2012 Presidential Campaign Blog

Obama for America Campaign Launches "Greater Together" Website For Young Americans Age 18 to 29

Obama for America Campaign Launches Greater Together

CHICAGO – Obama for America announced today the launch of “Greater Together,” a campaign initiative designed to engage young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29.

Greater Together is an arm of Operation Vote, whose mission is to expand the electorate and to maximize participation from crucial constituencies – including young Americans. 

President Obama kicked off the launch with a sharable video asking young people to get involved once again in the political process and to help him finish what they all started together.  The campaign also launched its website for young people www.barackobama.com/young-americans. 

Young Americans shattered records in 2008 with the highest youth voter turn-out in American history.   Greater Together will build on this by working across campaign departments – from digital outreach, to grassroots organizing and voter registration efforts — to target new voters and return voters, including high school, college and non-college youth and young professionals. 

“Young Americans made a game-changing impact in 2008 and their participation in 2012 will be a defining issue in this campaign.  Young Americans know that we can’t cut our way to prosperity and that the best way to restore economic security for the middle class and to keep America competitive is to build an economy that is built to last where we out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, ” said campaign manager Jim Messina. 

Leading this effort will be National Youth Vote Director, Valeisha Butterfield-Jones, and National Youth Vote Deputy Director, Eric Zoberman (bios below).

Valeisha Butterfield-Jones has developed and led award-winning programs targeting American youth for national non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies for more than a decade.  She is the Founder of the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network and served as the Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a national non-profit organization focused on voter education, registration and GOTV programs for young adults 18 - 35 years of age.  From 2009-011 she served in Department of Commerce as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the International Trade Administration.  Butterfield-Jones is a North Carolina native and graduate of Clark Atlanta University.  Follow her on Twitter at @valeisha.

A Chicago native and veteran of the 2008 campaign, Eric Zoberman, joined then Senator Obama's Iowa Caucus team in June 2007, shortly after graduating from the University of Maryland.  He traveled the country working in Field and Press during the Primary and was the Field Director for St. Louis County, Missouri during the General Election.  Following President Obama's inauguration, Eric was tapped to lead United We Serve, the new administration's national service initiative.  During the 2010 election cycle, Eric followed his passion for organizing students in his capacity as Field Director for Rock the Vote, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that fosters civic engagement amongst new voters.  Follow him on Twitter @EZobes.

Iowa Democratic Party launches iPhone application for the 2012 Iowa Caucuses

IDP launches iPhone application for the 2012 Iowa Caucuses
Easier than ever for Iowans to Commit to Caucus

DES MOINES – Continuing to find innovative ways to involve Iowans in the caucus process, the Iowa Democratic Party today announced an application available for the iPhone. The application makes it easier than ever for Iowan’s to commit to caucus and stay up to date with Iowa Democratic Party news and even download driving directions to their caucus location.

“This is another first for the Iowa Democratic Party and we’re very excited to make it easier than ever for Iowans to get involved,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky. “Iowans know what’s at stake in this election and as we approach the First in the Nation Iowa Caucuses we’ll continue to use new technology and grassroots organizing to raise awareness and encourage Iowans to get involved.”

The application, IowaDems, is available as a free download in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. Current features include a feed of the latest Democratic Party news, volunteer sign up, a commit to caucus function, and a caucus locator. As caucus locations are finalized, the application will provide the user with their precinct’s caucus location and access driving directions on the iPhone.

The Iowa Democratic Party developed the application entirely in-house. An Android compatible version of application is also being developed and is expected to be available soon.

In 2012, a new world for online campaigning | StarTribune.com

“Pawlenty, Bachmann and other presidential hopefuls have new tools to reach supporters.” Article by: JEREMY HERB, Star Tribune

In 2012, a new world for online campaigning | StarTribune.com

Gatorworks Hired To Redesign RonaldReagan.com

Gatorworks Hired to Redesign RonaldReagan.com

Gatorworks, the award-winning web design team from Baton Rouge, recently redesigned the website for former President Ronald Reagan: www.RonaldReagan.com. The website will be used to help promote the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference and Reagan Centennial Celebration to be held in New Orleans later this year.
 
