Justin Oberman's blog

Seesmic Partnering With Washington Post For Post Debate Video Blogging Commentary

2008-10-07T20:41:59-04:00

Not sure how this is going to play out but the video micro blogging site Seesmic just announced a partnership with the Washington Post's and Chris Cillizza''s "The Fix."

Seesmic's conversation platform will be embedded at "The Fix Blog" website starting directly after the debate.

This is a busy day for Seesmic that had its first celebrity user John Clesse join today, of which I got to participate in!

According to Cathy Brooks of Seesmic The Washington Post will be launching it tonight after the debate to get some discussion going around the debate and see what people have to say."

One thing that is not discussed is how the platform on the Fix will weed out Seesmic posts not having to do with the debate.

This will be a good test of political real time video micro blogging.

To see the live Seesmic announcement visit here.

UPDATE: Here is more on Seesmic's Political Citizen Journalism Pundirty here: The Washington Post: Seesmic Powering Political Punditry!

Technorati Tags: debate, mccain, obama, seesmic

POST TC50: Politics4All Launches A New Campaign Based Political Social Networking Site

2008-09-15T17:47:14-04:00

While I usually cover only the mobile stuff for Personal Democracy and TechPresident I happened to be one of the few PDF/TechPresident bloggers at the TechCrunch 50 event in San Francisco last week. While I was there launching my own company, I came across Politics4All.com while walking around the Demo Pit area on day two of the event.

If you have not heard of the website that is because they just launched at the TechCrunch 50. And whether it was the climate of election season mixed with the fact that they were the only political technology in the demo pit area or not, the Politics4All booth was constantly abuzz with inquiring minds and conversation.

I do not normally cover these kinds of things and my bandwidth is a little taken up by mobile related stories but I will try to cover the basics. Luckily, I made a Qik video of our discussion which you can view for more information (the sound is a bit spotty, sorry).

If I were to explain Politics4All using already existing examples, I would say its a combination of Essembly, Connect2Elect and Facebook. Politics4All boldly attempts to brings together the power to navigate through the oftentimes confusing process of selecting candidates with connecting politically interested individuals and providing them a place to engage in discussions and organize to take action.

"Politics4All is a little bit different then any political website you have been to," boasts Stephen Morris, the websites President who founded the website a little over a year ago in Montgomery Alabama. The goal of the site is to, as Morris puts it, "combine citizens with the candidates and various political groups into one social platform."

While personal profiles are available so that anyone can build a profile around their political ideologies, the real power is in the candidate profiles which come equipped with press kits, volunteer mechanism and the works.

The groups section of the website allows everything from a national to local organization to present their information on a neutral website that matches users up based on a users profile. One feature that stuck out here was legislative tracking abilities.

The meeting and debate functions are very robust, allowing groups or candidates to create online meeting in either an interview style, a public forum style or even in a moderated or unmoderated debate style.

While Morris hopes he gets traction from the Presidential election he says that site was really engineered to help the 420,000 smaller campaigns and the people in general take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies.

To see the demo click here or find it bellow :-)

Technorati Tags: mcain, mckenzie wark, obama, politics4all

Beyond the Mobile Hype In Election '08

2008-09-03T17:38:53-04:00

After a long hiatus abroad and working on a new project, I came home this August to a barrage of inquires regarding the usage of mobile phones in this year's election. While I had been following all of the news enthusiastically, I had very limited access to my US text messaging abilities and thus could not take part in what has been going on first hand.

This does not mean that I do not have my thoughts which, as someone removed from the process for a while, I hope may be somewhat refreshing.

Despite all of the hype surrounding the text message party planning at the DNC , or Obama's text to screen or VP text announcement, it is important to realize that mobile phones have been used politically before with a far greater viral reach and, in the end, impact.

I am sure many of you have already heard about the People Power II demonstration that occurred in the Philippines in 2001. Moments after officials higher up in the government halted the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the simple text message "Go 2 Edsa. Wer blk" started getting sent around. Hours later, perhaps 50,000 people dressed in black, jammed the intersection of Edsa and Ortigas Avenue calling for the Presidents resignation.

