Archive: Author: The Management

Most days, we here at techPresident take little more than a glance at the steady stream of PR pitches that flow into our in-boxes as most of them aren't all that interesting. But you never know; there's a lot of innovative people working at the intersection of tech and politics, so we read them all and follow up when appropriate. But today we got word of a new pitch that, perhaps deliberately, wasn't sent our way. Alas, a friend brought it to our attention, and now you too get to see just how silly some political consulting firms can get when they're trying to position themselves as go-to shops for digital savvy. The pitch yesterday from SKDKnickerbocker, a big Democratic firm,...

Hey This is important Also Help Excuse me I want to buy you a cup of coffee Drop what you're doing Urgent A big problem right now Scary We could lose if this continues I will be outspent --B.H. Obama Answer this call From the road Make it count The promise gap You never know Let's take a moment Deadline reminder Less than 24 hours left Deadline reminder Sign up and get a coupon --W.M. Romney [All genuine email subject lines from June 28 to present.]...

"This election may be remembered as the Bitter Twitter campaign," former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon said recently. With both campaigns avoiding offering any big new ideas, he predicted that "we are likely to see the next [few] months as a furious and relentless exchange of messages that aren't much longer or deeper than 140 characters." Is that all that can be said about the daily Twitter wars between the Romney and Obama camps? To get a bigger picture — or rather, as you will see below, to get several bigger pictures — I turned to Marc A. Smith, chief social scientist with the Connected Action consulting group, who has long studied computer-mediated collective interaction. For the last few years, he and...

"We think of [the Internet] as something like an abandoned mad scientist’s laboratory, in which various experiments in cognitive processing have been left to fizz and overflow together. Some of these experiments are turning into monsters, others unviable chimeras, others yet interesting hybrids." --Henry Farrell, parsing "The Politics of Open Data" on Crooked Timber....

Yesterday, the New Organizing Institute, a progressive training center, published a 210-page manual titled, "Campaigning to Engage and Win: A Guide to Leading Electoral Campaigns." Written by and for campaigners at every level of politics, it is also the Obama 2012 field strategy, hidden in plain view. Indeed, of the 40 people listed as advising NOI on the manual, at least ten of them, including Jeremy Bird and Marlon Marshall, the national field director and deputy national field director of Obama 2012, have played important roles in Obama's political operation since his first run for the presidency.* Joy Cushman, the manual's editor and NOI's organizing director, worked closely with Bird on the 2008 field effort in South Carolina. That was...

Yesterday, I had the privilege of talking with Genevieve Williams and David Burton, two of the three authors of "The Use of Social Media for Disaster Recovery," a 32-page guide built on the experiences they (and their co-author Rebecca Williams) had in the wake of the powerful and destructive tornados that hit Joplin, Missouri, just over a year ago. Less than two hours after the tornados hit, Williams used her iPhone to set up Joplin Tornado Info, as a Facebook page and soon thereafter as a companion website. The sites went viral quickly as they began collecting and sharing vital information about needs, resources, transportation, storage and dispersal of aid. Within days, the Facebook page had 49,000 fans and dozens of...

It's been three hours since the Supreme Court's momentous decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, and while both presidential contenders have made public statements, their websites are not on equal footing. It's interesting to note that BarackObama.com has yet to reflect the news, while MittRomney.com has already pivoted to respond to it. Here's what the two campaign home pages look like now: And the Obama blog, which is where you'd expect at least a pointer to the President's just-concluded live speech from the White House, is still leading with campaign manager Jim Messina's post from early this morning, saying, "We don't know what will happen this morning." UPDATE: By 5pm ET, the Obama website had a new message up on its landing...

It's a sad, sad day for America's "greatest news team." Just minutes ago, in the rush to report the breaking news from the Supreme Court, CNN's John King breathlessly told Wolf Blitzer that the court had struck down the individual mandate at the center of the health care reform law, calling it a "huge blow" to President Obama. And, as captured by Josh Nelson, from 10:11am to 10:18am, CNN.com had this pre-written headline and story up on its home page. Meanwhile, at 10:08, Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog had already written, "The individual mandate survives as a tax." Just in case anyone blames Twitter or new media bloggers for the mistakes in coverage, let the record show who got it right...

Wonderful news Romney in a landslide? Hell no You know it, I know it Dinner with the Obamas Fly out to meet us Before the polls open We're getting outspent Take this seriously Cat's out of the bag I will be outspent Sad to say --B.H. Obama It's only the beginning Want a seat? Your chance See for yourself This Saturday only! Road trip with Mitt I'll save you a seat Small towns What a ride Want a seat Ride along Kick off your week --W.M. Romney [All genuine subject lines from June 7 to present.]...

It's summer, and that means we may be in for another round of freaky weather extremes. Hopefully that won't include the city of Joplin, Missouri, which was hit by an extremely powerful tornado a little more than a year ago, on May 22, 2011. Natural disasters test us, and while the personal and financial losses may be severe, in the aftermath communities often discover hidden resources that enable them to rally and emerge stronger. In an age of ubiquitous social media then, it isn't surprising then that less than two hours after Joplin was hit, killing 160 people and destroying more than 7,000 homes, volunteers created the Joplin Tornado Info website and Facebook pages and started collecting and sharing information...