video

My computer seems to be cooperating once more. Let's hope it holds up. Here's a quick dump of all the tabs that have collected in my browser since I left for Berkeley (the panel was great, btw - you can read a rundown here. We will have video in a week or two):

• In Newsweek, Ben Adler looks at Obama's first 100 days and finds that the President has kept many promises to young voters.
• At Tech President, Micah Sifry posts Putting Citizens First - a white paper on transforming online government.
• Over at Tech Pres sister blog PDF, Sifry has an interview with Vivek Kundra and Macon Phillips on changing online government.
• Steven Benen says that the Obama Admin wants to accomplish student lending reform via the reconciliation process.
• Matt Bai doesn't understand the value of Twitter.
• Jose Antonio Vargas writes at The Washington Post that the online lessons - and staffers - of the Obama campaign are creeping into some of this year's down-ballot campaigns.
• Nancy Scola notes that the White House videos are starting to attract more eyeballs.
• NTEN has a new report on how nonprofits are using social media.

So, like, surprise! It might not be interesting that young people are moving towards online activism, but just so that the MSM knows what's going on, I will pull out a quote from Pew's latest study, entitled, Internet's Role in Campaign 2008: "Among young voters and those with broadband connections the Internet has eclipsed traditional media like television, radio and newspapers, the survey found." That's right, the Internet has WON! (By being the most democratic, open-source place for news, information and fact-checking.)

* 49% of Obama voters shared text messages related to the campaign with others; 29% of McCain voters did so.
* 17% of Obama supporters and 7% of McCain supporters got text messages directly from a candidate or party.

This makes sense. Businesses like CREDO Mobile, a Working Assets project, link progressive organizers, activists and everyday citizens. Given that young people are the most likely demographic to own only a cell phone, outfits like CREDO and others that connect organizers to mobile phone users should stand to gain a lot as progressive activists build upon the online organizing lessons of 2008. One of those lessons is that online video works! (If you haven't checked it out already, watch FM's own Sarah Burris on why paying taxes is important--the video was picked up live on CNN yesterday.)

Video advocacy is becoming even easier, because you can broadcast from your mobile phone using Qik. The flexibility of broadcasting yourself from your mobile means that folks can spend less time behind a computer, and more time doing advocacy when and where they want. Also, videos are a better medium to reach youth of color and those in low income communities, so 2010 may be the first real test of how Qik and online videos can be used to target younger folks that are generally left out of the political process. (Shana Glickfield over at NextGenWeb.org has a nice summary of how to use video advocacy.)

The Pew study also confirms that young voters are very active politically on social networking sites, and are the most likely age group to "customize political or election news." Young folks understand that you still need to make the Internet personal. Customizing a message for a target audience, whether that be high school students or union members, helps increase the probability that they will read (and possibly re-customize and share) the message.

While many young people are digital collaborators, they still haven't forgot the power of personal communication. The 2008 election wasn't about young voters on Facebook; it was about young voters talking to each other (using any medium) about politics and the election. I'll say it again because it bears repeating if you want to work with the Millennial generation: PEER-TO-PEER works! With all of the information available today, folks need someone they can trust to help them navigate and validate that information. This means that sending a surrogate on behalf of a candidate is probably less likely to win votes than if you were to organize a group of young people to reach out to their friends and peers.

Here's video of a panel hosted by Campus Progress asking the question, "Are young people political game changers?" The panel features Kat Barr, Political Outreach Director of Rock the Vote, Amanda Carpenter, with Townhall.com, Rev. Lennox Yearwood from the Hip Hop Caucus, and David Madland, Director of the American Worker Project, Center for American Progress. It's moderated by Erica Williams of Campus Progress.

• Erica America reports that MTV is shafting their citizen journalists on their paychecks. The problem was widespread since the early days of the program, prompting a number of the original Street Teamers to resign.
• The Boston Globe notes that the Curtis Gans report I blogged about yesterday also casts some doubts on the utility of early voting.
• A New York Times Editorial alerts us to The American Veterans’ and Servicemembers’ Survival Guide, a book to help veterans navigate and get their due from the government bureaucracy. The book is put out by Veterans for America.
• As we talk about getting young people a seat at the table in the new administration, The Washington Post reminds us that Obama's chief speech writer is only 27 years old, the youngest person to ever hold the post.
• It's Getting Hot in Here reports that Hilda Solis, the new Labor Secretary, is a big Green Jobs advocate.
• Wellstone Action has published some best practices for internet organizing.
• Speaking of internet organizing, Google's DC Talks series just released two great videos on the subject. The first features Obama blogger Sam Graham-Felsen and Buffy Wicks, one of the campaign's field directors. Buffy was at Roots Camp and gave a great presentation on the Obama field strategy. The second video is a panel on open government that I have not yet had a chance to watch.

