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First POST: How to Organize

BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, January 23 2013

How to Organize for Action

  • Follow the money: After Sunday's kick-off event for Obama for America's successor organization it's clear the spirit is willing, but can the pocketbook deliver? Keepers of the Obama flame are gambling, for now, that former campaign volunteers have the gumption to organize local groups and raise money in those groups in order to pay for access to the Democratic voter file and maintain their own field offices. These groups will advocate for the president's agenda locally, putting pressure on their members of Congress.

    It's still unclear how much that local fundraising is expected to pay for. TechPresident doesn't have all the answers yet but we hear, just like everybody else seems to be hearing, that no final decisions have been revealed about which aspects of the Obama campaign's technological infrastructure will be maintained, who will keep it up to scratch and how exactly they'll pay for it. We reported yesterday that infrastructure will remain property of Obama for America and be leased out to whomever wants to license it, like Organizing for Action or the Democratic Party. And at least one volunteer we spoke to who attended the weekend event, the Obama Legacy Conference, seems to think that even the fundraising model on offer now might be tweaked in the days ahead.

    Nancy Scola wrote that Obama alumni are hoping to "rethink the mechanics of American politics one more time:"

    Campaigns traditionally scatter to the winds, whether the candidate wins or loses, after election day. That's wasteful, goes the thinking -- all the more so with a team that produced some 155 million door knocks and phone calls and 1.8 million new voter registrations, not to mention 332 Electoral College votes.

    So Organizing for Action wants to replicate those tactics now that they're done putting Barack Obama in office. "We will run ads" in districts where the data show Republicans out of step with constituents on gun control, Carson said. "We will be on their Facebook pages." And OFA will use well-honed campaign tactics to achieve policy goals, including a goal of registering 40 million people who are newly eligible for insurance under Obamacare.

    It's an ambitious plan that is creating some more low-tech worries for state parties, who are concerned that this organization will crowd them out in the competition for local activists and fundraising dollars. It's also, as Scola writes, a wholly untested, wholly new rethinking of the permanent campaign, one that might prompt a further evolution of campaign-trail tools and tactics.

We the Sheeple

  • POSTers see it first: As the White House's online petitions initiative, "We the People," gains popularity, it's been coming under fire. Should the White House, doubters ask, really be wasting their time with a petition calling for the creation of a Death Star? Yes, Micah Sifry writes — because it is finally an example of government engaging with citizens rather than trying and failing to gain traction elsewhere. Firstly, the White House will play communications judo with every petition to which it responds, trying to start a dialogue with critics, to keep supporters energized and to highlight its policy wins. It is not a tool for accountability, it is a tool for engagement, and on that front it has done quantitatively well. Secondly, journalists critiquing the subject matter of petitioners should first put their own house in order. In the past month, the White House press corps has asked the president's spokesman about Manti Te'o, Robert Griffin III, and Gerard Depardieu. Meanwhile, the White House used a We the People petition to signal a softening of its policy on marijuana. Which makes one wonder: If a handful of people can ask the White House a silly question multiple times a day, why are they so angry that any 100,000 people can ask the White House any question once?

Around the Web

  • New York State is launching a new transparency portal today.

  • So is New York City. TechPresident got an early look last week as a follow-up to the preview that officials at New York City Comptroller John Liu's office gave us when the project was announced last year.

    Checkbook 2.0, as it's called, takes a web portal initially designed to put the city's checkbook online and beefs it up considerably. In a demo last week, we were able to view spending citywide, by agency, and even by contract. We were also able to access information about individual vendors and track payroll information by title, if not by name.

    The New York City Comptroller's effort also offers up data in bulk format and through an API. An official in Liu's office told us that the entire package will be open-sourced in the months to come, but the work of open-sourcing the software — cleaning up the code, documenting it and so forth — was not yet complete. The software was designed to sit on top of what we were told is widely-used accounting software offered by the company CGI, which is what New York uses.

