Running on cheese pizza, RedBull, cold Dunkin Donuts coffee, cookies and the memory of the late Ted Kennedy, I spent the last few days volunteering for Martha Coakley alongside some of the best Democratic new media operatives. Some analysts are describing this as the most important election in the last 50 years — not including presidential contests. Despite our best efforts, Scott Brown won the seat that was held by someone who continues to be regarded as one of best, if not the best, senator of our time. Mr. Brown has some big shoes fill, and while I will be working hard against him in 2012, I wish him and his staff the best for the sake of the people of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Read the of the post on Colin’s blog and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: #masen, Campaigns, Martha Coakley, New medial, Scott Brown

1. They Gave Us The Beatles, We Gave Them Data.gov – Vivek Kundra introduces data.gov.uk on the white house blog. Since then, there has been also of buzz in the blogsphere about the data project.

2. What Organizing for America did right and wrong in its first election – Lydia Depillis goes over what she think Organizing For America did well during the Massachusetts special election as well as what they need to improve on. Unlike other blog posts and articles analyzing the race, this is one is fairly balanced.  I also wrote a post defending Coakley’s new media on E-Politics.com.

3. HOW TO: Set up a free online monitoring system -  This is  good guide for campaigns or organizations that are the just getting started in social media or have very tight budgets.

4. Movement in Gov contests across the country – Weekly update  about various political races around the country from Campaign Diaries.

5. Gillibrand Gets GOP Challenger – New York attorney Bruce Blakeman announced that he will be challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the Fall.  Since then, Harold Ford, Former Congressman for TN, has also been hinting that he may throw his hat in the race.

Honorable mentions

Internet 2009 in numbers – Pretty self explanatory fact sheet.  1.73 billion internet users worldwide – That’s a lot of people.

Will Citizens United v. FEC Change the 2010 Elections? – Stuart Rothenberg looks at how have the Citizens United v. FEC Change may affect the fall election cycle.  He concludes that the verdict is still out but Democratic operatives seem to be more worried the Republicans operatives

Technorati Tags: Best of Links, Links

Jeffrey Levy – @levyj413.  Jeff was one of the organizer of Gov 2.0 Camp here in DC.  He is also on the Federal Web Manager council. He provides first hand account of working with technology at a gov agency.

GovFresh – @govfresh.  A gov 2.0 newsfeed. If it’s gov 2.0 related, it’s going to be on Govfresh.com

Steve Radick – @sradick.  Social Media Lead at Booz Allen Hamilton.  Steve has built a great team at BAh and seems to be doing great work.  What is most appealing about Steve is his candor.  When everyone in the gov 2.0 community is signing praise to one another, Steve will not hesitate to point how much more work needs to be done and help move the conversation forward.

Alan Silberberg – @you2gov.  Alan is one of the people organizing Go2.0 Camp in LA.  for more information about the camp, check out the website at go http://gov20la.org/

Lovisa Williams – @lovisatalk. Straight out of the State department, Lovisa is full of knowledge about what the gov is doing abroad to work directly with various population abroad.

Heather Miller – @hmiller23.  Working at PhaseOne Consulting Group, Heather played part in the launch of the much-praised data.gov.  She continues to work on very interesting project.

Walter Neary – @wtneary. As City Council member in Lakewood, WA, Walter focuses on Gov 2.0 at the local level.  He is also one of the conveners for opengovwest.

Dominic Campbell – @dominiccampbell /FutureGov – @futuregov – Dominic and his team at FutureGov publish a must-read blog posts of links on a daily basis.  The links contains article about innovation in the gov 2.0 space here at home as well as across the pond.

Steve Ressler – @govloop.  Steve is founder of GovLoop, the largest social network of government employers and contractors.  Certainly worth being a part of is you’re trying to learn more bout the community. And once you sign up, invite me to your friend.

Sunlight Labs – @sunlightlabs.  Headed by Clay Johnson, @cjoh, the folks are Sunlight Labs are doing some pretty incredible stuff. As their name suggest, their focus is on transparency and data portability.

That’s my list.  Who did I miss? Who would you have recommended?

