5 ms·

Eric Schmidt's 2014 plan for Hillary's campaign via Wikileaks

57 points by joeclark77 10y ago

wu-ikkyu 10y ago
Some interesting excerpts: "Key is the development of a single record for a voter that aggregates all that is known about them." "The impact of press coverage should be measurable in reach and impact, and TV effectiveness measured by attention and other surveys." "Build tools that measure the rate and spread of stories and rumors, and model how it works and who has the biggest impact. Tools can tell us about the origin of stories and the impact of any venue, person or theme." "For each voter, a score is computed ranking probability of the right vote." "It should be possible to link the voter records in Van with upcoming databases from companies like Comcast and others for media measurement purposes."
- dakerfp 10y ago
  "Find a way to do polling online and not on phones."
  - snowwrestler 10y ago
    Because polling on phones these days must include mobile phones to be accurate, which is every expensive because computerized dialers are illegal for mobile numbers. To poll mobile phones, you must have humans manually dial each number. Polling is a major expense for campaigns. Anything that gets that cost down is a strategic advantage. That said, online polling has a LONG way to go before it is as accurate and trusted as phone polls.
- MrZongle2 10y ago
  The Stasi would have loved this guy.
  - Gravityloss 10y ago
    I think they would have liked Facebook, Google, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sony...
  - contingencies 10y ago
    North Korea apparently loved him.
joeclark77 10y ago
I get the impression that he feels very strongly about the cloud, cloud, cloud.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- achievingApathy 10y ago
  I was wondering if anyone else noticed that he couldn't have possibly mentioned the cloud anymore if it were an actual Google product ready to launch.
pgodzin 10y ago
What stage was Google Cloud at in 2014 that AWS was being recommended by Eric Schmidt?
- mywittyname 10y ago
  Probably to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
cylinder 10y ago
> "The campaign headquarters will have about a thousand people, mostly young and hardworking and enthusiastic. Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees. > The key is a large population of talented people who are dying to work for you. Any outer borough of NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston are all good examples of a large, blue state city to base in. > Employees will relocate to participate in the campaign, and will find low cost temporary housing or live with campaign supporters on a donated basis. This worked well in Chicago and can work elsewhere."
- MrZongle2 10y ago
  "... enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees... dying to work for you...will relocate to participate in the campaign" Jesus, those don't sound like campaign workers. They sound like cult members.
  - spdustin 10y ago
    You've never been involved in any form of activism, I take it? It's no cult; people who want to work for a political campaign are activists like any other. They are devoted to a cause they believe in, and will happily make personal sacrifices to strengthen that cause. The activist spirit is alive and well in campaign employees. Maybe you've volunteered for a charity? Volunteerism is the other half of the equation. Campaign employees are part activist, part "paid volunteer". Anyone who's volunteered for their kids' school, for a neighborhood charity, or for some other cause knows the positive, almost euphoric feeling that comes from volunteering for something that is meaningful to you. In a time where most of us go to sleep feeling existential dread because we can't do anything to stop the various runaway trains we see in our society/planet/etc, volunteering can provide a feeling that you're actually doing something to make a difference. That spirit, too, is alive and well in campaign employees.
    - MrZongle2 10y ago
      I've worked at a nonprofit. I've also volunteered to work at charities, schools and libraries. Yes, there is a sense of purpose and accomplishment that go along with all of these that make the work worthwhile because you feel that you're making a positive impact on the lives of people and your community. But for a politician? At the national level? In 2016? I think the gag reflex is more appropriate.
gagmaker 10y ago
what a monumental shit this guy is... google keep hitting low and low. pity.
stefanwlb 10y ago
Nobody found it interesting that they had a budget of 1.5 billion USD? And how much did trump have?
clydethefrog 10y ago
They were hiring people here on HN last year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10363111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10363111 Interested if anyone can share their experiences?
BlickSilly 10y ago
I kinda respect this part: "The Rules Its important that all the player in the campaign work at cost and there be no special interests in the financing structure. This means that all vendors work at cost and there is a separate auditing function to ensure no one is profiting unfairly from the campaign. All investments and conflicts of interest would have to be publicly disclosed. The rules of the audit should include caps on individual salaries and no investor profits from the campaign function. (For example, this rule would apply to me.)"
davesque 10y ago
I am increasingly having an extremely hard time ignoring the reality that Wikileaks appears to be playing favorites here. Where is the dirt on the internal workings of the Republican party and Trump's campaign? It would bring some useful perspective to all of these supposedly damning leaks. I was previously under the impression that Wikileaks's primary mission was to liberate information. However, Wikileaks appears to be only selectively interested in freedom of information and more interested in some arbitrary agenda. It's important to remember that even facts can appear to mean very different things depending on the context in which they are presented. Whoever is presenting the facts can do a great deal to manipulate people's understanding of them by choosing to emphasize certain aspects and conveniently omitting others. Update: Here are some outsite views which reflect and/or support my arguments: 1. https://www.wired.com/2016/07/wikileaks-officially-lost-moral-high-ground/ https://www.wired.com/2016/07/wikileaks-officially-lost-mora... 2. https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and_related_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and...
- ConfuciusSay02 10y ago
  They can only release information they have. If they had the information, I'm sure they would release it - like they have in the past released information damaging to the Bush administration years ago. Do you have evidence that they have information that they are suppressing?
  - tdb7893 10y ago
    I agree, I don't like Assange but I think it's whoever is giving him the leaks and not him who is biased. I just wonder who it is that is doing the leaking
    - davesque 10y ago
      He has a TV show on RT (https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/), a Russian state-run news channel which is widely criticized as being a propaganda outlet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and_related_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and...). That seems like a massive conflict of interest to me. I also don't imagine it would take very long for him to lose his show if he published any seriously damaging Russian leaks.
vithlani 10y ago
Ah yes... good old Eric. Always ready to sell out for a price.