    • International

    • Newly elected Israeli lawmakers are turning to the task of forming a coalition government. On the fringes: a nascent Pirate Party movement.

    • Chinese GitHub users report their access to the site is in flux apparently because of state action.

    • Concerned with the implications of media regulations within countries, the Financial Times argues for a solution: Have the European Commission regulate the regulators. The Guardian (UK) flags the news.

    • The International Budget Survey is out, ranking the transparency and accountability of budgeting information in over 100 countries.

    News Briefs

    RSS Feed today >

    Facebook Becomes Full Member of Global Network Initiative

    Facebook announced today that it has opted to become a full member of the Global Network Initiative, a group founded by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to address the challenges technology companies face when dealing with governments about issues like freedom of expression and data privacy. GO

    Russia's OGP Concerns Show That Transparency Matters

    Last week, Russian officials announced they have withdrawn their letter of intent to join the Open Government Partnership. The Moscow Times has a statement to the Russian paper Kommersant from a presidential spokesman, saying, "We are not talking about winding up plans to join, but corrections in timing and the scale of participation are possible." So Russia may still be in. Just not soon. And maybe never. Confused? You're not alone. I actually find it fascinating that the Kremlin acts like "openness" and transparency matter. Here's why. GO

    In Denmark, Online Tracking of Citizens is an Unwieldy Failure

    Six years after Denmark passed a law mandating that telecommunication companies retain and store their customers' personal data for up to two years, local advocacy groups and the telecom industry are pushing for immediate changes to the legislation. The practice of keeping records of private citizens' Internet use is an unjustifiable invasion of privacy, they say. The police, meanwhile, have concluded that requiring telecoms to store subscriber data has not helped them track criminals, which was the the ostensible purpose of the practice. But the Danish government still wants to postpone an evaluation of the law for another two years. GO

    "Accidental" Blocking of Australian Websites Raises Concerns About Government Censorship

    An Australian government agency admitted last week to unintentionally blocking more than 1,200 perfectly legal websites in the process of shutting down one allegedly fraudulent site. In their defense, they pointed out that they have successfully blocked a number of websites in the past nine months without such digital collateral. This assertion came as no consolation to Australian netizens concerned about Internet censorship, especially opaque and hazily legal censorship.

    GO

    tuesday >

    Honda Campaign Rolls Out Endorsements From Asian American Stars

    Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) rolled out several additional endorsements from Asian American leaders and celebrities Tuesday, with one of them vouching for his high-tech bona fides. GO

    Here Are The People President Obama Hopes Will Repair American Elections

    The Presidential Commission on Election Administration established by President Obama after problematic 2012 elections now has a web presence at SupporttheVoter.gov. Obama established the commission by executive order on March 28 "to identify best practices in election administration and to make recommendations to improve the voting experience." GO

    After Oklahoma Disaster, Neighbors Look Online for Ways To Help

    In echoes of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, social media sites and small business websites in and around tornado-wracked Moore, Okla., are full of offers of help, questions about missing pets and loved ones, and evidence that neighbors are willing to reach out to help one another in a disaster. On a single Facebook group, there's a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City promising free meals to first responders or people hit by the tornado; a mother a few hours' drive from Moore offering to open her door for children who might need a place to stay; a resident sharing a picture of a found dog and contact information for the owner to get in touch. GO

    Change.org Lands $15 Million From Omidyar

    Change.org capped an extraordinary few years of growth Tuesday with the announcement that it has landed a $15 million investment led by the Omidyar Network. GO

    What German Politicians Think of Google Glass

    The German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has not had the easiest relationship with Google. The company launched a public campaign against a law backed by her coalition that would require search engines to pay to show news articles in search results, with mixed results. What's more, Google has long had to navigate the privacy waters in Germany and throughout the European Union. But that has not stopped her federal minister for economics and technology, Philipp Rösler, from giving Google Glass an enthusiastic test run as he leads a delegation of German technology companies and politicians on a trip to Silicon Valley this week as part of German Valley Week. GO

    Crowdsourcing Waste Management Solutions in Montenegro

    For once we aren't talking about the worldwide scarcity of toilets, just good old-fashioned household waste. Montenegro has a garbage problem so bad even the tourists are complaining about it. A new mobile app sponsored by the Agency for Environmental Protection, NGO Ozon and United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro will hopefully get citizens involved in reporting illegal garbage dumps. GO

    monday >

    Her Majesty's Government Wants to Monetize Open Data

    A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government's Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government's open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy.

