tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56850032011-09-13T07:39:25.978-04:00one progressive's adventures in the districtGauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1122415565015306602005-07-26T17:58:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:06:05.023-04:00

It seems appropriate to end on a geeky post title :) My last post will be pessimistic, which is delicious because I am a very optimistic person. However, when it comes to "Big Tech" practices in America today, it seems clear that ethics are sorely lacking. I remind you of Convio, which purports to be left-wing but actually provides service and consulting to anti-gay groups. How different are

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com78tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1122383207969400532005-07-25T08:57:00.000-04:002005-07-26T09:06:47.970-04:00

The short excerpt from Lessig's "The Future of Ideas" has me wondering what he has to say in the rest of his book. Having just reviewed some of the web videos on the IPDI site, the excerpt led me to think about the possibilities of web videos. Lessig makes it a point to show how copyright laws and "clearing rights" are inhibiting the creativity and innovation of traditional film directors:“Ten

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1122381974732555632005-07-24T08:35:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:10:41.083-04:00

Having been an RA at IPDI when "Under the Radar and Over the Top" was drafted, I'm pretty familiar with the material and personally spent several weeks scouring the Internet for web videos. With the benefit of post-Election hindsight, I'm struck by two observations:(1) The impact of Flash. Eric Blumrich, who made some pretty intense anti-Bush movies in Flash, commented on this for the report

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1122054233135983682005-07-22T13:42:00.000-04:002005-07-22T13:43:53.146-04:00

Via dKos...The FEC yesterday dismissed complaints that the "60 Minutes" piece leading to RatherGate constituted an illegal corporate contribution to the Kerry campaign.The decision is important, in that it refers to the media exemption for bloggers:In other words, if the allegations are true, a large corporation intentionally or recklessly put false documents on the nation's airwaves, in

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1121952355223458742005-07-15T09:25:00.000-04:002005-07-21T09:25:55.223-04:00

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1121952339253672852005-07-14T09:25:00.000-04:002005-07-21T09:25:39.253-04:00

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1121259835708969032005-07-13T08:54:00.000-04:002005-07-13T09:04:35.656-04:00

I'd like to follow-up on the question I asked Professor Darr yesterday in class. My point in asking "What's the worst I could do with a $2M blog?" wasn't to be facetious... it's that a blog, as we understand it, ceases to function in the same way once it has been co-opted by a million dollar investment. I'm willing to bet that the minute a corporation seriously invests in a blog to exploit the

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1120829789462108202005-07-09T09:32:00.000-04:002005-07-08T09:37:08.713-04:00

Thanks to Blusher for pointing me to Education Week's Technology Counts report (registration required). There are some good stats there -- especially the chart "Dividing the Pot" which looks at how schools spend money on technology.Schools spend, on average, $103 per pupil annually for educational technology. More than two-thirds of that money, over $71 per pupil, is spent on hardware. Whoa!

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1120828860066192522005-07-08T09:12:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:19:49.830-04:00

This article -- Cyberspace and Race -- does a wonderful job of expressing how I feel about the digital divide as it pertains to race and class issues. My favorite bit:"...many of the forum's minority participants-both panelists and audience members-didn't experience cyberspace as a place where nobody cared about race. Often, they'd found that people simply assumed all participants in an online

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1120828333943483842005-07-07T09:08:00.000-04:002005-07-08T09:12:13.950-04:00

After my first read of "That African-American Blogging Thing" I was thoroughly confused.. until I realized, after reading the comments, that it was a satire on Matt Stoller's post "The Woman Blogging Thing".To go back to an earlier conversation in class and my subsequent post, I think we have to be really careful about forcefully diversifying the blogosphere. Technology is great, don't get me

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1120681806353131852005-07-06T16:23:00.000-04:002005-07-06T16:30:06.360-04:00

