Foneshow in the L.A.Times

A blog post about use of technology at the political conventions.

Austin Hill's Campaign Update 2008

We're excited to be distributing Austin Hill's Campaign Update 2008. The show is published daily, they're one minute long, they're timely information about the presidential race, they've got an interesting historical twist.

There's more information here.

You can subscribe to Austin Hill's Campaign Update 2008 by clicking here.

Ron Paul on The Ed Schultz Show

Ron Paul is here on Talk Radio Row.

Day Two on Talk Radio Row

It's primary day in New Hampshire and it is total madness on Talk Radio Row. Most of the candidates will be through the room today.

Great big shout out to Talk Radio News Service and Ellen Ratner for putting on this great event, also big thanks to Dan Patterson for inviting Foneshow down to participate.

2008 Election

The Foneshow team spent a good chunk of time last week at conferences talking with customers for our political activism and campaign products. We saw a lot of people talking about the role video (YouTube et. al.) will play in the 2008 election cycle. My position leans towards concern. I suspect their will be an enormous number of "unauthorized" campaign commercials released. We have already seen a number of these types of ads (the Hilary "1984 ad", the Edwards "I Feel Pretty" ad, lots of videos of Giuliani in drag, there was a nasty one about McCain which I can't find now).

I believe that understanding provenance of a political advertisement is key. You need to understand the agenda of the people creating the ad to learn something from it. I suspect what will happen is there is going to be lots of noise and video will get lots of press, but in the end it will be a wash and online video will not play a significant role in who gets elected. I fear it could get so ugly as to turn people off of the process and keep them away from the polls.

While the video people may make all the noise in the 2008 election, I think we mobile people have more power to actually influence the outcome on election day. We can coordinate getting people to the polls. We can do micro-broadcasts to campaign workers on breaking issues. Our groups product can coordinate large remote teams of volunteers in the field in real time. We may even be able to use our interactive features in getting people registered to vote. Hopefully we can get more people better informed and participating.

At the end of the day, YouTube is another broadcast channel. Mobile is a communication channel. I believe politics in this country needs more communication and less broadcasting.

Erik is in Wisconsin

I'm in Madison at the Online News Association regional conference today meeting political stratgists and the people who cover them.

I'll be in New York City tomorrow.

FWIW, this is our 100th blog posting.

The NAB and the Satellite Guys

This is an interesting article as a follow up to our recent internet radio post.

The NAB has consistently opposed every bit of new technology offering new media options to consumers, going back to satellite television in the 1980s (for which a federal appeals court called the group a "Luddite"). How does it get away with it? Simple. It has a lot of money to throw around. Not to mention influence. One NAB program, for example, lets members of Congress and their families record public service announcements in NAB studios free of charge. The commercials are then broadcast in the members districts on NAB stations, also free of charge. That's broadcast time politicians often have to pay thousands of dollars to reserve.

BTW. So that's what John Ashcroft has been doing since he left office.

Beyond Broadcast 2007

I'm going to be down in Cambridge next Saturday for Beyond Broadcast conference.

From the conference description:

"For 50 years broadcast media have played a powerful role in shaping political culture and mediating citizen engagement in the democratic process. Now a participatory culture is putting the tools of media creation and critique in the hands of citizens themselves. We invite you to MIT—to explore the means, the message, and the meaning of the post-midterm, pre-presidential YouTube moment."

We're hard at work on the Foneshow platform creating tools for political candidates to communicate with the people and people to communicate with candidates. We're excited to see what others are thinking and get their feedback on what we're doing. If you're going to be there track me down.

Just as an example of what we're talking about.

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The only bummer is Podcamp Toronto is the same weekend and I can't be two places at once.