Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani will announce later tonight the launch of their social networking platform, "Team Rudy," which you can access now at my.joinrudy2008.com.

An excerpt from the queued email:

Team Rudy is an online volunteer network for Rudy where you can create a profile and earn points by signing up your friends, donating online, writing letters to the editor and volunteering at your local Rudy headquarters.

With much appreciation, I got a sneak-peek at the platform earlier today from the campaign.

Here's a screen cap of my profile:

My thoughts...

* Overall, it has a very nice look-and-feel. Clean. Simple. And importantly, it works. After tinkering around on my Mac using the Safari browser, I only encountered one bug when I went to upload my profile picture.

* Easy to navigate and has a familiar feel that social network users are becoming increasingly comfortable with.

* The point system for volunteers to rack up for performing volunteer operations, though not "new" by any means, is excellent and will encourage Rudy's hardcore supporters to get even more active. Given Rudy's love of baseball, supporters will be ranked accordingly:
- Rookie Team: At Sign-Up
- Farm Team: 50 Impact Points
- Double-A Team: 150 Impact Points
- Triple-A Team: 500 Impact Points
- Major League: 1,000 Impact Points
- Starter: 2,500 Impact Points
- Veteran: 5,000 Impact Points
- Hall of Fame: 10,000 Impact Points

* The platform will give the official volunteer campaign effort the control (and user data) they need to be able to assign directives where and when they need it, ensuring that important grassroots activities are accounted for and completed.

Regarding Team Rudy, it's a Java application based on Spring and Hibernate running on JBoss. And it's neat.

When Google first made its entrance to the political world known, I blogged in March about my concern over one "dirty trick" being the idea of "Modern Black Faxing."

As I wrote in my lengthy post about my concerns with Google entering the political arena:

But what about some of the “dirty tricks” which we haven’t seen yet? How will those impact Google’s plan and more importantly, how will it address those problems before they occur?

Modern “Black Faxing”

Back in the days when campaigns used faxes as a primary communication tool, an opponent (or their anonymous supporter) could cause monetary and physical damage to the other campaign by faxing dozens of sheets of black construction paper to their opponent. This was a way to wear out their ink cartridge and tie up the phone line. It seems kind of silly now, but I’m sure it caused quite a few headaches back in the days when people used fax machines.

But lets think about what could happen in the modern world…

What would happen if a major liberal or conservative blog — or an anonymous sock-puppet — were to make a similar call to action today to inflict a more pervasive form of damage?

For example, a blog could urge its readers to organically search for a term on Google which triggered sponsored ad words for the opponent to appear and then ask those readers to click on the sponsored links. Since a campaign pays for advertising on Google when it’s clicked, the opposing campaign could not only drain an online budget, but also cost a campaign thousands of dollars.

Google is in the business of curbing click-fraud. And I trust their team is smart enough to follow through with it. But with the anonymity of the web, is it viable to put it past a campaign or their supporters? How can this modern form of black faxing be prevented?

Via the excellent blog, Mashable, we find out that this modern form of "black faxing" has surfaced against Rudy Giuliani:

Today at Reddit we have proof of such behavior. Redditers are calling everyone to click on Rudy Giuliani’s paid ads simply because they cost him money. Think about it: a mass of people which is Reddit or Digg can actually create quite an AdWords bill for poor Rudy if they all start clicking like madmen; at the very least, Google will have problems evaluating the campaign and determining the “false” from the “real” clicks.

The thing is, AdSense is just too easy to abuse. Click an ad, and there goes a couple of dollars. Turn it into a meme or a viral joke and thousands go down the drain, together with the entire idea of click-based ads. In any case, what seems like a fun idea for a bunch of Ron Paul or Barrack Obama supporters is Google’s entire business model, and I wonder what are they going to do about it.

These concerns need answers and I'm going to contact both the Giuliani campaign and Google to see:

1. The Impact of this dirty trick
2. What the response will be from both parties

Stay tuned. These are the realities of the modern campaign trail.

UPDATE Nov. 28, 8:46 AM: I'm back with some answers. The quick and dirty answer is that this click-fraud effort had very little impact on the Giuliani campaign. A bit more:

1. Regarding the Mashable post I referenced above, David Berkowitz thinks that Mashable misspoke on several fronts and should amend the post as such. Berkowitz concludes, "This is just sloppy coverage, and while Mashable may not be in favor of pulling its posts, it should offer a number of corrections." Berkowitz makes some good points, however, I think it is worth noting that Mashable is the only blog that I have seen which reported on the issue of a coordinated click-fraud effort against a political candidate.

2. Regarding this instance of click-fraud, Adam Kovacevich of Google had this to say:

This is not the first time someone has tried to click on links to injure someone -- this is a very elementary type of click fraud , the first instance of which occurred long ago, even before we developed AdSense.

