January 14, 2004
(Updated) Tom Potter Launches Community-Based Campaign Website
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Yesterday, Tom Potter's mayoral campaign launched a new website using the DeanSpace software originally developed for use by supporters of Howard Dean's presidential campaign.
According to the DeanSpace website, the software (based upon Drupal but "enhanced" for use by grassroots political campaigns) is intended to provide groups "with a place to post announcements, an online sign-up form, a shared calendar, and a photo gallery."
Under the new format, readers also have the option of creating user accounts which grant them access to a wider set of features, including user weblogs hosted directly on the Potter campaign website.
More information is forthcoming on what the campaign hopes to accomplish through this new site, once the appropriate contact person gets back to me. Ah, the difficulty in publishing in a format that can be so immediate, in a world where one has to wait to hear back from relevant parties.
Update
In a comment via email late this evening, Adrian Russell-Falla from the Potter camp placed Potter's new website within the larger context of the campaign's expressed philosophy:
Tom Potter's candidacy is very different than that of a traditional political operator like Jim Francesconi: Tom stands for involvement, and bringing large numbers of us together. Tom made a personal decision on Day One to set a maximum contribution limit for his campaign of $25 per person, so participation is accessible to an extremely large percentage of citizens.
...
We hope the platform will allow a broader, livelier discussion among the electorate during the campaign than has ever happened before. We hope it will help people recognize that our campaign directly reflects the values of Tom Potter himself: inclusive, sincere and of the highest integrity; totally committed to community government as a core philosophy; and that we consider maximizing the accessibility and accountability of government to all of us to be of maximum importance.
Russell-Falla said that the Potter campaign is not "about a standard 'broadcast model' of communication," is "a completely grass-roots movement, encouraging large volumes of dialogue between members," and contrasted it with "the big-money-fueled radio and TV ad barrages, backed by lame political brochureware on the web, for which static HTML tech is adequate" utilized by Potter's opponents.
Comments (1)
Adrian Russell-Falla on 15 Jan 2004
thanks, b!X.
to any readers who are interested and willing, we're looking for tech-savvy volunteer help, so we can grow our Net capabilities forward faster.
if you have SQL expertise, especially familiarity with MySQL back-ending Access clients via MyODBC; XML-RPC experience; search-engine placement chops, or Drupal sysadmin experience, we'd love to get your help. email me at adrianrf@tomformayor.org.