The conference is billed as the most prominent Republican event prior to the next national convention. Top Republican law makers from around the country are expected to be at the conference in June 2011.

IAB Announces Winners of ‘Rising Stars’ Competition; New Brand-Friendly Ad Formats Aim to Spur Greater Creativity in Interactive Advertising

“PALM SPRINGS, CA (February 28, 2011) — In a sustained effort to spur greater creativity in interactive advertising and speed adoption of new brand-friendly ad formats, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the six winners of its “Rising Stars” Competition. These new-to-the-market formats will be named IAB Standard Ad Units following six months of in-market validation. A pool of 36 innovative submissions came from more than two dozen companies. The Rising Stars contest kicked off at the MIXX Conference & Expo in September 2010, when the IAB put out a call for new standard ad units that would encourage engagement with viewers on their terms and allow people to participate confidently with brands.”

IAB Announces Winners of ‘Rising Stars’ Competition; New Brand-Friendly Ad Formats Aim to Spur Greater Creativity in Interactive Advertising

New Freedom Foundation Of Minnesota Website Unveiled

New Freedom Foundation of Minnesota Website Unveiled

The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota is happy to announce the launch of its new and improved website! The new site is more interactive and easier than ever to navigate. Find the latest FFM studies and Accountability Alerts, register for upcoming events, and stay connected to FFM via social networking sites. Visit the site at FreedomFoundationMN.com

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series
New phones designed for life in motion to debut at holiday 2010.
 
BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 15, 2010 — Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.

“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Designed for Life in Motion

With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.

Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.

Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:

• People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
 
• Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.
 
• Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
 
• Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
 
• Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
 
• Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.

Availability

Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010.

Digital SLR Owners Rejoice, Microsoft’s Latest Flash Memory Technology Now Available for License

Microsoft’s Latest Flash Memory Technology Now Available for License
Industry leaders Sony, Canon and Sanyo among first to take advantage of Microsoft’s exFAT file system.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 10, 2009 — In response to widespread interest from consumer device-makers around the world, Microsoft Corp. is announcing a flexible licensing program for its Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) technology. The latest generation of Microsoft’s file system, exFAT delivers a significant leap forward in terms of the size of files that can be stored on a broad range of consumer electronic devices, and the speed with which they can be accessed. The exFAT technology is already being adopted by partners in the industry, and these manufacturers are using the licensing program to deliver a richer and more seamlessly integrated media experience for their customers.

“There has been an explosion in the use of rich audio and video files,” said David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property Licensing at Microsoft. “exFAT is an ideal file system that delivers fast and reliable use of audio and video files. It is an important technology in Windows 7, and now that we are licensing this technology broadly to the industry, we want to encourage and support partners to build products that also contain this technology.”

exFAT is the modern version of its predecessor, the FAT system, and greatly expands the size of files that flash memory devices can handle. The exFAT file system not only facilitates large files for use of audiovisual media, it enables seamless data portability and an easy interchange between desktop PCs and consumer electronic devices. In specific terms, the exFAT file system does the following:

• Enables future growth in media capacities, increasing support from 32 GB up to 256 TB
• Handles more than 4,000 RAW images, 100 high-definition (HD) movies, or 60 hours of HD recording in a single directory
• Speeds up file saves of Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) cards to achieve their full 300MBps speed using modern storage allocation techniques
• Supports interoperability with future desktop operating systems
• Provides an extensible format, including OEM-definable parameters to customize the file system for specific device characteristics

“Consumers want a richer media storage experience, and we chose the exFAT file system for our SDXC memory card specification because of its incredible potential,” said James Taylor, president of the SD Association. “The exFAT file system supports large volumes, large files and better contiguous on-disk layout, which supports the SD Association’s plans for the SDXC specification to provide consumers with quicker transfer speeds, support for very large files and seamless portability among devices. We look forward to incorporating the technology into our products.”

