text messaging

• Kind of a cool art story about a veteran with PTSD who healed by using his talents as a graffiti artist.

• Speaking of soldiers, I turned on the news this morning to a piece about soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries and the healing powers that animals can have on people. This program was started by a young soldier who served in Afghanistan and deferred studying at Harvard Med School to fight overseas and when he came back he decided to try and find solutions to these problems. He started Dog Bless You and now a philanthropist is giving away a free service animal to a soldier for every person who "likes" their facebook page.

NPR Did a story yesterday about the impact on the electorate changing demographics have. Teaser is that America is among one of the biggest and fastest demographic changes EVER. WOOT!

"It's not only a phenomenon of Phoenix and Dallas and Miami. Iowa, Utah, Nebraska are seeing substantial increases in their minority population, particularly their Hispanic population. And all of these changes are most concentrated and forceful among the young.

Today, the census tells us almost 47 percent of Americans under 18 are minority or non-white. Under 18, our youth population, will be majority minority by the end of this decade. And it kind of begs the question we're going to have to - we may have to come up with some new terminology once we are in that America."

• General Colin Powell spoke to the young people at the World Youth Peace Summit
  
• CNN does a story on concussion dangers for young athletes.
  
• In financial news, apparently the Millennial Generation is beginning to dive into the idea of the stock market. Those that are investing weren't investing before in stocks but that has doubled since 2003. We here at FM would also encourage some of those investments to be donated our way.
• Speaking of the changing market for the Millennial Generation - the rental market is taking a turn in the Twin Cities according to a report Saturday. Evidently a few years ago the majority of the rental market was made up by 30 and 40 year olds but that is changing now with Millennials taking over. Their findings, where were reported during the National Apartment Association Education Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas last month, were that wifi is critical, and renting provides a high end option to those who want fancy but can't yet afford or don't want to commit to a long-term mortgage.
• Another breaking news story about the tail end of the Millennial Generation (those born in the late 90's) it turns out the Vanity Fair cover with Justin Bieber sold the lowest ever. When asked about the cover the Vanity Fair spokesperson said "Who knew 12-year-olds didn’t buy magazines?" In the words of Perez Hilton "Umm, everyone!?!" I'd be interested to see if magazines are on their way out with Millennials and younger generations.
• In college affordability news: For Profit Colleges continue to be a train on tax dollars and run students into debt. Likely to run away and hit someone... I know it seems like I post at least a few stories like this a week but the higher ed lobby for for-profit schools is so strong that we have to do everything we can to bring to light those that are unfair and harming students.
• Student Loan means high flying career never materializes, but debt persists.
• Here's a story about how the minimum wage is boosting unemployment numbers. I expected this to be a right wing attack on the minimum wage saying we should cut it entirely because it doesn't help but this is actually starts off with a good argument for why it should be raised in New Hampshire who has legislation up to increase it to the federal standards.
  

  "New Hampshire officials may be thinking of young job seekers. Unemployment in the state averaged 18 percent for 16- to 19-year-olds in 2010. Horrible enough, though well below the national average of 25.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the minimum wage affects youths disproportionately: About half of those paid the federal minimum or less are younger than 25.

  Do penny differences really count when it comes to employment? The case that they do is stronger than it used to be, especially when it comes to less-productive workers such as teens. Particularly problematic for teens is the federal minimum wage, an old fixture of the American workplace."

  The concern I have: when the piece continues saying that the FDR set a high minimum wage saying that with more people making enough to get by they could work less hours and provide more jobs for more people. This hit companies who, the article claims, are getting less for more. I would argue that the "worker harder for less" ideology disproportionately hurts people and accounts for the significant increase in stress, anxiety, obesity, and other health problems we have in the US. When we say a 40 hour work week we're living in a disillusion. Because realistically, Americans work more like a 50+ hour work week, for 40hr pay. When you compare our work culture with those working 30-35 hour work weeks for the same pay they are much healthier than we are.

• Here's another probably Baby Boomer talking about how young people don't really know anything and that Democrats are stupid for listening/recruiting young people. Look for a full response to this later today.
• According to a new study in the UK, video games can help young people who have learning disabilities. Basically, using games that involve physical activities like the Wii and Kinect can help with motion tasks that can sometimes be difficult for those with disabilities. "Participants in the study were aged between 16 and 24 and had disabilities ranging from Down's Syndrome to autism spectrum disorders." Interesting study and a great idea for ways to help young people to be more independent despite challenges.
• DoSomething.org makes news with a new piece in Non-Profit Quarterly that details orgs that are making a difference through text messaging.
• Here's a good idea. A UK piece talks about apprenticeships for young musicians who want to get into the biz.

