With only 33 days left, it's more important than ever to call your friends and family to make sure they are registered and voting for Barack. We are excited to announce another way to help you organize your personal contacts and ask them to "get out and vote."
Today, we are launching an official iPhone Application, a free download for iPhone and iPod Touch users. This tool is designed to help you become more directly involved in our campaign to change our country.
The application has a "Call Your Friends" tool that helps you organize your contacts by key battleground states -- a feature we're hoping will generate thousands of additional personal contacts. You can also easily mark reminder notes to yourself on which friends you have called, who they are supporting and who wants a reminder call on Election Day. The information does not leave your phone (so your friends' and your own privacy are protected) but the total amount of calls the application makes are tallied, so you can keep track of your progress as we close in on November 4th.
The Obama 08 application also includes a tool to make it easy to find your local campaign office. Using your phone's current location, you can easily find a field office anywhere in the country (and even find directions to it using the mapping function).
Other features of the application include up to date news from the campaign, video, photos, and all of the issue information needed to use as talking points with your friends when convincing them to register and vote!
Please tell your iPhone users (and iPod Touch users) to download this app today. You can download the application here.
And all mobile users you can get news, updates, videos and more on your phone by texting SITE to 62262 to view our mobile WAP page.
In response to erroneous conclusions reached by some commentators that the Obama campaign’s changes to its website signal a change in policy, here is the campaign’s official response:
We’ve been updating the entire website to ensure consistency across the pages. The full tech plan is still available on the page, so there is absolutely no substantive change to our policy – the full plan is still available at the bottom of the page or by clicking here: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/technology/Fact_Sheet_Innovation_and_Technology.pdf
Our mobile website (called WAP for Wireless Application Protocol) will work on most phones that have mobile Internet access. You can text SITE to 62262 from your mobile phone to receive access.
We've added new features for the WAP site, including ringtones, wallpaper, and -- for the first time ever -- videos that you can download to your cell phone.
We'll be updating our WAP site often with news, videos and more. This site is ideal for all the people in your life that live and breathe on their cell phones.
Tell your friends to text SITE to 62262 to get connected to the official Obama for America mobile website.
On Tuesday, Barack proposed a new competitiveness agenda centered around education and energy, innovation and infrastructure, fair trade and reform. Today, on LinkedIn.com he is asking for your input.
What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?
Submit your ideas here or in the comments section below.
When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they bravely conjured a new form of self-government. But they couldn't have imagined a mass society with instantaneous, many-to-many communications or many of the other innovations of modernity. So, replacing that quill pen with a mouse, imagine that you have to power to redesign American democracy for the Internet Age. What would you do?
So far, Obama's videos have been viewed more than 33 million times on YouTube--and that's not counting partial views, since YouTube only reports a full viewing as a "view." His campaign has uploaded more than 800 video clips, and adds several more a day. If you just look at his ten most viewed videos, here are some astonishing facts:The average number of views for these top ten is currently more than 1.1 million (nearly double the average from a month ago!) The average length of these ten videos is 13.3 minutes. There have been nearly 3.9 million views of the longest of Obama's most popular videos, his "A More Perfect Union" speech on race in America.
Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University law professor and world-renowned expert in intellectual property, is announcing that he's going to invest a significant amount of his time and energy confronting the pervasive and corruptive influence of money in our democracy. You may have heard of the recent Draft Lessig movement that almost convinced him to run for Congress. He ultimately decided not to make the run, but he's not retreating from the fight. Today, at a lecture here in Washington, sponsored by Sunlight and Omidyar Network, he's launching the ChangeCongress project where he'll focus his academic interests on the issue of the systemic corruption of American democracy. Lessig will outline his hopes for ChangeCongress and how it will help citizens reclaim their democracy from the culture of corruption. Lessig will give his lecture at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) today at the National Press Club. We are very proud that Lessig recently joined Sunlight's advisory board, where he's helping us stay on the vanguard of using technology to promote a transparent and open government.
A few days ago, I posted an excerpt from an editorial by two Yale students (David Manners-Weber and Justin Kosslyn) who, inspired by the Obama campaign rhetoric, put out a challenge to their peers to take action in their own neighborhoods. (Incidentally, there's a new site called The Point, which is designed to help people issue challenges, to others. I'll do X if 10 other people do Y.)
The Yale article intrigued Princeton graduate student Arvind Murugan, who wrote about the article on a few listservs which were, in turn, read by Philadelphia area residents who started collaborating through emails and impromptu meetings to launch a grassroots movement dubbed Obama Works. ObamaWorks is a means to create visible public service projects and inspire collective action.
On March 1, Philly residents will hold a "Philly Sweep" and it is expected that other neighborhood clean-ups will take place around NYU and Yale, too. As one of the authors wrote me, "I couldn't be more thrilled to let you know that, with the help of people I've never even met, words are getting turned into action."
Manners-Weber goes on to say in his email about my earlier blog posting: "In your post, you wrote of "people collaborating to improve their own social conditions." Well it looks like folks are starting to do just that - within 24 hours, 100 people signed up to participate in the "Obama Philly Sweep," where volunteers will be cleaning up the streets around the Graduate Hospital area."
Here is their press release:
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.” Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.”
Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
""Hope is the bedrock of this nation. The belief that our destiny will not be written for us but by us....by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be," said Obama in his Iowa victory speech on January 3, 2008. "Together ordinary people can do extraordinary things."
Justin Kosslyn, a junior in Ezra Stiles College at Yale University and David Manners-Weber a sophomore in Yale's Calhoun College take the message to heart. In an article the Yale Daily News, Kosslyn and Manners-Weber imagine that, instead of simply getting out the vote, young people follow Obama's exhortation to make change happen in the world.
