It's true. Joe Rospars (pic left by Washington Post) was credited with having built the web-machine that helped get Barack Obama elected in November. Based partly on this success, his company, Blue State Digital, is now securing major contracts with political organisations all over the world.
Its promise: "we'll help you to... rally support for your cause, build a constituency, raise money onine, drive the debate, manage your chapters or get your candidate elected".
The contract couldn't be clearer: give us a huge premium fee (starting at €35,000, but going much higher) and we'll give you a slice of what made Obama's site so good.
How, then, does Rospars explain this? For those seeing this outside Ireland, this is the "new" website of Ireland's largest political party, Fianna Fail, worked on by Rospars and Blue State Digital.
As is apparent, sections of the site have little or no content in them, the Irish gaelic version of the site just simply does not work, and much of the site is already falling badly behind.
This is what you pay Joe Rospars and Blue State Digital a fortune for? A bare bones website where some basic elements don't even work?
What a con.
Not to mention it's hosted now in the USA. So the government are so concerned with keeping Irish jobs that they think paying 35k+ for a new website to a US company and it's not even hosted within this jurisdiction. Does that make _any_ sense at all? Way to promote Irish jobs, outsource your web development and hosting to the US. I won't be voting Fianna Fail again, that's for sure.
Posted by: Paul Kelly | March 02, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I'm not that impressed with any of the Irish political party sites, but the FF one is simply odd. Why on earth is the Polish language section so prominent? Why do they have a twitter section down the bottom of the main page that doesn't have any actual hyperlinks?
Posted by: Michele Neylon | March 02, 2009 at 11:43 AM
My guess is that FF have been given a CMS and just haven't populated it with data yet.
Posted by: ajh | March 02, 2009 at 01:29 PM
The last two lines really struck a chord with me:
"This is what you pay Joe Rospars and Blue State Digital a fortune for? A bare bones website where some basic elements don't even work?
What a con."
With a little substitution:
"This is what you pay Brian Cowen and Fianna Fail a fortune for? A bare bones government where some basic elements don't even work?
What a con."
Posted by: Francis Mahon | March 02, 2009 at 02:55 PM
In their defence, they do more than web design so there might be digital comms activity we haven't seen. For example, here's an article on what the Communication Workers' Union in the UK ave hired them to do in terms of instant communication with supporters and online petitioning against the plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/02/tradeunions-media
Posted by: Piaras Kelly | March 02, 2009 at 06:24 PM
He obviously didn't train FF leaders how to respond to e-mail campaigns(http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0303/1224242151365.html?digest=1). In response to MakeRoom's email campaign, Junior Minister Michael Finneran has told those participating that there emails are hurting the very people they want to help. How? By diverting them away from the streets where they are servicing the homeless back to their desks to respond to emails.
People should realise that political respresentatives don't have time to talk with them unless it is election time, seems to be his message.
Joe Rospars says the technology supports the existing communication strategy. But why waste all that money if you don't actually want to (or know how to) engage/respond to your constituents, customers, or whatever.
If you say you want to open up a communication channel directly with people don't get angry when they use it.
Posted by: pk | March 03, 2009 at 10:01 AM
what about their email phishing, thats they do, and categorising sigups
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/18/thomas-gensemer-online-election-campaign
then check out this guardian story about their work in the uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/26/bnp-griffin-obama-election-bsd
"has sent thousands of emails asking each recipients to forward it to five friends and make a small donation. The software means campaigners can then track who opens the emails, where they are sent and what happens when they arrive at the other end - tailoring future emails to groups and individuals"
is that a bit weird?
i thought those 'email this' options just opened your email program,
rather then opening within the browser or is this just a new use of something that many webpages have had for ages.
do they keep that info?
Privacy Policy | Fianna Fáil
How sneakily are Blue State Digital tracking NGO political campaign emails ? - Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk
it seems they are trying to track the emails of the people you send the invite too...
sneaky
Posted by: sw | March 03, 2009 at 02:37 PM
http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/2009/01/are-blue-state-digital-tracking-ngo-campaign-emails.html
Posted by: sw | March 03, 2009 at 02:39 PM
im getting what blue sate do now, its about email signups and categoriing how much they want to get involved is the key, this page is what ff paid for http://www.fiannafail.ie/page/s/volunteer | Volunteer for Fianna Fáil
Who Cares Whether Your Local Politician Is On Facebook? at Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland
http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2009/0303/who-cares-whether-your-local-politician-is-on-facebook/
The Obama campaign understood that it needed to provide a variety of ways for people to be involved in the campaign based on their level of engagement. As TechPresident noted, the goal was to “provide opportunities for the most casual supporters to stay involved, while also providing more strenuous opportunities for the smaller core of activists.”
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