Elizabeth Edwards spoke to guests at the 2008 Personal Democracy Forum about how the internet is influencing the world of politics. But it was husband John that later stole the show with his surprise (even to him) appearance.

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Another one of the presentations that I’d like to highlight from the Personal Democracy Forum is the one by Mark Pesce, who is currently an honorary professor at the University of Sydney.  I was glad that Pesce decided to make the trip because his speech was by far my favorite of the two-day forum.  A great written version of the speech can be found on his blog here, so I will save you the summary and simply discuss the fun facts that I found most intriguing.

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We are just back from a great trip to the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, NY. We’ll be putting together a few panel recaps over the next couple of days.  In the meantime, I wanted to do a quick post about one of the more talked about exchanges during the event - the discussion between John Edwards campaign blogger Tracy Russo and John McCain e-campaign director Mark Soohoo about McCain’s computer skills (or lack thereof).

Predictably, Russo thinks that the ability to use a computer is critical to understanding the world we live in now and Soohoo disagrees.

While the exchange is undeniably entertaining, it struck me as the type of political theater we already see plenty of on a seemingly endless number of political talk shows.  It would be a shame if this “gotcha” moment attracted more attention than other, more interesting discussions that took place at the conference.  Anyway, we’ll do our part to make sure that doesn’t happen by sharing our thoughts on some of the better discussions we sat in on.

Several members of The Bivings Group team are present at the 2008 Personal Democracy Forum, which aims to prove that technology is changing the way that we do politics.  Currently, I am sitting in a forum titled "Clickocracy" which hosts four journalistically inclined panelists: Jose Antonio Vargas, Ben Smith, Ana Marie Cox, and Sarah Lai Stirland.

One of the most interesting things about the forum is that it takes full advantage of Web 2.0 tools.  In the background of the panelists is a large screen which displays questions and comments submitted by the audience in real-time.  The moderator (Jeff Jarvis) attempts to ask as many of these questions as possible, while searching through the numerous "Obama FTW!!!" comments.  What is it about anonymity on the Internet that turns everyone into a five-year-old?

Topics covered on the panel included the newest tools (Twitter!), the now famous My.Barack.Obama site, and if the number of Facebook friends can determine the outcome of an election.

A large majority of the conversation centered on the new definition of a "journalist".  After all, now that anyone can post anything on the Web, is there a true definition of a "journalist"?  Arguments have raged back and forth that journalism is a dying art that anyone can now pursue, from an 85-year-old widow to an 8-year-old kid, to the fact that 'true journalism' is now more important than ever.

In my opinion, the rise of blogging and other online forms or conversation has only helped me to weed out the bad writers from the good ones.  Instead of having to accept the only available journalism as the best of the bunch, I can now pick for myself.  In this way, the authors who have gone to journalism school, possess a sheer talent, or simply work harder than their counterparts stand out.  The rise of the semi-pro journalist, as one panelist coined, has only made me appreciate the fully-pro ones more.

As Hosam (another TBG employee) said at the end of the forum, "You can tell that those panelists really love what they do."

Traffic on The Bivings Report has been going crazy the last two days due a link to our blog within the extremely viral Inside CRM piece “The Twitter Hall of Shame: 50 Tweets That Will Echo in History.” The Inside CRM post could serve as a guidebook on how to create a viral article:

1. It is a list post.  People love list posts.
2. The article contains links to 50 other articles and blog posts on the web.  Most of the bloggers they link to will read the post, and then probably pass it around and/or add a link to the Inside CRM article (as I am doing now).  Inside CRM also smartly sent us a quick email to let us know about the article, in case we missed it or didn’t notice all the traffic they were sending our way.
3. The article is about Twitter.  First of all, people are just generally obsessed with Twitter.  Second of all, people obsessed with Twitter love to share stories about Twitter on Twitter.  I would guess Inside CRM is getting a lot of traffic from people passing this story around through Twitter.
4. The article is pretty damn entertaining.

Anyway, check it out.

Update: Regarding #3, my colleague Chuck, who works on our ImpactWatch team, points out that there have been 122 mentions of the phrase “Twitter Hall of Shame” on Twitter in the last 22 hours, according to Summize.  Lots of other people probably linked to the piece without using the exact article title.  So it looks like the piece is definitely making the rounds.