Leaders of the anti-Estrada movement also coordinated via text message to set up a a meeting place near the Edsa shrine thus creating an immediate on-the-spot unity. At this point, the event went from organic to organically organized as hundreds of thousands of text messages and thousands of email messages came out from the group with this simple text: PEOPLE POWER 2 HAS BEGUN. From there coverage into the mainstream media was easy and before long a bottom up completely self running revolutionary machine was created.

Texting, emails, and phone calls helped leaders organize the day to day rally activities as well as keep the hundreds of thousands of supporters informed. Within two days President Estrada resigned and a government was overthrown.

And all this was done organically, without 1,000 dollar a month short codes or signing up for text message alerts. It was not a magical spontaneous occurrence either. There was a political ground swell and friends and family simply texted friends and family, as text messages are normally sent.

This is what text messaging and the power of the mobile medium is all about.

There are a lot more examples from around the world, similar in concept, size, or scope to the Philippine's People Power II demonstration. In the US the protesters at the last RNC and DNC conventions successfully armed themselves with mobile devices for mass organic orchestration (using tools that were not officially set up for that purpose). Even regarding elections there is the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and the 2004 Spanish general elections to name a few.

The difference between mobile's original political roots and what we are seeing in this years election comes down to one word: "organic." While the Clinton, Edwards and Obama mobile campaigns have had their savvy moments, they are all generally the same thing, that is, "campaign orchestrated." And, as David All points out, the text messages smell like it.

Delivery Fiasco aside, even if the campaigns VP nominee text message had gotten to me before the main stream media it would only have been just that, what we in the mobile world call a "text message alert." After that the interaction dies until the next alert. The Obama text message has already become a commoditized ritual of campaign sound bites.

According McKenzie Wark, Professor of New Media at Eugene Lang College, "This process of commoditization ends up polluting the very channels of communication it relies on in the first place to make the market efficient." And these are all things that we, apparently, signed up for or thought we wanted. Junk mail, Spam email... mobile will be next. We may get excited about political campaigns going mobile in the beginning but as the interaction and messages remain stale so will our excitement eventualy become.

"When that happens," Wark points out, "people tend to refuse communications that do not come from a reliable source. So if you want to get out an email or a text send it to a friend, ask her to pass it on to a friend and so on." To its credit the Obama text campaign does ask you to "Forward to a friend" but if I understand what Wark is saying correctly there is a difference between being asked to do that by an automated Barak text message robot instead of your brother, or best buddy or cute boy or girl.

Do not get me wrong. I think what that the Obama campaign has been doing is great. If I worked for the campaign I would probably be in line with what they are doing. And it certainly has been beneficial in the sense that they have harnessed thousands if not millions of cell phone numbers (a coveted thing in this age of privacy). But is that the main goal? What, beyond text alerts, is the campaign going to do with those text messages now they the have them? But more importantly, is getting cell phone numbers really what it is all about? Or is it, as past mobile examples have shown, really about making change. How much of what the Obama campaign is doing is just the same old thing only this time with a mobile phone? It seems like they are filling new channels with content they already have.

If the examples from around the world have taught us anything, it is that their success is not based around anything "planned" in the campaign sense of the word. Of course, these are countries with a strong public space where people use cell phones to organize a social life that takes place in public spaces. The news, alerts and marching orders do not come from any higher political machine. It comes from the people, who already care. As the extra features beyond SMS such as video and picture taking become more network reliable, the mobile phone as a personal broadcasting tool will become even more powerful. See all the stuff happening around Qik for example. As I have said time and time again, when it comes to politics mobile technology is not a persuasion tool, rather it is a mobilizer of the already persuaded.

I think a good question to think about is whether or not Obama supporters would start using the mobile medium to support Obama on their own accord, sans any campaign initiative. Isn't this what we learned regarding Howard Dean's Meet Up phenomena? Isn't this how the Republican's very effectively (and under the radar) used email in the 2004 election? Isn't this what all the hype regarding New Media tools like mobile is all about? Wasn't it me and you that where Time Person of the year?

