RealPolitix.com – The Non-Partisan Blog about Politics and Technology Archive for August 2008

Time: 7:30am

Today Naveed, Kristin, and Myself are jumping onto American Airlines flight 1038 to Minneapolis, MN.

Very lucky to have my beautiful wife with me…bright eyed and ready to rock.

Minneapolis is an awesome city- a lot like Austin, TX actually. Big creative scene, environmentally friendly, live music, and of course politically active.

Amazingly enough I ran in to Karl – field director for congressman Sam Johnson out of the Collin County Texas and Jim (RNC delegate). Funny thing happened though, I actually met Karl about 3 weeks ago via linkedin. We knew each other’s “virtual” identities, then randomly bumped into each other at DFW. Now that’s technology…Amazing.

We’ve barely left DFW and the excitement is definitely strong.

Score 2 guest passes to the convention, 1 more to go. Thanks Karl! Thanks Jim! If you’re reading this…send me your info! A thank you letter is definitely in store!

From all accounts, the DNC was absolute fabulous. Mass text messaging from the convention floor? Ridiculous. Probably one of the most technologically advanced conventions in history. Barack Obama has an AMAZING technological infrastructure – and rock star IT team I’m sure.

It’s not that republicans are not technologically advanced or that they’re against it all together. It’s just that their user base isn’t nearly as comfortable with it. Dems traditionally dominate in appealing to the younger generations.

Republicans, generally baby boomers, tend to prefer more traditional means of communication. But that is definitely changing. Congressman John Culberson blows my mind. Twittering away like crazy from the house floor! Keep it goin’.

At the end of the day, younger folks, like myself, tend to lean more moderate or democratic. I mean, come on…who wasn’t a bit liberal in college. Not to mention, we have tremendous amounts of energy and unbridled passion. We’re a curious, risk-taking generation, and, frankly, we want to do, change, and fix everything. Boundaries don’t exist in our minds. We want the reality of our lives to be shaped by our will.

For most of us Millenials, the democratic party offers this haven to us- it appeals to our desires to reshape society and spread our vision around the world. We just want to unleash our enthusiasm towards what we’re most passionate about.

Funny enough, at the end of the day – both parties want the same things. Better education, alternative fuels, hope, compassion for others, and a safer world to live in. We just disagree on the execution and strategy.

The enthusiastic base of each party is separated by about 2-3 decades. The younger generation leaning democratic, while the older generation generally leans republican. Maybe technology can help us bridge this gap so we can deliver a more bipartisan approach? This of course is part of my personal quest.

As for me…I’m a Millenial – a Gen Y. I don’t really care what party you’re in. I care about the issues. I have half a dozen friends who are democrats, and another half dozen who are republican, green, libertarian…whatever. I just want to change the world. I want to make politics accessible and exciting again. I want to empower people.

We’ll have to see how the RNCpans out, but as you can tell…

sentiment is strong, and I love this hat! Gotta love the passion here!

McCain always has a trick up his sleeve. So definitely don’t count him out…it’s a marathon…it’s about momentum…and John McCain is definitely capable of winning. It will be a close race. Either way, definitely time to party!

We’re excited about the Texas party, and the ONE campaign party – but I must say – I am SERIOUSLY stoked about the Google and Vanity Fair party.

Anyways, Naveed and I are writing our posts for realpolitix.com as we prepare to leave the terminal. While Kristin quietly catches up on the latest gossip in her new gossip girls reading addiction.

Many more posting moments to come as we blog, send pics, videos, and possibly some podcasts or exclusive interviews from our trip.

Let’s get educated and join the revolution together!

@tomserres & @realpolitix

Piryx began as an idea three years ago when I realized I wanted to make a difference. I guess you could say I was tired of being a bystander watching the political process pass me by—I wanted a stake in the game. As an undergrad attending the University of Texas McCombs School of business, I decided to get involved—to make a change.

It began with a Judge, passionate about making a difference. Her name was Angelita Mendoza Waterhouse, a sweet woman asking if I would voluntarily help her run her campaign. I was so excited; I mean, what better way to get involved? I went in full throttle, I believed in her—and people like her. People who had a genuine passion to help others.

The rest is history. The frustration, and the miles of red tape inspired me to find ways to help others like Judge Angelita. I was tired of seeing great candidates fail purely on the premise of social inequality. She wasn’t a “good ‘ol boy.” She was a woman of conviction, passion, and unconditional love. And her passion convinced me to make a change in this country.

