About Political Gastronomica
Political Gastronomica is a discourse on technology and online activism - how the marketplace of governing and ideas is improving with the efficiencies of the Internet.
Author Sanford Dickert, former CTO of John Kerry for President Campaign, works with political campaigns, non-profits and private companies from the Fortune 500 to startups.
Dickert leverages online community engagement techniques and technical vision for brand and message management through effective application of social media and organizational processes.
Category Archives: eCampaigning
Republicans Sites are so non-inspiring…
Been having some fun while being across the pond – watching the coverage out in New Hampshire. Decided to take a look at some of the sites of the candidates that have not had the cash to build a campaign. So, enjoy my opinions. Continue reading
Posted in Campaign 2012, eCampaigning
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Millennial Makeover: Is there a Lincoln or FDR in the 2008 race?
This evening, as I finished my work at Cooper, I took a walk over to the Great Hall to
listen to Dr. Fred Shapiro introduce Morley Winograd and Michael Hais discuss their
new book, “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics”
with a talk asking the question, “Is there a Lincoln or FDR in the 2008 Presidential Race?”
Interestingly, the talk seems to have been a combination of the premise of the book
creation, as well as an attempt to answer the question posed at the start of the talk.
[Suffice it to say, I think they would say Obama is the next Lincoln/FDR - more on
this later] But what was most interesting to me was the discussion of the impact of
technology and generational demographics and their impact on American history – which goes to
the heart of two of my posts ([1],
[2]),
“Would social networks impact the 2008 election?”. At the time, I answered in the negative.
After this book, I might have a different point of view… Continue reading
Rolling Stone: Inside Obama’s People-Powered Revolution
What pleased me in reading this article from Rolling Stone was the fact that the campaign married online engagement with offline activities and vice versa. Never a campaign event went off without capturing people’s email addresses, zip codes and names as they came to the event. Never a chance was forgotten to drive engagement both online and off – using the MyBO site to drive involvement and community. Continue reading
Blast from the Past – Kerry’s 2004 Online Fundraising Performance
We were seriously worried about the software doing on contributions since it was relatively cheap and had not been tested under serious load conditions, but when New Hampshire went to JK, I was there all night long watching the server load, making sure we were okay. And, we made it quite nicely. It wasn’t until SuperTuesday that we discovered the fallacy of low-cost solutions in an enterprise world. Continue reading
Will Social Networks Impact the 2008 Election? I think NOT.
Social networks (in version 1.0) have been about exposing data and allowing for a simple search query to allow you to discover other like people in your interest sphere. Web 2.0 suggests that social networks are about a fundamentally different, albeit enabled premise – being social – not simply by having a profile presence, but seeing what is happening in your network and becoming part of the life within that network. Living the pulse of the network and either being part of it – or wanting to be part of it. Do candidates offer a glimpse of that life within the network that is something supporters want to be part of? Does the campaign truly offer a chance to engage in simple, human contact? Continue reading
Keeping Personal Democracy personal
The challenge is to maintain a close relational contact with your supporters while keeping in mind that there is only 24 hours in a day, and you can only occupy one physical space at one time. Technology is meant to help enhance the ability of a person to communicate with a group of people, and allowing for some personalization of the communication to the supporters in the best way possible. Note, I did not suggest “converse” with all of the supporters, since people are limited with one mouth and two ears (or you could include two hands). But, by using technology to enhance the chance of communicating (e.g. John Edwards on twitter, every candidate on email and/or blogs, Chris Dodd and Tom Vilsack on video sites), the candidate (and/or his staff/surrogates) tries to keep the connection with the supporters to ensure the energy continues to flow. Continue reading
Posted in eCampaigning, Personal Democracy Forum, Political Tech, Political Thoughts
Tagged Aldon Hynes, Greater Democracy, PDF2007, Personal Democracy
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How to improve SEO/SEM without paying a dime!
The inspiration comes from a conversation with my friend Howard Greenstein, CEO of Social Media Club who just came from a lecture where he was a panelist on SEO/SEM. Funnily enough, what he told me has been second nature to so many sites that most people forget, and do not think to improve once they have it. So, to help in the discussion, let me give you my quick-and-dirty list of “to-dos” for improving SEO/SEM. Continue reading
Social Media Club NY – How Will Social Media Impact Politics?
Interested in a conversation about Social Media in this coming season? Join us today at the New York Social Media Club where we will be discussing the use of social media in political campaigns and how they have and will (potentially) impact this cycle’s elections. Continue reading
Posted in eCampaigning
Tagged Adam Mordicai, Howard Greenstein, Joshua Levy, Noel Hidalgo, Social Media Club New York
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Will Social Networks Change Politics?
Every day, in the past two years, I have heard about MySpace and YouTube – this week, Fortune had an article on the “MySpace Boys”. YouTube founders were getting fawned over on Good Morning America and other magazines. And the impact of videos on the YouTube site are sited as contributory reasons for Lieberman’s downfall to the Lamont Internet-friendly campaign. But I would bet that when you ask any seasoned campaign professional – what will the real impact of social networks be in the political process, I believe you will hear in 2008 social networks will be a nice hype story, but the networks will not be as effective as they can be in terms of what is needed for political campaigns. And, because the campaign cycle is already upon us, campaigns will not work to use these networks effectively due to their high human cost and low return. Continue reading