UPDATE:

Technorati Tags: #followfriday, #gov20, #twitter, Gov2.0

This week the received a total of 450 clicks.  Ordered by most clicks received, last weeks top links are:

1. Internet in advocacy campaigns (VIDEO) – This is video of  Alan Rosenblatt speaking to students of American University about about the use of the internet in issue advocacy and political campaigns.  Topics discussed include 2008 presidential campaign, social networks,  and the flow of information online.  The video in 1hr 20 minutes long.  Two key takeaways: 1. Don’t focus on the tools, focus on the strategy.  2. Don’t empower, Enable!

2. How to effectively campaign online with web ads – Originally from Spot-on, the post shares a series of Do’s and Dont’s when it comes to online ads.  Key takeaways: 1. Start early; 2. Don’t skimp on creative; 3. Use the right tech specs; and 4. Consider advertising on non-traditional outlets.

3. 10 Things to watch for 2010 – This blog post looks at the some of the issues that the editors deem will make the news.  Obviously jobs, health care reform and the midterms elections make the list.  Also on the list is the role of new media in politics as the 2010 census.  Missing from the list is the War in Iraq and States’ budget deficit (See California, Virginia and Maryland..just to name a few).

4. Democrats control twice as many state legislatures as republicans – This maps shows which state legislatures are controlled by either party, which are split and which are non-partisan.  This map is very interesting if for no other reasons but the fact that if calls into questions whether or not the country as a whole is right of center.

5. 2010 Senate race ratings – Published by The Cook Political Report, this was last week senate race ratings.  Of course with Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) both retiring late last week, the ratings have obviously changed.

Honorable mentions:

Digital Politics: What Mattered in 2009 – Will all hype surrounding new media since the presidential election, what actually worked?.  Kate Kaye from ClickZ explores.  Her answer: Twitter and Online advertising.

Why open data matter for local authorities – Chris Taggart, of OpenlyLocal, makes the arguments that my making raw data available to public local govs  would save money as well as empower developer to make create apps work work on any number of platforms.  That  being said, Targgart does not provide  any actual figures to back up his argument.  Regardless,  It’s great to see the Gov 2.o movement going down to local level.

Technorati Tags: 2010 politics, 2010 senate reaces, Alan Rosenblatt, Best of Links, ClickZ, Kate kaye, Onlide Advertising

The book effectively chronicles Trippi’s love for technology and politics and how the two finally came together for Dean’s improbable presidential run.  Filled with humor,  the book begins with Trippi’s earl days as an activist on the San Jose State University  and goes through his experience working four presidential campaigns prior to Dean’s.  The reader can witness Trippi evolve as a political operative (and become more cynical) who manages to bring together all the lessons he has learned over the years to the Dean campaign.  Without a doubt, the most interesting part of the book revolves around the Dean campaign.  Trippi provides a candid insider account of what went on daily in the Burlington HQ as well as online.  He goes over high and lows, the success and failures – both online and offline and ultimately leaving the campaign. All of it, very interesting.  Knowing that readers would looking for the recipe of success online,  Trippi’s provides the following points

1. Be first – The first comer has a heard start on building a community.
2. Keep it moving / Don’t be static  – The Internet is a fluid medium and your presence should should be organic and flowing.
3. Use an authentic voice – The Internet is not the place to be safe
4. Tell the truth – The Internet has an inherent transparency.
5. Build a community – Get people involved!
6. Cede Control -  Your supporters are smarter than you.  Given them a chance.
7. Believe again

I really enjoyed reading this book.  It provided me with a behind the scene context of the 2004 election.  Having read Matt Bai’s The Argument,  I’d say this book is a good pre-cursor to that one because it helps frame meteoric rise MoveOn.org, DailyKos and the political blogosphere.  One disappointment that I have after reading the book is Trippi’s blog itself.  There is a disconnect between what he writes in his book about the Internet and blogging how he runs his blog.  These days, his blog is a collection quotes from articles that he read or  promotion of recent works (and sometime speaking engagements).  It lacks original content, thought leadership, and forward thinking especially for someone who The New Republic called “the man who reinvented campaigning” and GQ dubbed “the new Carville”.  Despite this, I still recommend the book. It’s worth the read.

