Smallbrain Solutions

From the “should have mentioned something a few days ago file…”:

via SmartMobs, Cyberjournalist.net mentions that the The Spokesman-Review has equipped their blogger w/ a Treo camera phone to blog the NH primary. The results will appear on Spin Control, as soon as they can figure out how to send the photos while roaming.

I trust that their service provider isn’t T-mobile, as my experience is that their service is worthless up there.

It is certainly worth thinking about the future implications of photoblogging on campaigning. For instance, there is the inevitable gaffes that could be recorded, or also near instant photos of events that could be used as fuindraising or viral tools. neato…

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An article in PC World describes how members of congress are buying email lists from commercial vendors at about 25 cents a pop.

While this should come as surprise to no one, it is mildly interesting to wonder whether their is going to be as negative of a reaction to this kind of email as to normal commercial spam. The Pew Internet and American Life Project published a report in October suggesting that public opinon shifts somewhat when the message is political in nature- instead of commercial. In that case, the percentage labeling the email “Spam” drops from 92% to 76% (here is that section of the report)

Additionally,

…about two-thirds of emailers (65%) do not consider unsolicited commercial email to be spam if it comes from a sender with whom they’ve already done business;

So, it would seem that your campaign/organization could get away with matching up emails to your previous supporters names and sending them email - even if they hadn’t opted in.

I am not ENDORSING that, but, I wouldn’t be surprised if that opinion continues to spread as people become accustomed to a lot of Spam.

On the other hand, as Spammers get more devious (and flood peoples’ blog comment boards) maybe there actually WILL be some sort of uprising… hmmm…

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Network-Centric Advocacy has a great post regarding an essay from USAF Captain Greg Gagnon discussing the application of network-centric theory to planning special operations for the military.

sweet.

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from Dean for America:

DIY postcards!

You can upload your own photo, and create individualized Forwadable Email postcards. Another GREAT application of easy-to-program stuff that works.

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Steven Berlin Johnson points to his great Discover article as well as a very interesting Wired article by Gary Wolf from last month.

Johnson mainly posits that he is interested in what is going to happen regarding all of Dean’s networks if he gets to the White House. He wonders if the Dean Administration will be looking to expand their capacity for information and message to emerge from the networks. A truly interesting question. He suggests that it is the most interesting question to ask right now.

From my perspective, however, the most interesting question is how lower-level races will be netowrking - if at all. Will House and Senate races be deploying networking tools and really getting their supporters organizing online? Will they be comfortable with relatively decentralized campagins?

Granted, as soon as that is answered, Johnson wins, and I will be very interested to see what happens at the White House…

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