A few weeks ago the McCain campaign launched a “Spread the Word” feature on their campaign website that encourages volunteers to comment on prominent left and right leaning blogs as a way of getting the McCain message out. The feature was written up in Wired and has attracted a mixed reaction. Some think it is nothing more than astroturfing while others think it is a clever outreach strategy.

My take is that the idea is a good one but that the execution could have been better.

The piece includes very brief instructions, a long list of blogs to participate in (94 are listed) and a few talking points to copy. Intentionally or not, the tool seems to aspire to create an army of Ron Paul-style shills, who inject promotional materials about their candidate of choice into every discussion no matter the topic, alienating the very communities they are trying to reach. Bull, meet china shop.

I think the tool would have been better received and more effective had the campaign provided volunteers with better instructions as to how to participate in these blogging communities. Off the top of my head, here are some of the tips I might have included:

1. Read the blogs and familiarize yourself with their communities before posting comments.
2. Read the actual post you are commenting on before posting anything. Read other people’s comments as well before posting.
3. Make sure your comments are on topic.
4. Participate in the community beyond simply posting pro-McCain materials.
5. Be civil and respectful of others members of the community.
6. Etc.

Basically, I’d try to give volunteers more information so that they conduct the outreach in a manner that is respectful of the blogs they are participating in.

Simon Owens of Bloggasm, a blog that focuses on online media and journalism, recently conducted a very intriguing ‘mini-study' centered about the idea of personal blogging done by reporters, journalists, and other professionals.

He was inspired by the recent firings of two prominent writers, both of whom were fired due to participation in personal blogging.  Chez Pazienza, a former producer for CNN, was fired from his job in February because he wrote for Huffington Post and other high-profile blogs.  CNN has a policy against any outside writing without prior approval.

In April, Michael Tunison was fired from the Washington Post after he revealed that he wrote for the sports blog Kissing Suzy Kolber. His bosses told him that he had brought "discredit to the paper" through his blogging.

In order to find out how other newspaper editors and higher-ups felt about this issue, Owens contacted 250 of them, basically asking if they would be against personal blogging on non-beat issues by their writers.  Of those that responded, 44% "either required disclosure of the blog, issued caveats over what subjects couldn't be covered, or had outright bans on having personal blogs at all."

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We’re proud to announce that The Bivings Group will be one of the sponsors of this year’s Personal Democracy Forum, an important conference that covers how technology is changing politics. This year’s Personal Democracy Forum will take place in New York City June 23rd and 24th.

The preliminary program looks fantastic, with a great mix of big names (Craig Newark, Michael Arrington, Elizabeth Edwards), journalists (Jose Antonio Vargas, Anna Marie Cox, Clay Shirky) and political professionals from the left (Joe Trippi, Joe Rospars, Peter Daou) and the right (Michael Turk, Austin Walne, Patrick Ruffini, David All, Mindy Finn) sides of the aisle. I had a great time at the conference last year and learned a lot in the sessions and in the hallways.

You can register to attend this year’s conference here.

If you end up attending, please be sure to stop by our demo table to meet the Bivings team, check out our media monitoring platform, ImpactWatch, and to pick up some free goodies. We hope to see you there.

Let's face it; China needs to bolster its reputation before the Summer Olympics begin.  Otherwise, the several countries that are already considering boycotting may, in fact, do so.  In my opinion, it would be a shame if a past representation of political and economical unity were to be halted.  After all, if this one year is a bust, future Olympic games may follow in failure.

PRWeek recently ran an article in their online resource that the Chinese government was interviewing potential US and UK-based PR firms in the hopes to gain some positive pre-game press, prior to the events.  However, no PR firm has admitted to being in the bid war for this lucrative account.

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Before I write the rest of this slightly snarky blog post, let me preface it by saying that I am 100% pro-environment.  After all, the environment is where I keep the majority of my stuff, such as my house, car, and cat.  I would like to keep the environment as is, and I applaud ‘green' programs that aim to protect/restore/embiggen the earth.  However, I also believe that the majority of these programs are doing so simply for PR.  Call me a cynic, but it's true.  "Going Green" makes your company seem more family friendly and nicer in an otherwise cold, dark world of business.  In an attempt to rid myself of this pessimistic view, I scoured the Internet for five examples of companies or organizations that truly seemed to harbor an honest spirit of environmentalism.  In no particular order, here is a list of them:

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I’m originally from Texas and keep in touch with a lot of people that still call the state home. In the days leading up to the Texas Presidential primary, it seemed like everyone I knew reported receiving phone calls from Obama and Clinton supporters scrounging up votes for their candidate of choice. We’re talking three to four calls each. Everyone reported that the volume of calls was much higher than previous campaigns.