We have three examples of what such projects might look like. The first is simple: neighborhood cleanup. Residents driving through town squares and walking through local parks would find groups of enthusiastic Obama volunteers picking up cigarette butts and candy wrappers. The volunteers on this project, and all such projects, would be decked out in Obama T-shirts, stickers and buttons."
Our second sample service project is a 5K run through Main Street to raise money for a local charity. In Connecticut, our state, we could support Operation Fuel, which subsidizes heating for low-income families. Obama has spoken about the impact of high fuel prices on working families, so this type of service complements Obama’s message.
Finally, Obama volunteers could work through local YMCAs to further a myriad of small-scale local projects. These range from re-tiling the bathroom in a local women’s shelter to distributing children’s books from the local book bank. Though often less visible than traditional campaigning, these efforts have the potential to generate tremendous word-of-mouth credibility and support for Obama.
With so many issues directly affecting young voters, it is exciting to see the overwhelming support our campaign is receiving from this new generation of voters. As Barack has said many times before, "our nation is at war; our planet is in peril," and it truly is time for the next generation to carry the torch. Please view this online video of how the young voters are not just voting for Barack Obama, but organizing for him.
MySpace and MTV are doing another "Presidential Dialogue" in the final days before the Super Tuesday Election. You can watch it live on MTV or online at MySpace.com.
New Ringtones!
A recent California rally photo posted to BlackPlanet.com/Barack_ObamaAccording to The Nation "Obama has won among 18-29 year olds in every state, garnering 67% of their votes in South Carolina, 59% in Nevada, 51% in New Hampshire and 57% in Iowa."In addition to pounding the pavement for this campaign, young voters are showing their support online and getting their friends involved as well. Using social networks, text messaging and the online organizing tools on my.barackobama.com, our supporters are getting the message out far and wide.This excitement is showing up all over the internet as we now have over 12 million YouTube views, and over 200,000 friends on Facebook, MySpace and BlackPlanet, respectively.We are excited to announce state-specific pages on both MySpace and BlackPlanet to help our supporters find each other, have local discussions and better organize. We hope that these relationships and networks become a place to work on local issues and share ideas as we change our country one neighborhood at a time. To find your state pages visit Myspace.com/BarackObama and BlackPlanet.com/Barack_ObamaWe are also excited to receive TechCrunch's endorsement today as well as recently win all the progressive states primaries involved in the PickYourPresident.org online poll.While online polls do not win elections, they are another way for those of us that do not live in an early state to share in the excitement of this growing movement and express our support.After working in young voter politics for the last 5 years, I am truly excited to see young voters finally coming out en-mass to change the world.
But, we have a lot more work to do in the days ahead -- this is only the beginning.
What an exhilarating victory for the Obama Team in Iowa last night! Could this mean that we are a step closer to finally electing a President that understands the importance of embracing a communications policy that not only promotes competition and innovation, but also recognizes the impact of a communications policy on civic engagement and progressive social policy?
I think so. While I was quite confident that Sen. Obama would create an innovative and forward thinking communications and technology plan, the actual details of the plan surpassed my expectations. Here are my top three reasons why:
I am hoping for a win tonight, but I think the complexion of the campaign will change dramatically in the coming weeks.
If the figures we had yesterday for US manufacturing get reinforced by other trends, the US economy is going to go into a tailspin in the next 6 to 9 months and the key issues in the campaign are likely to shift even more from international to domestic, with a big emphasis on what to do about an economic decline.
<>So far, the discussion during the campaign has shied away from considering such an econommic turn of events. But if there is such a large and rapid shift in the fate of the US economy, this will affect the election. Obama's emphasis on vision and leadership will be even more important.
<> The issue will be what content he uses to spell out a vision to bring about change and economic vitality.
<> <>To develop this content, several questions would need to be addressed:
<>1. What helps people keep jobs rather than lose them, particularly during a swift downturn if it happens? How might technology initiatives help these efforts?
2. What keeps the financial system, including smaller banks and state funds where localities have deposited funds, from going out of business or reducing their loans to consumers, localities, and firms?
3. What new institutions, like the ones we had in the savings and loan crisis, such as the Resolution Trust, might be needed to keep the financial system, consumers, and industry financed and functioning?
4. What new mechanisms for recovery and job creation would have the greatest impact and limit the costs to the government?
5. If the crisis begins to recycle from overseas back to the US, because industrial activity and consumption slow in important parts of Europe and Asia, what policies would a new administration propose to put in place shortly after "Day 1" to insure that these negative impacts don't worsen the efforts at recovery in the US.
<>In sum, there would need to be a Recovery Agenda that could be implemented shortly after "Day 1."
<> <>I'd appreciate any comments on these thoughts.
Bob Cohen
Economic Strategy Institute (for identification only)
Here's more praise for USASpending.gov, the new source of information on government spending that was created by the Obama-Coburn bill:
http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6413
(See more about USASpending.gov in Craig's Dec. 14, 2007 post.)
This new database, stemming from legislation that Barack pushed through Congress, is a concrete example of what his devotion to transparency in government can achieve. As Barack's technology plan makes clear, an Obama presidency will give us much more of the same -- thus creating a new relationship between Americans and our government.
As I leave for New Hampshire with three of my children to help get out the vote, it is exciting to know that this election can bring the change our country desperately needs. Bill Lake
Working in a campaign is a lot like swimming in the ocean: it looks fun on the surface but underneath you are paddling as fast as they can to stay afloat and despite your best efforts you never know where the currents will take you.
This is the first of what I hope to be a handful of posts about my month-long hiatus from Google to work for Barack Obama’s campaign in Chicago.