From there Piryx was formed. My band of brothers, Greg, Brian, Naveed and I, teamed up to offer solutions for average people interested in public service. We chose the Internet because we knew it was the new frontier of political technology.

Today, Piryx is focused on delivering efficient and economical web solutions to political entrepreneurs. We want to empower all who have a passion to serve with the tools to realize their potential. Some of the computer stuff we use everyday can revolutionize politics. We’re sharing that, and some of our own tricks, with the average political entrepreneur.

Piryx is a community, an online medium focused on providing tools to empower the average political entrepreneur. Imagine if we could offer every political entrepreneur the technological infrastructure of the Obama campaign—in a universally user-oriented way. Take the tools of Google, the infrastructure of PayPal, and the social medium of Facebook—and you get Piryx.

Piryx was bootstrapped by doing consulting for candidates to enable online outreach strategies. We developed our new system in between gigs, on the weekends, and in the evenings. After making some headway through the Houston Angel Network and UT’s social innovation competition, we were backed by an investor here in Austin. We’re currently preparing for our beta launch and actively seeking our first Series A.

I guess you could say there were several “a ha” moments over the last few years. Most importantly it began with the judge, and experiencing the complications in helping her campaign for public office. At that point I realized, this woman couldn’t be the only one experiencing these problems. As we began working with more and more campaigns, we realized others were experiencing the same hurdles.

The next big moment came as we began developing and pitching our first business plan, not to mention what was going on in the political community. What Joe Trippi and Howard Dean began with their use of meetup.com and online fundraising, the field of politics was experiencing revolutionary moments in politics as Obama, Hillary, Romney, and McCain began utilizing advanced technologies and social media in their campaign…Suddenly our business idea soon became quite a bit more relevant. The revolution, as Joe Trippi called it, was now in full swing.

Our mission is to ignite much needed involvement among the voter community, while allowing candidates at all levels to have the tools and information they need for an equal chance on Election Day.

If we can help make politics accessible and exciting again, we’ve done our job.

We will soon launch our Piryx.com vision site and Realpolitix.com, a non-partisan political blog about the technological revolution occurring in politics. Realpolitix.com is Piryx’s first step in empowering democracy as the company aims to emerge as the leader of content and solutions that change the way people experience the election process.

Realpolitix.com will provide emerging insight into real world political events, the evolution of technology in the political process, and a non-partisan approach to current political news. Also The Piryx.com vision site is a community that will allow members to stay current on Piryx news and events, provide blog content, and be a part of the technological movement in politics. Additionally, we’ll be launching several additional solutions throughout the presidential campaign season including an automated filing system for campaign ethics compliancy and reporting. Piryx.com will offer visitors an opportunity to request access to our beta environment. This will give a glimpse into tools that will assist them as they drive through the campaign process.

As for the future…only time will tell, but if history tells us anything…it looks really good. Piryx will be at the forefront of this, leading the renovation and restoration of politics. We’re moving into a world where online voting and virtual town halls are real possibilities. Who would have thought 4 years ago John Edwards would be advertising online in Second Life or Congressman John Culberson would be twittering from the house floor. What’s happening is truly amazing – revolutionary. As this cultural change shifts, Piryx will lead the way.

Actual Article on AustinStartup.com

If there is one thing that’s different about election 2008, it’s that a woman and a black man were my party’s main contenders. If there are two things, however, the second would have to be the true advent of social networking and internet based communication in the election. Unsurprisingly to me, it’s the candidate of youth, Barack Obama, who has from day one had a website that reflected this dynamic more than either Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

People forget that Obama announced the formation of his presidential exploratory committee via a video message e-mailed to his supporters. His website features almost every major appearance he’s made in video and text format. His campaign blog features real time updates from the campaign trail. He also managed to create a social networking system with the breadth and success of facebook, now adorably called myBO. This is in addition to the fact that his website is slick, modern, and absurdly user friendly for the undecided voter.

He recently launched a mobile website for users on the go, featuring wallpapers, ringtones (Yes We Can!, anyone?), news, videos, and the option to get e-mailed whitepapers (see: policy papers) from your phone. This is in addition to the ridiculous number of text messages his campaign sends out weekly. The biggest text being, of course, the VP Text Message.

