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Political FOSS Fest July 11-13

Posted by timothy on from the disinterest-is-not-the-same-as-apathy dept.

Henri Poole writes "Pro-centralization team: BEWARE. The weekend following independence day, developers of F/OSS advocacy technologies are having the 2nd annual AdvocacyDev convergence in Oakland, CA. This should be a great weekend geek swarm for the politically active - including the tech teams of last years presidential campaigns. Over the last week, CiviCRM, & CivicEvents, & CivicMaps have all released, joining the CivicSpace and Advokit projects which are now in their second year."

5 comments

  1. Um... by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

    "including the tech teams of last years presidential campaigns."

    Will they be checking for weapons at the door?

  2. FOSS POST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sry.

  3. Ask Howard Dean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or John Kerry how effecive the open source crowd supposedly were.

    The truth of the matter is that this online nerd crowd make a very very small crowd of the politically active. As much as you people think you are going to change the world by using open source software and hanging out on the Internet, the truth is that it makes very little difference. You need boots on the ground, and need to collect and spend money.

    This geek wankery need to get real.

    1. Re:Ask Howard Dean by Henri+Poole · · Score: 1

      You've got a point, but you haven't done your homework about the tools that are being deployed (and being developed by this crowd). Yes, some are for geeks, but everyone I know is talking metrics. Metrics for effective utilization of volunteer resources, as well as measurable results for fundraising. Advokit, for example, is not a tool for nerds. It was used quite successfully in mobilizing ground operations in many races last fall, many of which won. At the time, it was developed too late in the cycle to be deployed widely for the presidential races, but it is maturing quickly.

      The republicans very successfully used Internet based tools to mobilize their volunteers for VoterID and GOTV work - 'boots on the ground' - as you have aptly noted. We heard reports of many precincts where they identified people walking up to the polls to mark them off lists (electronically), so their phone banks wouldn't waste time calling those who had voted.

      Functionally, it makes no difference whether the tools are proprietary or free. The exciting thing about what's happening with these campaign technologists (the FOSS group) is that they are overtly transparent now about their work. These groups are working very closely together in a way that is unprecidented in this community. The transparency is reducing the duplication of efforts, and best practices are emerging. The systems didn't work well together in the last cycle, but they are being improved so that they will work well together now.

    2. Re:Ask Howard Dean by politiae · · Score: 1

      I thought the point of this was to get the geeks to network a little bit so that they can better take the "geek wankery" from the Internet to the real world? A primary focus of this non-partisan event is to strengthen and broaden the social network of people who are using, visioning and implementing applications to support their advocacy and social change efforts. Seems like the point is that they're recognizing their "very very small crowd of the politically active" and working to broaden the crowd.