Boot up and be counted

With the Iowa Caucuses today, I thought it might be good to do a quick roundup of interesting tools that the Presidential Candidates have put together to get out the vote. As happened in 2004, many of these tools will probably trickle into the non-profit sector over the coming year, as we see what works and what doesn’t.

First, I’ve got to say that I love Mitt Romney’s Varitalk. I remember when Snakes on a Plane used this same technology to put together calls from Samuel L. Jackson – my office spent several good hours sending calls to each other. Now you can have robo-Mitt call your friends, address them by name and holiday of choice, and tell them why he’s right for their most important issue, along with a reminder to vote in their own state. It also shows on caller ID as being from a phone number of your choice, and Mitt mentions that it comes from you.

Of course, there’s potential for abuse in applications like this, but that’s going to be true in any voter-generated content application – it’s really no more risky than a simple "Tell a Friend" form. I did find it odd, though, that there was such a limited selection of names Mitt could say. While I’m not surprised that "John Brian" wasn’t in his repertoire, I was saddened that he couldn’t call "Marissa" or "Taylor" by name, and I guess referring to the other guys in the field as "my opponent" has left him unable to say "Rudy" or "Duncan." Seems pretty closed-minded for a guy named "Mitt" who named his son "Tagg" (neither of which he can say, incidentally). But I did appreciate the option to make a contribution and get a real call, or at least a better robo-call (I didn’t make a donation to find out – I’m pretty sure I need my $25 more than Mitt).

Two more big things that impressed me, and a bunch more that I don’t have room to review in depth, below the fold…

The second item I wanted to spotlight is MoveOn and the League of Young Voters’ Facebook Primary. While the main Facebook politics module has been getting more robust over the last few weeks (adding debates, pulse polls, and voter registration, along with incredibly lame ABC content, like mock profiles for their correspondents – here’s Obama reporter Sunlen Miller, who apparently believes that status updates are required to end with exclamation points), the MoveOn/LYV app lets you pick your candidate and top three issues, then prospects you for email and snail mail (I’m not wild about this practice, but MoveOn is generally good about segmenting emails to Facebook users). I thought the issue selection was a little strange ("Prison and Justice reform" but no foreign policy outside of the Iraq war? And will public funding for the arts ever get any electoral love?), but appreciated that they showed me the top three picks for candidate and issue for my network and the country.

The application also includes the obligatory "forward to friends" component, though without the spamish undertones that mar many apps (I’m looking at you, Oregon Trail! And anything built by Slide is pretty much guaranteed to spam my friends without my knowing). In any case, I’ve posted the badge on my Facebook profile, in the same area as my US Politics, Vote on the Book, Election ’08, 2008 Voter Registration, and Obama applications… may be time to clean house soon.

The third web feature I wanted to point out was the different routes the three leading Democratic campaigns went with their "How to Caucus" piece. Hillary Clinton’s humorous video (featuring Bill and cheeseburgers, two things with high approval ratings in the midwest), Barack Obama’s clean and crisp flash piece (which is particularly helpful if you’re playing the game of Life), and John Edwards’s 60′s era comic book animation (hands down the longest) all show cool ways to describe a complex process in an informative and entertaining way. Does your non-profit have a complex mission that doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker? Consider doing a video like these to explain it – and don’t forget the humor!

Lastly, there are a bevy of other apps out there that don’t really have far reaching application, but are just interesting. There’s a caucus calculator, to work you through the bizarre math they use in Iowa. There’s a map of the political blogosphere to show you what’s connected to what, though I’ll warn you that it’s about as easy to comprehend at first as raw matrix code. Obama and Paul’s Facebook apps are using Facebook’s natural geotagging to allow you to remind your friends in Iowa to caucus (Paul’s is broken right now). Tech President has more – be sure to check them out tomorrow for what will undoubtedly be excellent analysis on what worked and what didn’t.

What did I miss? Share other campaign apps that you’d like to see non-profits make use of in the comments below.

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