Netroots Nation '09: This Video Will Save Your Campaign Lots of Money

(Reposted as part of our staff picks from 2009, originally written by Will Urquhart on 8/18/2009)

This is not spam. This is not a commercial. This will seriously save your campaign money, and make it more effective at the same time.



There is a lot more to show from the "Cutting-Edge Evidence-Based Best Practices" panel. We are going to release a long version (almost the entire 1.5 hour panel), sometime over the next week or two at our Netroots Nation page.

This test, done by the Analyst Institute, reminds me of one specific mail piece. I had just come home, from door to door canvassing. I was working on a City Council race at the time, but there was a heated Mayoral race as well. There were three typical lit pieces in my mail box. Big, glossy, nice color work. All typical. Then there was one letter from one of the candidates office. It was in a normal envelope, just a black and white, typed out letter. A dear neighbor letter. At the bottom were signatures, seven of them to be exact. Each signature was from one of my neighbors, someone that lived no more than a mile from me. The letter read off a few of the reasons that these neighbors were supporting this candidate for Mayor. I cannot name a single specific detail about any of the other lit pieces. Clearly, one piece drove itself into my memory, and the others simply did not.

For more video of Netroots Nation, visit the Sum of Change NN'09 page.

Living a Double Life - Organizing in Second Life

One of the niche treats that we haven't yet shared from Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh was a panel we attended on Second Life, an online alternative universe where members create a 3d digital version of themselves, called an avatar, to live in a virtual world, that appears and operates much like our actual one. For the record I have never participated myself and probably never will, but the creative possibilities of Second Life are quite fascinating. By creating this realistic virtual world, Second Life allows people to express themselves in a world very similar to our own that they never could do in the real one. This gets played out in the creation of the avatar, for example, where one can build their appearance however they see fit, whether as an exact representation of themselves, a foil of themselves, or a dream character who they could never be in real life.

Personally I think it's nerdishly cool but pretty absurd and bizarre. Like Twitter, Second Life can be (and often is) used for personal superficial reasons, but also can be vehicles to build communities that address important social issues. Some waste time on twitter as a popularity contest, to build as many followers as possible and share every mundane insignificant detail of your life with the rest of the world, while others use it as a tool to build relationships and spread important information across the world. Anyone on twitter in the weeks after the Iran election will remember the green avatars, switching your hometown to Tehran, flooding the #IranElection and other various hashtags to make more traffic for Iranian officials to sort through while trying to locate protesters. Similarly, Second Life can be used to create an avatar that succumbs to all the excesses of life without the earthly consequences or one can use the Second Life character to make statements and connections surrounding important issues affecting the real world.

The people in these videos clearly fall into the latter category. In a variety of ways, their Avatars have taken creative but otherwise impossible actions in Second Life to confront important real world issues. They have taken advantage of the social networking possibilities Second Life offers and, in their own unique way, are taking a digital stand on actual issues...

--Connecting Second Life With Real World Small Organizations

--Second LIfe as an Immersive Educational Opportunity

--Second Life an Opportunity for Satyrical Commentary

--Building Communities with Interactive Experiences

For more videos from Netroots Nation 2009, go to www.SumofChange.com/NetrootsNation.

Brought to you by Sum of Change

Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama, Round 2

We posted a couple videos recently from the Netroots Nation panel, 'Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama'. Today we present round 2. Today's speakers are: Jodi Jacobson, Senior Political Editor for RH Reality Check, Joerg Dreweke, of the Guttmacher Institute, James Wagoner, the President and Executive Director of Advocates for Youth since September 1997, and Amanda Marcotte, blogger for Pandagon.net and RH Reality Check...









I hope you enjoyed the videos. There are more Netroots Nation videos available at our NN09 page, and more are coming.

Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama

Aimee Thorne-Thomsen on Reproductive Justice in the Age of Obama from Will Urquhart on Vimeo.

