blood transfusions--and much more.

As votes for the Red Cross poured in during the contest last week, Erin McMullen, a supporter from Albany, wrote on our Facebook page: "I love how the Red Cross family sticks together!"

We so appreciate your being a part of that family, and for making our work possible.

Congratulations to the Red Cross staff, volunteers, and supporters who rallied together to achieve this impressive result.

And finally, kudos to Target. Not only for giving people beyond its boardroom the power to decide where to direct its philanthropic donations, but also for garnering nearly 100,000 new Facebook fans through savvy use of social networking.

We hope this is just the beginning of companies' efforts to use social media not just for their own benefit, but for the benefit of those whose lives are changed by charities like the American Red Cross every day of the year.

BSD Online Tools Launch Websites and Home Runs

Scott Zumwalt — 2009-05-22T17:05:21+00:00

It’s the dawn of a new era at Blue State Digital. Earlier this week, BSD’s newly formed softball team, The BSD Online Tools, took the field and won our first game against the Udall Udall Primos 16-14.

The game was by no means a walk in the park as the Primos led for most of the night. But in the bottom half of the last inning with one out and two Tools on base, Eric “El Toro” Bull launched a three-run game-ending home run across the Mall.

Bull’s impressive performance is not to be overshadowed by Ian Koski’s domination on the mound and at the plate. Congrats to the entire team for a great start to the season. Take a look at some of our photos from the game:

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the summer and be sure to follow us on Twitter for in game updates @BSDTools.

The BSD Online Tools are a member of the Congressional Softball League (www.congsoftball.com). If you are interested in setting up a game or scrimmage, send us an email at bsd.softball@gmail.com.

American Red Cross rallies support online for Target’s Facebook contest

Scott Zumwalt — 2009-05-22T16:03:53+00:00

With a few days to go until Target's "Bullseye Gives" Facebook campaign comes to a close, Blue State Digital produced a web video showcasing why people should log on to Facebook and vote for the Red Cross.

Watch the video, share it with a friend and log into Facebook. Then visit www.facebook.com/target and vote every 24 hours between now and 11:59 PM on May 25th. Your vote is your gift to the Red Cross so vote early and vote often!

Still need more motivation?

In less time than it took to watch this video, 150 lives were saved or served by the Red Cross. BSD is proud to help the Red Cross mainly because the organization gives ordinary people the opportunity to reach out and accomplish extraordinary things.

The Red Cross ensures that we are not powerless against the forces of disaster, of war, of life-threatening accidents or of diseases. And through the Red Cross, we can all change a life; starting with our own...all you have to do is log on facebook and vote today.

Thank you and good luck!

From a movie to a movement

Nicole Haber — 2009-05-21T13:20:02+00:00

It's hard to watch Trouble the Water -- the Academy Award nominated documentary account of the Katrina debacle -- without feeling spurred to take action.

After watching the film, thousands of viewers went to troublethewaterfilm.com to send a message to their representatives in Washington demanding that Congress take action on the Gulf Coast. Over twenty thousand letters were sent.

And you know what? It worked.

Thanks in part to these letters and the voices of people across the nation, Congress introduced HR 2269 the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. The legislation would create 100,000 "green" living wage jobs and training opportunities for Gulf Coast residents and displaced people to rebuild critical infrastructure, restore natural flood protection and increase energy efficiency.

This shows that when you mix inspiration (the film Trouble the Water) and the right tools (in this case Blue State Digital's Speakout tool) real change is possible.

The fight to repair the Gulf Coast is far from over and you can help. This bill still needs to pass Congress before it can start work helping those who desperately need it.

Write to your leaders in Washington today and ask them to support HR 2269.

Speed Matters: The New Internet Speed Test

Scott Zumwalt — 2009-05-20T19:49:14+00:00

This week, Blue State Digital helped launch a brand new and improved Speed Matters website. Speedmatters.org is the number one resource for coverage of programs and policies that build affordable, universal high-speed broadband investment.

Want to know how fast your internet connection is? Take the speed test by visiting www.speedmatters.org or by entering your information below:

What else is new at Speed Matters? Here are some key sections noted from the Speed Matters Blog:

The benefits of high-speed Internet - This new section identifies the eleven most significant benefits of affordable high speed Internet for America in an easy to understand manner. Each benefit is accompanied by an informative fact sheet done in coordination with a Speed Matters partner and a dynamic feed of relevant blog posts to keep you up to date on the issue.
A redesigned and refreshed speed test - Test the speed of your Internet connection with our new tool and help us get the most reliable data possible for our 2009 edition of our annual report on Internet Speeds in all 50 States.
The number one resource on broadband stimulus money - A complete guide to understanding the broadband stimulus bill, what the funds can be used for and who is applying for them.

