Digital Interactif

Politics Online - Boston's Flaherty goes 2.0

Michael Flaherty announced last week that he will be running against Mayor Menino in the upcoming Boston Mayor's race.  The Boston Herald is touting Flaherty's campaign as being in line with the Web 2.0 strategy because he built a new site, MichaelFlaherty.com, and released a few videos on Youtube. 

My first impression of the new site is that the email capture that takes over the screen is a little invasive.  Additionally, it doesn't necessarily work - or if it does, there's no indication that it did, nevermind a "thank you" for entering your personal email that will surely be spammed with campaign emails over the next several months.

A nice feature is the SMS integration at the top of the right hand column, though I would be surpised if anyone opted-in for SMS texts from their computers.  I would imagine this marketing strategy would provide a higher yield out-of-home.  Cell phone numbers should be gathered at every single campaign event (in addition to email address) in order to ensure that the core supporters are fully in touch with the campaign.  "No kidding, we already collect cell phone numbers" some campaign worker would probably reply...but the means of collection can also be disguised as an end.  For instance, it is incredibly inefficient to have interns combing the event with clip boards while a savy field organizer could provide SMS Polls at events that provided the double task of 1)collecting cell phone numbers and 2)polling the base. 

One thing I find surprising is that Flaherty's campaign is paying $10,000/month to Echoditto, an online consultancy firm founded by Howard Dean's internet guru, and there are no Pay-Per-Click ads associated with the new MichaelFlaherty.com.  Good sir, buy up as much inventory on "Menino", "Boston Mayor", "Mayor Menino", and any local search query that involves "mayor".  While he's at it, he might as well invest in "Obama" as well.  Whatever keywords he buys, he needs to do something, anything, to get his site in front of more eyeballs...and the best way to do that is to employ Google Search Advertising in his favor. 

Anyways, I'm glad Flaherty's campaigh is going the Web 2.0 route because it'll be interesting to see if he can take down the Menino-machine that is Boston.     

Hypocritapotamus

Massachusetts State Government Online

According to the Boston Globe, a new report out from the Taubman Center for Public Policy ranks Massachusetts as having the 6th best online services for state government.

Researchers at the Taubman Center for Public Policy examined 1,487 state government websites. They rated them higher when they did such things as make publications and databases available, allowed people to make payments online, and offered content in foreign languages.

They rated them lower when sites offered advertisements and charged user payments or fees.

This is quite an honor for Massachusetts but we still have a long way to go before we should be proud of our state government's online resources. 

Massachusetts might serve itself well to follow in the footsteps of Michigan, Utah, California, Virginia, and Arizona by soliciting the help of Google to make searching for state documents/service online more accessible for citizens. 

The T-Shirt Revolution

This company, Reactee, has been around for a while now but they still haven't gotten noticed on a large scale.  You can custom design a shirt which will have a # that someone can send a text message to and then they will receive a predetermined text message response from you. 

This is a GREAT idea, but I would never endorse Reactee...solely because it costs $20 per shirt.  On a mass scale, this could be a great business, especially if you serve an advertisement up with the text message while providing a meaningful service that people value.

My initial reaction was that this would play well with non-profits and political parties, but its success depends on how you utilize the shirt and what you expect to gain from it.  Today as I was walking home from work I passed by a bunch of street-beat workers for some non-profit looking for signatures, but it's really your money they want...

the same kids who will come up to you and say "how are you, would you sign this petition to help ______".  So you stop and get ready to sign their petition and then they pounce, "If you give $__ it will really make a difference!", just as you are prepared to sign the petition.  Well at that point I don't sign the petition cause then they'll have on record who the cheap ass was that started ignoring them as soon as they started talking about money.

...so I found that I've conditioned myself to avoid any and all form of eye contact with them as I pass by.  This is quite similar to the Banner Blindness affect, where if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, then it's something that's just too much like a damn duck and I don't like duck.(Truthfully, I like ducks, who doesn't?) Basically, I avoid eye contact with street-beat folk, for guilt reasons or whatever else reason, so in the end I would never actually get a good look at their shirt and thus I wouldn't text whatever number they have on their clothing.

Now in politics it is a similar situation, especially in New Hampshire during primary season.  I feel bad for people living in NH during the primary election cycle, cause their towns, neighborhoods, and homes are swarmed with volunteers, pamphlets and phone calls, OH MY!  So I wouldn't expect them to text message based on the shirt of someone coming to their door. 

