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Like it or not, the democratic party owns technology compared to republicans today.
by ckluis 14y ago
Like it or not, the democratic party owns technology compared to republicans today.
- bcoates 14y agoIn the sense of "the democratic party is using technology to their advantage" or "the democratic party is moving the tech industry into their political machine"?
- luc_perkins 14y agoI'm not sure what it would mean for them to move the tech industry into their political machine. Could you clarify?
- dmckeon 14y agoBased on this article and those about the failure the Romney campaign's get-out-the-vote tool, "Orca" [0] my reaction is that one campaign built usable tech over time, and the other tried to purchase it on deadline. One system was diverse and cooperative; the other isolated, secretive, and ultimately a failure. I'll agree that a GOTV tool is only one part of campaign IT, but I think there's a lesson waiting here. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORCA_%28computer_system%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORCA_%28computer_system%29
- snowwrestler 14y agoThe Romney campaign did not really have much choice, because of their need to secure the GOP nomination first. As the incumbent, Obama had a much longer lead time, which allowed his campaign to invest early and bring more of the development process internal. And they needed it--they've been pretty upfront that for an uncomfortably long time it was not clear the decision to centralize the technology was going to work at all. The field and other outreach teams did not like or use the products that the tech built for them for months.
- malachismith 14y agoIf, as the theory goes, the product structure mimics the organizational structure of the group that created the product - you could extend to situations like this. In which case, you would argue that until the GOP changes its (hierarchical and paternalistic) structure the tech advantage will continue.
- jessaustin 14y agoThe argument can go the other way as well, if your organization is not so hierarchical that it can't learn anything. Point at this episode as proof that when in direct competition, the organization that's open to multiple approaches and tests to discover what works, has a distinct advantage.
- zecho 14y agoI forget exactly which postmortem article I read it in, but this was actually a problem solved between the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. The 2008 technology, while still successful, was still too diffuse for top managers at the 2012 campaign and had no overarching hierarchy, so they worked quickly to fix that.
- chernevik 14y agoIt seems more likely that this was an Obama campaign advantage, rather than a Democratic party advantage. The translation over isn't obvious. From what I've heard their internal organization was pretty fluid. That kind of thing depends on the quality of people involved, their commonality of purpose, and the organizational culture. You can't box that and roll it over to party HQ. That said, Democrats do seem more likely to attract and motivate the kind of people you'd need for this. That's a pretty important head start.
- malachismith 14y agoIf you are resistent to change, it's hard to attract people who want to create change....
- tptacek 14y agoThis sounds insightful but really isn't. It's the Republicans who want the most change right now. It's change in a direction most of us disagree with, but it's far more radical than the Democratic agenda. The reality is that if there's a tech advantage held by the Dems, it's the product of much simpler demographics; youth, urban, educated.
- malachismith 14y agoYou're talking retrograde change (a change back to a prior state). But yes... the demographics obviously favor the Dems when it comes to Tech.
- tomjen3 14y agoI do think the democrats have a technological advantage in this case, but it is far less solid than it may appear at first. For simple demographic reasons the republicans cannot continue to focus on the old white anti homosexual segment of the population, since there aren't enough of them left to form a majority (projections suggest that Texas may turn blue by 2020, perhaps even 2016, if Texas turns blue then the Republicans will never again win the White House) and the other obvious alternative for the republicans is the young, well educated people who want and end to marihuana prohibition and less government interference in the lives in general. Should the republican pivot to take these voters in, then they may very well attract a much larger share of tech people.
- Roybatty 14y agoNo, only in your little fantasy world
- revoltingx 14y agoWall Street would disagree. You should look outside your bubble.