Archive for August, 2007

You Call that a Blog and that a Map Bobby! You Must Be Kidding

Published
by
Ed
on August 22, 2007
in 2007 la governor race, american politics, louisiana politics and republicans
. 0 Comments

I was browsing Bobby Jindal’s website this afternoon and thought I’d check out his blog. I’m always intrigued by how political candidates use campaign blogs. They can be the most banal things, but when done right can also be very informative.

The latest entry is this:

Jindal Fresh Start Tour Map

Anyone who’s signed up for Jindal’s email updates knows that he’s on, what he calls, his Fresh Start Tour. Although a little odd for a blog entry, I assumed this was an interactive map and therefore excusable as a blog entry. At least I could follow Jindal on the campaign trail. How wrong I was!

I clicked on the map and it took me to the jpeg, no explanation of where Jindal had been and why, no photos, no videos, no nothing. If you don’t believe me you can check out Jindal’s blog yourself. This is surprising considering the rest of the site is awash with news and video of Jindal’s Fresh Start Tour. The campaign has even gone so far as to post an extensive array of photos from the tour on Flickr.

What was even more shocking was that Jindal’s campaign team have posted one of these map images each day for, wait for it, the last 10 days since the tour started! There are no written posts in between despite a number of posts, supposedly from Jindal himself, in July and June.

The maps, the photos and the videos are well and good, but with some simple adjustments Jindal’s campaign team could have made them much more meaningful by combining them as a whole in an interactive map. Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of interactive maps as visual means of telling a political story. Instead, they are left with a disparate array of potentially useful tools failing to achieve their maximum impact.


In light of Google’s announcement yesterday of Really, No Seriously, Easy Google Maps, this is a pretty heinous error. Especially as a quick search reveals there are already various free tools out there for embedding Google My Maps into blogs and websites, such as that provided by Daniel Rubin and Ongopongo. Jindal’s campaign team is not exactly short of money either.

For someone like myself, a political consultant who specializes in utilizing the Internet for political campaigning, this is all very disheartening. No doubt, some wise guy will use Jindal’s substandard online operation as evidence that blogs, photos via Flickr and videos are ineffective political campaign tools. I hope this post goes some small way to explaining why that wise guy is wrong.

Really, No Seriously, Easy Google Maps

Published
by
Ed
on August 22, 2007
in tech development
. 0 Comments

The big tech news yesterday was Google’s announcement of easily embeddable Google Maps. It had always been possible to do this via the Google Maps API or various widgets, but now it is so easy no politician has any excuse for not using detailed maps on their blogs/websites.

Why are maps so useful for politicians? The main reason is they help tell a story. The visual impact of a map, combined with videos, photos and short blog entries can be extremely powerful. Senator Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) Iraq Codel Map is a great example of this. Much more interesting than a series of dry news items or blog entries describing a politicians movements.

As an example, I have embedded a map showing the route my fiance Erin and I took during our recent big move from DC to New Orleans.


View Larger Map

One slight annoyance, which I’m sure the clever folks at Google will soon rectify, is that you can’t save a route such as this to My Maps. You can do this for addresses and businesses you search for. If I’m missing something here please let me know.

Iain Dale’s Criticism of British Government’s Blog Monitoring Unit Unfair

Published
by
Ed
on August 17, 2007
in british politics
. 0 Comments

I have to say I disagree strongly with Iain Dale’s criticism of the British government’s Media Monitoring Unit for extending their coverage to the blogosphere.

I can only assume Iain was in a particularly grumpy mood when he wrote this post as he’s usually such a strong advocate for the blogosphere and genuinely appears to understand its growing importance within society. As he often rails against the dismissive attitude of some politicians and journalists towards the blogosphere, including his own blog, it would seem self-defeating to criticize the government for actually reading blogs.

I am particularly mystified by this statement:

I do know that about a year ago Conservative Campaign Headquarters added blogs to the Shadow Cabinet daily media monitoring brief. I was rather horrified at the time.

As someone who spends many hours trying to persuade politicians to read political blogs, I find this extremely frustrating. If I supported the Conservative Party, I would be delighted to know blogs are included in CCHQ’s daily media briefing.

Clarence Mitchell, the MMU’s director, explains,:

There’s a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn’t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that.

e-Gov advocate, architect and blogger, Simon Dickson, follows up:

What’s the alternative - ignore the blogosphere? How often do I read posts complaining that the government isn’t listening to ordinary people outside the Westminster Village?

As Iain rightly points out there is a lot of rubbish written online, but amidst the rubbish there is a lot of extremely high quality and influential content. Surely, putting ideological viewpoints aside for one second, it is the job of the government’s MMU to find that high quality and influential content?

US Bloggers Consider Joining/Forming Labor Union

Published
by
Ed
on August 17, 2007
in american politics and british politics
. 1 Comment

Some labor advocates say the blogosphere deserves entry into organized labor, as e-writers increasingly face the same workforce issues as freelance writers in the print world.

Jonathan Tasini, executive director of the Labor Research Association and a former president of the National Writers Union, said on Monday that bloggers “could in fact” join the writers union.” (hattip Beltway Blogroll)

National Journal’s chief blog advocate/correspondent, Danny Glover, has the full story over at Beltway Blogroll.

I’d love to hear the British media establishment’s reaction if British bloggers ever made such a move? I suspect it would be somewhat less charitable!

I am no fan of labor unions, but it does demonstrate how much more mature the American blogosphere is compared to its British brethren.

Obama Calls Yahoo Answers! Respondent

Published
by
Ed
on August 12, 2007
in 2008 us presidential election, american politics and democrats
. 0 Comments

I missed this back in July (hattip PrezVid), but this is a very simple and effective way of engaging voters. Obama was not the first presidential candidate to use Yahoo Answers! That honor goes to Hillary Clinton. However, he did take the engagement process a step further.

The benefits are threefold:

  • The lady Obama spoke to is now almost certainly a committed Obama activist.
  • It demonstrates Obama’s openness and willingness to talk directly to voters, reinforcing the message that his is a genuine grassroots campaign.
  • Obama may also have picked up a few useful ideas to incorporate into his policy platform, the ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ in action.

    • Imagine if a candidate committed themselves to making one of these calls each day? The novelty would soon wear off, but the commitment to regularly engaging activists openly and honestly could have a lasting impact.

    Great Coverage Republican Ames Straw Poll, Iowa

    Published
    by
    Ed
    on August 12, 2007
    in 2008 us presidential election, american politics and republicans
    . 0 Comments

    If like me you’ve never been to Iowa, let alone witnessed the Ames Straw Poll, you’ll really enjoy watching YouTube evangelist, entrepreneur and aspiring journalist, James Kotecki’s coverage of this unique event.

    Working as a freelance journalist for the inside-the-beltway paper, Politico.com, James brings his own individual style of political punditry to Iowa, providing behind the scenes coverage, interviews with several candidates and analysis from the Politico’s Chief Political Correspondent, Roger Simon, and Republican Blogger/Reporter, Jonathan Martin.

    James’ irreverent coverage is refreshing and provides an excellent insight into what goes into winning the straw poll. I still can’t quite believe so many people travel from across Iowa to vote (yes, I know the candidates bus many voters in, although apparently Gov. Mike Huckabee didn’t), a sure sign of the strength of democracy in the US.

    Here’s a taster for you from when James first arrived at the Iowa State Fair:

    To see the full series of videos visit JamesKotecki.com. They start on August 10th.

    Great work James!



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