Dr. DigiPol

Like John Locke, I believe that all conflicts can be resolved by rational discourse. Of course, both sides have to be rational and discoursing. But if the planets align, the wonders of rational decision-making can be the route to good policy and good lives.

So one would think that if we inserted rational decision making tools into the presidential selection process, that would be a good thing. At least in principle.

But do we vote with our heads or with our hearts? Do we pick the candidate we agree with the most or the one who makes us feel good? For those who vote with their heads, three new websites should appeal strongly to your desire to understand what you get with your vote, at least in principle.

There are two events in the next couple weeks addressing how Congress communicates with constituents. Today, the Internet Advocacy Roundtable, which is now a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, is featuring staffers from several House and Senate offices along with a leading CRM expert to discuss innovations Congress is implementing to deepen relations with constituents.

On October 1, the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is hosting its Communicating with Congress Conference in DC. I am speaking on the second panel of this conference, discussing the scope of the problems faced by Congress, advocacy groups, software vendors, and citizens in dealing with “petitioning the government with grievances.” (For more information on this conference, contact Tim Hysom

What follows is the written testimony for my CMF presentation:

Below is a comment I just posted on Read/Write Web regarding a couple posts on whether online tools have helped non-profits.

According to the initial post on Read/Write Web (September 9), “By non-profits, we mean charities, clubs and any ‘organization whose primary objective is something other than the generation of profit” (Wikipedia’s definition).”

While fundraising by non-profits, per se, is not the generation of profits, I can’t help but be squeamish when I hear a discussion about the successes of non-profits online that focuses almost entirely on fundraising. The web is much, much more than a fundraising tool. And for new non-profits that grow up in the web age, they have the potential to use the web to achieve magnificent things without ever needing to raise gobs of money to support a large infrastructure.

Email is not dead, but it is becoming less effective as people shift to other online communications channels. Campaign websites are not a waste of space, but they are no longer the center of the universe for gathering activists. This is the new online world, a dispersed world where instant messaging, social networks, and SMS text messaging are the new hot communication channels and social networks, blogs, and social media websites are where people gather online.

I have been hearing a lot lately about how we are facing a mortgage crisis of huge proportions. Lenders have overextended themselves with high risk, variable interest rate loans and now people are defaulting on loans in droves. There is a lot of talk about how the extent of this problem is so bad, markets could collapse. A crisis, n’est pas?

As a follower of the presidential campaigns, of course I wondered what the candidates were saying about this serious crisis facing America. So I went to all of their websites to search for what I needed to know. I found some information on Dennis Kucinich’s, John Edwards’, and a wee bit on Barack Obama’s sites. But I found something I did not expect to find.

No search!

I posted a response to question posed by a Facebook friend about the blur between personal and professional life on Facebook. She asked us to post an answer on her Facebook wall… a public space for Facebook members. In the spirit of the question and request for the wall, I am cross posting […]

I have been a bit distracted from blog writing recently since starting my new job. But I wanted to post an article I recently published on Idealware. It is called ‘Affordable New Tools and Strategies for Online Activism.”
Here is an excerpt:
Limited budgets don’t have to substantially limit your online advocacy possibilities. Alan Rosenblatt […]