I guess what I am saying is that the true power of mobile technology and politics has not hit the US yet. When it does it wont be anything that anyone planned. It will be a result of passionate people doing what they normally do, talking to each other.
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Technorati Tags: mcain, mckenzie wark, mobile, obama, sms

Edwards Takes A Crack At Mobile Fundraising

2007-06-22T11:45:13-04:00

I am often told by people who "know" that, like the blogosophere, the mobile political bandwagon wont take off until someone finds a way to raise a bunch of money using nothing but cell phones. While I disagree with the "fundraising only" assumption behind that statement I do not deny it as a possible scenario that could bring mobile technology to the forefront of politics.

Just imagine it. A large gathering of people at a concert or rally are instructed by the rock idol or political candidate of their choice to take out their cell phones and send a text message to a short code that will donate 2-20 dollars to XYZ charity or campaign. Or imagine a billboard asking for the same thing in major areas of stop and go transit. Sounds like a dream. But its not that easy and I have written and spoken about the challenges involved in the process at length.

There are several things holding campaigns and non-profits from using the cell phone as a fundraising tool. The easiest way to raise money over the mobile phone is by means of Premium SMS (PSMS) (SMS = text messaging). About 18 months ago the carriers launched a service that allowed 3rd party vendors to sell mobile services and charge consumers through their phone bill. Essentially this allows you to buy a service via SMS and have it charged to your phone bill. Now, the carriers launched this service mainly to facilitate entertainment-based programming. Its simple. You don't have to get people to right a check, receive annoying phone calls or sign up on a website. Just have them send a keyword like "PDF" via text message to a short code like, for example, DONATE (366283) and your donation for whatever amount will be on your next phone bill. All that is needed is a call to action and perhaps a mass gathering of people and you got your self a mobile fundraising campaign. But because it was built for purely commercial purposes the carriers take a big chunk, up to 40 percent at times, of the revenue generated for a premium message / donation. This is unacceptable to most charities or campaigns.

When it comes to political campaigns there are also some problems in this process regarding campaign financial contribution laws. For those of you that are familiar with campaign donation regulations you will understand what I mean when I tell you that the campaign, in the end, gets their money in a lump sum some 40-60 days later. Most charities and non profits, have shied away from experimenting with mobile fundraising for these reason alone.

As of right now there is also a price cap on how much people can donate. "The caps for individual charge and subscriptions are set on a carrier-by-carrier basis," says Doug Busk, General Manager at Singlepoint one of America's top mobile messaging aggregators "but the most recent version of the MMA Consumer Best Practices does lay out general terms in its most recent version (see page 14)." Douglas Grinspan, also from Singlepoint also chimed in to point out that some carriers also impose per subscription PSMS caps ...Sprint, for example, caps at $9.99/mo with $100 spending limit.

ALONG COMES THE EDWARDS CAMPAIGN

Following a strong tradition of being the first regarding mobile technologies integration with US politics, the John Edwards campaign, as of last night, became the first US political campaign to launch a mobile fundraising initiative. But they did not go through the carriers or Paypal to do it. Instead, they harnessed a new technology developed by Mcommons (formally Rights-Group / Politxt) that converges text messaging with a PBX API to create a seamless "call to donate" process from your cell phone. The campaign was launched last night and only lasted a couple of hours.

Here is what happened. Last night over 13,000 supporters who have already opted into the Edwards text messaging campaign received a text message telling then the following:

John Edward wants 2 talk 2 you! Hit Reply. Type "CALL" & hit Send. John will call YOU right back! OR call 202-350-9749. txt STOP 2 unsub

After following those directions my phone starting ringing. I picked up the phone and heard ringing myself as if I was making a call. Suddenly I heard a message from John Edwards telling me the following:

“I’m calling to remind you that with just over a week before the end of the quarter the time to act is now. I’m not asking you to help us out-raise everyone else. I’m only asking you for what we need to get our message of real change out to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and other key states nationwide.”

After the message was played users had the option to either press 1 or wait to be connected to a phone bank where an Edwards operator would be ready to take down your credit card number :-) Note: If you follow the process now you will get a similar message from Edwards followed by an apology that he cannot forward you to a call bank anymore. But no worries, if you still want to give go to the campaign website where a big blue Donate link is waiting for you.

