Web Marketing That Hopes to Learn What Attracts a Click, New York Times.

Now, a new breed of companies is trying to tackle all of those options and determine what ad works for a specific audience. They are creating hundreds of versions of clients’ online ads, changing elements like color, type font, message, and image to see what combination draws clicks on a particular site or from a specific audience.

Rise of the Twitterati, The Washington Post.

The Obama campaign revolutionized political communication and fundraising. Fireside chats and radio addresses may nurture our nostalgia, but blogs and twitters feed our need for speed. They also give an impression of human contact without the muss and fuss of actual intimacy.

Tuesday was the grand opening of the Capitol Visitors Center (CVC). This means we should have a grand ole ribbon cutting ceremony, right? Not quite.

The discussion at The Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Bloggers Briefing held yesterday was focused on the new CVC. Matt Spalding of the Heritage Foundation spoke to the bloggers about the outrage he felt during his sneak peek of the visitor’s center courtesy of Senator Jim DeMint.

For starters, the project was five years behind. Not to mention it ended up being nine times over budget with a final price tag of $621 million, but that wasn’t what Spalding was so upset about.

It’s no surprise a government project was prolonged and over budget, but the biggest concern here is the message of the CVC. DeMint was the first member of the Senate to bring attention to the distorted message the CVC presents to visitors and its inaccurate interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the main problems with the CVC Spalding highlights is the “Wall of Aspirations”. The aspirations include unity, freedom, knowledge, exploration, general welfare, and common defense, all of which are distorted messages from the Constitution. These words are just a cut and paste from the Constitution, and then tailored to fit a message.

What struck me as the most convincing piece of Spalding’s argument was when he mentioned there is no list of academics that worked on this project. This leaves anyone to wonder.  I’m wondering who is the person or people who have taken the liberty to put the constitution in their own words?

Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web, NY Times.

Facebook has detailed information about its users: their real identities, what they like and dislike and whom they associate with. With a member’s permission, it could use that data to help other Web sites deliver more personalized ads. Similarly, those sites could tell Facebook what its users are doing elsewhere, helping to make its own ads more targeted.

All A-Twitter: A Late Adapter Alert, Townhall.com.

Many others want a different sort of communication, though, one that moves outside of the content of the radio program into ideas and experiences that don't make it onto air. Others are using the feeds to advance the online activism they find crucial to the future.  Blogger DenverInTranslation.com bemoans that the GOP "is simply not connected."

Free Web Plan Being Pushed by FCC Head, Wall Street Journal.

The proposal to allow a no-smut, free wireless Internet service is part of a proposal to auction off a chunk of airwaves. The winning bidder would be required to set aside a quarter of the airwaves for a free Internet service.

Today's Washington Post has a profile on RebuildtheParty.com:

At 6:50 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6-- less than 44 hours after the GOP lost the White House and more seats in Congress -- RebuildTheParty.com went live.

Founded by two young party activists, Patrick Ruffini and Mindy Finn, the site proposes to start by rebuilding the often marginalized conservative blogosphere. Its mission statement, a 3,200-word, 10-point manifesto, is aimed at Republicans in general -- and more specifically at whoever takes the helm of the Republican National Committee in the next few weeks. It's signed by a Who's Who of the online conservative grass roots -- the "rightroots" -- most of them in their 20s and 30s, many frustrated by the current state of the Grand Old Party that seems just that: old and out of touch.

"2008 made one thing clear: If allowed to go unchecked, the Democrats' structural advantages, including their use of the Internet, their more than 2-to-1 advantage with young voters, their discovery of a better grassroots model -- will be as big a threat to the future of the GOP as the toxic political environment we have faced the last few years," the site proclaims.

Yesterday, Patrick announced the re-launch of the site to include new features and the endorsement of two candidates for RNC Chairman, Saul Anuzis of Michigan and Chip Saltsman of Tennessee. Two other declared candidates have yet to jump on board.

The next RNC Chairman will play a central role in the effort to rebuild the party. Along with signing up and endorsing the plan, if you have a line in to the other declared candidates for RNC Chairman, Katon Dawson of S.C. and Michael Steele of MD, do give them a nudge to embrace the effort.

The plan itself has many strong points. It's hard not to find yourself nodding as you read it. Clearly the authors have experience behind the wheel of the RNC eCampaign division and elsewhere and have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities at play for the party apparatus moving forward.

And how about those ideas missing from the plan? You'll find them (or you can add them) in the "ideas" feedback forum.

The road to recovery for the Republican Party will include many, many, many voices. You should be one of them.

[Aside: To that end, I'm happy to announce that things at TechRepublican are about to change. We've re-designed the site and we're looking for new, consistent contributors (at least one post per week). If you're interested in being a contributor, email me at David AT davidallgroup.com.]

Why Conservatives Should Be Using Twitter And 200 "People" You Should Be Following, All American Blogger.

Twitter is a great way to build online communities.  For example, when the Republicans staged a protest last summer and refused to leave for summer recess, Eric Odom and a few other Twitter users were sending updates using the hashtag “#dontgo.”  That hashtag allowed people to see the news relating to the dontgo movement as it was happening and morphed from a Twitter stream to an organization Michelle Malkin called “the new gathering place for conservative activism.”

Not playing around: Army to invest $50M in combat training games, Stars and Stripes.

In addition to the $50 million, the Army gaming unit has an undisclosed additional budget to purchase a state-of-the-art commercial video game system that will be fielded for training in February.

