Dr. DigiPol

A new study reported on MSNBC yesterday, Participation on Web 2.0 sites remains weak, makes the claim that Web 2.0 is not really taking off becuase the contribution rates on YouTube and Flickr are incredibly small. Most of us are voyeurs, rather than contributors.

The study, conducted by Hitwise, I believe misses the mark on several levels. First, and foremost, Web 2.0 is not just about contributing content, it is about sharing content. And sharing requires a contributor and a viewer. So the fact that most of us only view so-called Web 2.0 sites does not mean those people are not an integral part of the Web 2.0 world.

This is a press release from Bentley College regarding a study by Christine Williams and Jeff Gulati:
Media Contact:
Carrie Izard Richardson
781.891.2755
crichardson@bentley.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2007
Bentley College Political Science Professors Examine
2008 Presidential Candidates’ Websites
Most Innovative Sites appear to be Catalyst for More
Campaign Contributions
Waltham, Mass. - A Bentley College study has found that the current field of […]

Blackberry service provider, Research in Motion (RIM), is having nationwide network outages. Millions of Blackberry owners cannot send or receive email. RIM is trying to get things back up today, but cannot provide a timeline.

So those of you working from the beach, go in for a swim.

We were very excited to provide more insight into Karl Rove’s role in the firings of the eight federal prosecutors, but we have apparently lost the emails containing those insights. They were last seen being carried off from the RNC mail server by an AI named Wintermute. Rumor has it that Wintermute has been working with the Bush Administration to ensure that official communications exchanged via unofficial email addresses were not available for investigators to review as they try to detail the extent to which Mr. Rove is politicizing every aspect of the Executive Branch in order to shore up a perpetual Republican majority. It seems Rove might no longer be confident that the Iraq War will serve this role in securing the President and his Party’s legacy. The Democrats would be well-served to call in their own cowboy to dig to the bottom of this technical and legal faux pas.

Cross posted to TechPresident.com.

With all the attention being paid to how much money the candidates are raising online, I think we need to better understand what “online fundraising” means.  Does it just include funds that are solicited and fulfilled online, or does it also include any funds submitted through the candidates’ online contribution forms, regardless of how solicited?  Or what if people mail in a check based on an email solicitation?  You see, this is not such a simple question.

Further, while we tend to focus on online campaign strategies in isolation from other campaign strategies, that view is already dated.  The boundaries between online and offline campaign strategies are blurred, at a minimum, and obliterated at most.  One only need look at the spike in Obama’s YouTube views following the extensive coverage CNN and the rest of the media gave to the 1984 video to see that offline developments drive online activity.

So let me suggest a typology for online fundraising:

1. The solicitation and fulfillment are both online
2. The solicitation is offline and the fulfillment is online
3. The solicitation is online and the fulfillment is offline

Bing, Bling, she shot them down
Bing, Bling, set records, wow
Bing, Bling, that awful sound
Bing, Bling, of voters going down

The first quarter 2008 money is rolling into the campaign coffers in record numbers. Hillary Clinton set a first quarter record by raising $26 million. She rolled another $10 million into her funds from her Senate account, giving her $36 million. Meanwhile, John Edwards raised over $14 million. Bill Richardson picked up $6 million for the primaries and $5 million for the general. Joe Biden has raised $3 million and has another $3.6 he can roll over from his Senate coffers. Chris Dodd raised $4 million and rolled over another $5 million. And the Republicans are expected to announce their millions shortly.