It’s weird to be at the forefront of history. Can anyone imagine what the history books will say about Obama’s VP announcement. I personally am going to go with “The Text Message Heard ‘Round the World” (let me know if you have a better one in mind). With one announcement, Pbama placed more media frenzy on the VP pick than I thought could be possible. Some will inevitably say it was a letdown, either because it was Biden, or because the media leaked it early, or hell, because they don’t what the hell a text message is. Yet for two weeks, Obama brought his choice to a fever pitch, significantly boosting the coverage of his choice, my man, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. McCain’s campaign, on the other hand, is currently relegated to second tier coverage as they come on the eve of McCain’s running mate choice.

I know I got my text, and I hope you got yours. With the Democratic National Convention on the eve of completion and the Republican Convention on the horizon, I know this is going to be a fun year to follow the race for the White House.

While one candidate this year has endlessly preached about “change,” the true and measurable change that politicos are seeing this season is a continuation of the death of old media. As newspapers and broadcast television continue to dwindle in readers and viewers the internet has continued to change the way society receives its news.

This is a positive development that just a decade ago would have seemed far fetched. In fact, many of us have yet to realize the harbinger of change that the new media represents. No longer are campaigns and voters forced to deal with a big three monopoly of networks that shape and control events into their ideological prism. With the internet virtually anyone can have an impact upon a campaign.

In 2004 three lawyers from Minnesota used their Powerlineblog.com site to expose Dan Rather and CBS’s untruthful hatchet job about President Bush’s military records. In 2006 a young staffer for Jim Webb’s campaign caught incumbent Sen. George Allen belittling him with a racist term and soon the video was seen everywhere via YouTube. Yes, the old walls of the media empire are coming down and we should celebrate.

One of the biggest reasons to herald the age of new media is that it has forced “mainstream” media to remove the mask they wore as “objective” reporters. Beginning in the 1950s the media began to slant increasingly towards left-wing candidates while pretending to be the font of all wisdom for the masses. It was not always thus.

In the beginning newspapers were often owned and controlled by politicians and political parties. That was even the case in early colonial days and was carried on by men such as Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Most cities had more than two papers and it was common for each party to have a paper that, if not owned by the party expressly, advocated for the party at every turn.

Powerful newsmen such as William Randolph Hearst and Col. Robert McCormick used their media empires to shape the world as they saw fit. In fact, McCormick’s staunch conservatism led him to blast FDR and the New Deal at every turn and the biased reporting at his Chicago Tribune helped create a headline which they wished for, but was famously wrong – Dewey Defeats Truman.

In 1940 Russell Davenport was the man who ran such magazines as Time, Life, and Fortune for the Henry Luce publications empire, and he used each as a vehicle to openly promote the candidacy of his man, Wendell Willkie, for the presidency. It was a better day for the press in such an era where biases and agendas were in the open and battle of ideas raged between them.

We are now seeing a return to such a time with Fox News and MSNBC staking out opposite sides of the political spectrum while the broadcast networks fade increasingly into irrelevance while still pretending to contain no bias.

The internet has allowed Americans to now pick and chose, ala carte style, when and where they will get their news. They can know instantly when something occurs and delve deeper into issues if they so desire. Their information is no longer limited to a 30-minute nightly newscast with 5-second sound bites and a smilingly fake big-haired teleprompter reader.

Increasingly voters know much more about politicians and their voting records, campaign contributors, scandals and so forth than ever before. While old cranks like Dan Rather might bemoan that fact, most Americans believe that knowledge is power and that they can filter it for themselves, thank you very much.

The shrewd campaigns are the ones that have embraced the new media. Those that chose to laugh off or ignore bloggers and social networking sites such as Facebook are the ones that will find themselves struggling to move their message and win votes. Ronald Reagan was viewed as the great communicator for his ability to go over the heads of the media and speak directly to the public via his radio addresses and speeches.

If he were running today I have little doubt that he would be riding the crest of the wave when it comes to the internet. He understood better than most politicians that the American public did not completely trust what had become an increasingly liberal media. No longer do we have to wait for Helen Thomas to ask a snarky question at a press conference and then write to us about the response.

We can view that press conference live on the internet if we so chose and form our own opinion. In the campaigns to come this trend toward the new media will only accelerate and future historians will be amazed that there was ever a time when just three television stations informed the masses. Where’s Dan Rather now?