How many of you grew up with computers at home, or in the classroom? I distinctly remember playing Carmen Sandiego on my home PC, and The Amazon Trail at the Mac at my elementary school.While I think this Economist article is an important and necessary read, I think it's worth pointing out to an American audience that we have a pretty significant digital divide in our own country.Internet

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1121952262421487882005-06-30T09:24:00.000-04:002005-07-21T09:24:22.423-04:00

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1121952241372245132005-06-29T09:23:00.000-04:002005-07-21T09:24:01.380-04:00

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119965112982003142005-06-28T09:18:00.000-04:002005-06-28T09:25:12.990-04:00

Heehee... a lesson in how fact-checking is always a good idea, regardless of the medium:Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org last Friday sent out a mass e-mail to D.C. voters castigating Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) for her vote against fully funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.There were only two problems, as Norton immediately pointed out via fax. First, as a former National

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119447514352466992005-06-22T09:21:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:21:40.366-04:00

Since I didn't explain myself well in class last night, I wanted to follow up on my comment with a post here:While I appreciate that the Internet (and blogs specifically) have the power to lower barriers to political participation and flatten the playing field so that new voices can be heard, I'm skeptical of the assertion that these aspects of the technology will have the long-term effects some

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119360667128093672005-06-21T09:27:00.000-04:002005-06-21T09:32:34.966-04:00

John at AmericaBLOG has asked his users to stop using GoDaddy.com, a web hosting/registering service, because the owner of GoDaddy.com is a right-wing hack. Now, I don't necessarily buy into the school of thought that we should boycott everything remotely attached to the opposition, but I do think there is a conflict of interest when (a) the president of GoDaddy.com uses the corporate logo on

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119273041613055062005-06-20T09:02:00.000-04:002005-06-20T09:10:41.613-04:00

Since I'm trying to learn about how to construct a good e-newsletter, I've subscribed to various mailing lists of the left-wing nature (HRC, EMILY's List, Victory Fund, NARAL, MoveOn, NOW, Rock the Vote, CAF, CPL, CAP). One thing I've quickly realized is that the name of your newsletter is extremely important. Take EMILY's List, for example: one of their weekly newsletters is called "Insider

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119272497611591752005-06-20T08:55:00.000-04:002005-06-20T09:01:37.616-04:00

Via the Washington Post, this article on Spokane Mayor Jim West:After what Mayor James West called his "brutal outing" by a newspaper that published transcripts of his conversations from a gay chat room, he complained in an e-mail to the city's commission on race relations. West asked: "Should we all fear that our private conversations will be splashed publicly and out of context for all in our

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119240029419181162005-06-19T23:53:00.000-04:002005-06-20T00:00:29.420-04:00

In her article on RSS feeds, Amy Gahran writes:Almost every established e-mail publisher I know right now is finding it nearly impossible to keep their subscription list from inexorably shrinking, largely due to this address turnover phenomenon. Often, an address that was subscribed only a few weeks or months before will suddenly start bouncing. If your bounce rate is climbing, that’s a good

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119239531212500672005-06-18T23:48:00.000-04:002005-06-19T23:52:11.220-04:00

As someone who did a lot of HCI coursework as an undergrad, I admire Nielsen a great deal. He knows usability, and he explains it well. While I find his analysis of the Kerry and Bush newsletters interesting, I think he fails to make a point when comparing them to the Washington Post's newsletter. He writes:Is it unfair to compare the presidential campaign newsletters with one that is

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119108222934440842005-06-17T23:13:00.000-04:002005-06-18T11:23:42.986-04:00

Last December on PBS News Hour, media correspondent Terence Smith spoke with First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams about the way the First Amendment protects reporters and journalists from reporting their sources. The protection of the First Amendment is what allows real journalism in the first place-- if they were not assured of protection under the law, (a) journalists would be less likely to

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1119015281483882232005-06-16T23:23:00.000-04:002005-06-17T09:34:41.490-04:00

