THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE DIARY RESCUE!
I've been a bit inactive on DKOS for a while, despite having been on here for many years. Disillusionment. Economy/Homelife stress. Lots of reasons.
Last night had the opposite effect on me I'd expect: I'm fuming. I'm energized. Now's the time to fight back, now the Lieberman60 strategy is dead. I have finally figured out something real & tangible that I can do to make a difference. Please help me.
Remember the Barack Obama iPhone app? It cost a lot of money but was very effective. I can & will make a similar app for EVERY Democrat seeking office in 2010. Free. No ads, no charging, no fees (open to being audited on that). I'll dedicate the necessary resources. Thousands of apps if need be. I just need info on each of our candidates standing.
I don't mean amateur half-assed apps - I make mobile applications for a living. Or rather I run a Silicon Valley startup that makes mobile apps. [Not naming it as I don't want accusations of self-promotion, and I don’t want my investors saying I am taking political sides on behalf of the company – I am not this is personal activity. Please don't ask or out the company or I may be put in an awkward position and have to not do this]
More info below:
[UPDATE: oh depressing - the diaries scrolled down so fast i guess hardly anyone will get to see it so probably not going to get a lot of candidate input - thanks to those of you who got here before it disappeared]
So, what I am going to do is build a mobile app for every Democratic candidate standing for election in 2010. I'm determined to do this with or without the help I can get from here but I really, desperately, hope some of you can help me. It'll save a lot of time, effort and money on my side.
I am not asking anyone for anything more than a few minutes effort - if you want to help once the apps are built, by spreading the word, awesome, but I want something that lots of you can do to help, without overcommiting, but knowing you've made a difference. It's realizing I can make a difference with my skillset and resources that's re-energized me.
Will start on iPhone and quickly follow up with Google Android and other platforms if there's demand. We'll start with simple features - news, event dates, simple organization tools. If it becomes popular I'll roll in the ability to take donations (will need some smart fundraising advice - don't know much about the legalities) and the ability to live broadcast events.
I think by doing this we save millions of dollars that can be spent on on the ground work, compared to the alternative of individual candidates paying to have apps built. Better we provide the most powerful organizational tool out there. Apps are the hottest most exciting way to grab an audience and open that channel of communication.
If you want to volunteer in other ways I can use you. This stuff takes time - even when I automate a bunch of it. If you are a programmer (even if you need to learn the right languages) you can help. If you're non-technical but can learn to press buttons in the right order for a few hours, you can help. If you can make phone calls to verify details, you can help. I'm in Sunnyvale, CA, so anyone in the Bay Area can help but if you are outside of the region and want to help I can try to make use of you too :-)
Here's what I need to build an app for each politician. As much of this as possible. Googling will find a lot of it, but it doesn't help me too much. It'd take too long to google all of this.
If you are reading this and are active in a campaign that's EVEN BETTER as we can talk and we can really customize it for your candidate, but I'll make best efforts even if we don't have someone from the campaign helping.
Basics
- Name of candidate
- Seat title (e.g. CA-Sen)
- Campaign contact info
- Campaign website
- Campaign news feed URL (if there is one, if there isn't one I can help campaigns get one set up)
- Candidate twitter feeds, flickr details or other social media that they're involved with
Nice to haves:
- picture(s) of candidate
- campaign logo graphics if they have any
- links to buy/download/get campaign merchandise
- campaign representative contact details for someone who will manage keeping the app up to date to save us the bother of doing so :-)
Can you help?
I have set up an email account PURELY for this so I don't have to give out my personal one here: democraticapps@gmail.com
So, if you want to help comment here. Tell me if you think it's the stupidest idea in the world as I am going to put a lot of $$ and time into it unless you all tell me I'm an idiot for doing so! Then just email that address up there. If it doesn't get too full of spam I'll respond to everyone personally.
