K Street Cafe

The High Cost of Free Speech (Public Affairs Perspective)
What should organizations consider before supporting a political candidate?

What Do Voters Really Want? (California City News)
Research shows that the issues voters care about most may not be those that Congress is hearing about.

Cross-published from Epolitics.com

Maybe not yet, but AOL would certainly like political professionals to start thinking that way — with Google monopolizing search advertising and Facebook dominating the social space, AOL wants to own political display (banner) ads through its Advertising.com platform. Judging from conversations with AOL staff at a launch reception for the company’s new political advertising dashboard, AOL sees what Google and Facebook have done in the political space and sees an opportunity to build a new constituency for online display advertising, something that campaigns have tended to drop in favor of search and social advertising in recent years.

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Kicking Up Our Action Efforts: Email List (Daily Kos)
Daily Kos launches email activism program, aiming to become an “activist powerhouse.”

Don Draper’s View on Focus Groups: Ignore Them
(PR Week)
Do focus groups give a true portrayal of audience reaction to a new idea?

North Korea makes Twitter debut (Guardian)
Following the launch of their YouTube channel last month, North Korea continues digital PR efforts with a Twitter account.

B.C. Government Turns Static Intranet into a Community (Ragan)
British Columbia’s public service intranet, @Work, creates community through collaboration and engagement.

Originally published on PMPU.org.

Clay Johnson, formerly of the Sunlight Foundation, wrote in his blog recently that “online petitions are a sham.”  He even used some of our data about congressional mail volumes to help make his point.  While I think that he makes some really keen observations and puts his finger on some of the key challenges, not all online advocacy is the same.

The Congressional Management Foundation has done research with both the senders (citizens) and the receivers (congressional offices) and majorities of both believe that advocacy campaigns are good for our country.  In fact, 73% of internet users who had contacted Congress in the last five years confirmed that they thought advocacy campaigns were good for Democracy.  On the Hill, 53% of the congressional staff that responded to our survey confirmed that even they (the ones on the front lines of helping Members manage communications) thought that advocacy campaigns directed at Congress were a good thing.

What’s more, our survey of internet users found that interest groups played an integral role in how citizens learn about and communicate with Congress.  Citizens join interest groups, visit their websites, and participate in their online petitions to learn about the issues they care about and to take collective action.  However, interest groups need to realize that they occupy a key role in the connection between their activists and the Members of Congress who represent them.  With that role comes responsibility.  On the Hill, congressional staff do not have the tools that they need to quickly distill meaning from the overwhelming volume of communications that they receive on any given day.

Clay is right that there are bad actors that don’t have the facilitation of genuine dialogue as their primary motivation.  However, we can’t let a minority of interest groups negate the critical and valuable—both to citizens and Congress—role that interest groups and grassroots advocates play.  He’s also right that there are currently some significant obstacles to meaningful communication.

It is specifically because there are these challenges, that we recently launched The Partnership For a More Perfect Union to help improve the relationship and communication between citizens and Members of Congress.  Through the Communicating with Congress Project we are seeking ways to improve the channel of communication between citizens and their elected officials because it’s good for citizens, Members, and democracy.

Smartphones Nearly 20% of All Phones Sold
(Advocacy 2.0)
Smartphones sales are steadily rising, emphasizing the importance of going mobile.

FEMA Gets a New Website (Tech President)
FEMA unveils minimalist design aimed at promoting emergency preparedness.

Originally published on PMPU.org.

The Congressional Management Foundation and its Partnership for a More Perfect Union present “Inside the Hill”, a web series that allows you to hear directly from Members and staff on how technology is changing the way Congress works. It is produced by Fleishman-Hillard.

In the third installment, “How and Why Does Congress Use Twitter,” congressional staff discuss the different uses and advantages of Twitter.

Previous editions of “Inside the Hill” are also available:

Congress and New Media: The World Has Changed

What Makes An Award Winning Website

Can Case Studies and Code Chunks Help Open the Democratic Party? (Tech President)
The Democratic National Committee unveils new open-source site Open.Democrats.org aimed to increase transparency & collaboration online.

More Bloggers Throwing Hats in Ring (Politico)
Bloggers assert their power in the political arena beyond the web by running for office.

TBD.com: A First Day Look (The Huffington Post)
Local DC news site TBD.com serves as a canary in the mine for the future of journalism.

Web Plan From Google and Verizon Is Criticized
(The NY Times)
Internet regulation plan from Google and Verizon proves worrisome for some.

Republicans Debut “V1,” the New New GOP.com
(Tech President)
Republicans unveil new website with three months to go until mid-term elections.

In Congress or on Digg, Politics Is Politics (The Atlantic)
Alleged conspiracies online, such as Journolist and Digg, may not differ much from the reality of Washington.