57 points by joeclark77 10y ago

Some interesting excerpts: "Key is the development of a single record for a voter that aggregates all that is known about them." "The impact of press coverage should be measurable in reach and impact, and TV effectiveness measured by attention and other surveys." "Build tools that measure the rate and spread of stories and rumors, and model how it works and who has the biggest impact. Tools can tell us about the origin of stories and the impact of any venue, person or theme." "For each voter, a score is computed ranking probability of the right vote." "It should be possible to link the voter records in Van with upcoming databases from companies like Comcast and others for media measurement purposes."

dakerfp 10y ago
"Find a way to do polling online and not on phones."
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  Because polling on phones these days must include mobile phones to be accurate, which is every expensive because computerized dialers are illegal for mobile numbers. To poll mobile phones, you must have humans manually dial each number. Polling is a major expense for campaigns. Anything that gets that cost down is a strategic advantage. That said, online polling has a LONG way to go before it is as accurate and trusted as phone polls.
MrZongle2 10y ago
The Stasi would have loved this guy.
- Gravityloss 10y ago
  I think they would have liked Facebook, Google, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sony...
- contingencies 10y ago
  North Korea apparently loved him.

joeclark77 10y ago

I get the impression that he feels very strongly about the cloud, cloud, cloud.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
achievingApathy 10y ago
I was wondering if anyone else noticed that he couldn't have possibly mentioned the cloud anymore if it were an actual Google product ready to launch.

pgodzin 10y ago

What stage was Google Cloud at in 2014 that AWS was being recommended by Eric Schmidt?

mywittyname 10y ago
Probably to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

cylinder 10y ago

> "The campaign headquarters will have about a thousand people, mostly young and hardworking and enthusiastic. Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees. > The key is a large population of talented people who are dying to work for you. Any outer borough of NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston are all good examples of a large, blue state city to base in. > Employees will relocate to participate in the campaign, and will find low cost temporary housing or live with campaign supporters on a donated basis. This worked well in Chicago and can work elsewhere."