In a moment of incredible synergy, my work at Progressive Majority and this week's readings are on the same topic: email newsletters. Yesterday we sent out a newsletter to about 30,000 of our supporters. I'll discuss in a later post some of the things I learned along the way of helping to create an eAlert, but I wanted to touch in this post on the idea of viral emails. We have a report

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118898176203595802005-06-15T23:54:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:22:44.666-04:00

Via Mobile Pipeline. I know it has nothing to do with the reading, but it's so controversial...Texas Rep. Pet Sessions has authored the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005," a bill that would prohibit state and local governments from providing telecommunications or information services that are "substantially similar" to services provided by private companies. In other words, HR 2726

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118755576348474142005-06-14T09:17:00.000-04:002005-06-14T09:26:16.356-04:00

Chris Bowers from MyDD has this wonderful article and analysis on the differences between progressive and conservative blogging. Bowers argues, as many others have, that lefties embrace an open blogging atmosphere that permits comments and dissent whereas the right-wingnuts, in typical top-down aristocratic fashion, tends to push dissent and difference to the margins. Initially, Bowers

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118633769368417982005-06-12T23:33:00.000-04:002005-06-12T23:36:09.373-04:00

According to Mike Daniel of the Houston Chronicle, Keith Olbermann's Countdown is the most popular show on MSNBC! I haven't seen much of it, but I wonder how much of the show and Olbermann's success are due to Olbermann's blog. Now here's an interesting idea -- instead of pitting the mainstream media against new media, why not use them to complement one another?!

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118522465397907882005-06-11T16:40:00.000-04:002005-06-11T16:41:05.403-04:00

I'm in Seattle for the weekend at a Camp Wellstone training, and I wanted to share something from the "Technology" section from our campaign training notebook:Maintaining current, accurate records of voters, volunteers, and donors is essential. A well run and well maintained database is a great benefit fro tracking potential and actual donors, filing financial reports, and running voter contact

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118427377828010872005-06-10T14:13:00.000-04:002005-06-10T14:18:33.956-04:00

I found the study I referred to in a previous post: it's one of Nielsen's Alertbox analyses called "Bush vs. Kerry: Email Newsletters Rated". The most interesting section is the "Content Analysis" in which Nielsen comes up with the following statistics:Positive Campaigning: Bush 50%/Kerry 18%Negative Campaigning: Bush 14%/Kerry 49%Announcements and Instructions: Bush 15%/Kerry 1%Volunteer and

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118184772684081482005-06-09T22:12:00.000-04:002005-06-10T01:10:39.926-04:00

I discovered "Secret Simon" a few months ago and it's since become one of my favorites. When it was started, it was an outlet for "Simon" to talk about being gay without being out of the closet. At the time, the author was married (with two children), and used the anonymity of blogging to deal with his fears and concerns. One of the most powerful things about the Internet is its ability to

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118238190272623212005-06-08T09:40:00.000-04:002005-06-08T09:43:10.273-04:00

I've managed to talk my supervisors into starting a blog for Progressive Majority. Currently, our WA and WI state offices blog about state issues and candidates, and we'd like to set up a blog at our DC Headquarters that syndicates in from the state offices. Anyone know of a good way to set this up with Blogger? The first task is getting posts from the blog to the PM website... and I'm not

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118238021201064812005-06-08T09:32:00.000-04:002005-07-26T18:24:18.580-04:00

Idealist writes a thought-provoking post today about the language blogs use compared to the language used by the traditional print media. Idealist argues that the print media tends to use simple language (they say 6th grade level) whereas many blogs trend towards college-level vocabulary. It's not uncommon to stumble across a post on Kos or Red State that makes sophisticated arguments and

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118177588560449452005-06-07T16:47:00.000-04:002005-06-07T18:33:53.823-04:00

Over the weekend, you might have noticed a big ruckus over John Edwards' remark that Howard Dean was wrong to say that many Republicans don't make an honest living (Editor's Note: I was at the conference when Dean made that remark, and like many of his other statements, it was taken wildly out of context... *sigh*). While it's become quite chic for "moderate" Democrats to distance themselves