Congratulations to the Speed Matters team and all parties involved for a successful launch!

The video the BNP tried to ban

Alex Kellner — 2009-05-15T15:02:12+00:00

Hope not Hate – a campaign that is trying to prevent the fascist British National Party from winning seats in the European Parliament – recently created an ad portraying just how extremist the BNP is. Take a look:

The online ad made waves across the Internet. So much so that YouTube temporarily took down the video after the BNP complained. However, it is back up and is showing EU members the danger of not voting on June 4th.

Wal-Mart Watch using creative new tactics to talk to workers

David Nassar — 2009-05-13T20:01:36+00:00

This week, Wal-Mart Watch - one of Blue State Digital's longest clients -- relaunched its website. The new-look site more prominently features the campaign's award-winning blog and compelling employee-generated content that better conveys the current mission of the campaign.

In recent months, Wal-Mart Watch has focused its campaign on telling the stories of real Wal-Mart workers and working to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Targeting employees of a specific company is no simple task - but BSD has helped Wal-Mart Watch create unique content and messaging that successfully reaches this online community.

Last fall, Wal-Mart Watch launched the microsite Walmartspeakout.com -- to create a central online hub where workers could come together to share their experiences. A microtargeted online advertising campaign helped the website bring in thousands of email sign-ups from workers and well over 1,000 story submissions.

Some workers who have written in, like Aubretia Edick of upstate New York, have enthusiastically told their story. First the BSD video team traveled to Aubretia to film a web ad featuring Aubretia. She also personally drafted emails thate encouraged people to watch her video and become an activist for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Recently, Wal-Mart Watch asked its supporters to take pictures of themselves holding signs that read: "I support CHANGE for Wal-Mart workers". A slideshow of the pictures was sent to the list of workers -- in order to better meld the communities of Wal-Mart workers and non-workers. The response from workers was strong, and has helped build the Wal-Mart Watch community of Wal-Mart workers even further.

BSD looks forward to continue finding innovative ways to build an online community of workers and their supporters, and subsequently empowering them to take action.

Meet BSD: Questions with Naomi Geller

Alex Kellner — 2009-05-07T18:00:55+00:00

Naomi Geller leads up the banner advertising programs at Blue State Digital. Prior to joining BSD, Naomi had an extensive background in corporate online advertising for such clients as Nokia and LVMH.

1. What drew you to the political advertising world from the commercial advertising sector?

The timing was right. I was tired of corporate-only advertising and I was looking for a new career path. Meanwhile, Mark [Skidmore] – an old friend – kept telling me how great BSD was... It seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

2. What are the major differences between advertising for corporate clients and non-profit/political campaigns? Are there any similarities?

The main difference is the fact that instead of pushing products, I'm now pushing ideas or causes, which makes me a lot happier. The corporate world is also very 'by-the-book,' whereas this has been more of a down and dirty experience. Budgets appear as fast as they disappear and when that happens, turnaround time to get contracts in place and ads live is sometimes as fast as 24 hours.

3. How did you become interested in the world of advertising? Online advertising?

Six important questions

What are the first five websites you visit every morning?
Gmail, CNN, Facebook, PostSecret (Mondays), NYTimes, WWTDD

Who is the most interesting person you are friends with on Facebook? Follow on Twitter?
I'm a 'Fan' of Neil deGrasse Tyson on Facebook. He's extremely interesting and brilliant. We're not friends per se, but I have met him so I'm not completely a stalker.

Blackberry or iPhone?
iPhone. I'm not even sure how I survived before I had one.

Favorite political figure (past or present)?
Thomas Jefferson, because he highly valued the pursuit of knowledge, and had a love of science which allowed him to be an archeologist and inventor, amongst other things. We also share the same birthday.

First screen name on AIM?
I was never really creative with these, it was always some variation of my name. I think the craziest it ever got was ‘nomes413.’ I’m still using the same one I’ve had since senior year of HS.

Favorite viral video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs.