Three-Quarters Of Internet Users Went Online During The 2008 Election For News And Information

The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008
By Aaron Smith, Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Three-quarters (74%) of internet users went online during the 2008 election to take part in, or get news and information about the 2008 campaign. This represents 55% of the entire adult population, and marks the first time the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that more than half the voting-age population used the internet to connect to the political process during an election cycle.

We call these individuals "online political users," and we employed three separate metrics to identify them:

• Going online for news about politics or the campaign. Fully 60% of internet users did this in 2008.
• Communicating with others about politics using the internet. Some 38% of internet users talked about politics online with others over the course of the campaign.
• Sharing or receiving campaign information using specific tools, such as email, instant messaging, text messages or Twitter. Fully 59% of internet users used one or more of these tools to send or receive political messages.

If a respondent answered "yes" to any of the above questions, s/he was included in the overall population of people we counted as online political users in 2008. Of course, many respondents said "yes" to several of the online activities, but they were counted only once as a member of the online political user group.

This post-election survey finding comes after a similar poll in the spring of 2008. At that time, our survey found than 46% of Americans were online political users. In 2004, using a somewhat different set of metrics to define online political users, we found that they comprised 37% of the adult population.

As the online political news audience has grown, the importance of the internet has increased relative to other news sources.

Six-in-ten internet users went online for news or information about politics in 2008. This represents 44% of all American adults. Nearly one-fifth of the online population got political news on a daily basis during the campaign, as 12% of internet users said they got political news every day and 7% said they did so multiple times over the course of typical day. All told, the overall size of the political news audience has more than doubled since the 2000 elections.

As the overall size of the online political news audience has grown, the internet has taken a front-and-center role within the media environment. Among the entire population, the internet is now on par with newspapers as a major source of campaign news -- 26% of all adults get most of their election news from the internet, compared with 28% who get their election news from newspapers -- although television remains the dominant source of political news in this country.
For internet users and those under the age of 50, the internet plays an even more central role. Fully 35% of those who use the internet get most of their election news online (compared with 25% who point to newspapers), while 34% of both 18-29 year olds and 30-49 year olds rely on the internet, compared with the 20% of those in each age group who rely on newspapers as a major source of campaign news.

This trend is even more pronounced among those internet users with a broadband connection at home. They are twice as likely to use the internet as they are newspapers to get political news.

Politically-active internet users are moving away from news sites with no point of view to sites that match their politics views; this is especially true among younger voters.

Fully a third of online political users (33%) now say that when they get online political information most of the sites they visit share their point of view -- up from 26% who said that in 2004. This rise in partisan information-seeking matches a decline in the number of online political users who say most of the sites they visit do not have a particular point of view. In 2004, 32% of online political users said most of the sites they visited had no particular point of view and that percentage dropped to 25% in 2008. There was no difference between 2004 and 2008 in the number of online political users who said most of the sites they visit challenge their point of view.

Both Democrats and Republicans are now more likely to gravitate towards online sites with an explicitly partisan slant than they were in 2004. Fully 44% of Democratic online political users (up from 34% in 2004) and 35% of Republican online political users (up from 26% in 2006) now say that they mostly visit sites that share their political point of view. However, the biggest change between elections occurred among the young. In 2004, 22% of online political users ages 18-24 said most of the sites they visit shared their views. That doubled to 43% of online political users in that age range in 2008.

Those who are most information hungry are the most likely to browse sites that match their views. Politically interested internet users have access to a wealth of political content online, along with new tools for finding, customizing and filtering highly targeted political commentary. As a result they are delving more deeply into the "long tail" of online political content, where they frequently seek out information that carries a distinct partisan slant and comes from sources beyond traditional news content.

In this survey, we asked online political users whether they got political news or information from 13 specific online sources. Although the most commonly mentioned sources of online political news are traditional media sites, online news consumers also sought out a wide range of non-traditional content-from portal news sites to user-generated content such as blogs and commentary sites. In total, nearly half of online news consumers accessed five or more different online types of news content in 2008.