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118094284473237772005-06-06T17:41:00.000-04:002005-06-06T17:47:40.120-04:00

Jerome Armstrong over at myDD posted a shout out to Progressive Majority's campaign trainings during the Take Back America Conference. While CAF organized the talking-heads part of the conference, PM was hosting training workshops on fundraising, mobilization, GOTV, etc. Jerome makes a great point here, in talking about the role of the Internet in campaigns:A well run campaign uses the internet

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1118024051688395542005-06-05T22:05:00.000-04:002005-06-05T22:14:11.690-04:00

Many DC non-profits and political organizations use Convio, an Internet consulting firm that provides web and eCampaigning services. Well, it turns out that Convio, which provided consulting for the Dean campaign last year, also consults for the anti-gay, right-wing Alliance for Marriage. I think it is highly disingenuous for an organization that offers valuable political services to hide

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117925102593575252005-06-04T18:41:00.000-04:002005-06-05T22:05:03.863-04:00

My good friend and fellow erstwhile Deaniac Mike Dish makes a great point about the Dean campaign and persuasion. Like many others, I think the Dean campaign was a case where the candidate lost but the campaign won. Dean brought thousands of people into the system. He was unsuccessful in the primaries because the enthusiastic supporters he brought in just couldn't match up with "establishment"

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117924752685518902005-06-04T17:29:00.000-04:002005-06-06T17:48:07.833-04:00

Matt Stoller, Duncan Black, and 'Kos put together a memo to the FEC re: the current proposal to regulate blogging. Their comments, eloquently compiled into a memo, can be found here. There's an interesting argument to be made here rooted in free market capitalism. Carol Darr at IPDI often talks about how the Internet has "lowered the barriers to entry" in politics, giving every citizen with a

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117920564339293572005-06-03T17:26:00.000-04:002005-06-05T22:03:50.860-04:00

Something to add to my previous post about email for fundraising. Other types of fundraising tools--events, house parties, meetings, calls, and direct mail--operate differently than fundraising through email because these traditional tools ask for money that is separate from day-to-day expenses. One of the great things about soliciting money through emails is that people often react by

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117760826333817712005-06-02T20:57:00.000-04:002005-06-05T22:03:20.173-04:00

Today at the "Take Back America Conference," I sat in on a plenary on fundraising featuring my boss (the Development Director at Progressive Majority). Having a fairly tech-savvy (or tech-interested) audience, we spent some time talking about e-Campaigning and using the power of the Internet for fundraising. I thought I'd note some of my boss's observations-- with the caveat being that these

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117681548611468542005-06-01T22:58:00.000-04:002005-06-05T22:02:40.966-04:00

In our conversation about new media's role in a marketing world dominated by television and print, I got to thinking about how users interact with web sites as opposed to traditional media types. Marshall McLuhan would wisely point out that "the medium is the message," and his short, simple, and insightful statement seems particularly salient here. The beauty of the Internet is its

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117628779826684992005-06-01T08:23:00.000-04:002005-06-06T17:49:00.343-04:00

It's time to Take Back America! My organization, Progressive Majority, is assisting Campaign for America's Future in hosting the TBA Conference this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Some of the big progressive names are going to be there (George Lakoff! Antonio Villaraigosa! Arianna Huffington!) and I'm excited for it. There are also two plenaries re: online politics, so I'll try to attend

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685003.post-1117600617598790562005-05-31T00:35:00.000-04:002005-06-07T18:53:21.466-04:00

Having failed to post consistently over the last month at District'd, I've moved onto greener pastures. Introducing... "The Daily Rag!" -- daily analysis of politics, technology, and political technology. I'll admit--it's for a class on new media, and I'm a bit late on the start, but I'll try harder from here on out to provide the best in left-wing nuttery.

GauRaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05363425687548623440noreply@blogger.com0