This was a very clever way to get around the carrier fiasco of PSMS billing while at the same time allowing the personal connection that could possibly lead to higher financial contributions than those limited by the carriers. Its also very very legal. :-)

While the results on how much raised are still not in (and the possibility of a second round in the works) inside sources have told me that the response rate for people that texted back to receive the call where "very high." High enough, I was told, that soon everyone would want to be doing this for one reason or another. Colleen Murray, an Edwards spokeswoman, said the mobile fundraising drive is an example of how political campaigns are “using new media to do the oldest thing in politics: connect with voters.” But what most impresses me about this campaign is the fact that it is the ONLY WAY to contact people on their cell phones to solicit financial donations or whatever.

As poll talkers, get-out-the-vote activists and political campaigners are slowly beginning to realize, you cannot cold call cell phones. It's illegal. And as more and more people abandon their landlines for cell phones it's going to get harder and harder to reach more and more people. The trick? Get them to opt in via text message and then text them to call you using PBX technology. Very very clever.

In the next few weeks, the Edwards campaign also plans to roll out an initiative inviting supporters to phone in comments for Sen. Edwards. Some of the messages will be posted on the candidate’s website. We will see how that goes. In the past the Edwards campaign asked people to text back what they thought while watching the presidential debate. That, apparently, did not go so well. Perhaps, as the fundraising initiative seems to show, all that is needed is a little voice mixed win with all this texting.

Technorati Tags: 08 election, barak, clinton, edwards, mobile, text message, obama, protest, protest

A First Look At Obama On The Go

2007-06-22T09:45:17-04:00

With little fanfare the Barack Obama campaign has followed the Edwards and Hillary campaign in launching a multi-faceted mobile campaign. Obama supporters were emailed about the announcement with an emphasis on taking Obama's "movement for change" "offline." And by "offline" they meant your cell phone. Supporters can join by either texting the word "GO" to the short code 62262 (OBAMA) or signing on via the mobile registration API on the website.

The campaign is the first to utilize its own Shortcode (OBAMA/62262). The Edwards and Hillary campaign both utilize a shared shortcode that is used for other non-profit or commercial campaigns, though apparently the Clinton campaign is rumored to be working on getting its own. While it's too early to comment on the quality of the campaign, the Obama people are showing a little ingenuity here in a number of ways.

At first I was a little puzzled as to why the incentive being offered to join the text message campaign was a free bumper sticker. Ringtones have been recently labeled "the new bumper sticker" and it would seem to make a lot more sense to offer up one of those. Then I realized, after texting in, that to receive the bumper sticker I had to text in my address. While I am sure a plethora of the people texting into the service are already registered supporters, this still is a great way to gain some more mailing lists and or update already existing ones.

The campaign is also one of the first to offer campaign-based ringtones (what I refer to as the mobile bumper sticker) and wallpaper that can only be sent to your phone by texting or "opting" into the campaign. The ringtones are a fabulous compilation of various Obama speeches (including his famous 2004 NC speech) fixed with a hip beat, one of which is just an Obama chant (to listen to some of them go here). The Obama wallpaper/ringtones are delivered via the standard method of WAP push in which a link to a mobile web page where you can download the tone or image is sent to you via text message. Simply click the link and the dowload should, depending on your phone and carrier, begin automatically. The ringtones and wall paper are free but, of course, standard text message rates apply. Of course this also requires your phone to have data and web access of which standard data rates apply as well.

I also found the little note under the ringtone section to be a little interesting and perhaps and hint to the future... Under the credits for the ringtone's and wallpaper is a message telling people where to send their own Obama ringtone or wallpaper ideas. Now there is an idea that blows a "vote for my campaign song" idea out of the water. Do not just let people vote for a campaign song... let them create it and then let hundreds of thousands self express it on their cellular devices.

Now the challenge will be to make these tones and wallpaper viral enough that people do not have to visit the website in order to learn how to download them. A little outside marketing could do the trick: placing a random combination of "text 'RINGTONE1' to OBAMA (62262) under various signs or outside marketing or speeches would be an interesting idea.

Also, since the campaign has its own shortcode they could be spending some time convincing people to "put Obama in their phone book." That way when the text messages come in it looks more personal and also makes it easier for people to access the shortcode, for whatever reason, if so desired.

