First POST: Post-Ambition and Fear Not
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, February 25 2014
Cyberwar in Syria?; the Obama 2012 tech tools are being shared with lower ballot candidates; the debate over Netflix and Comcast continues; and much, much more. Read More
With Shades of Obama's 2012 Campaign, Internet Politics Appears in German Elections
BY Miranda Neubauer | Tuesday, April 2 2013
"Elli" goes to Pre-K at Age 2.
The whole world watched the 2012 presidential elections in the United States and saw a wired campaign where the web was both tool and topic, a means to political ends and a subject of politics in itself. As Germany prepares to elect a new government, candidates and political parties are taking stances and strategies with shades of the American 2012 campaign, from Obama for America's use of the web to the slow rise of Internet policy as an important campaign issue. Read More
Headed to Startup Land, Obama's Tech Alumni Take the Ground-Game Mentality With Them
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, February 21 2013
With the campaign behind them, Obama for America Technology alumni are scattered across the country — some still in Chicago, some making a new start in a new city, others still taking time off for travel. In interviews, some of these coders, designers, and product managers said that the campaign was a political break in a career otherwise spent in the tech sector. Others told me their time working for Obama has convinced them to focus on civic life. All of them expressed a connection to their campaign colleagues and to OfA's test-everything, data-driven organizing ethos that, they say, is likely to inform everything they do next. Read More
What Will Campaigns of the Future Do With Their Data? Before Rootscamp, Some Hints
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, November 29 2012
Most people who volunteered through Dashboard, the Obama campaign's online organizing platform, went on to volunteer through a field office, Obama for America Director of Digital Organizing Betsy Hoover said today. Speaking with reporters at a lunch event organized by New Organizing Institute, Hoover explained — as has been previously reported but not quite put in such clear terms — that Dashboard was meant to be a place for field organizers to identify people who might be persuaded to take action offline as well as online. Her remarks come the morning after an email to supporters from Jeremy Bird, OfA's organizing director, that explained a majority of volunteers on the campaign chose to do so from a field office, while "many" used Dashboard or other online tools instead. Read More
After Obama 3.0, What Will 4.0 Look Like? TheAction.org Isn't Waiting for the Answer
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, November 21 2012
What next for the millions of people, tens of thousands of volunteers and several thousand staff who came together to propel Barack Obama to re-election? Will there be a real "outside" Washington strategy to put pressure on recalcitrant Members of Congress? Will they use the massive lists and online presence that were built around the campaign? Organizers of TheAction.org say they aren't waiting for answers to these big questions, but they are mobilizing to tap Obama's post-election, online and off, to try to keep him from compromising on repealing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans. Read More
As Digital Campaigns Continue, Obama 2012's Looking for Online Ad People
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, July 5 2012
The point's been made again and again that the Obama campaign basically has a technology startup working in-house, but that's not all: Team Obama looks to want that startup to be able to handle its own full-service digital advertising, too. Read More
Obama 2012's Getting "Back to the We:" How's That Going? BuzzFeed Says Not So Well
BY Nick Judd | Monday, June 4 2012
Nobody disputes that the Obama campaign needs to use all the tools at its disposal to mobilize a grassroots base that is not as active and energized, or at least not yet, as it was in 2008. What's at issue is how effective the campaign has been so far in doing so — and we'll all find out by November, to be sure. Read More
Obama's Campaign is Prepping to Roll Out the Online Campaign "Dashboard"
BY Nick Judd | Monday, May 14 2012
The Obama campaign is "poised" to unleash Dashboard, the campaign tool we've been hearing about in pieces here and there since November 2011, the Guardian's Ed Pilkington and Amanda Michel write. Read More
Obama Campaign Wants to Know Why I'm Not Giving Any Money
BY Nick Judd | Monday, February 27 2012
The Obama campaign is emailing people on its list who have yet to donate to the campaign, asking them to fill out a survey with whether they plan to donate at all — looking for another quick data win in its never-ending quest to put the right message in front of the right potential supporter at the right time.
Read MoreEuropean Politicians Are Watching the Obama 2012 "Machine"
BY Miranda Neubauer | Friday, February 24 2012
The general secretary of the left-wing German Social Democratic Party (SPD) is visiting the Obama Campaign Headquarters today, according to a text message interview she conducted with her party. Andrea Nahles has been on a U.S. trip to Washington D.C. and Chicago for the past few days to discuss political communication with politicians, journalists and bloggers ahead of the American election. In the interview, she says her impression is that the Democrats are nervous, even though conditions are beginning to improve in a way that would benefit President Barack Obama. Read More