There are a lot of reasons for the increase in voter contacts I would think. The race was extremely competitive and Texas usually isn’t a primary player. Both campaigns are well funded. Overall interest is extremely high this year. But I think one key reason for the increase in contacts is the use of online call tools by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns. These tools allow the campaigns to crowd source voter contacts.

Essentially, both the Obama and Clinton websites allow registered users to make calls for the campaign to a state whose primary is approaching.   The first step in the process of making calls is to select the state you want to call.  After you select a state, you are assigned a voter (or list of voters) to call and given a script that includes some talking points and questions to ask such as “which candidate do you support?” and “what issues are most important to you?”.  After you finish talking to the voter, you report back to the campaign how the call went by filling out a simple form. This information is then stored in the campaign’s overall voter database (otherwise known as Customer Relationship Management database). The campaigns then use the information they collect via these tools to tailor get out the vote efforts, hone messages, customize donation appeals, etc.  These tools also provide the campaign with information about where they stand in each state.

These tools have been around since 2004, when both the Bush and Kerry campaigns had call systems built into their websites. The Fred Thompson (disclosure) and Mitt Romney campaigns had similar tools on their sites this cycle. However, I figured I’d take a closer look at the Obama and Clinton tools since they are still up and being used (look out Pennsylvania). Overall, I think both tools are excellent, although I found the Hillary tool a little easier to use.

Following are screen grabs of the call tools on both sites with my random notes. The phone numbers of the voters I was assigned have been blocked out to protect the innocent.

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"Ideas worth spreading" is the motto of a growing annual convention that is held in Monterey, California.  The Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference covers a wide range of topics, from science to the arts, and nearly everything in between.  My fraternity brother, Chris, recently made me aware of this conference, which has been conducted since 1984.

There is an annual membership fee of $6000, however, this fee not only covers attendance to the events, but also attendance for other special gatherings and DVDs of the presentations.  Since not everyone can afford to be this enlightened, the official website was created in response, providing the highlights and best speeches from the conference.

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I was speaking with someone last night about how the 2008 presidential campaigns are using new media (blogging, web video, social networking, etc.), and the question about how to determine the success of these campaign came up.

One of the first things that came to my mind was media exposure.  I thought back to an article that awarding winning media critic Rory O'Connor wrote about a panel discuss he attended during Advertising Week back in 2006 in which Mark McKinnon, who has advised President Bush about media, and Democratic media strategist David Alexrod participated. (more…)

Last May I wrote a post about how offices on Capitol Hill deal with the barage of emails they constantly receive. Regulatory bodies and similar organizations also must handle similar flows of e-mails. Despite this, it is very important for our country's democratic nature that individuals' voices are heard. Further, some regulatory bodies are legally required to process public feedback during a comment and review period before a change is made. So what can a Congressional office (or a similar organization) do when it receives tens of thousands of e-mails from constituents the day before a key vote? (more…)

A little over a year ago I wrote a post that guessed which emerging technologies would have an impact on the 2008 election cycle. I figured I’d take a quick look back and grade my predictions, as well as list a few new technologies that have emerged since I last covered this ground.

Here are the grades I would give my predictions (original post is here for background):

(1) Ning (Niche Social Networks)

I’d give myself a C on this one. Many of the major Presidential candidates launched niche social networks on their campaign sites, hoping to encourage connections among volunteers. However, none of these niche networks really got that much traction except for Barack Obama’s. And no campaign used the specific service I recommended, Ning (which I think is still worth trying). Ron Paul supporters took the novel approach of trying to turn the entire Internet into a niche social network about Ron Paul, which is another thing entirely. I think there is still something to the idea of niche social networks around campaigns, but most of the action has been taking place on the more established networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

(2) Mozes (Broadcast Text Messaging)

I’d go with a B for this one. The Obama campaign launched a quite aggressive text messaging effort where users are encouraged to text the message “Hope” to 62262 to subscribe to text alerts alerts. Other campaigns have experimented with similar programs. The Obama campaign program works pretty much the exact same way as I described in my post, but no one is using Mozes specifically. It is also really hard to measure the impact of these programs without getting access to subscriber figures.

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