Trippi asks 'Can YouTube swing an election?'
By Christian Crumlish, 06/05/2006 - 5:56pm

As a close personal friend of Joe Trippi (OK, as someone who has exchanged email with him at some time in the past), I just received this interesting message:

An interesting use of the internet as a way to communicate with voters is happening in the California primary election. Steve Westly, Democratic candidate for Governor, has recorded a three and a half minute message to voters and posted it on YouTube for everyone to view and share.

Watch the message

Already over 1,300+ people have watched the video this morning. With the primary election happening tomorrow, the stakes are high - can YouTube affect the election for California's next Governor?

I believe that the internet is a tool for communication that can be used to make politics better by replacing things like the thirty second TV ad with authentic messages and better dialogue. If this works, other campaigns will follow the Westly campaign's lead and the internet will become even more important to political campaigns. See the video for yourself and decide if this could be a better way to connect our politics.

See the video

Since Westley is "the eBay guy" in this primary (Angelides is "the union guy"), I'm not surprised he's the one innovating with viral web communication.

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Is Trippi Working for Westly?

Christian--Any clue?
By the way, this is hardly the first use of YouTube by a campaign. The Ned Lamont campaign is making extensive use of that site, both to plug their guy and to flay Joe Lieberman.
Micah

By Micah L. Sifry at Mon, 06/05/2006 - 19:11 | email this page

Steve Westly's YouTube Message to California

Christian -

Thanks for the great post on Steve's message to California via YouTube. Being the person who shot and edited it, I can say the whole campaign is very excited about using YouTube's powerful democratized system of video distribution to communicate with voters in new and exciting ways.

I would like to add a new link to the clip.

Steve Westly - A Message to Californians

At many people's request (one of them being Steve Westly), I've added more footage of the Bus Tour and Steve's other trips - meeting one on one with voters.

The Bus Tour and the YouTube message show what Steve and this campaign are about; melding traditional one-on-one voter contact with the newest electronic and netroots tools and methods.

And it's working. Emails and calls have been coming in. We've had thousands of people watch the message in just the first day.

You're right about Steve's background at eBay influencing this campaign, just as it will influence his policy as Governor. Steve is about new, smart ways of taking on challenges; be they in governance or reaching voters.

Just twelve hours 'til the polls open!

If you're a California Democrat or Decline to State voter, please be sure to vote tomorrow; and if you want to learn a little more - directly from Steve - please check out Steve Westly - A Message to Californians.

By JeremyDThompson at Mon, 06/05/2006 - 20:57 | email this page

Trippi

He doesn't say in his email but I kind of assume he is working for Westley. I sort of doubt he just felt moved to send out an email promo because of the phenomenon of YouTube itself. It would be nice if he disclosed his relationship, or lack thereof, to the campaign.

Interesting about Lamont - I didn't know that. It makes sense that a web-supported insurgent would embrace this technique.

..
The Power of Many . Edgewise . X-POLLEN

By Christian Crumlish at Tue, 06/06/2006 - 14:46 | email this page

He's Using YouTube, But Saying Nothing

I couldn't disagree with Trippi more. My guess is he was working for Westly and using his notoriety to try to score some points for his client, but it falls short.

Let's ignore the fact that he's using YouTube to communicate and whether others were doing it first. The fact is he's using a new medium to convey no message. I just spent a good deal of time diving into his site and found it lacking anything that looked like a coherent message or a reason to vote for him.

In actuality, the union guy was a lot more advanced with his technology. Rather than using YouTube (which is still flat, one-way communication, but to a niche audience) Angelides was using technology to have his supporters communicating one-on-one with actual voters. Angelides' site empowered voters to get involved rather than trying to communicate in uninteresting, albeit longer, controlled messages.

The real innovator in the race was Angelides, but just as happened in 2004, the gadget fad followers are giving the losers credit because they used the cool tool of choice rather than actually bringing people into politics and winning.

By Michael Turk at Wed, 06/07/2006 - 11:34 | email this page

I agree with Turk

Michael Turk is on the money, and once again, Joe Trippi is trend-surfing. YouTube is not a communications technology. It's a distribution mechanism.

By Jon Garfunkel at Fri, 06/09/2006 - 00:23 | email this page

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