The 463: Inside Tech Policy

Vloggers & Candidates: New Rules?

I fired off a post last night after, frankly, being jaw-droppingly shocked by the cozy interactions between the well-respected and popular vlog-team at Rocketboom and the John Edwards campaign.

But, then I got to thinking about where my surprise came from.  It's pretty simple.  I write a blog, but deep down I'm old-school when it comes to my thoughts about journalism is and, most especially, when it's journalism that touches public policy and politics.  (Not many kids want to be a press secretary when they grow up, but I did -- in 1976).

So maybe my gut-instinct response was unfair.

Maybe Everything Has Changed like we're told over and over again.

But, if the old, long-established rules don't work, what are the new rules?  Are there any?

And, if not, how does a vlog viewer appropriately filter for bias (if any)?  Or, should the viewers of vlogs have such a personal affinity and connection to their video purveyors of choice that they should just know and understand where their daily dose of information is coming from without any added context?

This is serious stuff.  Similar conversations generations ago eventually led to the creation of the Fairness Doctrine, personal attack and political editorial rules (all since done away with).

Anyway, it should be allowed that this is genuinely new ground and debate (and even mistakes) should be encouraged to help in finding our way in the next generation of political communications.

To this end, I posted an open-letter of sorts to Rocketboom's founder and producer Andrew Baron on a vlogger list-serv to drive the conversation.  It's after the jump. 

To his great credit, Baron took time from what has to be a very busy day to respond.  His response follows my note.

Feel free to tell me that I'm wrong or barking up the wrong tree.  I think we all want to learn at this interesting moment in time....

-S. Garrett

2008: And, So It Begins... On YouTube...

John Edwards' presidential campaign enlisted (micro) celebrity vloggers like Robert Scoble and the Rocketboom crew to help him with his official announcement of his candidacy in New Orleans.   The big day was supposed to be tomorrow, but, ironically, his campaign made a boo boo and launched his campaign Web site a day early.  Whoops.  Live by HTML, die....

So, Edwards didn't wait for Scoble to make his connecting flight from California and announced his intentions to launch the "Tomorrow Begins Today" campaign a day earlier than planned.  (Today Begins What Was Going to Be Tomorrow Beginning Tomorrow Begins Today?)

Anyway, Rocketboom was there and Andrew Baron penned the note after the jump and sent it to a big vlogger email list...   I ask some questions about it....Others do, too....

Can You Read Me Now?

Verizon launched their tech/telecom policy blog this week.  According to the site, PoliBlog seeks to:

"to encourage intelligent discussion of public p olicy issues affecting the telecommunications industry and Verizon in particular. We will do this by posting our own points of view regularly, engaging in conversation with other posters who offer fact-based comments and reacting to the relevant ongoing blogosphere conversation. While no telecommunications subject is considered off-limits, we will focus on policy issues that have implications for the greatest number of companies and consumers."

Interestingly, no mention yet on their views on where net neutrality stands, for that matter, any comment on this wistful piece from Salon that has a subhead that reads:

"In the Capitol Hill battle over Net neutrality, a ragtag army of grass-roots Internet groups, armed with low-budget videos, music parodies and petitions, have the corporate telecoms, and their allies in Congress, on the run."

Our old (but relevant) take on net advocasy and net neutrality is here.

Online Advocacy: Same As It Ever Was?

Being a communications consultancy that bridges the two worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, we're often asked by media about the impact of blogs on the public policy advocacy process.  Most of the questions come in reference to the perceived power of blogs in shaping the net neutrality debate.

We don't think there's a right answer here.  The Web, the numbers who use it, and how it's used is just evolving too fast.  But, we won't duck the question and will continue our history kick...

Despite the fascination with bloggers, bloggers blogging about net neutrality and bloggers blogging about themselves blogging about net neutrality, there has been online activism almost as long as there has been a public Web.

The net neutrality fight has many parallels to anti-Communications Decency Act battle that raged beginning in 1995.  Online activists were emboldened by free-speech issues and teamed with established companies to fight the legislation.  The activists lost the fight in Congress and with President Clinton who signed the bill, but generated enough momentum and support that they rallied considerable resources to their side to win in the Supreme Court, which struck down the law. 