As per what the campaign will be doing with the text messages sent to your phone it seems like it will be some of the standard campaign text alert stuff or as the email put it:

Be the first to know about local campaign events. Get reminders about debates and important public appearances. And connect to our organizing staff to build the movement in your community.

It looks like it has been a smooth launch for Obama mobile. I hope the campaign keeps the alerts focused on the mobile medium and doesn't just send out reminders to visit websites and watch television. The mobile medium is best accessed as a form of digital self expression and call to action. Obama has been good with that in the past, now let's see if he can translate it to the fastest growing digital medium in the United States.

Technorati Tags: 08 election, clinton, edwards, mobile, obama, sms, text messaging, wallpaper, barak

Ringtones For The 08 Election! Ring It On

2007-05-21T11:01:30-04:00

Just the other day I was talking with some colleagues wondering why there where never ever "Bushism" ringtones that become widespread. I mean, there have been cases of people making Bush blunder ringtones, but the real question is why political ringtones have not caught on and why no one is standing up and trying to distribute it on a mass scale.

Part of the problem exists in the fact the fact that a lot of the ringtone market is infused with the carriers leaving the individual activist or political campaign to wonder how do I a) create the ringtone and b) distribute it to people phones. The former is easier than the latter as I explored in an article I wrote on exploring the possibility of the create your own ringtone.

The ringtone first became political important during the 2004 elections in the Philippines where a recording of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and election official Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was captured and turned into a popular ringtone by the viral citizenship (listen to them here).

Well just in time for the 08 elections, Ringtones08.com is hoping to make Ringtones the new bumper sticker and lawn sign. Simply put RingTones08.com is a free site that user the power of myxer.com to let anyone upload and download ringtones about the 2008 election. Thats a key element, not only will they create and distribute election teemed ringtones but they will also let you, or anyone (i.e a campaign) use their site to upload ringtones of their own for viral distribution.

Of course the ringtones distributed on the site are free, so if you are looking to make money from them there are other solutions you can go after... but free is always good for distribution right.

Im sure this is all for the good and the bad. There are some political verbal faux pas' as well a legitimate political soundclips that are just meant to be ringtones. The only thing to be wary about are copyright issues. Be careful when you upload that soundclip, you never know who owns things and how now-a-days.

RELEVANT ARTICLES
Greenpeace To Save Oceans One Ringtone At A Time
Michigan's Coalition for Progress Engages Young Voters with Mobile
A Tribute to TxtPower
MyNuMo: A Mobile Content Distributor for your Campaign.
"Call Connected Through The NSA" Ringtone
Politics Gets a New Ring To It (and Mobile Is Setting the Tone)

Technorati Tags: 08 election, ringtones08, ringtones, election, myxer, bushism, bush

UPDATE 2 - Hillary's Text Message Campaign (And Teen Pregnancy Clinics?)

2007-05-16T17:42:23-04:00

A couple of days ago I wrote here on PDF that Hillary Clinton announced a text message initiative for her campaign, the first implementation of text messaging for a presidential campaign. following in the footsteps of John Edwards who has been using mobile for a while now and can also be considered the first campaign to USE mobile. Other writers and I have written about it here in PDF. Edwards first announced a text message campaign when he announced his candidacy on YouTube. Since then it has been used sporadically (I got a message telling me to watch him on the debates) but apparently has a more extensive effort than I realized. It has also been used as a petition where Edwards put out a full page ad in the Washington Post to text the word IRAQ and sign a petition to support the troops and end the war.

Nevertheless, In her announcement Hillary pulled out all the usual bells and whistles telling people to take out their cell phones and text the word "JOIN" to 77007 (listen to it here).

According to an e-mail from campaign spokesman Phil Singer, those who text the word “JOIN” to 77007 can expect:

• “Regular updates from Hillary while she is on the road (messages, photos, etc).”
• “Local updates about campaign events in their area.”
• To be asked “for their input.”

