Idearaisers: Blogging for the Non-Webified

These days on the web, sharing ideas, and adding to them, is so endemic to the culture, no one on the web bats an eyelash. At the same time, according to the Commerce Department in their study of Internet use, only 59% of all adults in the US use the internet at home. When one considers that the drop off in computer use is age related, 75% of all 18 year olds access the internet, while only 25% of all 65 or older. Education has a strong bias on these statistics, the more educated, the more web use, but we won’t get into that level of detail. None the less, this has a huge effect on reaching voters through the web. The web has huge limits.

Voting statistics are nearly the opposite. Only 47% of 18 to 24 year olds vote, while 72% of 55 year and older voters vote. Wow! Where do we need to focus?

There are two reasons to reach voters: one very important reason is to educate the voters and the issues and the candidates. This provides the voter some idea on whether they believe in the fundamental thoughts and ideas of a particular issue or candidate and can vote their own thoughts and ideas into place.

While education of the voter is important, the most important reason to reach voters is to get their ideas and thoughts. Without feedback from the voters, our leaders cannot understand the grass root thoughts of the American public. For the candidate that does understand the hopes and dreams of the voters, they are then able to develop positions and strategies that are critical to reaching these voters.

For the younger and more educated voters, we have the web and sites like this one. For the other 40+% that don’t use the web, we have Idearaisers. Compared to the web, these are take more time and effort, but with non-webbies, there is no other way. Just like reading blogs on the web, occasionally really excellent ideas to come up.

An Idearaiser is a simple forum where people meet in a large group and simply stand up one at a time and verbally blog their ideas. There is no debate, simply a statement of the ideas. Occasionally, people applaud or laugh at the comments, but generally it is a “positive only” experience, like a formal brain storming session, that just generates ideas.

The moderator to the session records the session either with a tape recorder, a webcast or with handwritten notes and the information is seined to pass on to the candidate.

This data is critical and can make or break Newt’s candidacy.

These sort of events, generate tremendous information even from the “not good” ideas. Simple statistical analysis of the topics people bring up tell the candidate what is fore most in people’s minds. For example, if at a particular Idearaiser, 25 ideas were about healthcare, 21 ideas were about social security, 15 ideas were about homeland defense, 7 ideas were about education, 2 ideas were about Iraq and the war on terror, none were on abortion, none were about race relations, none were about gay rights in the workplace, what would that mean? What would it mean if the approximate age of each contributor was recorded with their ideas?

If this Idearaiser were from a gay neighborhood in San Francisco, it might raise a few eyebrows. If it were from a farm county in Indiana, it might bring to mind different ideas. Stump speeches for candidates are limited items; you have only have a limited amount of time. Why bore the locals? Talk only about what they are interested in. Local speeches for the candidate could be crafted to emphasize and the result would be a real connection between the candidate and the audience.

These statistics and bias could be done down to the zip code level. If this very sensitive information were then shared throughout the party at the national level, candidates could emphasize their strategies in the subjects that their voters are interested in.

This is critical grass roots data that builds Newt’s candidacy and a strategy for a win in 2008. Have an Idearaiser, invite people of all types of political backgrounds and interests, listen and record what they say. Submit the information to Newt.org or to me.

Thanks!

Posted by Larry Ortega at 11:06 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)