Our filters successfully detect exactly this type of invalid click, and have been doing so for years. When detected, we do not charge the advertiser (in this case, Giuliani's campaign) for those clicks.

Adam points us to the following links for more information about Google's policy toward and efforts to curb click-fraud:

* Invalid Clicks - Google's Overall Numbers (2/28/2007)
* How does Google detect invalid clicks (AdWords Help Center)
* Findings on invalid clicks (7/21/2006)

3. The Giuliani campaign has confirmed that they are aware of the issue and have been in contact with Google to resolve the issue.

The Telegraph.co.uk recently released a list of the top 100 conservatives and liberals. Here are the Republican presidential candidates along with some other name of note that made the list.

The Candidates:

• #1 Rudy Giuliani
• #9 John McCain
• #10 Mitt Romney
• #11 Mike Huckabee
• #58 Fred Thompson
• #97 Ron Paul

Names of Note:

• #3 Matt Drudge (props to internet journalism)
• # 21 George Bush
• #26 James Dobson
• #47 Joe Liberman (also made #47 on the liberal list)
• #71 Chuck Norris
• #85 Clarence Thomas (why so low?)

Liberal Listings of note:

• #8 Arnold Schwarzenegger
• #23 Colin Powell
• #62 Jerome Armstrong (co host of the poplar DomeNation with our own David All)

Some thoughts:

• The liberal side had more actors and musicians than the conservative side
• Barack Obama, his wife and his media strategist all made the cut
• A lot of Bloggers made the cut on both sides of the proverbial aisle
• Quite a few news anchors are on each list

From all this I gather that in order to be influential one needs to... run for public office, be a news anchor, be an actor or become a blogging phenom :-)

Any thoughts on the top 100 lists?

UPDATE (David All):: Erick Erickson of Redstate deservedly pulled #69:

69. ERICK ERIKSON
Blogger

ERICK ERIKSON

Founder and CEO of the conservative website redstate.com who also blogs on his personal site erickerickson.org, entitled Confessions of a Political Junkie, and on Georgia politics at peachpundit.com. A Republican political consultant and self-described “recovering lawyer”.

At just 32, Erickson epitomises the new power of the internet. A small-government fiscal and social conservative based in the south, he taps into and influences the Republican “base” that the GOP’s 2008 candidates are courting. Only started blogging in 2003.

Congrats Erick.

I conducted a little facebook experiment and thought it fitting to post prior to Sam Brownback leaving the race (hums tune "Another one bites the dust")

Here are the numbers of facebook friends for each republican candidate as of September 12th.

1. Ron Paul 23,141
2. Mitt Romney 17,204
3. Fred Thompson 12,718
4. John McCain 9,989
5. Mike Huckabee 4,548
6. Sam Brownback 2,664
7. Rudy Giuliani 980
8. Thomas Tancredo 851
9. Duncan Hunter 654

Total Friends 60,063

Ron Paul in the lead, no suprise there. Rudy Giuliani still in triple digits! That was a bit of a shocker.

Here are the results as of today October 18th (% change in parenthesis)

1. Ron Paul 31,617 (+36.6%)
2. Mitt Romney 19,431 (+12.9%)
3. Fred Thompson 17,688 (+39%)
4. John McCain 12,001 (+20%)
5. Rudy Giuliani 7,041 (+618%)
6. Mike Huckabee 6,489 (+42.6%)
7. Sam Brownback 3,061 (+14.9%)
8. Thomas Tancredo 1,007 (18.3%)
9. Duncan Hunter 822 (+25.6%)

Total Friends 99,157 (+65%)

Best Status Update:"Thomas [Tancredo] is challenging Mitt Romney to a trap shooting contest, loser drops out."

Worst Use of FacebookDuncan Hunter - A Flag for a profile picture, no information, no applications, no photos and no mentiont that he is even running for president.

Best Growth - Rudy Giuliani 618%Followed by Fred Thompson 39%Worst Growth - Mitt Romney 12.9%Followed by Sam Brownback 14.9%

According to these numbers the next to drop out will be Mitt Romney and Thomas Tancredo :-)

I'll be continuing to track these numbers and will be interested in see how the friends count compares to the actual vote. I've also got the numbers for the democrats and they put the republicans to shame. Obama has more friends than all the republicans put together.

What do you think about this data?

In case you missed it, last night Rudy Giuliani made a virtual appearance in over 1,000 homes during his "National House Party Night." (You can watch the archived webcast here.)

To be exact, according to the Giuliani campaign, 1,036 house party hosts in all 50 states (and in London) logged in to the webcast to hear what Rudy Giuliani had to say. To put this in to perspective, rival Fred Thompson earlier this month held a conference call where, "Hundreds of house parties were held in more than 40 states...where Thompson supporters could gather to listen to a conference call update of Thompson's first official day of campaigning." Bill Hobbs reported the exact number of house parties at 220.