Have a great 4 day work week!

It'd be a total cliche to say that the 2008 campaign changed everything. Certainly there was change, and it happened on a wide level. It will take us a couple years, perhaps longer, to digest the meaning of this election and the two year campaign that preceded it. But there are a few things trickling in already that signify its importance. One of these is the text messaging army the Obama campaign built. NDN describes just how big this technological revolution was/is.

A million people signed up for Obama's text-messaging program. On the night Obama accepted the Democratic nomination at Invesco Field in Denver, more than 30,000 phones among the crowd of 75,000 were used to text in to join the program. On Election Day, every voter who'd signed up for alerts in battleground states got at least three text messages. Supporters on average received five to 20 text messages per month, depending on where they lived -- the program was divided by states, regions, zip codes and colleges -- and what kind of messages they had opted to receive.

NDN goes on to remind us of their prophetic white paper, "Mobile Media in 21st Century Politics," from 2006.

Imagine this very realistic scenario: In the heat of the 2008 election, 1 million activists – all of them connected in a collaborative web both on their PC's and their mobiles – conspire in a collective act of mobile democracy.

...let's say a candidate has emerged that "gets" the power of the Internet and its mobile cousin. All their traditional media and Internet action combines with a call to mobile action. No speech ends without a call for those listening to join the campaign on their mobile phones – then and there. And this candidate has inspired a small portion of his base - 1 million people - to each devote ten minutes of their time to mobile action for the Presidential campaign.

I think that then-Senator Obama must have been doing some reading.

The words "collaborative" and "collective" in that white paper excerpt above really stand out to me. Obama saw the importance of running a campaign in a way that underscored his unity rhetoric. Obama saw Web 2.0 and mobile technology and immediately recognized it as the opportunity to redefine our politics. While we've grown up in an uber-fragmented society thanks to our Boomer parents, the overwhelming number of Millennials carrying cell phones is a tremendous opportunity for rebuilding community. Obama talked about working together just like any other politician; but for once, someone was able to show people how to do it, not just with words, but by the campaign's actions.

Yes, the number one million is certainly impressive and important. But what's more critical is that we're seeing the opportunity for Millennial values to be channeled into the political dialogue thanks to this technological development. 2008 contained several cataclysmic events. One of those is certainly the emergence of text messaging as a campaign tool.

Update II: This is also confirmed in Montana. While most people won't be fooled by this, the influx of first time voters, many connected to the election via Obama's text program, and reports of long lines conveyed by these texts, could depress turnout.

Update: Florida is confirmed and the message is much the same as that from the George Mason email. No word on where these are originating.
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Stories are beginning to break that young voters - particularly students - are receiving fraudulent emails and text messages that provide misinformation about the day, time and location that students should vote.

Ben Smith reports on an email sent to George Mason University students:

A George Mason University student forwards over a pair of emails that went out to the student body of the Virginia school:

First:

-----Original Message-----
From: ANNOUNCE04-L on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 1:16 AM
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Election Day Update

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

And then:

-----Original Message-----
From: Office of the Provost on behalf of Office of the Provost
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 8:08 AM
To: PROVOSTOFFICE-L@mail04.gmu.edu
Subject: Urgent Voting Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it. Please be reminded that election day is today, November 4th.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

In Austin and Houston, young voters are receiving text messages saying that Obama supporters should vote tomorrow do to long lines.

I'm also hearing - and various people are working to confirm - that young voters in Florida and Montana are receiving similar text messages. I'll update you when we get confirmation on this.

Mobile Marketing Watch reports that Rock the Vote and ChaCha, a "mobile answers service" are teaming up to provide SMS answers to all your election questions:

ChaCha, a unique “mobile answers” service, has teamed with “Rock The Vote” to engage and inform voters as well as provide voting, polling and other related information for the upcoming November 4 election. With the knowledge of Rock The Vote, combined with the streamlined delivery of ChaCha, users can simply text-in their questions about the election, and receive an instant response.