In the last few days, a number of critiques and profiles were published commenting on new/old infrastructure, the campaign(s), and where we're at as a movement. All are worth the time for those looking to get a better birds eye view of the current political landscape.

• Rolling Stone eviscerates the disasterous "No on Prop 8" campaign. In reading the piece, one gets the overwhelming sense that the No on 8 folks ran the equivalent of John Kerry's Presidential campaign to the field and fundraising savvy Bush-like campaign helmed by the Mormans.
• On Tech President, Clinton internet strategist Peter Daou discusses the Revolution of the Online Commentariat, in which he dissects radical changes that occur in politics when information is put (more) equally in the hands of million.
• While the Obama Transition Team continues to innovate, Micah Sifry wonders if the Obama for America team - who met in Chicago this past weekend to devise the future of the movement - is regressing and killing the very openness and grasroots energy that made the campaign so successful.
• Last week, the Alliance of Youth Movements met in New York. Bizarrely, almost no one I spoke to had ever heard of the conference or the groups involved. There are definitely a lot of groups out there claiming to speak for and/or organize youth. Sometime this year we're going to have to build some stronger connections between groups that attend these kinds of conferences and, say, groups that received money from major progressive donors this last election cycle. In any case, some of the conference panels were live streamed and archived. You can view them all here. (I have not yet done so, though the topics look interesting).
• The Washington Post profiles the American Constitution Society. Created to counteract the conservative Federalist Society, ACS is becoming a powerhouse for producing lefty legal thinkers. I'll have to check my copy of Youth to Power when I get home, but I'm pretty sure that David Halperin, the ED of Campus Progress, had a hand in setting up ACS back in the day.
• The New York Times notes that teenagers are getting hit hard by the economic downturn, limiting their opportunities to raise money for school and develop skills to help them in the workplace.

Check out this incredible, powerful video featuring Reynalda, a youth volunteer with New Labor in New Jersey. It reminds us what voting is all about:

And check out more up-to-the-minute news on Election Day from community organizers at our Blog:

http://www.communitychange.org/vote.

One of the shortcomings of efforts aimed at young voters has been the reliance on celebrities. There's this assumption that if a famous person tells a young person to vote, he or she will vote. That's just not true.

Peer-to-peer contact is far more effective than celebrity directives. What famous people can do is help draw attention to a topic, create content that peers might forward around, and generally create some buzz.

Two weeks ago, I was critical of a "Vote" video that relied on star-power. I thought it was bland; they repeated the same quote multiple times; they had no irony nor absurdity; and they made no effort to give reasons for voting. They just kept saying platitudes, without suggesting any real connection to the issues that draw people to the polls.

I gave my prescription. And who knew: Steven Spielberg must read the comments thread on Open Left. Because he released this video that adds a new twist. The Hollywood faces are more self-effacing; they bring a level of self-awareness that makes them more human; and, in a surprisingly authentic segment, they actually tap into issues that would propel them -- and us -- to our precincts on November 4th.

It's a little long, but here it goes:

Right? Harrison Ford makes a good point. Tom Cruise comes off as not a jerk.

Compare it -- if you have a few minutes to burn -- with the other one...which got 75,000 views.

At least Hollywood learns from its mistakes. Better than we can say for many of the industries in the news these days.

Update - I can't get the video to stop playing when the page loads, so I stuck it below the fold.

The Obama campaign just released a new two minute ad responding to the crisis. Still nothing in it specifically addressing the economic concerns of young people, but I do dig the language about helping the middle class. I think it does a pretty good job of framing Republican economic policies as anti-middle class.

Meghan McCain: "No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period."

Can we please start talking about Biden's son going to Iraq? Does he understand war? Do the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Iraq understand war? Or maybe only the ones who support her family, because every single soldier and veteran votes Republican, right?