But where I do see it possibly working in Politics is on Main St with the street-beat volunteers:

• Its good for the environment.  Don't hand out pamphlets because everyone knows that it's garbage the minute you hand it away.  Instead, have people text you for a your policy stance on Iraq, Social Security, Health Care, Immigration, or taxes.  In 5 years, the new saying in politics will go "If you can't fit it into a text message, then it's not worth saying."
• Volunteers work in teams comprised of 5 individuals.  Each volunteer wears a different shirt emphasizing a different policy issue with a separate message. 
• The street team can "shout"-"say"-"beg" to folks passing: "Interested in Bill Richardson's position on Iraq, text this number!" Nothing exchanged but a smile. 
• The volunteers would be spaced out about 15 yards apart, so as people walk down the street its a veritable gauntlet of policy issues that they have the option to learn more about.
• BEST OF ALL: if they text you, you know WHO texted you.  So come December/January when the primaries are getting near, you have the cell phone number of a potential voter.  If they are going to text message your tshirt, I bet they are the same type of person who will actually vote.(future research project...not it!) 

That's how I see it working in politics.  But I think there are countless ways that this type of interaction can be effective in business, branding, networking, dating(?), or whatever.  The majority of the people I know have cell phones with no data plans, so texting is the 'greenest'/best way to communicate in real-time with a passer-by on the street.(Especially the person who won't stop to sign a petition) 

 

State Government in the 21st Century

This past winter I worked as a researcher on a study conducted by the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy(CWPPP) at UMass Boston McCormack Graduate School.  Over the course of the study, A Seat at the Table? Racial/Ethnic & Gender Diversity on Corporate, Hospital, Education, Cultural & State Boards, it became evidently clear that Massachusetts' current system for monitoring State Boards and who sits on them is extremely weak and inefficient. 

Secretary of State William Galvin's office provided the CWPPP with the state's records regarding who was active on the board.  As we proceeded with the study and began calling state boards to verify their membership, the response of the individuals on the other end of the line was usually either: "Who?" or "They haven't been involved here in years!" 

What it came down to was that there was no dialog taking place between the Secretary of State's office and the State Boards.  The system is currently set up so that when an individual leaves a state board or is appointed to a board, it is the duty of the board to contact the Secretary of State's office.  If the State Board doesn't contact the Secretary of State's office, then the official records will not be updated. 

This is a problem because it causes the State government to slowly devolve into a bureaucratic rubble pile.  Personally, I use Google Reader to keep track of information across the Internet.  The Secretary of State's office should do something similar.  Let's have every single Massachusetts state board  tied to a RSS feed so the citizens of our state can track who is sitting on the various boards, or at the very least allow the Secretary of State and the Governor to know who is on the various boards!

So this might require some technical skills on the part of the state boards, and it will require the attention of qualified individuals to make sure that the various RSS feeds are maintained and are up to date, but it will create open government.  We have countless talented people working hard in Massachusetts state government, from the State House all the way to the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, but there are too many barriers to free and open information sharing to make their hard work pay off as much as it can. 

Take a look at the Secretary of State's website.  Click around.  Try and find a state board.  Try and find links to state boards' websites.  Try and find anything good to say about this website and tell me because I'm struggling with it.

Massachusetts needs to step it up and innovate within State Government, and I don't mean just PDF-ing a bunch of the files and uploading them online.  I see a Massachusetts where every state board has someone who is directly responsible for the monitoring and dissemination of information through the Internet.   Someoe who can be held accountable when there is a breakdown in the information chain. 

The Internet has evolved greatly in the past year(think Facebook, Youtube, DevalPatrick.com, and Google Reader) nevermind the past 8 years when most of the State Boards websites were created/last updated.  We have talented, technologically savvy, and idealistic citizens here in Massachusetts and it is one of our greatest strengths.  Let's utilize this untapped resource for the common good and work towards a more open government within our fine state.

Related:

I am glad to see in the news today that Deval Patrick is looking to make some changes on the Massachusetts Board of Education. This is one of the State Boards that is very open in terms of who is serving and I recall the information on their website being accurate.  But this is an anomaly within Massachusetts.  I hope that Deval will look to make changes across the board here in Massachusetts and in doing so will encounter the same problems that I encountered and will see that there is reason to take steps making state government more transparent through the Internet by utilizing the human capital that we have sitting across the river in Cambridge.