Technorati Tags: 2004 election, Books, Joe Trippi, Online politics, politics

Learning from Obama: Politician as (Online) Rockstar by Colin Delany

What can the rest of us learn from the Man with 70 Million Fans (er, voters)? A lot – online marketers of all stripes, from brand managers to band managers to nonprofit advocacy groups, can pick up powerful lessons from the Obama campaign’s successful recruitment and organization of millions of online supporters.

Local Change Movements in the Obama Age by Martin Matheny

The Obama campaign transformed the face of American politics. But, how can we create local change movements for candidates and causes with far more limited human and financial resources? This panel will explore how to scale the concepts and lessons from Obama for America and other 2008 campaigns for local action.

Not Just for Obama: New Media Gets Local by Julie Blitzer

Local political campaigns have adopted many of the tools of national campaigns but with varied success. This panel will examine the tools now being used in local races and by local activists (Facebook, Wordpress, Drupal, Twitter, SMS, etc) and give specific examples of success and failures.

Building Your Local Open Government Tribe By Hillary Hartley

2010 = the year of “civic hacktivism.” Now that everyone (not just Dean and Obama) is using the Internet as a political organizing tool, the era of the e-government mashup is upon us. Learn how groups across the U.S. are catalyzing their governments to be open, transparent, and participatory.

Getting E-Gov Out There in San Francisco by Tom Hughe-Croucher

Using the San Francisco Open Data initiative as an example this panel will explore what is required to help local or regional governments open up their data to their citizens. This project used the power of Open Source, citizen volunteers and collaboration to generate successes.

Adventures in Local Open Government by Noel Hidalgo

There’s been a lot of attention to Open Government, especially at the Federal level. This panel provides some practical examples of effective initiatives from people inside and outside state and municipal government. Includes discussion of specific formats and technologies as well as advice on how to “sell” open government concepts to decision makers.

Next Generation Politics: Where Will We Go Next? by Sarah Granger

In 2000, candidates used e-mail and websites to transmit their messages online. 2004 introduced political blogs and in 2008, social media played a major role in the election. As the 2010 election approaches and we look to 2012, what’s next? A panel of national experts will predict.

Strengthening Local Communities with Social Media by Micki Krimmel

Social networking tools are all around. Local communities are applying this technology to connect people in the real world. Whether with 140-character TweetUps, MyBarackObama.com mobilizing millions of Americans or location-aware mobile phones connecting neighborhoods in unimaginable ways. How can you use technology to live a more connected and neighborly life?

The Internet Never Sleeps: Managing Social Media Campaigns by Bonnie Shaw

The Internet never sleeps, so why should you? When they work, social media campaigns become unruly beasts that require constant feeding and project wrangling. How can we support these projects while meeting budgets and surpassing expectations (without breaking our inboxes or going insane)?

Bonus round:

Yes Mr. Lessig, We Can Change Politics by Julie Germany

Last year at SXSWi, Larry Lessig introduced Change Congress, a movement to clean up corruption in Congress. But that’s only the beginning. All elected offices (local, state, and yes even Congress) need more techies, scientists, and engineers. Now! Why techies should run for office — and how they can win.

Digitally Rebranding the Republican Party by Todd Herman

No brand was under attack in 2008 more than the Republican Party, and the GOP entered 2009 with one goal — rebrand and relaunch. Get a behind-the-brand look at how and why the GOP created and launched its new digital look and the digital strategy driving the brand’s future success.

Technorati Tags: SouthBySouthWest, SXSW, SXSWi

For the uninitiated, the Google surge occurs when a campaign, be it a candidate or an organization, saturates a geographic area with their ads days leading up to a vote through the Google Ad Network.  Representatives of Google are usually involved in setting up the such ad buys.  I first heard of its use in California during the Prop 8 battle.  The group in favor of prop 8 spent close to $500,000 in online ads in  the 48hrs leading up to the November 4th election through Google’s content network.  The group’s ads were targeted to all residents of California (including Google HQ even though Google opposed prop 8).  Several months later, Scott Murphy (D) used the same tactic in the NY-20 Special election where he was facing Jim Tedisco (R).  Kate Kaye reported that the Murphy campaign spent around $25,000 in the 36 hours prior to election day to target the entire NY-20 district.  Though it’s largely agreed upon in the online politics world that these campaigns demonstrated a successful use of the Google surge, I’ve yet to see the data to back up this consensus.