It all started as an excellent paid internship during the summer of 2005 at an agency formally known as Beyond Interactive (now MediaCom). I say it all started here because advertising was never something I was interested in. It just so happened that reps from Beyond Interactive were at the career fair that I attended and since paid internships are hard to come by, I decided to apply. I worked on the Cheap Tickets and Audi accounts and I did well enough there that they decided to offer me a part-time position for the next year. I didn’t leave until 2008.

4. Many organizations forego online advertising, citing costs. Why should more groups partake in online advertising?

Any client with a website can benefit from online advertising. There's a solution for every goal. For example, if a client wants to get their name out there, or align their brand with specific interests like sports, or music, they can run a display campaign for branding and awareness. If a client’s goal is to drive a lot of traffic to their site or attain conversions, paid search programs are excellent for that. Paid search is able to capitalize on an audience who has already demonstrated interest by searching for particular terms.

5. You specialize in online display advertising. How does that differ from other types of online advertising? What are some of its strengths?

It's great for branding/awareness campaigns and if a client has the budget to support it, custom programs are a great option. There are a lot of sites that now have the ability to build pretty much anything you can envision (within reason of course).

6. You do a lot of testing of types of message, types of display and placement. What types of lessons have you learned from these?

The biggest lesson is that assumptions only go so far. We ran a campaign for Mobile Future, trying to target a tech-savvy audience and at the end of the day, our ads resonated best with 'music lovers.' That's why testing is important a lot of the time.

7. When you aren’t creating successful online display advertising campaigns, what are you doing for fun?

Traveling, going to the park, dinner with friends, dancing (I compete in Ballroom & Latin dancing).

8. What are some of the most interesting campaigns you have worked on in your time at BSD?

A screenshot of the Commission on Accountability's
campaign on Huffington Post

I'm pretty excited about the Commission on Accountability campaign that we just launched. The creative looks fantastic and I think we have a lot of good placements (see screenshot). Through Huffington Post we’re running some high-impact units that I think will be really successful in terms of both awareness and driving traffic to the petition site.

9. What is the funniest poor online advertisement placement that you have seen?

The mortgage rate ads with the terrible graphics of people dancing, which I unfortunately can’t seem to find any screenshots at the moment, but essentially anything with poor graphics is a bad idea. Nothing says ‘scam’ quite like ads with low-quality images.

Speaking out and making a difference

Matthew McGregor — 2009-05-07T13:35:02+00:00

Cynics often tell us that politicians or companies don't listen to the views of the public, and that direct advocacy is subject to the laws of diminishing returns.

Wrong.

Speaking out works when it is driven by the personal, authentic voices of people who care. We're seeing that with the Communication Workers Union in Britain right now. Their campaign against Government plans for the Royal Mail services to be part-privatised is stoking a broad grassroots movement, powered by the Blue State Digital tool suite.

TNT - a mail provider who want to purchase a slice of the British mail system - have been one recipient of the BSD speak out tool, through which thousands of Royal Mail staff and users have emailed the Dutch firm asking them to back off.

Now the BBC's own political editor has revealed the difference public pressure makes. Writing on his blog yesterday, Nick Robinson said TNT are "being put off bidding for a stake in running Royal Mail by the ferocity of the political and trade union opposition to proposals to part-privatise the business."

Lowering the barrier and incentivising people to take part gives campaigns a better way of communicating public support - or in this case - opposition to plans.

Prince of Wales joins BSD to save the rainforests

Matthew McGregor — 2009-05-05T21:18:33+00:00

His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, is well known for his commitment to tackling climate change by protecting the world's rainforests. When he decided to take his work to raise awareness online, his organisation, the Prince's Rainforests Project turned to Blue State Digital.

The new website – rainforestSOS.org – was launched today with the support of celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Joss Stone.

Throughout the course of the project, these celebrities and others will engage directly with supporters, and harness the power of a grassroots campaign to achieve the goal of the Prince’s Rainforest Project: “make the trees worth more alive than dead”.

Launched this evening at 6pm UK time, the site has already received great media coverage in Time Magazine, BBC and the Times Online.

Be sure to check out the Prince’s message to visitors that is featured on the front page:

Stay tuned for more from BSD’s London Office as Blue State Digital further expands its international work.

Meet BSD: Questions with Murali

Alex Kellner — 2009-04-30T16:23:28+00:00

Murali is a key player on Blue State Digital's design and production team. Since joining BSD, Murali has designed and implemented dozens of websites for BSD's clients. He came to BSD with online experience from M+R Strategic Services, Mobilestop.com, Strax and Inecta. He moonlights as a musical composer.