Aimee Thorne-Thomsen gave powerful opening remarks at the Netroots Nation panel, 'Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama'. In this video, she talks about the difference between reproductive rights and reproductive justice, she talks about the uncomfortable feeling of holding a decent President accountable on all issues, she talks about the importance of connecting this issue to our daily lives.

And Jodi Jacobson talks about discussing reproductive rights:



We're still working to release more videos from Netroots Nation '09 everyday. You can find a complete list of every event we filmed (we don't have video up from each event yet, but we will) at the Sum of Change NN09 page.

(VIDEO) Netroots Nation - This Video Will Save Your Campaign Lots of Money

This is not spam. This is not a commercial. This will seriously save your campaign money, and make it more effective at the same time.



There is a lot more to show from the "Cutting-Edge Evidence-Based Best Practices" panel. We are going to release a long version (almost the entire 1.5 hour panel), sometime over the next week or two at our Netroots Nation page.

This test, done by the Analyst Institute, reminds me of one specific mail piece. I had just come home, from door to door canvassing. I was working on a City Council race at the time, but there was a heated Mayoral race as well. There were three typical lit pieces in my mail box. Big, glossy, nice color work. All typical. Then there was one letter from one of the candidates office. It was in a normal envelope, just a black and white, typed out letter. A dear neighbor letter. At the bottom were signatures, seven of them to be exact. Each signature was from one of my neighbors, someone that lived no more than a mile from me. The letter read off a few of the reasons that these neighbors were supporting this candidate for Mayor. I cannot name a single specific detail about any of the other lit pieces. Clearly, one piece drove itself into my memory, and the others simply did not.

For more video of Netroots Nation, visit the Sum of Change NN'09 page.

(VIDEO) Netroots Nation Day 3: It Comes to an End

Netroots Nation '09 is over. Of course, we are still up until 5:30am (again) working on footage. Today we filmed Valerie Jarrett's conversation with Netroots Nation attendees, a keynote panel with Governor Jon Corzine, Anna Burger, Kevin Drumm, and Dean Baker, the closing keynote with Senator Jim Ferlo, Richard Tumka of the AFL-CIO, and Darcy Burner of the American Proggressive Caucus PolicyFoundation, and four more panels.



In total, two of us filmed 16 panels, and had two cameras running for every major event throughout the weekend. We filmed all day, every day, and edited all night, every night. I'm still running on about 7 hours of sleep since Wednesday. Throughout the weekend we have been posting some highlights. Over the coming weeks we will release more extensive coverage, including the entirety of several panels.

Here is a list of the panels and events that we filmed so you can get a sense of what to expect:

Thursday, August 13th
-The Myth of Post Racial America
-From Prop 8 to Full Equality in all 50 States
-Bloggers and Blue Collar Workers Unite
-How to Get the Most Out of Polling Data
-@FDR is there a New Deal?
-How to Work with Unions in Your District
-The Secret Plan to Defeat the Conserva-tives Forever
-Getting Noticed: Grassroots Media & Film Distribution Caucus
-President Bill Clinton, Welcome Keynote

Friday, August 14th
-Governor Howard Dean Healthcare Townhall
-Pennsylvannia Leadership Forum with Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak
-Congressman Joe Sestak, media availability
-Stepping it up: Creating Multiracial Alliances with Bloggers
-Science Denial and Science Policy
-Four Perspectives from the Soc. Change Blogosphere
-Organizing in Second Life and other Virtual Environment

Saturday, August 15th
-Valerie Jarret in Conversation with Baratunde Thurston
-Building a 21st Century Economy Keynote Panel with Governor Jon Corzine, Anna Burger, Kevin Drum, and Dean Baker
-Academic Studies of the Netroots
-Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama
-Cutting-Edge Evidence-Based Best Practices
-How Technology can Enhance Democracy in PBH and Beyond
-Closing Keynote with Darcy Burner, Richard Trumka, and Senator Jim Ferlo