As I see it, the benefits to using the Google Surge near the end of campaign are  as follows

1. Increased traffic to the campaign’s website
2. Increased number of Google search of the candidate or campaign issue
3. Increased visibility to and impression on voters.

The third benefit is the most subjective and the hardest to measure.  It’s true that ad providers can provide reports of the number of times an ad has been viewed along with the click thru rate.  However, it’s still rather difficult to measure the impact of the creative on voters that viewed the ad without taking further action.  At such a late stage of the game, most campaigns are likely to run persuasive ads that would appeal to undecided voters.  That being said,the fact remains that after the polls close, a campaign has no recourse to prove or measure that previously undecided voters had casted a ballot for their candidate or stance on an issue.

The first benefit is more quantifiable and measurable.  However, since I was not a part of the any of the campaigns that have used Google Surge thus far, that data is not available to me. Thus I can not venture to guess as to effectiveness of the Google blast based on that. I do invite any with access to data to write a guest post on this blog.

Lastly, the second benefit is one we can explore further using Google Insights.  In theory, if the Google blast was an effective tactic,  there should be a surge in the number of times a candidate’s name has been Googled. Going back to VA’s gubernatorial race, we should see a spike in the number of Google searches for Creigh Deeds since his campaign used Google blast. I started by using Google suggest to determine what other terms people were using along with its name when searching.

I arbitrarily settled on the following three search combinations:

1. The candidates’ last name:  “Deeds” vs “Moran” vs “McAuliffe”
2. The candidates’ full name: “Creigh Deeds” vs “ Brian Moran” vs “Terry McAuliffe”
3. The candidates’ full name in addition to the words “for governor”:“Creigh Deeds for governor” vs “Brian Moran for governor” vs “Terry McAuliffe for governor”

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

1. “Deeds” vs “Moran” vs “McAuliffe”

2. “Creigh Deeds” vs “Brian Moran” vs “ Terry McAuliffe”

3. “Creigh Deeds for governor” vs “Brian Moran for governor” vs “Terry McAuliffe for governor”

Across all three search comparisons, we see a surge of search volume for Deeds as we get closer to the election.  However, the climb in volume begins well before the Google blast went into affect.  Looking at these graphs, it appears that the Google Blast that started on the eve of the election was part of a much more sophisticated and integrated online plan that increased Creigh Deeds’ visibility at the right time during the campaign cycle. An analysis of the Virginia primary map supports the idea that there was more to Deeds’ victory beside the Google blast given that systematically beat his opponents throughout the state.  Where does that leave the Google Blast? Good tool or not? The truth is that I don’t know.  The look at the insights numbers is a very unscientific analysis of only one of the three ways the Google blast can benefit a campaign.   A look at the other two would provide a more complete picture as to the effectiveness of the tool. While the survey is still out on Google blast, I believe that having and then executing an online plan that effectively tells the complete story of your candidate throughout the campaign will be much more effective then any last minute surge.

Technorati Tags: #va-gov, #vagov, Creigh Deeds, Google Blast, Google Network Blast, Google Surge, VA Gubernatrial Race

Fundraising in a Recession – Some fundraising tips from Nancy Bocskor, a fundraiser and the founder of the Nancy Bocskor Company,  from a  the panel “Fundraising During a Recession” at Art of Political Campaigning conference.

OpenCongress Now Tracking Every Congressional Race Nationwide -  “a non-partisan, fully-referenced, open-source and crowd-sourced wiki project — now lists every candidate running in every U.S. Senate, House and governor’s race!”    I wish they would followed that up with a wiki that tracked state delegate races.  State legislature are just as important as House and Senate (or I’d like to think so).

New Media, New Cycle – Highlights from a Panel featuring Jonathan Karush, Mindy Finn, John Rowley also at the Art of Political Campaigning conference  They share some advice advice about websites and new media.

The Ten Best Ideas from BlogPotomac – I had the chance to attend BlogPotomac last Friday. I was considering recap but Jennifer Berk of Amplify Public Affairs has a great recap with links to several other recaps from attendees.  If you missed BlogPotomac, reading this post will almost as good at the real thing.

Technorati Tags: #BlogPotomac, #vagov, Art of Political Campaigning conference, Google