In an email thanking hosts who participated in Rudy's big event, Giuliani campaign manager Michael DuHaime wrote [excerpt of email]:

Last night supporters across the country attended parties to show their support for Mayor Giuliani. The event was a resounding success and I want to thank you for hosting a House Party for Rudy. We could never have done it without you. Your party helped demonstrate to America that Rudy's grass-roots support is shared all over America and that he is the only candidate who can beat the Democrats in November 2008.

Last night the amount of support we saw for Rudy from all over the nation was overwhelming. Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra introduced Rudy and comedian Dennis Miller kicked things off by asking the first question.

So what did a house party look like?

I contacted a host of one of the parties, Matthew Haller, who hosted his party on a rooftop deck overlooking historic downtown Washington who said, "Our House Party for Rudy was a great success because it allowed us to gather with our friends and colleagues and share why we are supporting the Mayor for President. We had a good mix of young professionals, Hill staff and students attend our party and we definitely grew Rudy’s base of support. We all enjoyed Mayor Giuliani’s live webcast that allowed him to speak to his supporters around the nation about why his strong leadership and bold vision is right for our country."

Though the host didn't say it explicitly, by identifying young, (likely new) low-dollar donors to support Giuliani through this event, the host has played a major role in helping Rudy Giuliani tap the "Long Tail of politics" which I write about extensively. Earlier this week, the Politico's Jeanne Cummings had an excellent article which reinforces the importance of people like Haller who are "baby bundlers" of low-dollar donors.

So what lessons can be learned from Rudy's success?

First and foremost, energizing your supporters to "do something" works. Second, live webcasts appear more appealing than conference calls. Third, it never hurts to have celebrities like Yogi Berra and Dennis Miller help lend their support.

And finally, in my humble opinion, this is yet another example of how a campaign can properly tap the "Long Tail" to help generate new support.

Episode one of my new vlog, "Hit or Miss," which identifies some positive "Hits" and "Misses" for Republicans.

As the Washington Post reported, this past weekend visitors to Rudy Giuliani's campaign website (www.joinrudy2008.com) came face-to-face with a placeholder which read, "Happy Labor Day Weekend! JoinRudy2008.com is down temporarily and will be live again soon with an improved look." Why the re-launch? Getting lapped by Fred because of a primitive platform was probably a significant boost to the argument constantly being made by the online team.

The bad news for Rudy was that placeholder was the only thing on the site. Not even an email capture or a link to a donate page made the static page. Energy lost. The decision had been made to yank the site before the new one had finished cooking and the Post nailed them for it.

The good news for Rudy is that Labor Day weekend is over and the modern site is up-and-running. Let's have a look under the hood and see what we can find...

OVERALL
I'm not jumping up-and-down with excitement and calling this a model for success in the modern world, but the new site is a step in the right direction. But perhaps more importantly then what is happening on his site, Rudy now has a real and honest presence off his site (where we all spend most of our time). In fact, he's finally hanging out with us in both facebook and myspace, and their YouTube channel has some interesting content thanks to a young, campaign operative named Dan Meyers who is hosting a series called, "Running with Rudy." (Note: Meyers also visibly maintains the presence in the socnets.)

In other words, their online strategy appears to be transforming in to one that is modern, effective, and relevant on the 2008 campaign trail.

WEBSITE
I might just be getting used to seeing these things, but like most campaign websites, nothing special stands out at me as remarkable or will keep me personally coming back for more. It's fine. He's capturing emails, he's got a "blog" that isn't really a blog, and he's funneling people quickly in to the area they want to be in. They're doing what needs to be done - finally.

My eyes were quickly drawn to the socnet section because the all too familiar flickr logo popped off the page. And then I noticed their National House Party Night icon which will feature a live webcast with Rudy on September 26 (good placement for exposure).

OFF-SITE
Of course, what I'm most concerned about isn't what's on the site, but what they're doing in the real, modern world. After all, I'll likely never personally go back to his site, but I've got loads of "friends" that love the guy so it'll be interesting to see how Rudy can motivate his network of supporters to promote him among their network of friends. I like the idea of having one personality, Dan Meyers, "be" Rudy Giuliani in socnets. Back in 2006 I used the moniker "spokesblogger" because I was a spokesman for Republicans in the blogosphere. I think Dan is similarly emerging as the first in a new role for online political operatives. And, of course, I would be remiss not to note in this space that Rudy's myspace privacy setting is finally turned off.

CONCLUSION
Back in July I offered five tips to Rudy to get his online game running strong. If all five of those haven't already been addressed, they're well on their way to doing so (before it's too late). A dollop of porridge to Katie Harbath and the rest of Team Giuliani.

Welcome to the modern world. We've been saving a seat for you.