When you first text the word "JOIN" to 77077, a service being provided to the campaign by a UK/US text message marketing firm called Interlinked Media (a relatively unknown firm), you receive a text message back:

Thank you for joining my campaign for change! Help build the campaign by asking EVERYONE to text JOIN to 77007. Hillaryclinton.com

This message is NOT Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) compliant in that it does not provide the user with instructions on how to opt out (you know, in case I wanted to stop getting the cookie cutter "regular updates from Hillary while she is on the road.") Such things are usually handled by texting the word "STOP" to the very same shortcode. I tried it. Nothing happened -- I did not get a text message back. UPDATE - Peter Daou over at the Hillary Campaign confirmed for me that my STOP message did in fact un-list me. The campaign made the decision not to have an opt-in message in the original text message in order to make it feel more like a conversation, (a choice I d not agree with). According to Daou all future messages will have opt-out instructions, an interesting choice since the opt-out message will take up space with the 160 character limitation. Better to have it in the original message instead of every other message after that, if you ask me. According to the MMA you only need it once, in the first message.

The following is page 10 of the MMA's guidelines: Upon entering the program, the subscriber must be told how to opt-out of the program."

The HillaryClinton.com website also allows you to enter your number to join the text message campaign, but this had serious flaws as well, in that there appears to be no API in place. What does this mean? Well, when a friend of mine entered his number on the website no message of confirmation was sent to his phone. This would actually prevent the campaign from sending him any messages according to most cell carriers’ best practices, and he of course received no opt-in instructions. UPDATE - However, Daou assured me that there is in fact an API in place and that numbers entered on the website are registered. But the campaign chose to not send outgoing messages to the phones of people who signed up on the web, a practice that I frown upon but was decided upon by the campaign. When people enter the information they should see that it's working right away. Otherwise, as in my case, it looks broken and or people forget about it with the possibility of being annoyed later on when it pops up on their phone. However, the Clinton campaign has their reasons for their choices, and as long as the technology is there I am excited to see where they go with it.

Anyways, those things can be fixed pretty easily, but its not a great start. So far the text campaign has been pretty silent. So, I was curious about the "local updates about the campaign" that the email talked about. The online form asks for a zipcode but the message you get back from joining via text message [the direct mobile-tomobile campaign] does not. I was wondering how they planned to do such a thing if joined via text message and they did not have my zip code... they may have my area code but that does not help with mobile users. Lots of people hold on to the cell number they receive from their hometown even when they move somewhere else. For example, I have a 914 zip code (Westchester, New York) even though I now reside and am registered in New York City.

So, I tried texting in my zip code to 77007, a standard function that most political organizations have implemented in their text campaigns. The message I got back was shocking!

Thank you. Your nearest center is: People's Community Clinic, 2909 N.IH 35, Austin TX 78722, Call: 512-XXX.XXXX

Now, I do not think that the Hillary Clinton campaign meant to provide me information on Teen Pregnancy drop off centers in Austin, Texas, but this is the type of information that a standard request of input for a political mobile technology campaign generates in this case. UPDATE- [NOTE: Besides the sign-up form on the website the direct mobile-to-mobile form did not ask me to text my zipcode, this was just me testing the system]

This is actually a huge problem on many levels, and one that especially arises when a campaign uses a shared short code (77007) and aggregated lists. But it is one that many other companies such as Mobile Commons, Mobile Accord, Cherry Tree Mobile and a whole bunch of others dedicated to the political space have solved by finding clever ways of creating a clear and total vertical from the very launch. Another solution could have been for the campaign to buy the shortcode "CHANGE,” or "HC2008." The Shortcode CLINTON (2546866) is to long. Shortcodes only come in 5-6 digits and a vanity shortcode costs about one grand a month but may be worth it from a freedom of technical limitations standpoint. But such a process takes a couple of months and I can only assume that the Hillary Campaign is working on it. If they are I could only have recommended to wait till the vanity code comes into play instead of confusing people with yet another shortcode later on. However, it seems to be standard practice now a-days to launch on a shared shortcode as a kind of test run.

Overall I am not overly impressed with the technology, strategy and release of the platform, though I admit it’s too early to tell. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am a little wary about their use of language in terms of calling it a mobile-to-mobile push campaign. Mobile is a pull medium that the user must have total control over from their end; the extremely personal nature of the mobile device demands it. I hope the Clinton campaign has a strategy in place that is unique to the ubiquitous call to action nature of the cell phone and do not just treat SMS and text messaging as "another form of email." As with any technology launch there are a lot of hiccups. And while I have seen a lot more complicated mobile campaigns launch much more smoothly, for a political campaign to take this on says and means a lot. The mobile buzz is hitting the political air.