Here’s how it works: users can send questions to RTVOTE (788683) and politically trained ChaCha Guides will provide informed, non-partisan answers via SMS within minutes. Potential voters can learn everything from where their polling place is, to the positions taken by the candidates on everything from energy to taxation. You can also access the service by calling 1-800-2ChaCha as well.

In theory, this sounds great. In practice, it doesn't work out so well. In light of all the recent stories about student voter suppression in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Montana, I decided to test the system out with a voting rights question. This was my text:

I am a student. What do I do if they won't let me vote?

That seemed like a reasonable request from a student who might be nervous about their registration or eligibility, or problems at the polling place. Within ten minutes I had a response:

You have to be 18 yrs of age to vote. If you are a student attending school, you can vote after school.

Not exactly a helpful answer, especially considering amount of pertinent information easily available on the Rock the Vote website. They didn't even give me the 1-866-OUR-VOTE election protection hotline . . . This service needs some more beta testing and a little more training before they roll out it.

While many were disappointed that they got their text message announcing Barack's choice of Joe Biden to be his runningmate at 3:04 AM (and in a third-person, non-Barack voice), I'm still waiting for my text after having signed up late.

The reason I signed up late was that I thought it was kind of lame. It was certainly smart as an organizing tool. And it continues the Obama campaign's appeal to Millennials, even if it was apparent the text came from a machine instead of Barack himself.

But I remembered 2004, when Kerry attempted to announce his runningmate. While good in theory, as the Kerry campaign was probably able to gain several thousand email addresses, the press scooped his selection of John Edwards before his supporters could be fed the secret information. By the time they got the email, it served as one more echo of the news the mainstream media had already trumpeted.

All along I was hesitant to sign up because I figured that, in the end, this text message would become just as irrelevant. Today's news media would simply not allow a text message or an email to notify the world about the choice made. I figured I'd end up reading about it on the internet somewhere anyway, and the Obama campaign already has every piece of information it would need about me anyway. I ended up signing up just to be a part of it all, but again, to me, the text message was lame.

What did you think? (Below is a photo on techPresident of David All's text received from the Obama campaign.)

News you can use:

• According to research commissioned by EMILY'S List, Obama leads McCain among women aged 18 - 27 by 30 points (62 - 32%).
• If you haven't seen it already, The Washington Post has a very good piece profiling Tripple O: Obama's Online Operation.
• Allison Fine on why oldschool nonprofits need Millennials, but Millennials don't necessarily need them.
• Rachel Maddow needs help coming up with a name for her new show. Go give her good suggestions.
• Ashwin Madia, one of the youngest congressional candidates in the country, blasts Joe Lieberman on Iraq. Ashwin is one of the young candidates endorsed by the Young Voter PAC.
• Rock the Vote is teaming up with X Box Live to register voters who use the game console. Next time you get booted out of Halo for betraying the jackass flinging insults at you, go to the Dashboard and get your vote on.
• The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the format for each of the three debates. Some free-form discussion periods could be interesting. The internet stuff sounds lame. I'm sticking to my original review: wasted opportunity.
• Heather Smith offers a brief history of Texting in Rock the Vote's voter registration campaigns.
• Howard Dean was in Nevada recently trying to rally young voters around the Democratic Party.
• Check out this widget from Progressive Future. Pretty cool:

In case you missed it . . .

• A loophole in Ohio voting law that will allow for one-stop registration and voting this fall could be a huge boon to Obama (and young voters) in the state.
• Yesterday activists launched a campaign on Facebook against Evan Bayh as the potential VP pick called 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh. You would already know this if you were friends with Future Majority on Facebook.
• Huckabee youth group "Huck's Army" is now recruiting for McCain.
• Future Majority friend, activist, and videographer "noneck" Noel Hidalgo was deported from China this week for filming protests in Tiananmen Square. Noel and his crew might be following me around during the DNC convention producing video for FM. Let's hope it doesn't get quite so dicey in Denver.
• Jared Polis won his primary in Colorado and will go on to become the next Democratic congressman in his district. Not only that, he is the first openly gay candidate elected to congress and he may well be one of - if not the - youngest congressman in the country. I'm proud to have had Jared as a guest in our live blog series. Congrats to him and everyone who worked on the campaign.
• I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but in the next few days, Barack Obama will announce his VP nominee via text message. This was a great idea on their part. They probably received thousands of cell phone numbers that can now be used to get out the vote in November via text.
• The New York Times has more on that in Garret Graff's op-ed about text messaging in the Presidential campaign.
• Blender asked the candidates about their favorite songs. John McCain - what happened to Usher? I thought he was your favorite artist?
• The Washington Post has the skinny on the hottest parties at the DNC.
• In Nevada, a 22 year old is running against an incumbent state Senator who has held office since 14 years before his challenger was born.
• The Wall Street Journal finally picked up on James Fowler's study of the Colbert Bump.
• Generation Vote has a put together a Youth policy platform.
• The Post Chronicle has some thoughts about what Obama's youth supporters need to do post-election day.
• Tom Friedman actually wrote a decent piece about McCain's energy policy.
• It's Getting Hot in Here explains the whole "Gang of 10" energy compromise and why it's a win for Obama.
• David Burstein of 18 in '08 explains the significance of just one vote.
• Medill reports that this may be the geekiest of all conventions.
• Wow:

Rock the Vote has been testing text message reminders and their influence on voter registration. They're finding that, when combined with their online voter registration tool, text message reminders to complete the registration process can boost registration rates by 4%:

Thousands of people download voter registration forms every day from Rock the Vote, but they don't necessarily know the voter registration deadline for their state. We're all busy and it can sometimes take people a few days or weeks before they print and mail the registration form. One of the programs we've been testing during the primaries is the use of text messages to remind young people of their registration deadline. Our early evaluation results indicate that these reminders boosted registration rates of our registrant list by about 4% points!

...

We now have updated voter files for Pennsylvania and Indiana and can evaluate our reminders in those states. In Pennsylvania 68.4% of the treatment group was registered compared to 64.5% of the control group - the text message reminder increased registration rates by about 3.9 percentage points. In Indiana the reminder boosted registration by about 4.1% points. When we combine these two tests and add statistical controls we find that the average increase of 4.1% points is statistically significant, so the increased registration is unlikely to be due to random chance.

It appears that text message voter registration reminders can have a big impact on motivating people to send in their registration forms, presumably because voter registration deadlines are not well-known. This result is in line with related research conducted in 2006 which found that text messages were an effective Get Out the Vote (GOTV) tactic - increasing turnout by about 3% points among new registrants.

Update: I've added CIRCLE's results for Maryland.

The results are in from yesterday's Potomac Primary:

In Virginia, young voters made up 14% of the Democratic electorate, up from 8% in 2004. Young voters chose Obama 76 to 24 percent. According to CIRCLE (pdf), 187,682 young voters went to the polls yesterday (Democrat and Republican), a turnout rate of 16%. Turnout for the entire electorate was 26%.

Continuing the trend in turnout, far more young people participated in the Democratic than Republican primary. Youth turnout for Democrats was 134,968, almost triple the 52,714 young voters who participated in the GOP primary. Once again, Republican voters also chose Mike Huckabeee as their candidate, 45 - 39 over John McCain.

In Maryland, the youth vote was 14% of the total Democratic share of the electorate, also up from 8% in 2004. They chose Obama 64 percent to 33 percent. According to CIRCLE (pdf), 137,997 17 - 29 year olds participated in yesterday's primaries, and the youth turnout rate increased to 15 percent, up from 11 percent in 2000.

More than triple the amount of young voters participated in the Democratic Primary as the GOP primary. There were 104,260 18 - 29 year olds who cast their ballot in the Democratic contest compared to just 3,737 for the GOP.

Also of note in Maryland is that progressive netroots candidate Donna Edwards won her primary challenge against incumbent Al Wynn. As Chris Bowers notes over at Open Left:

Huge night for progressive movement: With every precinct coming in with at least a 10% improvement for Edwards over 2006, let me reiterate this point: the new primary voters who are coming out for Barack Obama are also going to result in the first progressive displacement of a centrist, corporate, congressional Democrat via a primary in years. This it it. This is what we have been working for and building for. This is our emerging majority. We finally have the organization, and the voters, and the whole ball of wax. The movement has thoroughly come of age.

Young voters played a part in that.

• The Nation notes the negative impact that complex voter registration laws have on youth turnout.
• The Wall Street Journal makes sense of the race for delegates in the Democratic nominating contest.
• Threat Level, the Wired politics blog, has a great piece in which Sarah Stirland interviews participants in the MTV/MySpace Super Dialogue about how online organizing is changing politics.
• NetSquared interviews Ben Rigby of Mobile Voter about his new book, analyzing best practices in online advocacy. Definitely worth a read.