Monday, December 10, 2007

Erick Erickson's ruminations from inside the vast right wing conspiracy.

Rebuild the Party: Technology Death by White Paper

I am very, very concerned about the direction we are headed in with technology in both the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Frankly, I am profoundly disappointed.

The RNC effort is a frustrating exercise consisting of multi-ton white papers that will no doubt be ignored. Friday’s RFP to redo the GOP.com website has given the lie to the RNC’s efforts about transparency. Based on the lack of substance in the RFP, we can conclude that they either do not get it or they are back to playing the preferred consultant games and the RFP is just for show.

Frankly, technological progress on the right is going to be made wholly removed from the RNC.

Compounding the frustration with the Republican Party is the conservative movement’s efforts, which by and large are duplicative of the RNC efforts and with many of the same people. Just another working group with another white paper. To be clear, I have been asked to participate in several of these groups, but I have declined to do so with the exception of one — and only then because I have substantial faith in the ability of the leadership of the particular group to make things happen. Otherwise, I see no value in duplicative work that will generate paper, but few tangible other benefits.

As I write, there are more and more developers out there who want to get involved. They do not know where to place their energies or what projects to work on. The processes within the party and without are so ineptly bureaucratic right now that these guys are getting shut out. Likewise, there are no filters in place within the processes and existing working groups to separate the wheat from the chaff. Having a bunch of people who consider themselves developers is different from having a bunch of developers involved.

In lieu of another working group that will turn out just another white paper, I would really like to suggest we take substantive action. I believe strongly we should return to an idea I had that I call the Innovation Trust — a group that will seed the field to let a thousand flowers bloom.

In short, the conservative movement, not the party apparatus, should form a group to seed some money to developers who can then work on technology ideas. Set up some competent middle men (yeah, I have a list of good people) who can vet the technology and get good stuff built. Bring right-of-center developers in from the cold. The Innovation Trust might have ideas of things that need to be built, but I strongly suspect there are developers out there who both have ideas and technical proficiency to build things, but need some guidance and possibly funding.

Right now there are plenty of working groups out there. They are all coming up with a variety of white papers. No one is actually acting. I believe we need to overcome the inertia in the process by taking the risk to fund and build without another committee of 500 to wring hands and ponder deep thoughts. We need action.

And that, at the end of the day, seems to be the problem. No one wants to take risk and no one wants to act. No one wants to chance misspending any more money, because so many have already misspent so much money. They did so unwisely, just hoping if they threw enough money out there, some would catch on.

There are, adding to the problem, too many people who think a twitter/facebook combo and a Ning site are the answers we have been waiting for. Ning is not the answer. Facebook and Twitter might be parts of the solution, but most of what the people suggesting these tools are after is a way to further broadcast an existing message, not actually to allow greater grassroots involvement or more efficient deployment of campaign and political processes during election season.

White papers will not fertilize the field to get the thousand flowers blooming. I am convinced that this must be done outside the party because bureaucratic inertia and ineptness within the party will stifle the efforts. I am also convinced that this project should take place with people considered based on merit, not on connections, spheres of influence, pre-existing involvement, or geographic location.

At this moment, and part of the reason I write this, there are stumbling blocks to money — not ideas. I know a lot of technologists in what we sometimes call “fly over country” read RedState. And I know many of them will read this post. They are the ones I want to reach out to.

I am fully aware that I and RedState are in a unique position to make happen things that might otherwise not happen. I would propose those small developers and designers who want to team up begin collaborating here.

I’m very interested to see how deployable it is as a test — an initial test to see potential, overcome inertia, and get shituff done.

Starting immediately, RedState intends to create a society of right-of-center developers. To get in the door, you will have to go through an initiation to prove you have what we are looking for. If you are interested, we will give you a small, straight-forward micro-project to complete. This is absolutely required.

Once you have been vetted, we will work to pull together resources so we can expand collaborations, resources, find funding, and build great shituff for the cause.

If you want in, email us at tech@redstate.com. Tell us about yourself including where you are at, what you are interested in, what your background is, and what development languages you prefer. The micro-projects are going to have time limits so don’t try to get involved until you are ready to get involved.

To hell with the white papers. Let’s get shituff done.

March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Technology | Comments Off 

Rebuilding the Party: The Technology Part 2

We now have a new Chairman for the Republican Party. With a new Chairman comes new people and new vendors and new ideas.

When I first wrote on this topic on Christmas Day, the post made it round the world — surprising particularly because the post was written on Christmas Day.