I give a lot of props to the Hillary campaign for being the first campaign to FULLY integrate text messaging and mobile into their campaign and they certainly received a lot of PR buzz with its release, but with its cookie-cutter "SMS alerts" strategy, lack of mobile marketing best practices and teen pregnancy technical glitches, it’s not shaping up to be a quality mobile campaign, at least one that can go on record and push the envelope for others to follow, yet.

Technorati Tags: 77007, clinton, hillary clinton, interlinked, mma, mobile commoms, mobile marketing assosacion, politxt, sms, teen pregancy

Clinton 2 Target Txters

2007-05-14T11:26:00-04:00

The New York Post is reporting that Hillary Clinton will anounce today a “mobile-to-mobile text-messaging push” to garner support for her presidential campaign.

She will unviell her mobile-to-mobile text-messaging push on the steps of the state Capitol during her noon endorsement rally with Gov. Spitzer.

According to the Post “Clinton’s text-messaging initiative targets the 230 million American cellphone users - a sign the campaign is hunting for every possible vote in her bitter battle with rival Sen. Barack Obama.”

I am not sure what the campaign entails but I already do not like the use of the word "push" when it has anything to do with mobile. Its very important to remember that mobile is a pull medium, its the very personal nature of the phone that makes it so.

This is why I have been a minor fan of what Jon Edwards has been doing with mobile already...

But I guess we will just have to wait and see...

I guess it’s only a matter of time before campaign ringtones are sold. ;-)

A Political Ending To Text Your Own Adventure

2007-04-26T15:45:29-04:00

The infamous guys at the Late Night Players have done it again, combining the wonderful world of mobile technology with their zany comedy stylings, but this time, in conjunction with Mozes.com, I think they invented one of the most cleverest text messaging ideas to date, the idea of texting your own adventure. And they have launched the concept with an amazingly funny Spiderman video which can be seen bellow and here. It is, in my book, the first interactive video of its kind.
From a marketing perspective its a whole convergence of new media tools brining together web 2.0, mobile 2.0 and an extremely viral like humor and sensitivity. The people behind the marketing team for the new Spiderman movie can only wish they had the balls to think of this.

What does this have to do with politics, technology and or the election? Well, as it turns out, after watching the video and texting the word "wins" to 66937 you will get the treat of a very political ending involving and interested portrayal of the candidates and their prospective vice presidential candidate super hero's :-)

But also, I think that the text your own adventure technology has some interesting potential in creating an online interactive experience with a candidate...

Watch the video and text "wins" to 66937 to see the political ending.

Watch it, make sure you check out all the endings and use the technology! (I like the "wins" ending the end of the "evil" ending).

Technorati Tags: late night players, moconews, mozes, sms, text message, text your own adventure

If You Think Mobile Technology Does Not Influence Elections...

2007-04-02T10:11:47-04:00

If You Think Mobile Technology Does Not Influence Elections then consider why in the days leading up to the national elections in Cambodia SMS / text messaging was turned off. Apparently, the National Election Committee of Cambodia has asked that SMS be shut down from March 31 to April 1 at 3pm, because "it can be used as a tool for election campaign by political parties".

So much for free speech I guess.

The report really sheds light on the power that text messaging can have on the political process. The election committee chairman, Im Suosdey, said the committee was concerned that political parties could "use SMS services to send messages to 20 or 30 people at a time to galvanize them to vote for their parties."

Duh.

He then went on to point out that being inundated with text messages could "spoil" the calm during the run-up to voting and on election day itself,"

Looks like one way or another politicians are understanding the power that mobile technology can have on the political process. All cambodian mobile telecoms complied.

The opposition party to Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party ( which has ruled the past 3 years) of course objected to the ban. The real question, in terms of US politics is, if they are so fearful of the power that SMS and text messaging could have on electoral politics and GOTV then why are politicos in the US sitting so idly by... is it just that there is not enough steam to US politics? I dont think so...

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