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Texting Technology for Coordinating Anti-War on Iraq Protests in DC, September 24, 2005
Ann Arbor IT Zone Open House
A3 ROOTS Business
Technology Tools for Grassroots Action
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Washtenaw County Democratic Party Grassroots Technology Committee
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Tech4Politics | General Tech
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Democrats are light years behind Republicans in utilizing technology. If you are tired of a hierarchy where a few at the top just want people at the bottom to contribute money and go door to door for them without providing effective channels of communication that also work in a bottom up fashion then you may be interested in "Technology Tools for Grassroots Action."
A Technology Committee is forming and beginning to define our goals and mission here in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Please comment below.
a good start
I worked for the Kerry Campaign and was generally stunned at the lack of communication. The people at the top barely used email, let alone used technology in any broader sense. Which is a shame.
MoveOn did a good bit better at communicating electronically, but as you said - it was usually just to ask for money or to ask me to call a friend and ask them for money. But still, loads better than the Kerry campaign.
We have such a good resource in technology to further our message and it just doesn't seem to be used well at all by the Democrats. Even silly little things weren't handled properly - like the Kerry campaign website, which took you to a splash page and forced you to register before you could see any information about John Kerry. Bush's site took you right to the headline information he wanted you to see, right away.
I'm glad to hear that there are some programs in the works to try to use tech to our advantage. I have a feeling there are some fundamental organizational issues that need to be dealt with as well if real change is going to occur, but having organizational tools in place is a decent start.
Enabling precinct captains to give instructions and get feedback is all well and good, but I think we also need to look beyond the local organizational capabilities of tech. There has been much discussion about "reframing the language," for example. We could use technology to help people know what to say and how to say it, and use it to spread progressive "memes" to the media.
I'd love to be involved in this effort in whatever way I can.
The Dennis Tokarski, an executive board member, is developing a tech solution enabling a bottom up product designed to enable precinct delegates and block captains. This product, currently in beta, will help refine our own database, gleaned from the voter lists, enable communication between precinct delegates, and marshal resources useful in community building and voting operations. Over the next few months, we will be soliciting beta testers to refine the program prior to a full release.
Evan Carew