There were five points I made and that I stand by:

  1. That you have come to me thinking I am a technologist is an indication of the problem;
  2. Luckily for you, I have come to recognize my limits, but sadly there are too many others out there who do not recognize their limits and, unfortunately, offer themselves as solutions to our tech problem instead of offering real solutions;
  3. If anyone you talk to says you need to duplicate what Obama did, run the other way as fast as possible;
  4. When looking for people, choose technologists who are interested in politics, not political guys who learned tech; and,
  5. Look outside Washington, D.C.

In my post, I discussed who Cyrus Krohn is and why keeping him at the RNC is important. Since then, all the thinking we have done at RedState over endorsements, etc. has come down to one this: will Cyrus be kept at the RNC.

He is that important. We will know whether Michael Steele is serious about bringing change to the party by, ironically enough, whether he brings change to the e-Director’s position. Change in that position will most likely mean he was not serious about change at all.

Allow me to explain:

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January 30, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, Technology | 1 Comment 

Rebuilding the Party: The Technology

The other day on Twitter, I commented thusly:

Resolved: fixing the GOP cannot be done from in DC and fixing the tech problems cannot be done without professional technologists.

Within days of the election I was approached by three people representing three different groups, all of whom wanted my advice on how to proceed on the technology front. My advice was pretty simple:

  1. That you have come to me thinking I am a technologist is an indication of the problem;
  2. Luckily for you, I have come to recognize my limits, but sadly there are too many others out there who do not recognize their limits and, unfortunately, offer themselves as solutions to our tech problem instead of offering real solutions;
  3. If anyone you talk to says you need to duplicate what Obama did, run the other way as fast as possible;
  4. When looking for people, choose technologists who are interested in politics, not political guys who learned tech; and,
  5. Look outside Washington, D.C.

Then, seeking recommendations, I suggested six people — only two of whom are inside Washington, D.C.

Let me repeat it because it has become my constant theme: to succeed online, the right needs to invest in technologists who know politics and not political consultants who know technology. It is a hell of a lot easier to learn politics than it is technology. Further, technologists understand, develop, and use technology is a way more akin to what normal people do. Political consultants don’t do that. And it is doubly important to go outside of Washington, D.C. because of both points of view and circles of friends.

One caveat before wading into this: there is a place for political guys who know technology. There are tools to be developed and use of those tools. The political guys can, by and large, handle use of the tools. What I am concerned with is development of the technology tools for the right and their initial implementation.

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December 25, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Technology | 1 Comment 

In which I climb the ladder of geekdom

You can mock me if you want, but I have now cleared out a large amount of space in my wallet.

I have the Kroger card. I’ve got the CVS card. I’ve got the Dick’s Sporting Goods Card. I’ve got the AirTran Frequent Flyer card. I’ve got the ACE Hardware card. I’ve got a Blockbuster Card.

They take up a lot of space in my wallet.

I have now scanned them all with a high resolution scan. Indexed them. And loaded them onto my iPhone. I take it with me as much as I take my wallet. So now instead of having to dig through my overstuffed wallet, I can just put my phone screen over the scanner.

Does it work? Sure does.

November 28, 2008 | Filed Under Apple, Miscellaneous, Technology | Comments Off 

The Right Online

I had wanted to stay out of this conversation until after the election, but events, threads, emails, and other posts seem to have dragged me in. I’m not sure this is a helpful thing to distract us from the pending election, but I’ll make this brief.

Iain Murray, John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini, Mark Tapscott, and Jon Henke are engaged in discussing the future of the right online.

Let me first be direct, hopefully without offending anyone: there are lots of bytes spilled over the future of the right online. Some of it is on coming up with compelling narratives, some on use of technology, some on the need for money, etc., etc., etc. Very little is spent doing anything about it.

Here is my bullet point take:

  1. I used to think a few of the traditional groups could restructure, but very clearly most of the groups are either too worried about their 501(c)(3) status or they have become institutions of personalities and are no longer institutions of action and ideas. We need investigative journalists like Mark says. We need online think tanks like Iain says. We need online activists like John, Patrick, and Jon say. We need online pundits too. But we need activists in communities doing things offline more than anything else. The online can reinforce, supplement, and build things to go offline.

  2. There is money out there.  Unfortunately there have been more than a few charlatans taking massive donor dollars with nothing to show for it. Now right of center donors are rather cool toward big investments.

  3. Do you really trust bloggers with your money? Do you really trust 20-30 year olds with your money and plans, some of which you don’t understand?  That is the inherent problem.  As much as we need to foster an online right, some of that requires taking solid offline people and putting them online. No offense to anyone reading this, but sometimes the real world and the online world collide.