1. You go by just "Murali," and no first name? Why is that?

When I was growing up, I had two names like everyone else. However, in high school, I learned that in Sanskrit, the name Murali derives from "the musician." Finding it fortuitous that I was "born into my craft," so to speak, I decided to just go by one name. Also, guys with one name are pretty bada**.

2. Does that mean if your career goes south that you'll change your name to the "Artist Formally Known As Murali"?

No, I think I'll skip that stage and go straight to:

3. What made you decide to move from the world of composing to website design?

Funny story. I was working for an audio production house, but decided that I wanted a change of scenery. While attempting to call a friend to meet for lunch, I accidentally dialed an old colleague who was working for a relatively young firm in DC. We spoke and she mentioned that they were looking to hire a new designer. A week later, I was in the District interviewing with Blue State Digital. The rest is fate.

4. What drew you to Blue State Digital?

The ability to not only make a difference in the world, but to also use cutting-edge technologies and strategies to do so. We're constantly trying and testing out new technologies to see what can provide the biggest impact. Not to be too grandiose, but its the fusion of these two worlds that makes BSD the place for "What's Next."

5. Web designers often get caught up with the newest glitzy design. What advice would you give someone creating a political/issue-advocacy website about what might look best vs. what works?

Six important questions

What are the first five websites you visit every morning?
ESPN, NYTimes, Thrillist, Bloomberg, A List Apart

Who is the most interesting person you are friends with on Facebook? Follow on Twitter?
I only have 15 friends on Facebook, but its Ted Bauer, a writer for ESPN, who is the funniest man I know.

Blackberry or iPhone?
Blackberry

Favorite political figure (past or present)?
Thomas Jefferson, his words are the foundation of our democracy.

First screen name on AIM?
ilCampionissimo - I was a bit Napoleonic back then [ed. note: back then?]

Favorite viral video?
Yaron Herman's cover of Britney Spear's Toxic.

Web designs are like wine glasses. On one side, you have an elegant gold goblet with embossed jewels; on the other side, you have a refined crystal glass. While both are beautiful, only the crystal glass helps one appreciate the wine. Similarly, a great web design helps clarify the content rather than getting in the way. Too often, I see a hotshot designer come out with a beautiful design that is completely nonfunctional. The best websites are the ones where people love the site's look, but just don't know why. I'm full of analogies like that. If you don't like that one, we can do pizza or tacos or fish...

6. Blue State Digital uses the Expression Engine CMS for the vast majority of its clients. Why Expression Engine? What makes it right for our clients?

We've been using Expression Engine at Blue State for almost four years now. When we made the decision to switch, we were impressed by both the robustness and security of the system. Since switching, we have used EE to power large sites such as Change.gov, We Can Solve It and the 2009 Sundance Festival Site. At the same time, EE is modular enough that we can customize it for even our smallest clients. The ability to provide a customized solution for very client makes it ideal for BSD.

7. What are some of the most interesting projects you have worked on at BSD?

I've worked extensively with Trouble the Water, a documentary about New Orleans during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In addition to promoting the film, the site advocates for the redevelopment and rebuilding of New Orleans. I also enjoyed working with this year's Sundance Film Festival, where we put together a unique and memorable design for the 25th anniversary of the festival.

8. What was your first experience with politics/issue advocacy campaigns?

I would like to say it was in third grade when I helped my best friend run for class president. Actually, it was in high school while running a bicycle advocacy organization. Following a surge in bicycle and pedestrian fatalities in South Florida, which included several friends, I felt a need to promote awareness and change the mentality of the community. We improved public perception of bicyclists and ultimately helped get bike paths built across the region.

9. As mentioned before, you are a published composer. What would be Blue State Digital's theme song?

"The Magnificent Seven" by Elmer Bernstein

Page from the manuscript of
Murali's The Spaces Between

10. What kind of music do you compose?

I write orchestral music that is technically classified as "Post-Minimalistic music written in a pan-diatonic idiom". In easier terms, it's about textures and repeated patterns - an emphasis on moments and their gradual development. Better yet, why don't you check it out at suchsweetthunder.net

11. Do you see a connection between the type of music you create and BSD?

I'm part of a movement of composers who think that art music (modern classical music) should re-emphasize an aesthetic value over its technical and theoretical interests. Similarly at BSD, I place an emphasis on the minor design details, which often take sites from being average to extraordinary. Regardless of how technically impressive a site is, it should still look great.

