Earlier this week, Chris Bowers fired up the 2008 Use It or Lose It campaign.  For those who are new to the campaign, the idea is simple but powerful: get Democratic Representatives and Senators who are in non-competitive races to pay all of their dues (which can be quite substantial) to the DCCC and DSCC, respectively.  These kinds of transfers are a legal, quick way to raise a lot of cash for the committees, and thereby to make a lot of new races competitive.  Chris estimates that we can raise as much as $6.5 million this way, and the campaign was very effective in 2006.

I think this is a brilliant idea, but I'm intrigued by the crowdsourcing (that is, distributed data collection) angle.  Distilled to the basics, this is a fairly straightforward crowdsourcing campaign, a couple of times over: get a group of volunteers to collect data about which Democratic Congresspeople are safe this year and how much money they have; then get volunteers to call those Congresspeople and ask them to pay their dues.  The key to success of the campaign is putting together a database which volunteers can use collaboratively to post updates and track progress in a systematic way.  Chris is using Google Spreadsheets for this purpose; that's a great tool and it's a great way to get the job done in a pinch.

However, it occurs to me that this kind of crowdsourcing task will only become more important in the future, and I think there's a way to streamline these kinds of campaigns and to make them even more powerful and robust.  Below, I propose the creation of a general-purpose crowdsourcing platform which can be used to fire up a distributed progressive pressure campaign on a variety of public institutions - Congress, the media, state legislatures.  The platform would make the lives of crowdsourcing organizers a little easier; it would enable our crowdsourcing campaigns to be more broadly distributed; and it would enable those campaigns to carry second-order effects which could help the progressive movement accrue and organize power over the long run.

There's more...

MediaVolunteer does not consist of calling voters, raising money or talking to politicians that are busy packing.

We dare say it is the "perfect victory lap for successful and engaged voters" and volunteers. Most importantly, the work on mediavolunteer is actually best done BEFORE the newly elected officials and staff move into office.

Please visit and complete a few tasks in just 12 minutes.

We have designed the perfect action for political hangovers.  It is work you can do from the comfort of your home or office desk.  Mediavolunteer only takes a few minutes.

You have worked hard this election cycle.  We are there with you. You have seen all the political money being thrown at media to get the last undecided voter. You have had enough.
This election matters. Voters want to send a clear message. They also wanted some new ears.  We want to make sure that the good groups making new friends on Capital Hill can move the stories and messages that shape policy.  Media Volunteer, Volunteer Media.

We want to move new messages on security, peace, environment, health and justice.   We need to retool an under resourced movement for an entirely different political atmosphere.  We need to help progressive and liberal messengers influence the public debate.  

The freshly elected officials and their staffs are going to be looking for new ideas.  They are also going to be pushing a different set of issues into the forefront on the media debate.  We need to make sure that public interest groups can jump into the media debate.

We need to make sure our groups are equipped to advance good ideas and counter punch the conservative spin machine that have been cozy with the media for way too long.

Right. Right. Ok. This is where you come in. Volunteer 12 Minutes.  http://www.mediavolunteer.org

To influence media coverage our groups need a good press list. The communications people for these groups need to be able to jump online and find all the reporters that cover health in Georgia or who covers veteran issues across Pennsylvania.  The groups need to be able to work the media as with the same tools as Madison Ave. P.R teams hired by Halliburton.  To update and develop lists of tens of thousands of reporters would eat up staff time. However, a few thousand volunteers could update the list in a week with just a few calls each at http://www.mediavolunteer.org  

Please help us call two reporters. Each volunteer will be assigned different names. Reporters are used to these calls. They usually offer the information we are looking very quickly.  Spelling of names , address, email confirmation , etc.  We provide the forum for the data and script at http://www.mediavolunteer.org

In January 2007, the fight for the direction of the country will not be fought in paid political ads but back on the field of public opinion.  With just 12 minutes of your time, we can make sure lots of groups have the media lists they need to be effective in the moment of change.

Please help. It takes just a few minutes of your time. It is easy and important work. Thank you.

http://www.mediavolunteer.org

There's more...

MediaVolunteer does not consist of calling voters, raising money or talking to politicians that are busy packing.

We dare say it is the "perfect victory lap for successful and engaged voters" and volunteers. It is the perfect busy work while waiting for the results.  Most importantly, the work on mediavolunteer is actually best done BEFORE the newly elected officials and staff move into office.

Please visit http://www.mediavolunteer.org and complete a few tasks in just 12 minutes.

There's more...