Winning in 2010: Online Fundraising & Mobilization
What Dean and Kerry suggested in 2004, Barack Obama proved in 2008: an army of motivated online donor/volunteers can be a truly decisive force in politics. And with software designed to allow campaigns to tap the enthusiasm (and the wallets) of supporters both within their districts and around the country now widely available (see Chapter Two), 2010 should see an explosion of online fundraising at the state and local levels.
Is "Rube" Sarah Palin Redefining E-Campaigning?
For all the talk of Sarah Palin being a rube, just a backward waif from Wasilla, Alaska, few seem to appreciate that she, more than any other rumored 2012 Republican nominee, has mastered the cutting edge art of e-Campaigning simply by being herself and employing the very latest in e-Tech to great effect.
Granted, she currently has star power the others don't enjoy, but while Huckabee has a TV show, Romney and others stroll halfway down Olympus to write an oped for the Wall Street Journal once in a while, Palin is using a fan blog, Facebook and Twitter to feed and grow her significant influence across the Right on-line. And the fact is, she was doing it even before her best selling book and subsequent tour.
With little more than that, no hundred thousand dollar DC e-consultants in tow, Sarah Palin has made herself into Obama's chief antagonist from the Right. Talk about stripping away the media filter, or going over the media's heads? Every time Obama launches another new initiative, there is Sarah Palin on her Facebook page trying to knock it down.
Twitter Extends Sign-Ups Off Site as it Seeks New Users
Twitter’s rolling out yet another new feature, but this one could be instrumental in fixing two of Twitter’s biggest problems: finding a business model and jump-starting its stalled growth.
TwitterTwitterTwitter is launching a new API (application programming interface) that will allow anybody to sign up for Twitter from a third party application or Web site. The new Twitter Sign-Up API has not been released publicly, but it has just found its first implementation with popular online local guide Citysearch.