Matt Lewis over at Townhall.com sums up a recent "victory" for Fred Thompson well (and even offers some free advice to Rudy Giuliani that could help prevent this is the future):

To sum it up Thompson grasping the power of New Media put Giuliani on the defensive. Team Rudy's reaction was like what campaigns did in 1988. Back then a reporter would write a story about one candidate attacking another. The next day, the target would trot out their spokesman to make a statement. In 2007 that dynamic has changed. Now, a candidate (or proto-candidate in Thompson's case) can create buzz simply by publishing a weblog post. Opposing candidates can't be flat-footed. The result? Glenn Reynolds declared Fred the victor in this clash. Some of that came from the substance of Thompson's argument, some from the weakness of the Giuliani team's response, and some from nature of the response itself.

If the Giuliani campaign had a weblog of their own they could have offered a response to Fred faster than waiting for a reporter to write up something from a quote passed onto them. What would have been even better was if Rudy released a video response (I felt the same way when the IAFF attacked Rudy in a video, but he responded with a press release). Giuliani is a telegenic man. Standing up to Rep. Ron Paul in the first GOP debates showed he knows how to use television to create a dramatic presence. A two-minute video posted to the Giuliani website would have reinforced his image as a forceful leader. A great video posted to YouTube could have gone viral turning the story into how Rudy played New Media jiu-jitsu all over Fred.

Team Rudy didn't take advantage of the technology at hand. They played this like it was three campaign life cycles ago. The old-school, top-down, send-out-the-spokeman approach only reinforces the authoritarian image some skeptics already have of Giuliani. In this instance we see Fred Thompson trusting New Media while Rudy Giuliani can't take that leap of faith.

Over the last few hours, I'd been hearing buzz that GOP candidates were going wobbly on the CNN/YouTube debate. I was dismissive. Given the huge earned media hit the Democrats got this week, the fact that even the highly partisan questioners acquitted themselves better than Chris Matthews did in the first debate, and the sponsorship of the powerful Republican Party of Florida, I didn't think the GOP candidates would make the political mistake of passing up it up.

I was apparently wrong. Rudy Giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.

And Mitt Romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."

Mitt Romney didn't like some of the more frivolous trappings and told the New Hampshire Union Leader that "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."

I would now expect numerous candidates to bail, just like they did at Ames, citing the lack of a frontrunner.

This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse?

It's stuff like this that will set the GOP back an election cycle or more on the Internet. No matter the snazzy Web features and YouTube videos they may put up, if they're fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with real people online, what's the point?

Having spent the better part of a decade working at the intersection of politics and the Web, I can't help but feel of a deep, deep sense of dismay that we're missing something so basic. This is EXACTLY why I am afraid that we will be outraised by $100 million or more in 2008.

Yes, some of the questions on Monday were trivial. Yes, they were partisan. (I expect many of the 9/17 questioners to be partisan Republicans.) Yes, they were messy. But so is democracy. And the fact that some place so much faith in the broken mainstream media over a benign format like this one says a lot about the difficult straits the Republicans are in right now.

Perhaps the rest of the field will prove me wrong.

Jonathan Martin is reporting that Rudy Giuliani's playing catch-up on his communication effort. Buried deep in Martin's piece is this gem:

Aides also said they will step up Giuliani’s Web presence, using more video to drive e-traffic.

Here are five quick ways Rudy can start making an immediate impact in the modern world:

1. Start a blog on your website. Seriously, having a blog is basic for all candidates -- from dog catcher to POTUS. Get one and start using it.

2. Initiate some blogger outreach. Patrick Ruffini has moved on and away from the campaign, but that doesn't mean the campaign shouldn't continue to reach out to the conservative blogosphere. In fact, now more than ever there's a void of candidates reaching out to the 'sphere. Fill that void quickly and effectively.

3. Lose the privacy setting on your MySpace profile. Do you really have something to hide?

4. Use your YouTube channel effectively. You've got the charisma and the message -- start leveraging both to better connect with us. Be different and save your money on the early TV buy by creating a few clever videos that will capture the imagination, and the news cycle.

5. Tap the Long Tail. A quick glance at Rudy's 2Q fundraising effort shows that his donors are large dollar donors. In fact, in his three top states for fundraising, New York, California, and Florida, his average contribution is $1,526.25. What about all of the untapped contributors who can give $5 and $10 each month? Quit leaving money on the table Rudy.

Will Rudy get his act together in time? We'll see.

UPDATE 5:52 PM: Regarding point two above, I stand corrected by the Giuliani campaign, as the campaign has been working to court some national conservative bloggers and those in key states.

For example, Rudy placed an op-ed at Pajamas Media on July 18, and has held a bloggers conference call as reported by Soren Dayton, with promises by the campaign of more to come.

When Patrick was heading up the effort, we (as in "I") became used to the frequent email updates. Since his departure, the effort has been less pronounced, but still occurs. Apologies to the campaign staff for the oversight.