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The <http://www.saveinternetradio.org> site now has a mailing list alert feature. Something that has been rare in online music related advocacy and so crucial to most online campaigns. It will be interesting to find out how well Wednesday's "Day of Silence" drives traffic to their site and e-mail alert network. Steven Clift Democracies Online P.S. As you can tell I am a big fan of the streaming audio, at the bottom of my message I have include an unsolicited private message I sent to the <http://www.digitalconsumer.org> and <http://www.saveinternetradio.org> sites. While I am concerned about the impact of a gazillion online advocacy campaigns and the ability to govern when representatives haven't invested in effective input accommodation tools, below is my quick list of online advocacy strategies. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Kurt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Steven Clift" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RAIN today: More webcasters sign on to "Day of Silence" Date sent: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 14:35:50 -0500 Dear Steven, The roster of broadcasters and Internet-only webcasters planning to take part in next Wednesday's Internet radio "Day of Silence" continues to grow. On May 1, hundreds of Internet and broadcast radio stations and channels will join in the protest of CARP-determined webcast royalty rates that would almost certainly decimate the industry, and press coverage is starting to develop (Rolling Stone, Playboy, USA Today, etc.). You can see the growing list of participants in today's issue of "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter," at http://www.kurthanson.com. Sincerely, Kurt Hanson Publisher RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter P.S. This is the ideal opportunity for BROADCASTERS who stream and MAJOR WEBCASTERS to join forces with the independent Internet-only webcasters in SOLIDARITY against the crippling royalty rates that the CARP has proposed! If you'd like to add your station, pllease let me know by replying to this e-mail or e-mailing me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks! ==================== My "insider" advice (I don't provide online advocacy advice as a consultant): ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 13:20:28 -0600 (CST) From: Steven Clift <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: -clip - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Left a voicemail, here are my thoughts Good luck with your efforts. How are you connecting to the music streaming issue right now? That seems to be an immediate issue you could use to get your grass roots e-base in place. I am not aware of a large one-way e-mail advocacy alert list in focused on this space. Cheers, Steven Clift http://www.publicus.net Build your e-mail alert network 1. Get the e-mail and zip code of supporters and map this information to congressional districts 2. Encourage people to sign-up on every page of your web site with a form for e-mail on every page - take them to a full completion page where they can add their zip and opt-in to congressional district/state networks (see below) 3. Consider some sort of IM field for instant organizing possibilities (i.e. Senate candidate X is in town, come down now for a mini-protest in front of the TV cameras, call this radio callin station now, jam the phones, etc.) 4. Add a tell a friend feature to encourage people to join your e- mail network, create a banner/button campaign for supporter sites that starts the e-mail submission process from the banner/button 5. Have at least one e-alert a week even if it is brief - keep people informed - most will not come back to your web site unless you tell them something useful has been added 6. Develop reasonable but aggressive e-mail network recruitment goals (i.e. 1,000 new members a week, etc.) 7. Launch your recruitment effort with a aggressive e-mail list announcement outreach campaign - find the top 100 appropriate e-mail lists and start a viral campaign - this is not spam if your tailor your message correctly Build e-citizen networks based on geography (all politics is local) 1. Encourage people to opt-into e-mail strategy lists tied to each member of Congress - 40 constituents talking to each other is ten times more powerful than 40 private e-mails/letters/faxes from those same people [Apr 29 Note: I have since learned that that Stop Esso (Exxon) <http://www.stopesso.com> campaign in the UK does this when 10 people indicate that they are boycotting the same gas station.] 2. Ask for volunteer district leaders to monitor the statements and positions of their member of congress and report that to the local e-network and create some sort of form for reporting updates to your central campaign 3. Please note that general online "petitions to the world" and web boards do not work well for political organizing (I recall monitoring the net after the first Napster court decision - the focus on web boards and chat by ticked off young people allowed the energy to be diffused without e-list alert tools that could be used to restoke the fire and coordinate message and political action at key moments - don't make that mistake with your efforts.) 4. Create a way for advocates to publicly see/compare work (i.e. bar graphs, top ten lists, etc. of letters generated to X members of congress, the # of (new) alert members per district/zip code, etc.) - use the spirit of collaborative competition 5. Generate local letters to the editor 6. Create local "to do" list for advocates - generate local TV coverage, create sample resolutions for citizens to take to their local city councils for their support in imploring Congress to act on these matters (most councils will be confused as hell by this, but it will generate some attention and give advocates a sense of real politics that operates in the physical world) Apply political pressure that will be understood 1. Identify the Senators up for re-election that voted/against for DCMA 2. Promote that fact - link to their election web sites in some profile way 3. Contact them and their opponents and ask them to sign-on to something - give them one week. 4. As promised, encourage people to donate to your supporters and the opponents (with direct links) of those who voted for DCMA and will not sign on to your effort. 5. Do the same for the House, start with those on the key committees you need support in as well as leadership of both parties 6. Unless you become a factor in this election cycle, your power and influence will be limited 7. Educate your supporters on political realism - sites like YourCongress are cynical and right on: http://www.yourcongress.com/section.asp?section=Bill_Becomes_Law http://www.yourcongress.com/section.asp?section=Write_Or_Call ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