This greater involvement with the online political debate seems to change some users' relationship to news content. As online political users get deeper into the world of online politics (whether by visiting a wider range of news sources or taking part in a wider range of political activities) they exhibit a pronounced shift towards news with an explicitly partisan slant.

Obama voters took a leading role engaging in online political activism this election cycle.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain were more likely than backers of Barack Obama to be internet users (83% vs. 76%). This reflects the fact that McCain supporters and Republicans in general have higher amounts of education and income than Democrats - and those are two of the strongest predictors of internet use. However, online Obama supporters took part in a wider range of online political activities-from posting their own thoughts and comments about the election online to going online to volunteer for campaign activities or donate money.

In addition to participating in a wider range of online political activities, Obama voters also took the lead in the use of email and text messaging for political communications. Among email users, 48% of Obama voters and 38% of McCain voters received email directly from a political party or candidate for office in 2008. Additionally, among voters who use text messaging:

• 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.

When these two activities are taken together, 22% of all Obama voters (text messaging users and non-users alike) communicated with others about the campaign or got information directly from a campaign or party on their cell phone, compared with 14% of McCain voters.

Nearly one in five internet users belongs to the online political participatory class.

Voters are increasingly taking an active role in the political process by contributing their own thoughts or comments to the online debate. In 2008, nearly one in five internet users posted their thoughts, comments or questions about the campaign on a website, blog, social networking site or other online forum.

This online participatory class is composed largely of politically active young adults -- fully 30% of those who post political content online are under the age of 25, and more than half are younger than 35. Political content creation is also tightly linked with the use of social media platforms such as online social networks, video sharing sites, blogs and status update services such as Twitter.

Young Americans engage most deeply in the online political process, but online political involvement is something all generations do to some extent.

More than half of the internet users in every major age cohort took part in the political process in one way or another during the 2008 campaign. Indeed, the oldest Americans (those individuals age 65 and older) are the only age cohort for which substantially fewer than half of all members of that cohort are online political users. This is due to the relatively low levels of internet usage by seniors -- although 60% of online seniors are online political users, just 37% of seniors use the internet. As a result, 22% of the entire senior population got engaged politically online in 2008. For other age groups (including those only slightly younger than age 65) half or more of all adults took part in the online political process in 2008.

Although online political involvement is widely dispersed throughout the population, young adults tend to be the most intense of the online political user cohort. Online political users under the age of 30 are much more likely than other age groups to:

• Get customized political or campaign news (as through an RSS feed, automated email updates or a customized web page);
•  Post their own original content online;
• Take part in political activities on social networking sites.

However, other online political activities are far from dominated by the youngest of online political users. While two-thirds of online political users under the age of 30 watch online political videos, this activity is relatively popular among other age groups as well. And online political users in all age groups are equally likely to share or forward interesting political nuggets to others. Indeed, older online political users are actually the group that is most likely to forward political content or commentary to others. Since seniors are regular users of email in other contexts (such as communicating with family members) it is a small leap for these individuals to share political content.

Technology helped Americans to navigate the voting process and share their experiences at the polls.

In addition to using technology to help make sense of the campaign, voters also went online to help prepare for Election Day and to share their experiences at the polls. Fully 26% of all wired voters used the internet to help them navigate the voting process, as one in five (18%) went online to find out where to vote; 16% did so for information about absentee or early voting; and one in ten (9%) went online to find out if they were registered to vote. Young voters and those who were politically involved online during the campaign were especially likely to turn to the internet for assistance with the voting process.

Voters also jumped at the opportunity to share their experiences on Election Day with others, mainly in person and over the telephone but also using digital technologies such as email, text messaging and social networking sites. Again, young voters were especially likely to go online to share their voting day experiences relative to older voters.

These results come from a national telephone survey of 2,254 American adults between November 20 and December 4, 2008. Some 1,591 of them are internet users and 1,186 are those we call online political users. This sample was gathered entirely on landline phones. There was no extra sample of cell-phone users, who tend to be younger and slightly more likely to be internet users.

Read the full report at pewinternet.org.