I'm quoted heavily in an article running in today's National Journal about, among other things, the Republican Party continuing to stand around and point blame about what happened this past election while we're missing opportunities to push-back on Barack Obama's Change:

The day after the election, his campaign began building a new Web site, Change.Gov, to recruit volunteers and job applicants. And this week, Obama released the first-ever presidential YouTube address.

The Web doesn't have to benefit just one party, All insists, pointing to the failure of Republicans to capitalize on a few early missteps from the Obama transition team. For example, when Obama initially posted his agenda on his transition site, only to take it back down, Republicans didn't "call him out on" not being transparent and open. Moreover, no Republican put up an alternative to that agenda.

"We don't even have a modern apparatus to fight back against this guy," All lamented. "There doesn't seem to be any kind of modern war room or anyone in the Republican Party paying attention to what Barack Obama is doing."

Let me dig in a bit more... please weigh in.

While Republicans dwell on the past, Barack Obama and his Administration have made early mistakes online and have been able to score points unchecked in the modern world. By not calling Barack Obama on these issues, we’re letting him set precedent without our input and are failing to provide an alternative message to the American people.

For example, when Barack Obama’s team launched Change.gov, “The office of the President-Elect,” they launched it with a bold and aggressive policy agenda. If you visit the site today, you’ll find that it's still there; however, as reported by TechPresident.com, it had been scrubbed from the site.

This was a missed opportunity to question why his agenda was removed and make some noise in the mainstream media.

Here's another.

Already, Obama’s Transition Team has released six clever and interesting web videos on YouTube that have been viewed more than 1.5 million times (how many of those views are journalists?). Oddly, comments, viewer ratings, and video responses have been disabled from the YouTube community. To me, this is an opportunity to call Barack Obama out on his promise to be open and transparent with his government.

Further, why haven't Republicans responded to the videos with conservative alternatives?

While Republicans once again sit on their hands and complain and "talk" about the problems of the past election and how bad we got swamped, Barack Obama and his administration have already launched a transition website, issued an agenda for change, and have launched emails and six good web videos promoting his governing agenda.

Republicans need to stop talking and start responding to everything Barack does on the Internet. Create a website "SoThisIsChange.com" and respond to every single video he or his administration posts with credible, non-sniping responses from a network of surrogates.

David Cameron said recently that the point of a political party is not to win elections but rather to prove that you're able to govern. Agreed.

UPDATE 6:59 PM EST: It should be noted that transparency champion Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform issued a press release immediately calling on Obama to restore the removed agenda. Mr. Norquist's quote, "This is the opposite of transparency and we would ask that Obama restore the deleted portion of the site."

While the Obama Transition Team has made it a priority to provide constituents with the ability to offer their ideas and feedback on issues that are important to them, this communication is usually only one way, and certainly doesn't provide individuals with the opportunity to seek feedback and input from other interested parties.

Obviously, the Obama Transition Team hasn't enabled these features because it would be a nightmare to manage.

However, these voids create opportunities for creative people to roll out their own projects that include features that simply wouldn't work for the transition team website.

In particular, ObamaCTO.org has done an awesome job creating a forum for Americans interested in technology policy and the prospect of the first White House Chief Technology Officer.

This site was created by FrontSeat.org, and is powered by UserVoice, a robust, easily-integration program that allows users to vote on submissions.

For this site, each submission is a user-generated suggestion for which tech policy issue should be a priority for the Obama Administration. As of 11/21/2008, the five suggestions with the highest vote totals are as follows:

1. Ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral
2. Ensure our privacy and repeal the patriot act.
3. Repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA)
4. Open Government Data (APIs, XML, RSS)
5. Kick Start Research and Innovation in Energy

The most popular (no surprise, net neutrality) has already received over 11,000 votes. Since UserVoice enables you to allocate up to three votes per item, this means that at least 3,666 individuals have voted on this item since it was posted nine days ago.

Will the Obama Administration visit this site? Who knows. But at minimum, it provides an opportunity to at least try and have your voice heard regarding tech policy.

A friend and colleague forwarded me an email he had received from the RNC asking for a $35 contribution in exchange for Nick:

Just in time to complete your Christmas wish list, meet Nick, the newest member of the Republican National Committee.

Nick is a wonderful plush toy available for a limited time to our most loyal supporters like you. Embroidered with the official logo of the RNC, and wearing a Santa cap and scarf, Nick will make a great stocking stuffer or gift for those special Republicans in your life -- and is sure to be snapped up quickly.

Our nation is about to tap America's most liberal President ever and the RNC gives us this? A stuffed animal wearing a darn Santa cap and scarf. Miserable.

The subject line of the email from my friend, "this is why i hate calling myself a republican." The body of the note, "The rnc’s answer to the economic collapse – buy a teddy bear. Well, maybe we can hug something soft while we’re crying over our latest 401k statements."

UPDATE 2:11 PM: Michael Turk had some choice words back in June when "Meet Sam" made its debut:

"Embroidered with the official logo of the RNC, Sam is decked out in red, white and blue and is sure to be the hit of your July Fourth party."

Well sure he is. Because my friends are such drooling, Neanderthal simpletons that they’re overly amused by a cheap piece of Burmese fluff. You should have seen how crazy they went when I waved a lit match in front of them. It was like the beginning scene of 2001 with the monkeys going spastic over the giant chocolate bar.

Obama Raised Half a Billion Online, Washington Post.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, members of the vaunted Triple O, Obama's online operation, broke down the numbers: 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less

...

A million people signed up for Obama's text-messaging program. On the night Obama accepted the Democratic nomination at Invesco Field in Denver, more than 30,000 phones among the crowd of 75,000 were used to text in to join the program.