The activists...

Coming to a Voter Near You: Podcasting

Our friend, Donnie Fowler, today is featured in an interesting story in the LA Times by the one and only Mark Z. Barabak on the future of podcasting in politics.  Donnie, who came within a whisker of besting Governor Howard Dean for DNC Chair, is one of the brightest guys in politics and is on the cutting edge of a technology that will help push out politicians' messages to increasingly fragmented audiences.

He recently started a company called Cherry Tree Mobile Media to help promote wireless communications as a campaign tool.  We have no doubt he will be a success at this as he has been with his many other endeavors.  The money quote from Donnie: "You'll not only be able to text people with messages, you'll be able to raise money, deliver video, audio, create viral organizing — where one person sees something really interesting and it gets passed on and on."   

eBay Gets Baton Rouge

The New York Times has a big Sunday Business piece on eBay's lobbying state lobbying activities today.  It's written by longtime tech scribe Katie Hafner.  Most of the piece is a case study about a regulatory scrum in Louisiana, but the point of the story is captured here:

"As the company has spread its innovative and influential wings across the Internet, it has also woven together a muscular and wily lobbying apparatus that spans 25 states...

"...Regulators in other states also say that when they try to erect guidelines around eBay's activities, they quickly encounter the realities of the company's political power, raising anew the perennial questions about the proper balance among public policy, consumer protection and business interests. EBay's lobbying tactics, meanwhile, illustrate the spoils to be won when a savvy, resourceful company combines local political persuasion and grass-roots rallying to get lucrative regulatory exemptions that allow it to safeguard its profits.

"EBay's efforts have been remarkably successful, and the company, which has worked tirelessly to cultivate its image as a friendly neighborhood bazaar even as it engages in hard-nosed lobbying...."

Our thoughts and observations after the jump...

Campaign Ads on YouTube

[Note:  For an updated review of YouTube campaign material go to this Sept. 27 post].

Prediction:  By the end of the election year, a majority of candidates in Internet-forward states, districts, and cities will be posting their campaign commercials to You Tube-like services (see examples after jump).  Well-funded pols won't be the only ones doing it -- people running for the local school board will whip out their video cameras and create/post their own ads, too. 

(Note to the uninitiated, the value of YouTube or Google Video is that, one, they are massively popular stand-alone sites, and, two, even more importantly, they allow you to easily re-post your videos all over the Internet on blogs and Web sites.  This theoretically means that you can upload a video, email the link and get it posted to hundreds of sites within an hour).

Second Prediction:  Some smart consultant(s) will figure out that posting 30-second made-for-TV ads of a well-coiffed candidate hugging his kids is kind of lame and start utilizing the immediacy of the Internet.  How?  By using YouTube video to provide instant responses to opponent's charges; by creating a daily vlog that allows the candidate to set the agenda for the day; and, by capturing and posting all the good thing that folks from key constituency groups said that day.  Conversely, you could also video your opponent's missteps and fun shots of costumed protesters and get them up and across the Web ASAP.  Bottom line, instead of totally relying on your media consultants super-charged, expensive TV ads that touched the focus group just right, you can get a few ads out a day.

Click below to see a few first generation YouTubed campaign ads.... (and hat tip to "A VC" for the posting idea and one of the ads)...

How to Win Friends & Get in the Journal

Hey you.  Yeah, you.  You nose-to-the-grindstone Hill staffer/government affairs type/PR maven.  The boss is gone, the office fridge is out of Diet Cokes, but you're racking your brain at 11pm trying to think of a succinct, yet evocative, new term for Net Neutrality that will CHANGE THE DEBATE.

You can go home now.  There's a new model for getting ahead in the tech policy world.  Get yourself a blog and start typing.

Need more convincing?  Just check out the following graphic in today's WSJ:

Foremski on Tech Policy

Former Financial Times Silicon Valley journalist Tom Formeski and winner of the "Best Bay Area Blog" says today:

"...more tech companies in Silicon Valley are waking up to the fact that you have to be involved in Washington politics otherwise life gets very difficult very quickly."

Formeski also notes that Motorola CEO Ed Zander has taken over as chairman of the Technology CEO Council and plugs 463.  (Thanks, Tom)