12. Time for some shameless self-promotion for you. You just launched a side project website. Tell us a little bit about it.

My friends and I are avid sports fans -- you can always find us at a bar watching sports on a weekend. Last autumn, we were dismayed by our inability to find an LSU bar in Manhattan. Knowing that others have faced this dilemma, we created "Where We Watch", the guide to sports bars in New York City. Our website provides great bar info, details on drink specials and cool drink discussions and drinking games to make you the most well informed of all of your friends.

13. When you aren't busy designing award-winning websites, how do you keep yourself occupied?

I'm either on my bike, watching sports at a bar or writing music.

14. Who would win in a race, you in a bike or Leigh Heyman in a canoe?

No Contest. Leigh can shout all he wants from his boat, he isn't gonna touch me.

Facebook wont solve all of your problems

Lauren Miller — 2009-04-23T12:56:00+00:00

It's springtime again, and a lot of political campaigns and nonprofit organizations have fallen head over heels for Facebook.

It's hard not to fall for the alluring ways of Facebook. After all, at first glance there are millions of people using the site daily, just waiting to be contacted by the campaigns, groups and organizations they're interested in.

Unfortunately, Facebook isn't that simple. You can't just create a group, put up a page, and expect millions of people to join your cause - or pull out their credit cards to make a donation. And it's especially difficult to move people off of Facebook and take action offline or on another site.

In fact, the Washington Post reported yesterday that nonprofit organizations are having a hard time raising money through Facebook:

The Facebook application Causes, hugely popular among nonprofit organizations seeking to raise money online, has been largely ineffective in its first two years, trailing direct mail, fundraising events and other more traditional methods of soliciting contributions.

Only a tiny fraction of the 179,000 nonprofits that have turned to Causes as an inexpensive and green way to seek donations have brought in even $1,000, according to data available on the Causes developers' site.

So why can't you raise millions of dollars on Facebook? I have a few of my own theories:

Facebook's ever-evolving design changes. When Facebook causes launched in 2007, applications like Causes were given great real estate: applications were located on supporters' direct profiles, making them easy for friends to see. Today, most application boxes are buried on the fourth page of the site's new tiered profile system - hiding them for most people. If you can't find it on Facebook, does it really exist?
There's a lot going on on Facebook. When we build a donation form on a website, we advise clients to make it as simple as possible so people don't get overwhelmed or distracted. You can't do that on Facebook. Making a contribution through Causes is far more difficult than updating a status, joining a group or writing a snarky comment on a friend's wall - and thousands of other organizations are asking for your money in the very same application box. Without complete control of the system, there's no way to shut the other options off.
Donations aren't a typical part of Facebook. The most effective asks on Facebook conform to Facebook's norms - for example, updating a status message, joining a group, or RSVPing for an event. Right now, making a donation isn't one of those norms.

That said, this problem isn't unique to Facebook. Tons of organizations think that if they put up a website with a donation page, suddenly money from low-dollar donors will come falling from the sky.

Online fundraising, whether it be on Facebook or your website, takes a lot of hard work: building a relationship with supporters, empowering them to take action, and proving that their support will make a difference. And while Facebook is popular, email is still the killer application for making that happen -- building a strong email list that allows you to have that ongoing conversation.

You may not be able to raise millions of dollars on Facebook, but that doesn't mean it's useless. Many of the benefits that come from Facebook are intangible; you can't see how many times a news story you share gets shared with other people's friends, for example. But as a means of publicizing your work, and reaching out to a new audience, Facebook is a great tool - and one that is significantly less expensive than direct mail or a gala dinner.

A glimpse behind the scenes of MyBO’s tech shop

Alex Kellner — 2009-04-22T18:01:24+00:00

Chuck Hagenbuch and Leigh Heyman, two members of Blue State Digital's premier technology team, spoke with Colin Charles about running my.barackobama.com.

Chuck and Leigh will be joining Stephen Gunn, Mikey Dickerson and Ian Gulliver of Google to keynote the MySQL conference tomorrow in Santa Clara, CA.

