Hear Hear

Sanchez — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:14:11 -0500

I agree. In addition to the obvious merits of enabling people to make calls from their homes, I think campaigns are either getting too caught up in the money race or think that the majority of supporters would prefer to make a cash donation rather than volunteer their time by making calls, canvassing or any of the myriad ways someone who is enthusiastic and devoted can help.

I would argue that in many cases, the donation of a person's time can be far more beneficial to the campaign than what that person may have contributed in the form of a cash donation.

This is for a number of reasons:

1 - Someone who volunteers their time will generally be more engaged and devoted to that cause than will someone who simply writes a cheque because the mere action of volunteering will likely cause them to reaffirm the reasons for which they decided to donate their time in the first place. Making calls in support of your candidate necessitates that you know their stance on the issues and are able to explain why they are better than those of his or her opponents. Thus the act of volunteering itself strengthens the volunteers devotion.

2 - Volunteers (those who decide to make the trip to campaign HQ for the old coffee and stale doughnuts) will come into contact with other volunteers and their enthusiasm will likely build off of each other as a result. It allows voters to see the scope - or lack of scope - of a candidate's support and act accordingly.

3 - Volunteers will necessarily come into contact with people who are undecided or support another candidate. The volunteer's strength of conviction - evinced by their decision to volunteer - provides a clear endorsement of their candidate that many will find more compelling than say, a music video by will.i.am. (Don't get me wrong, it's a great video, I just think that someone is more likely to be influenced by a friend, neighbor, or someone from their school/church who is volunteering their time for a candidate than by a celebrity.) Like you said, Michael: there is no better spokesperson than a single dedicate supporter talking to people with whom they share trust. It is about establishing a dialogue.

4. The benefits of volunteering extend beyond the campaign itself. Making a donation - tax deduction aside - is kind of like betting on a horse race. If your horse wins, you feel good. If it loses, you feel like you threw your money away. By devoting time instead of money, supporters gain education, insight, awareness and the intrinsic reward inherent to acts of volunteerism.

That having been said, I unwittingly was signed up for Hillary's email blasts and have not once been asked to donate my time. I get at least one - sometimes more - emails a day asking me to contribute money. Like many people, not only do I have more spare time on my hands than spare money, but I feel like I have many talents that could be well utilized by a campaign that could make use of them.

I know that it is ultimately up to the volunteer to decide to get involved, so please don't dismiss my analysis as someone complaining about not being involved. I just can't help but think that many of these campaigns are doing a very inadequate job of tapping on the vast potential of their supporters.

The internet can and should be used to create infrastructure to allow resources that are being unused (volunteers' time) to be taken advantage of by the people who need those resources (the candidates/campaigns)

Here is a link to a blog post that discusses this idea in the context of Senator Ted Stevens' comment that the internet is a series of tubes: http://theroaringlyon.blogspot.com/2008/03/internet-is-series-of-tubes.h...

The Campaign I'd Like To See

Michael Turk — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:57:42 -0500

A recent Washington Post article quoted me as saying most online campaigns really aren't moving the ball forward. In a recent appearance at Google, Garrett Graff was asked if he agreed with my assertion. I'll let you watch for yourself the discussion and his answer. It's good, so I recommend you do.

Let me, however, elaborate on the original question I was asked and the reply. I did not mean to imply that campaigns weren't doing interesting things. Mindy Finn with Romney's campaign did some really good work on the "create your own ad" effort. Obama's people have done an amazing job of fundraising online. There are some novel online efforts being undertaken.

What I meant, more specifically, was there does not appear to be any effort to convert that excitement and energy into actual votes. Most of the GOTV work being done is still being done offline, and what little is being done online seems to be badly marketed and ill-conceived.

techPresident - The Campaign I'd Like To See - Comments

Hear Hear

The Campaign I'd Like To See