K Street Cafe

Are Net-Neutrality-Advocating Redditors About to Start a PAC? (Tech President)
A discussion of whether users of a social bookmarking service can transfer their online common interests into a mix of online and offline political activism.

Foursquare Propels Local Homelessness Advocacy Effort (ClickZ)
The Urban Ministries of Durham to use Foursquare to raise awareness of homelessness.

Did Facebook Just Sound the Death Knell for Groupon and Foursquare? (Fast Company)
Facebook recently stepped into the space previously dominated by Foursquare, Gowalla and Groupon.

YouTube Withdraws Muslim Cleric’s Videos (The New York Times)
After pressure from American and British officials, YouTube has taken down hundreds of videos featuring calls to jihad.

Much noise is being made about the latest use of Foursquare in political campaigns – this time in the race for Chicago’s next mayor.

According to a recent Mashable post, “Digital marketing firm Proximity is inviting residents of the city to check in regularly at a Foursquare venue called “City of Chicago — Mayoral HQ.” A quick Google search reveals the location to be 410 N. Michigan Ave., which also happens to be Proximity’s corporate address.

Whoever becomes Foursquare’s mayor of “City of Chicago — Mayoral HQ” on Nov. 1 will receive the following from Proximity: “ ‘the marketing support necessary to be officially placed on the ballot’ when Chicago elects its new Mayor this February.”

While social media can be a powerful tool to connect the voting public to those running for office, is Proximity’s stunt really the best way to show off the use of social media in politics?  Elected service is not easy, and running for office isn’t a game, despite what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert may want us to think. But their business is comedy, and Proximity’s business isn’t. Shouldn’t political professionals – and social media professionals as well – take things just a bit more seriously and not open our democracy up to even more public mockery and degradation than it already receives?

Or maybe, since everyone has the right to run for office, am I over-reacting to what is essentially a fun publicity stunt?

Three Best Ways to Use Location-Based Social Media (The Wall Street Journal)
Tips for making the most out of Facebook Places & other location-based social media.

What Does Gmail’s Priority Inbox Mean for Political Emails?
(Tech President)
Automated prioritization of emails may change the way organizations campaign, fundraise and communicate online.

Written by Kate Kaye, ClickZ Politics & Advocacy

Political campaigns are stuck on Facebook, and one Washington, D.C.-based digital consultancy aims to help them put engagement on the social site to use in more ways than simply collecting “likes.” Republican agency Engage has developed a set of tools for combining Facebook, social games, and Foursquare-style action-based incentives to driven online and offline activism.

Corporate brands from restaurants to retailers have taken to Foursquare, Gowalla, and other location-based services to capitalize on the check-in fad, awarding consumers with special symbols displaying their visitation prowess, and often with discounts or freebies. Engage’s Multiply product isn’t exactly a check-in service, but it takes a cue from those mobile-centric loyalty programs to build community and inspire activism for door-to-door canvassing, fundraising events, get-out-the-vote efforts, and other key activities driving political campaigns. The tools allow campaigns to attach a system for awarding prize points and badges to their sites, and connect with Facebook’s social graph to encourage sharing among supporters’ social networks.

The notion of awarding incentives to super-supporters is nothing new. The Democratic and Republican parties, as well as individual campaigns often honor their big fundraisers – if not just with cool names and bragging rights, than with parties or other prizes.
The tool helps campaigns track individual volunteer actions, virtual and in-person – from sharing a link on Facebook or donating cash to door-knocking. “The actions that score points and the number of points are flexible from organization to organization,” said Mindy Finn, a partner at Engage. Staffers can make note of who performs a real-world task and upload that information to the system, which in turn awards points. “For example, if there was a phone bank at headquarters, [you could] award 50 points to anyone who attended,” said Finn.

While points and badges are rewards for volunteers, data is the primary reward for campaigns. As the Multiply page on Engage’s site states, “User scores let you target your supporters by likelihood to take action – tied to their phone number, email, and Facebook ID.” The firm is pushing its Data Manager upgrade, which allows campaigns to “collect form data on your site and score every single action or form submission.” Part of the Engage pitch also involves volunteers registering with Multiply.

To read the entire article on ClickZ, click here.

Ask.com Returns To Answering Questions, Web 2.0 Style (Wired)
Following in the footsteps of Yahoo Answers and Cha Cha, Ask.com re-brands itself as a question answering service.

Are Location-Based Services All Hype? (Read Write Web)
A new study released today indicates that consumers are slow to catch on to location-based services such as Foursquare.

Foursquare Checks Into Politics With C-SPAN (brandchannel)
Foursquare and C-SPAN partner to allow users to tap into C-SPAN content that has been geotagged as relevant to their location.

Newspapers Are Still Dying, But the News Is Not Going Anywhere (Mashable)
Even though newspaper share prices saw a 380% increase last year, one blogger believes the only way for newspapers to survive is by investing resources into online innovation.

Last week at the Politics Online Conference, I sat on a panel where the question of e-mail versus social media was posed.  Is social media replacing e-mail?  Are members who join through social media more or less valuable than members collected via e-mail?
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I was inspired by Amanda Phraner’s post, Foursquare for Advocacy. I have been using Foursquare for nearly a year now and love it (in fact I am the Mayor of Toscana West on I St, NW, DC between 13th and 14th… great place for lunch in the bar).

The idea of using Foursquare for advocacy makes a lot of sense, taking the flash mob notion to another level. Because Foursquare lets you post the address where you are and a brief comment, it is a great way to tell the world about demonstrations, events, and other activist activities you want people to join.

This has great potential, and it doesn’t matter that there are only 1 million Foursquare users, which is rather a lot, anyway. Not only is Foursquare mobile, allowing you to check in from anywhere, but it can post your check-in message and address to Twitter and Facebook. This immediately reaches out to all of your followers and friends and taps into the viral potential we all know and love.

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