Their panel entitled: Database We Can Believe In: Stories from the Front Lines (and Server Rooms) of Barack Obama's Online Presidential Campaign will close out the conference. The panel will cover:

"Barack Obama's presidential campaign created an unprecedented online grassroots movement in which supporters generated thousands of events, made millions of phone calls, raised record amounts of money, and received over a billion emails. Blue State Digital, whose PHP/MySQL-based tools powered my.BarackObama.com, only had the 2004 and 2006 elections to use as guidance--before other tools like YouTube and Facebook had been used for presidential politics. Chuck Hagenbuch and Leigh Heyman of Blue State Digital will talk about their experiences leading up to Election Day, the tools that were used, and how the campaign's online efforts exceeded all expectations."

Bringing the political campaign to the academic arena

Alex Kellner — 2009-04-20T18:10:00+00:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the newest approach to collegiate fundraising that emphasizes online tactics to approach alumni that are under the age of forty in an article posted on its website today.

It is well documented that direct mail-approaches are not nearly as effective on younger cohorts, so Blue State Digital's Rich Mintz and Thomas Gensemer provide an alternative suggestion in the article - focus on the Internet.

The article, which will be published in the April 24, 2009 edition, explains what colleges could improve:

"[Universities will] send a message out of the blue. Often it shows a glitzy video. The message will be generic, a lofty appeal about the gifts that students got from the college when they were there, and the obligation they have to future generations... Other things that don't work: When news coverage makes the moment right, the consultants say, you can't wait for a dozen people to approve an e-mail message capitalizing on the spotlight. You need to blast that message out now."

Blue State Digital is involved in fundraising and engagement at several academic institutions including The University of Florida and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law.

The article discusses BSD's general strategy for helping colleges reach more people and raise more money:

"The strategy, in part, is to segment potential donors by their interests and by how deep a relationship they are willing to have with an institution, and to talk to groups differently if possible. If Blue State succeeds, people will feel part of an online relationship that feels more 'authentic,' Mr. Mintz says. When it comes time to click that 'Give Now' button, the donation will come via a continuing conversation, rather than an out-of-the-blue 'ask.'"

Take a look at the full article here. If you are interested in hearing more about how Blue State Digital can raise money for your academic institution, please feel free to contact us.

Blue State Digital clients win eight Golden Dot Awards

Alex Kellner — 2009-04-17T14:50:01+00:00

This morning, the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet announced the recipients of the 2009 Golden Dot Awards and Blue State Digital clients received eight of the awards.

Walmart Watch was recognized as the best issue/advocacy blog – wrapping up a successful award season for them – they also won a Pollie in a similar category.

Obama for America was the big winner of this year’s Golden Dots – winning seven of the 22 possible awards:

Technology Impact Moment of the Year (Democrat) – Obama for America’s VP announcement
Online Politician of the Year (Democrat) – Barack Obama
Most Networked Campaign (Democrat) – Obama for America
Outstanding Online Campaign (National) – Obama for America
Best Website (Federal Candidate) – Obama for America
Best Online Campaign – Obama for America
Best Online Get-Out-the-Vote Campaign – Obama for America, Neighbor to Neighbor

The awards will be presented at the 2009 Politics Online Conference on Monday and Tuesday in Washington D.C. Blue State Digital founding partner Joe Rospars will be speaking on a keynote panel at the conference. Several other BSDers will be speaking on panels – including Sam Graham-Felsen, Ian Koski, Mark Skidmore, Scott Zumwalt and Dave Leichtman.

Inspiring ocean lovers

Stephen Muller — 2009-04-16T17:59:00+00:00

Ocean Now, a project of National Geographic and Blue State Digital client, is about halfway through its exploration of a portion of the Ocean where very few humans have ever gone before.

Dr. Enric Sala, the leader of the expedition, sat down before he left to talk about why he became a marine biologist and the importance of the current Ocean Now project.

His biggest hope for the project:

"To inspire ocean lovers and people who don't know they are ocean lovers, yet, to be stewards of our ocean planet."

Watch the full video here. Be sure to sign up and pass the video along to fellow ocean lovers!

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Blue State Digital clients win eight Golden Dot Awards

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Blue State Digital's Lauren Miller and
TJ Helmstetter at the Tony Awards

An interview of Chuck Hagenbuch
and Leigh Heyman at
the 2009 mySQL Conference

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A screenshot of the Commission on Accountability's
campaign on Huffington Post

Page from the manuscript of
Murali's The Spaces Between

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