    GO

    Will Silicon Valley "Disrupt" Politics With a Candidate for Congress?

    Sean Parker, of Napster fame and now executive general partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, has invested in political startups before. But last week, he went a step further — co-hosting a fundraising event for a candidate for Congress. Parker and SV Angel co-founder Ron Conway organized a crowd of Internet industry luminaries to support Ro Khanna, a former assistant deputy secretary in Barack Obama's Commerce Department. Khanna is preparing a challenge to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), whose newly redrawn congressional district encompasses Silicon Valley. GO

    Burma's Upcoming Telecom Revolution Will Probably Not Bring Internet Freedom

    Burma (Myanmar) is on the threshold of an Internet revolution, but Human Rights Watch has warned companies to proceed with caution or risk trampling Burmese citizens' rights. GO

    friday >

    Chilean Anti-Corruption Resource: A Crowdsourced Database of Social and Political Connections

    In countries where a small minority of social circles have a majority of the political and economic power, personal relationships can affect major decision-making, a serious concern of anti-corruption activists. A new web platform stores personal profiles of key players in Chilean business and politics, complete with biographies and personal and professional connections through family, education, social circles, employers and coworkers, to make tracking social relationships and conflict-of-interest easier. Called Poderopedia (from the Spanish word for power), the project sounds kind of like LinkedIn, but the creation and management of profiles is being crowdsourced out to journalists, activists and concerned citizens.

    GO

    Middle Eastern Telecom Accused of Working With Saudi Arabia to Spy on Citizens

    Mobily, an arm of the state-owned Middle Eastern telecom giant Etihad Etisalat, has been accused of working with Saudi Arabia to develop software that would allow the government to bypass protections for social media users. The exposé comes from Moxie Marlinspike (neé Matthew Rosenfield), an expert in a certain type of malicious Internet attack called MITM (man-in-the-middle), whereby attackers intercept and secretly alter private messages exchanged via email and other social media platforms. GO

    Saudi Religious Leader Warns Twitter Users of Consequences in the Afterlife

    In late March, Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric said Twitter was for clowns and corrupters. Earlier this week, he said anyone using social media, in particular Twitter, “has lost this world and the afterlife.” His comments might be laughable, if they did not come at a time when the Saudi government is looking into monitoring or blocking social media sites and eliminating user anonymity.

    GO

    thursday >

    What The Other Silicon Valley Immigration Group Is Doing This Month

    A bipartisan coalition of political advocacy, business and tech groups are moving ahead to launch a social media blitz next week designed to persuade members of the Senate to vote in favor of immigration reform legislation supported in Silicon Valley. "We're going to create a virtual digital storm," said Jeremy Robbins in a Wednesday ... GO

    The New Yorker Hopes "Strongbox" Is a Wiretap-Proof Sieve for Leaks

    The New Yorker yesterday became the first outlet to implement DeadDrop, a new system for sources to submit information to journalists online in a more secure and anonymous way than, for example, email. GO

    Female Organizer of Pakistan's First Hackathon Stresses Collaboration Over Competition

    After Pakistan banned Valentine's Day this year, Sabeen Mahmud started an online protest in which people uploaded photos to mock the government ban. In the weeks following she received death threats and menacing phone calls, and early on she had to stay home from work. That did nothing, however, to keep her from further organizing. Last month, the café she started in Karachi hosted Pakistan's first ever hackathon, which tackled problems including sanitation, crime, disaster management, and education. She even invited a government representative to observe the initial conversations, tackling sensitive areas like government inefficiency and elections.

    GO

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