  4. There are already big projects out there that are flying under the radar.  That some bloggers don’t know about them does not make them not so.  Some groups out there are ahead of the curve. Some names you haven’t heard a lot about are Erik Telford, Em Zanotti, and Eric Odom. Trust me. There is action on the right, though you may not realize it.

  5. I’ve totally decided it is absolute garbage that some sites on the left are ad based revenue sites.  Yes, they are technically.  But who is buying the ads?  It is more often than not unions and other groups who cannot contribute to the DNC or, and this is a big one, maxed out donors or others who can buy an ad via their businesses and take a business deduction.  These are people who don’t want to or can’t make a political contribution because it would not be deductible, but can make an ad buy and deduct the cost as a business expense.  We can cultivate the same groups.

  6. I think bloggers have to have something to show first.  A lot of “building the online right” posts amount to “give me money and watch what I can do.”  Meanwhile the donors, already burned by that, want to see some established activism.

Now let’s talk about RedState’s successes to date in some of this stuff.

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November 1, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | 1 Comment 

Be careful with your emails

I sent an email earlier to my local neighborhood watch leader to apologize for missing a meeting last night. His name is Jake.

Only after sending did I notice it went to Jake Tapper, ABC News’s chief political correspondent.

Gotta be careful about sending emails.

August 6, 2008 | Filed Under Miscellaneous, Technology | Comments Off 

Ted Poe’s Clip

We played this on air on WMAC yesterday and I’ve gotten over 100 emails, plus phone calls, since then begging me for a link to the clip and to play it again.

In the 7am segment this morning, we’re going to do just that. In the meantime, here’s the clip:

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Technology | 1 Comment 

Blackjack

Christy decided she needed a new phone that would check email and provide her driving directions. We went to AT&T and bought her a Blackjack made by Samsung. Several friends have them and like them. Since we don’t have push email, there really was no need for a Blackberry.

I’m amazed by the little device. It runs Windows Mobile and has everything you’d expect it to have: a difficult to learn user interface, odd requirements such as ringtones being no more than 300 KB in size, error messages without any resource to tell you how to resolve the error, and a Windows file structure that is so frustrating to navigate that you can download files to the phone, yet never find where they are saved.

A year ago I would have been totally enamored. I would have looked past all the kinks to see a truly stellar device. Now I have my iPhone and I can’t imagine using a phone less well made.

March 25, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | Comments Off 

Paging all Wii Owners

I no longer hate you. I have now purchased one.

By the way, I write this as it may be of interest to those of you who have been looking for one and can’t find one.

I signed up for a tracking account at iTrakr. The site text messages you when shipment of Wii’s arrive at a Wal-Mart, Gamestop, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, or other electronics store.

I signed up in December and have only gotten a text message twice and both times was not in a position to go get a Wii. Within hours, usually, I would receive a second message that the Wii’s were sold out.

Yesterday at 8:11 a.m. I received a text message that the Wal-Mart on Gray Highway had Wii’s in stock. I hopped in the car immediately and drove the ten minutes over there and there were no Wii’s to be found.

I went to the back of the store and there were no Wii’s. So I went up to the lady at the register and said, “Ma’am, this may be your weird question of the day, but I signed up for a service that tells me when y’all get Wii’s in and it just text messaged me 10 minutes ago and said y’all had some in.”

She said, “We don’t even get our truck in till 11 o’clock. Let me call back there and see if they know anything.”

She picked up the phone, chatted for a minute, and said, “What’s this service you got?”

I told her and she said, “The truck got in about 15 minutes ago and they hadn’t even taken the Wii’s out yet to put ‘em in inventory. There’s a whole flat of ‘em.”

Very, very impressive.

And I have me a Wii.

The moral of the story is that if you are one of the million or so people in the United States who reportedly want a Wii and cannot find one, use iTrakr. Now I must buy Guitar Hero.

February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Miscellaneous, Technology | 3 Comments 

Hey Christy’s Bible Study!

She was telling the truth.

Nintendo started out as a small family business more than a century ago making traditional Japanese playing cards, and has undergone difficult transitions in its business to survive. Since it started making videogame consoles, the company has seen its fortunes rise with its Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s, and then fall in the 1990s as it lost share to rivals Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

Because Nintendo puts a great deal of focus on cash flow, it tries to keep its inventory as low as possible. Such a strategy is rare among Japanese companies, which have tended to focus on revenue growth and market share.

The old guys in the family were scared to make too many lest the company get back on the verge of bankruptcy.

December 10, 2007 | Filed Under Technology | 1 Comment 

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