MrZongle2 10y ago
"... enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees... dying to work for you...will relocate to participate in the campaign" Jesus, those don't sound like campaign workers. They sound like cult members.
- spdustin 10y ago
  You've never been involved in any form of activism, I take it? It's no cult; people who want to work for a political campaign are activists like any other. They are devoted to a cause they believe in, and will happily make personal sacrifices to strengthen that cause. The activist spirit is alive and well in campaign employees. Maybe you've volunteered for a charity? Volunteerism is the other half of the equation. Campaign employees are part activist, part "paid volunteer". Anyone who's volunteered for their kids' school, for a neighborhood charity, or for some other cause knows the positive, almost euphoric feeling that comes from volunteering for something that is meaningful to you. In a time where most of us go to sleep feeling existential dread because we can't do anything to stop the various runaway trains we see in our society/planet/etc, volunteering can provide a feeling that you're actually doing something to make a difference. That spirit, too, is alive and well in campaign employees.
  - MrZongle2 10y ago
    I've worked at a nonprofit. I've also volunteered to work at charities, schools and libraries. Yes, there is a sense of purpose and accomplishment that go along with all of these that make the work worthwhile because you feel that you're making a positive impact on the lives of people and your community. But for a politician? At the national level? In 2016? I think the gag reflex is more appropriate.

gagmaker 10y ago

what a monumental shit this guy is... google keep hitting low and low. pity.

stefanwlb 10y ago

Nobody found it interesting that they had a budget of 1.5 billion USD? And how much did trump have?

clydethefrog 10y ago

They were hiring people here on HN last year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10363111 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10363111 Interested if anyone can share their experiences?

BlickSilly 10y ago

I kinda respect this part: "The Rules Its important that all the player in the campaign work at cost and there be no special interests in the financing structure. This means that all vendors work at cost and there is a separate auditing function to ensure no one is profiting unfairly from the campaign. All investments and conflicts of interest would have to be publicly disclosed. The rules of the audit should include caps on individual salaries and no investor profits from the campaign function. (For example, this rule would apply to me.)"

davesque 10y ago

I am increasingly having an extremely hard time ignoring the reality that Wikileaks appears to be playing favorites here. Where is the dirt on the internal workings of the Republican party and Trump's campaign? It would bring some useful perspective to all of these supposedly damning leaks. I was previously under the impression that Wikileaks's primary mission was to liberate information. However, Wikileaks appears to be only selectively interested in freedom of information and more interested in some arbitrary agenda. It's important to remember that even facts can appear to mean very different things depending on the context in which they are presented. Whoever is presenting the facts can do a great deal to manipulate people's understanding of them by choosing to emphasize certain aspects and conveniently omitting others. Update: Here are some outsite views which reflect and/or support my arguments: 1. https://www.wired.com/2016/07/wikileaks-officially-lost-moral-high-ground/ https://www.wired.com/2016/07/wikileaks-officially-lost-mora... 2. https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and_related_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and...

ConfuciusSay02 10y ago
They can only release information they have. If they had the information, I'm sure they would release it - like they have in the past released information damaging to the Bush administration years ago. Do you have evidence that they have information that they are suppressing?
- tdb7893 10y ago
  I agree, I don't like Assange but I think it's whoever is giving him the leaks and not him who is biased. I just wonder who it is that is doing the leaking
  - davesque 10y ago
    He has a TV show on RT (https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/ https://www.rt.com/tags/the-julian-assange-show/), a Russian state-run news channel which is widely criticized as being a propaganda outlet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and_related_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_and...). That seems like a massive conflict of interest to me. I also don't imagine it would take very long for him to lose his show if he published any seriously damaging Russian leaks.

vithlani 10y ago

Ah yes... good old Eric. Always ready to sell out for a price.